When I play AOE2 recently I get an unplayable amount of lag. My PC is very good, capable of running Red Dead Redemption 2 on Ultra yet I cannot run this game. No mods, low graphics settings, AMD drivers are up to date, added as an exception in antivirus. I have reinstalled the game, restarted my PC, all the standard troubleshooting procedures.
Specs are: 5700 XT, Ryzen 3700x, Ballistix 64 GB RAM 3600mhz, Samsung 970 pro M.2 2TB, Asus Prime B550 mobo
Resources used when playing an 8 player deathmatch at 500 pop fast speed:
Probably nothing with your specs are wrong, but it’s the problem about single core engine I think. RDR2 probabily was born with multithread core and it works good with multicore. RTS are often only single core and you need a very high performance CPU in single core to work good in late game with thousand units and buildings. Your 10.3% it’s one core at 100% and other at 0% probably.
What’s weird is 2-3 months ago I was able to play games entirely fine with no issues but now even 2v2 online will give me unplayable lag. I am thinking maybe one of the newer patches is behind these issues I’m experiencing. None of my PC’s hardware has been altered.
Is there perhaps any way to make it use more then 1 core or is that simply just apart of the engine’s limitations? And why can my friends with worse PC’s run the game entirely fine?
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Is there perhaps any way to make it use more then 1 core or is that simply just apart of the engine’s limitations?
That’s a rabbit hole that you don’t need to go down. You specs are fine, that’s not the reason the game is lagging.
The culprit will be discovered by your answer to this question: “Are you experiencing lag only on multiplayer games or on single player high pop deathmatch games?”
If you are experiencing problems with online matches then the problem is most likely your internet connection.
So go through all the steps to troubleshoot your networking (check your internet speeds, distance to router, wired vs wireless connection, etc.)
If you are experiencing lag also on single player games then it is mostly likely the limitation of the game’s engine itself. The pop limit used to go up to 1000, but the game couldn’t handle that many units on the field, so the devs lowered the max pop to 500. Even so, 8 players with 500 pop is testing the limits of an old game engine that will have some lag even with all the improvements and good PC specs.
I always recommend playing around 250 pop, anything more tends to start the game lagging for people – even with decent machines.
If you are playing regular online matches and are still having trouble after checking your internet connection, you could always try Microsoft’s recommendations: https://support.ageofempires.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049024131
