PC Game speed issues

[-N-]

So I just set up my new computer and it works great, fabulous, etc. I installed Deus Ex and went to play it and the entire game is proceeding at at least 2x speed. The only thing that isn't accelerated is the audio. I don't know what in-game settings to change (I've tried random things with no luck) and I was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem. Let me know anything you can about this. Thanks.

[Yamaneko]

Can you post your machine specs and the settings you have in-game?

I've never had a problem with Deus Ex under XP (which I'm assuming you're running), but the game was really designed to to be played under Windows 98. There might be some compatibility issues.

[o_O]

Try using a slowdown utility, like <a href="http://www.oldskool.org/pc/help/oldonnew/resources/turbo.zip">Turbo</a>, or <a href="http://www.cpukiller.com/">CPUKiller</a>.

They work by creating a high-priority thread that pretty much chokes your CPU, so don't set it too low to start off. Try a high percentage first, like 75%, otherwise it'll lock up.

[-N-]

Pertinent specs:
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.00GHz, 512Kx2)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
19 in (19 in viewable) 1907FPCFlat Panel Display
256MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache
160GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional,Service Pack 2, English
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Sound Blaster Audigy MB Audio

I should also note that on the previous computer I played this game, I experienced this problem to a lesser degree, but it would also resolve itself and play at normal speeds sometimes as well. This was independent of the number of simultaneous applications running at the time.

I've used CPUKiller before, but only for old DOS games which are actually processor speed dependent. I've never encountered a Windows 95 and up game that was programmed so poorly as to be directly dependent on flop rate.

If there was a utility like that for the video card, that may be more applicable. Deus Ex probably didn't predict a video card with dedicated memory, but then again I would hope it's not something so trivial as that.

Game settings are as follows:

Resolution 1280 x 1024
32-bit texture details
Everything cool turned on

[Dr Unne]

I have the same CPU as you. I played Neverwinter Nights recently and the video ran about 10 times too fast, though the audio sounded normal. Turns out the game couldn't handle dual-core processors and I had to set an option in an NWN config file to disable one of the CPUs.

[Yamaneko]

Yeah, you might have to set affinity to one of the cores. By default the process will be bounced from one core to another in order to alleviate bottleneck. I'm pretty sure there's a way to do this without disabling one of the cores in the BIOS. It's a driver-level setting.

[-N-]

I'm trying some of the techniques listed at the link below; I will update on their success.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=983781

edit: Looks like the Task Manager trick lowered the speed, but its still running fast. It's running about the same as it did on my old computer...

Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
512 MB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon something or another

Both my friends have comparable systems (minus the dual core) and it runs just fine on their computers.

[ValiantKnight]

It's actually a very common issue with dual cores.

In some games, it will create a ghosting effect too, where the PCs/NPCs will have little trailing shadows/ghosts... til you set affinity.