[muckshifter]

AMD has released a new Dual Core Optimizer utility. This is not the same as the previous CPU drivers they have released ... apparently it's designed to improve performance in certain games on dual core CPUs. This is because some games use RDTSC timing rather than the native Windows timing method, and this can cause problems with dual core CPUs. To understand more about this, read this Microsoft MSDN Article and this Microsoft KB Article. I'm not certain how many games are doing this, or which particular games, but it looks like it may be a few.

To test it out, I installed it on my X2 4400+ and after a reboot I noticed that it has added a new startup item called amd_dc_opt.exe. Fortunately this file is only 104 bytes so it adds nothing at all to startup RAM usage. Then I ran 3DMark06 just to get an indication of the general performance impact - my score was near identical, up a few points from 4260 to 4264. I then tested out Need for Speed: Most Wanted, a game which I know has some odd issues with dual core CPUs and usually requires manually setting processor affinity to only one core to work. This time it seemed to work without any problems. I tried Oblivion but didn't see any noticeable performance difference.

In general, if you run any AMD dual/multi core CPU and use your machine for gaming then I would recommend that you install this application. It appears to do no harm whatsoever, does not use up any significant background resources, and as there are a range of games which apparently use RDTSC, it will help prevent potential problems and might improve performance as well.

Note, you don't need to install any other AMD drivers for this to work, and in general I recommend against installing additional AMD CPU drivers.


Addium NOTE: This utility only appears to officially be for AMD FX and X2 CPUs, and may not work on other AMD dual core CPUs

[TriplexDread]

Cheers Mucks i'll give it a go

Edit** how can a file over 5meg only install 104bytes?