Cabal Skyrocketing CPU Usage

[mufalmar]

Okay, first of all, let me explain that this did NOT happen before i installed more RAM into my computer.

Recently, I upgraded my RAM from a cruddy 512 MB to a decent 1.5 GB. Now, you'd think that would make my game run faster, right? Haha, wrong.

I launched Cabal after installing the RAM, and noticed everything was fine up until the point I logged into the actual game. I noticed my game freezing and chop lag. I then checked the task manager, and my CPU Usage was at 100%. Now, what is eating up the CPU? 3 things...

System.exe
csrss.exe
and cabal

some of you may be asking 'how do you cabal is taking up CPU usage when it doesn't appear on the processes list?'

simple. When System.exe and csrss.exe's cpu usage aren't enough to hit 100%, and my CPU usage is 100%, I check all of the other processes. None of them are above 0, so the only explanation is Cabal. But regardless, Cabal is causing system.exe and csrss.exe to flip out anyway. So it's still Cabal's fault.

"Have you tried any other games?" Yes, I have.

I run Atlantica, Fists of Fu, Vindictus, and Dekaron all faster than Cabal. None of them take up 100% cpu usage, except for the occasional Dekaron spikes that last a few seconds.

Any ideas?

[ZEPR0]

Download this
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
it will help you optimize your PC
it disables unnecessary processes

your RAM is really low at 1.5GB no wonder why it lagg so much
try upgrading it more atleast have a 4GB
its also prolly cos of your Graphic card

[XFearMyBladeX]

i use http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/ it is rlly awesome,takes care of ur pc,fix all the errors ur pc has,if u dont want 0 lag u can use turbo mode,........

it is not free u need to pay.cost me like $15 since i bought it from office max store.

[mufalmar]

Download this
http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html
it will help you optimize your PC
it disables unnecessary processes

your RAM is really low at 1.5GB no wonder why it lagg so much
try upgrading it more atleast have a 4GB
its also prolly cos of your Graphic card

that's not the problem. it ran faster with 512 MB of RAM than it does now with 1.5 gigs. I just want to know why those three things are taking up so much cpu usage. I already use gamebooster, and i'll give that tune-up thing a try in a bit. besides, 1.5 is higher than the recommended. My friend ran this game smoothly at 1 gig with a worse graphic's card than I have.

[SilverIceForum]

1) System.exe is the main Windows kernel, reason this process at times can eat up a lot of memory, it is the process that speaks both hardware language and software language to make is Joe Public speak, it is your system translator and prioritizes everything.

2) csrss.exe

The Microsoft Client Server Runtime Server subsystem utilizes the process csrss.exe for managing the majority of the graphical instruction sets under the Microsoft Windows operating system. As such Csrss.exe provides the critical functions of the operating system, and its termination can result in the Blue Screen of Death being displayedCsrss.exe controls threading and Win32 console window features. Threading is where the application splits itself into multiple simultaneous running tasks. Threads supported by csrss.exe are different from processes in that threads are commonly contained within the process, with various threads sharing resources within the same process. The Win32 console is the plain text window in the Windows API system (programs can use the console without the need for image display).In mobile devices such as notebooks and laptops, the process csrss.exe is closely dependent on power management schemes implemented by the system as defined under the Control Panel option.This process should be treated as suspicious if there are two instances running. Always take note of the process location when trying to determine whether or not the process is genuine or malicious.This Windows component should be located in your Windows System directory ie: something similar to C:\Windows\System32\csrss.exe.

Handles majority of your windows and part of the System Shell dealing with command prompts, dialog boxes, and drawing windows and such, so not surprising it eats up a lot of resources when under load being it also controls all the thread splitting management within windows as well.
3) Yes, under load when running Cabal, which when executed, Gameguard and some other processes hide the executable's threads in taskmanager to make it harder for cheat programs find and hook into the process to tweak its memory pages etc. Have to remember, while cabal is focused (to the front process window, in full screen it is the top window) will eat up a lot of processor and memory, but you also have to remember DirectX is working in the background to do all the 3d/2d drawing and sound, which again eats up a lot of resources at times. The game may seem to be lagging more at times than others on you with more memory installed, 3x the amount you had before.
512mb before, windows was using a lot of pagefile (hard drive space for virtual memory) that it continually had to work with to swap memory instructions/pages around, thus lagging your game to its slowest anyway, you didn't see or feel all the background lag. Now we step forward to 3x the memory you had, more information is up in faster reading RAM compared to slower reading hard drive space, you feel the lag spikes when the system is swapping/reading information to hard drive virtual memory or loading new data into RAM off the hard drive far more than you did with only 512mb best way I can explain it to you really. Though adequate to do the job, Microsoft's memory management is really an ugly beast and is half as capable as a Unix style memory management, keeping unnecessary old data in RAM/virtual memory when not needed, etc, you get issues like above.

I do see when I first load the game considerable hard drive read lag as a lot of secondary data is loaded into RAM from the hard drive, but this generally subsides after about 15-45 seconds depending upon how populated the map near me is when spawning into game ;-). Had an old Turion laptop with 128mb ATI Gfx chip and 1.5gig RAM, like stated above ran pretty smoothly most of the time until like in NW you had 30+ ppl all in one spot bashing the hell out of each other I'd get into trouble of serious video stepping, but bared with it none the same. 3gigs RAM, 512mb Gfx Card, dual core cpu max this game really needs to run above average to super, 1.5gigs RAM, 256mb Gfx Card, single core cpu is about an average experience ingame for anyone. Above and beyond those then you are just talking extra frames per second per dollar wasted really IMO.

[mufalmar]

1) System.exe is the main Windows kernel, reason this process at times can eat up a lot of memory, it is the process that speaks both hardware language and software language to make is Joe Public speak, it is your system translator and prioritizes everything.

2) csrss.exe

Handles majority of your windows and part of the System Shell dealing with command prompts, dialog boxes, and drawing windows and such, so not surprising it eats up a lot of resources when under load being it also controls all the thread splitting management within windows as well.
3) Yes, under load when running Cabal, which when executed, Gameguard and some other processes hide the executable's threads in taskmanager to make it harder for cheat programs find and hook into the process to tweak its memory pages etc. Have to remember, while cabal is focused (to the front process window, in full screen it is the top window) will eat up a lot of processor and memory, but you also have to remember DirectX is working in the background to do all the 3d/2d drawing and sound, which again eats up a lot of resources at times. The game may seem to be lagging more at times than others on you with more memory installed, 3x the amount you had before.
512mb before, windows was using a lot of pagefile (hard drive space for virtual memory) that it continually had to work with to swap memory instructions/pages around, thus lagging your game to its slowest anyway, you didn't see or feel all the background lag. Now we step forward to 3x the memory you had, more information is up in faster reading RAM compared to slower reading hard drive space, you feel the lag spikes when the system is swapping/reading information to hard drive virtual memory or loading new data into RAM off the hard drive far more than you did with only 512mb best way I can explain it to you really. Though adequate to do the job, Microsoft's memory management is really an ugly beast and is half as capable as a Unix style memory management, keeping unnecessary old data in RAM/virtual memory when not needed, etc, you get issues like above.

I do see when I first load the game considerable hard drive read lag as a lot of secondary data is loaded into RAM from the hard drive, but this generally subsides after about 15-45 seconds depending upon how populated the map near me is when spawning into game ;-). Had an old Turion laptop with 128mb ATI Gfx chip and 1.5gig RAM, like stated above ran pretty smoothly most of the time until like in NW you had 30+ ppl all in one spot bashing the hell out of each other I'd get into trouble of serious video stepping, but bared with it none the same. 3gigs RAM, 512mb Gfx Card, dual core cpu max this game really needs to run above average to super, 1.5gigs RAM, 256mb Gfx Card, single core cpu is about an average experience ingame for anyone. Above and beyond those then you are just talking extra frames per second per dollar wasted really IMO.

I still don't understand why this is the only game it does this with