Witcher 2 - Will not Launch With 32-Core or Higher CPUs (SOLVED)

[fatkidwitajetpak]

I just built a PC with a 3950X AMD CPU with 32 Cores. I have discovered Witcher 2 through Steam does not launch on any machine i've tried running all 32 cores, but it will run perfectly fine when using 31 cores. It took me all night to figure this out. Thankfully im a tech and a nerd. I have created a post in Steam to let users know about my discovery. I know most gamers will not have a 3950X, but I wanted to let anyone know.

To run Witcher 2 on a PC with 32 Core or higher, you can launch it like so:

- Quit out of Steam through Task Manager
- Open Notepad
- Type in the following

@echo off
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start /affinity 7FFFFFFF (type in the path for steam here)

- Save as whateveryouwant.bat
For me, the script looks like this.

@echo off
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start /affinity 7FFFFFFF C:\Steam\steam.exe

This will create a batch program that will launch Steam using 31 cores. You may then play Witcher 2 and any other game giving you similar trouble.

 

[Draconifors]

@fatkidwitajetpak Thread created. The title is rather long, but you're free to edit it if you want.

 

[SigilFey]

Glad you were able to sort out your issue! You have surely pleased the machine spirit! And, thank you for taking the time to share the results.

Just do be aware that what works perfectly on one PC may not work at all on the next. Especially when dealing with CPUs that have 8+ cores, those chips are mostly made for productivity, not really gaming. Games tend to utilize only a few cores, and may run better on CPUs that have fewer cores at higher GHz, rather than many cores at lower GHz. (That's not the case with all games, but I'd say the vast majority still do not take advantage of all of those extra cores.) Where CPUs of 8+ cores and logic processors shine is compiling code, importing / exporting 3D models, rendering video, and so forth.

 

[fatkidwitajetpak]

Thanks, yall!

Right, I highly doubt most gamers will be using a 3950X. CPUs with a lot of cores sometimes have problems with older games. I use this machine for video/audio editing with a 3950X and high-end gaming with mods using a 2080 TI. It's Cyberpunk 2077 ready

I'll make some edits to the thread, because I actually noticed a typo in my .bat script.

Cheers to the team. Please move this to Witcher 2 Technical Forums when you have the chance.

 

[AgentMyth]

Thanks for that fatkidwitajetpak

I have a 3950X and had the same issue. I didn't find your post because I searched for "Witcher 2 won't launch"!

I solved this issue with a similar command but focussing only on Witcher 2. The command below creates a script file using 8 threads for the launcher and the game runs perfectly afterwards.

C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\The Witcher 2> echo start /AFFINITY 0xff Launcher.exe > Witcher2-manual.cmd

To avoid any confusion for anyone interested, the actual command running is:
start /AFFINITY 0xff Launcher.exe

The GOG Galaxy 2.0.15 also allows you to add this as a separate executable as shown in the image below. I simply added an entry to the 'Witcher2-manual.cmd' script created above.

 

[SirMcNoodleBumFart]

I too have a 3950x and have tried to both solutions to the best of my ability but I'm not super tech literate when it comes to stuff like batch files and whatnot and I just can't get it to work.
Would you pretty please be able to break it down into simpler steps one could follow? I'm sure in my ignorance I'm making some dumb mistakes.

 

[SigilFey]

I too have a 3950x and have tried to both solutions to the best of my ability but I'm not super tech literate when it comes to stuff like batch files and whatnot and I just can't get it to work.
Would you pretty please be able to break it down into simpler steps one could follow? I'm sure in my ignorance I'm making some dumb mistakes.

If my MSDOS memory holds, the batch file for the above would look like this:

[YourInstallationPath]\The Witcher 2
echo
start /AFFINITY 0xff
launcher.exe
witcher2-manual.cmd

* Where it says [YourInstallationPath] above, your would simply replace that with whatever directory you have the game installed. So, for example(s):
C:\Program Files(x86)\GOG Games\The Witcher 2
D:\MyRPGgames\The Witcher 2
E:\The Witcher 2
etc.
(...wherever you have the game installed.)

To actually create the batch file, just open up something like Notepad or Wordpad, copy those lines into it, and "Save as..." WhateverYouWant.rtf. Then rename that file extension to WhateverYouWant.bat. That's it.

(Not sure if the above is perfectly accurate, as I don't have the game installed and can't test it myself, but that's the idea.)

 

[playtech1]

A huge thank you to fatkidwitajetpak and AgentMyth for the solution to this problem. I had figured out that Witcher 2 did not like high-end CPUs, but not the solution. I had tried setting the processor affinity of Launcher.exe in Task Manager to a smaller number, but that didn't work, whereas the above command did.

However I did struggle to craft a .bat file that worked, so rather than try to have the batch file reference the location of the Witcher 2 directory, I just did a one-line batch file, saved in the Witcher 2 directory with only the command:

start /AFFINITY 0xff Launcher.exe

That does the trick and I added it to GOG for ease of launching per AgentMyth's suggestion.