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I'm trying to slow down my CPU to play an old game (Windows 98). I've installed indicator-cpufreqand after using this help I managed to get it to work.

However, I'm only able to select certain speeds; from 2.30 GHz to 1.20 Ghz. For the game to run even better I want to slow down a bit more. How can I do this?

-EDIT-

So I used cpufreq-set to manually change the CPU speed and it seems that I can't go below 1.2GHz. Is this a build-in limit? Can I change it? I looked into my BIOS but couldn't find any 'CPU Frequency' settings. I can't use DOSBox because the game is not a DOS game.

I'm using a HP EliteBook8570w: Intel Core i7-3610QM @2.30GHz x 8, 64-bit

What it looks like

Community
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MichaelDeSanta
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1 Answers1

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Do not slow down your computer, slow down your program.

You can use cpulimit. This program limits the percentage of CPU for a specified program or process.

The percentage is specified with -l argument and uses a number between 1 and 100*num_of_cpus

The program is specified with -e argument (if you use the program file name) or -p (if it is a running process).

You can install from Software Center or with the command:

sudo apt-get install cpulimit

Now you can use:

cpulimit -e my_program_exe_file_name -l 20

and you program will be limited to 20% of one CPU.

If you want to limit a running process (example process id 12345)

cpulimit -p 12345 -l 20
acesargl
  • 176
  • Ok I found the .exe process and I slowed it down. However, this does not fix the problem. Yes, it uses less percentage of CPU speed and this makes the program slower, i.e. shocky. But the program itself uses the clockspeed to process walking speed, graphics, etc. So it is not a matter of using less CPU percentage, but actually slowing the CPU down. Any suggestions for this? – MichaelDeSanta Jun 11 '15 at 13:31
  • Ummm.... if the game is a old DOS game you can try dosbox + dbgl. Dosbox is a DOS emulator (it allows set the cpu freq) and DBGL is a gui dor DOSBOX. – acesargl Jun 11 '15 at 14:12
  • Without using dosbox, do you know how to slow the CPU speed down below the limit (1.2 GHz for me)? – MichaelDeSanta Jun 11 '15 at 14:40
  • cpufreq-set (you can install with sudo apt-get install cpufrequtils) and try it (sudo cpufreq-set -f 1000MHz), but read some tutorial/manual before using it (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_use_cpufrequtils) – acesargl Jun 11 '15 at 15:56
  • I already tried that, but I can't go below 1.2GHz... – MichaelDeSanta Jun 11 '15 at 17:25
  • I've read the i7-3610QM specs and it says that 1.2GHz is the hardware lowest limit of this model (so, I think it is not possible to slow down more). If you are very interested, you can try virtualization (AFAIK virtualbox cannot limit the clock, but VMWare can do it). – acesargl Jun 12 '15 at 10:57