Older Games Running Slow on XP

[mikey7339]

I'm wondering if anyone would be able to help me with this. I just installed Sim City 3000 on my windows XP machine and it is running insanely slow. A year, on the fastest time setting, is taking around 10 minutes when it should only take a couple minutes.

I tried looking online for a solution but could not find one. This game is around 12 years old now. Is there any trick to getting older games to run like they should on Windows XP?

 

[Avaholic03]

Make sure all your drivers are updated. Try running in compatability mode for whatever OS it was designed for (was that a Windows 95 era game?). I don't know what else to tell you. I'm 99% sure I remember running SimCity 3000 on a Windows XP computer with no problems.

 

[LookingGlass]

Is entire game slow or is it just the in-game time passing?

If it's the entire game, it could be a CPU affinity issue.

Do you have a multi core CPU? If so, you often need to set an application to run using only one core if it's an older game.

To do so, start the game, ctrl+alt+delete, go to the "processes" tab, find the sim city 3000 process (I don't know what it will be called, but probably simcity3000 or something), right click on it and click on "set affinity", and untick them all except "CPU 0".

Better instructions:
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-set-processor-affinity-to-an-application-in-windows/

I might be way off though.

 

[mikey7339]

Is entire game slow or is it just the in-game time passing?

If it's the entire game, it could be a CPU affinity issue.

Do you have a multi core CPU? If so, you often need to set an application to run using only one core if it's an older game.

To do so, start the game, ctrl+alt+delete, go to the "processes" tab, find the sim city 3000 process (I don't know what it will be called, but probably simcity3000 or something), right click on it and click on "set affinity", and untick them all except "CPU 0".

Better instructions:
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-set-processor-affinity-to-an-application-in-windows/

I might be way off though.

It seems to be the entire game because sometimes when I zoom or move the camera it is struggling to load the building textures.

And no I still have a single core CPU. Thanks for taking a stab tho.

 

[oplinger]

It's a hardware problem. Not that your hardware is too good or something, it's that it's new.

All you can really do is set up compatability options and pray. Or find some help with google, someone may have a work around with some setting..or a hack.

I forget what all is on that XP compatability tab. >.> so i'll save you my spiel..as it mostly works on vista and 7...

My suggestion? it's sim city, so I'll suppose it's 2D and sprite based...

So...going with older games like that...change your display resolution on your desktop...

And possibly, though you should not have to, as it's a game from 99, change the color depth to 16?

Past that...it -should- be working on XP... I would have to know more about the problem.

 

[mikey7339]

It's a hardware problem. Not that your hardware is too good or something, it's that it's new.

All you can really do is set up compatability options and pray. Or find some help with google, someone may have a work around with some setting..or a hack.

I forget what all is on that XP compatability tab. >.> so i'll save you my spiel..as it mostly works on vista and 7...

My suggestion? it's sim city, so I'll suppose it's 2D and sprite based...

So...going with older games like that...change your display resolution on your desktop...

And possibly, though you should not have to, as it's a game from 99, change the color depth to 16?

Past that...it -should- be working on XP... I would have to know more about the problem.

This is what is getting me, everything seems to work fine except the passage of time and the sprites loading. I get no lag or jitter from the mouse cursor or performing actions in the game. I haven't tried compatibility mode, will do that when I get home.

 

[oplinger]

Do you know your framerate when running the game? Check it with Fraps..or Xfire or something. If it's a low framrate, it could be affecting the time. If it's super high, it can do all sorts of crazy things..

Maybe try turning on a Vsync option in your video driver controller if it's higher than 60 FPS (or 30? >.>)

you could try (I don't 100% recommend this..) finding a CPU throttle. Depending on what it does, it could fake CPU usage, so the only free usage is what the game needs. Or it could -actually- use your entire CPU, and possibly damage it. (Small chance. Not even 5%) Depending on how you do it, or what you find, it could also fix the problem. just...be prepared and what not.

Lastly all I can think of, is the game itself, or your memory of the game XD it could be a little hazy, but...yeah, just a suggestion.

That's all I have though x.x hopefully one works.

 

[mikey7339]

Lastly all I can think of, is the game itself, or your memory of the game XD it could be a little hazy, but...yeah, just a suggestion.

That's all I have though x.x hopefully one works.

Nah it's definitely not that. I was playing it with a friend on his windows 7 PC and it was running the way it should, tho with insane mouse scrolling issues.