Possibility to play without steam?

frostyfrogfrostyfrog Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72467Members
in NS2 General Discussion
Does anyone else think that we should play NS2 without Steam? I'm just wondering since steam takes up, literally, 90-100% of my CPU according to task manager, which means very laggy NS2 or no NS2 for me D:.
The stats of my computer are as follows:
<blockquote>CPU: AMD Sempron™ Processor 3600+ 2.00 GHz (single core CPU)
RAM: 2GB
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)</blockquote>
I'm able to play Borderlands (non-steam) just fine, but when I use steam, I don't enjoy the experience :(.
Any help/support?

Thanks :)
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Comments

  • WarLoverWarLover Join Date: 2009-11-05 Member: 69276Members
    Sorry but Steam is required to play.
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  • ZimbuTheMonkeyZimbuTheMonkey Join Date: 2010-07-14 Member: 72359Members
    This might help and might solve your problem:

    Disable the Steam overlay. This is a game-specific option, just right click the game entry and go to properties. There should be a checkbox labeled "Enable steam community in-game and make sure it is unchecked.
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  • frostyfrogfrostyfrog Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72467Members
    edited July 2010
    @WarLover: Ya, I saw that somewhere on the site. I was just hoping there was some way I could play NS2.
    @ZimbuTheMonkey: I don't see why that would cause steam to run at 100% CPU just siting there being idle and I'm not playing games...
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  • ZimbuTheMonkeyZimbuTheMonkey Join Date: 2010-07-14 Member: 72359Members
    It eats up that many cpu cycles when you are idle and not in-game?

    Damn, that isn't normal at all. I'd try going through their support pages, maybe reinstalling Steam as well.
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  • frostyfrogfrostyfrog Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72467Members
    I'll try a reinstall, see if that fixes it. Hopefully, it will :D
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  • frostyfrogfrostyfrog Join Date: 2010-07-16 Member: 72467Members
    edited July 2010
    ok, now that I'm fully awake, it looks like when steam was idle, it would randomly take up 10-35% of cpu. When NS2 was running though, it looks like steam is still trying to hog all of the CPU, and yes, I have disabled the steam overlay. Looks like I'll have to go through all of those support pages and maybe reinstall steam :( (Steam is currently using 80-95% cpu)

    edit: It seems to actually be a problem with the steam UI. :(

    <a href="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1242685" target="_blank">http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...d.php?t=1242685</a>
    <a href="http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1022789" target="_blank">http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...d.php?t=1022789</a>

    I just barely closed steam (swapped over to the beta update) and reopened it and it is staying high being idle in the background and all. Got out of the beta and it seems whenever the steam window is sitting open (minimized or not) it eats up cpu time. Closing the steam window helps a lot though, makes it go down to 0-1%. looks like that's my current workaround :(.
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  • WunschkindWunschkind Join Date: 2010-02-20 Member: 70658Members
    Steam is running for ~3 hours now, with "friends" active (and I've been invited twice but didn't start any game).
    CPU time: 13 seconds (=nothing.) - Core2Duo @ 3.2Ghz

    Something must be absolutely wrong with either your windows- or steam install.
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  • RulgrokRulgrok Join Date: 2007-04-04 Member: 60559Members
    You can also go into task manager and set a lower priority for steam under the processes tab. This helps redirect CPU to other things.
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  • HashashinHashashin Join Date: 2010-04-15 Member: 71416Members
    How could you possibly run borderlands just fine when the requirements are 400 mhz faster than your cpu.
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  • DarkFrostDarkFrost Join Date: 2003-04-03 Member: 15154Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    edited July 2010
    <!--quoteo(post=1780150:date=Jul 17 2010, 07:05 PM:name=Hashashin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hashashin @ Jul 17 2010, 07:05 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1780150"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->How could you possibly run borderlands just fine when the requirements are 400 mhz faster than your cpu.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    At the time that CPU was new, the AMD naming convention was such that the designation of 3600+ was "equivelent" to what their older CPU's would be if they would run at 3.6ghz, Those particular CPU's may well be 1.3-1.8 times faster than the old CPU's on a clock for clock basis. I don't know enough about that particular one.

    At any rate I find more often that not Athlons could run games requiring much higher clock speeds, since it would normally say along the lines of "CPU : 2.4ghz Pentium 4 or equivelent".

    This is the same reason the new intel chips take their old ones and beat them about the block, even at half the clock speeds. The pentium brand was not all that good.

    I hope that clears any confusion up.

    As for the overuse of resources, frostyfrog, have you ensured that your motherboards chipset drivers are installed and your not just using windows own ones?
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  • PapayasPapayas Join Date: 2010-07-01 Member: 72219Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1779966:date=Jul 17 2010, 04:28 AM:name=frostyfrog)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (frostyfrog @ Jul 17 2010, 04:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1779966"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Does anyone else think that we should play NS2 without Steam? I'm just wondering since steam takes up, literally, 90-100% of my CPU according to task manager, which means very laggy NS2 or no NS2 for me D:.
    The stats of my computer are as follows:
    <blockquote>CPU: AMD Sempron™ Processor 3600+ 2.00 GHz (single core CPU)
    RAM: 2GB
    OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)</blockquote>
    I'm able to play Borderlands (non-steam) just fine, but when I use steam, I don't enjoy the experience :(.
    Any help/support?

    Thanks :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I'm sorry, I can't help you there. I suppose the only thing you can do is upgrade your CPU or something. Try closing all steam windows before you run a game...

    Other than that. It looks like no NS2 for you :'(

    I'm rather suprised that your computer can't run steam and a game at the same time. I don't think it's your CPU I think it could be your steam. As others have said "Try reinstalling steam"
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  • PopenatorPopenator Join Date: 2009-08-27 Member: 68617Members
    Steam settings->Interface: Uncheck "Enable Directwrite"

    Also: Opt out of the beta if you've opted in
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  • IronFistIronFist Join Date: 2006-12-01 Member: 58805Members
    edited July 2010
    I've had Steam hogging CPU issues in the past, but not recently. A full reinstall (or at least deleting your clientregistry.blob) may work, but the other suggestions here seem worth pursuing too.

    A temporary solution is to either elevate NS2's priority above normal, or set Steam to "low" after game launch. Be aware, once steam is set to low, all games started afterward will inherit that priority, so you might want to turn it off once you're done playing.
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  • PlasmaPlasma Join Date: 2003-04-26 Member: 15855Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    I think you should really consider just upgrading your computer.
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  • CrispyCrispy Jaded GD Join Date: 2004-08-22 Member: 30793Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1779966:date=Jul 17 2010, 04:28 AM:name=frostyfrog)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (frostyfrog @ Jul 17 2010, 04:28 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1779966"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Does anyone else think that we should play NS2 without Steam? I'm just wondering since steam takes up, literally, 90-100% of my CPU according to task manager, which means very laggy NS2 or no NS2 for me D:.
    The stats of my computer are as follows:
    <blockquote>CPU: AMD Sempron™ Processor 3600+ 2.00 GHz (single core CPU)
    RAM: 2GB
    OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)</blockquote>
    I'm able to play Borderlands (non-steam) just fine, but when I use steam, I don't enjoy the experience :(.
    Any help/support?

    Thanks :)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    It should not do this.

    I have a 3800+ single core running and 3 MB RAM and I can run NS (ofc), TF2 and Dawn of War at lowest settings. I've never had issues with Steam denying me access. As for NS2, I haven't dablled that much. If you really find you are having difficulties and these difficulties aren't the same for other games such as, say, TF2 I would contact Max at UWE to see if you can do some hardware profling for him, because it doesn't quite sound right.

    Borderlands (assuming you aren't running on the lowest of low settings) should be lowesr expectations than NS2, so you should investigate this. I'm sure if you contact Max and describe your problem he will make his best efforts to get to the bottom of this (because it sounds like you have a reasonably capable system).
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