FIXED: Infinite Loading Screen Core Ultra (no BIOS changes)

[Multiplicity]

Running Ghost Recon Wildlands on Intel Core Ultra (Without Disabling E-Cores)
Overview
========
This guide documents a working community-style workaround to run Ghost Recon Wildlands on systems with Intel Core Ultra processors (such as the Ultra 7 265K) where the game normally hangs on the LOADING screen due to the hybrid CPU architecture and DRM/threading issues.
Instead of disabling E-cores in BIOS (which many OEMs, like Dell, simply do not expose), run Wildlands inside a Windows 11 virtual machine (VM) using Hyper-V and GPU-P (GPU partitioning) for near-native GPU performance, plus Parsec and VB-Cable for display and audio. In practice, this makes the game believe it is running on a simpler, compatible CPU/OS layout, while still leveraging powerful modern hardware.
Sharing this for others in the same situation.

High-Level Approach
===================
1. Host OS: Windows 11 Pro/Enterprise with Hyper-V enabled.
2. Create a normal Windows 11 VM in Hyper-V (no tricks yet).
3. Use GPU-P (GPU partitioning) to expose a slice of your NVIDIA GPU to the VM.
4. Inside the VM, install Parsec for low-latency display and control.
5. Install VB-Cable in the VM to provide a virtual audio device (since Hyper-V does not emulate
a sound card).
6. Install Ghost Recon Wildlands inside the VM and play it through Parsec.
This setup has been verified to get Wildlands running on a Core Ultra CPU that otherwise could not launch the game at all on bare metal.

Prerequisites
=============
- Windows 11 Pro / Enterprise / Education licensed on the host. (not tested with Windows 10)
- Intel hybrid CPU (e.g., Intel Core Ultra 7 265K).
- NVIDIA GPU (e.g., Geforce 4090) with up-to-date drivers.
- Windows 11 ISO (ideally same major version/build as the host, e.g., both 23H2, 25H2 etc).
- Enough resources to dedicate to the VM (for example, 8 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM).
- Basic comfort with PowerShell and Hyper-V Manager.

Step 1 – Enable Hyper-V on the Host
===================================
1. Open “Turn Windows features on or off” (optionalfeatures.exe).
2. Enable:
- Hyper-V
- Virtual Machine Platform
- Windows Hypervisor Platform
3. Reboot the system.
You can verify Hyper-V is active by launching Hyper-V Manager from the Start Menu.

Step 2 – Create a Normal Windows 11 VM
======================================
We first create a completely standard VM and install Windows 11 normally, without GPU-P. This avoids many early-boot issues.
1. Open Hyper-V Manager ® New ® Virtual Machine.
2. Name the VM (for example, Win11-GPUP).
3. Choose Generation 2.
4. Assign memory (for example, 8 GB, increasing later if needed).
5. Attach it to a virtual switch (Default Switch is fine to start).
6. Create a VHDX disk (~150 GB depending on your needs).
7. Point the VM to your Windows 11 ISO as the installation media. (You can download from Microsoft)
8. Power on the VM and perform a normal Windows 11 installation.
9. Once installed, boot into the desktop and run Windows Update until things are current.
At this stage, the VM should boot cleanly and behave like a standard Windows 11 installation.

Step 3 – Attach GPU-P (GPU Partitioning) to the Existing VM
===========================================================
Instead of letting scripts do an unattended install and GPU injection at once (which can cause boot hangs), we attach GPU-P after the VM is already fully installed.

1. Download a GPU-P helper toolkit such as Interactive-Easy-GPU-PV or Enhanced-GPU-PV.

2. Extract the files, for example to C:\Tools\Interactive-GPUP.

3. Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process
cd "C:\Tools\Interactive-GPUP"
.\GPUP-management.ps1

4. Choose the option to “Use existing VM” or “Apply GPU-P to an existing VM”.

5. Select your Win11-GPUP VM.

6. Select your NVIDIA GPU (e.g., Geforce 4090).

7. Choose a GPU memory partition size (for example, 60–70% for the VM).

8. Let the script attach the GPU-P adapter and, if desired, install helper components.

After this, from the host side you can confirm that GPU-P is attached with:
Get-VMGpuPartitionAdapter -VMName "Win11-GPUP"

Step 4 – Verify GPU-P in the Guest
==================================
1. Boot the Win11-GPUP VM.

2. Inside the VM, open Device Manager ® Display adapters.
- You should see “Microsoft Hyper-V Video Adapter” (display-only).
- You should also see a paravirtual GPU render device tied to your host GPU.

3. Run dxdiag:
- The Display tab usually shows the Hyper-V adapter.
- The Render tab should show a render-only GPU device.
It is important to keep the Hyper-V Video Adapter enabled. Disabling it often causes Windows to fall back to “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter” and breaks GPU-P rendering.

Step 5 – Install Parsec and the Parsec Virtual Display Driver
=============================================================
To get smooth, low-latency display and control, we use Parsec from the VM to the host.
Inside the VM:
1. Install the Parsec app and sign in with your account.
2. Open Parsec ® Settings ® Host.
3. In the Virtual Display section, download and install the “Parsec Virtual Display Driver”.
4. Reboot the VM after installation.
After reboot, in Device Manager ® Display adapters, you should now see:
- Microsoft Hyper-V Video Adapter
- The GPU-P render device
- Parsec Virtual Display Adapter
In Windows Display Settings, the Parsec virtual display will appear as an additional monitor
you can extend your desktop to. You can usually set this virtual display to 1920x1080 and
sometimes higher resolutions depending on Parsec’s options and driver support.
On the host (your main machine):
- Install the Parsec client.
- Log into the same Parsec account.
- You should see the VM as a connectable host. Use Parsec to control the VM, rather than
Hyper-V’s built-in console.

Step 6 – Add Audio via VB-Cable Virtual Audio Device
====================================================
Hyper-V does not emulate a sound card, so a VM often shows “No audio output device installed.”
Parsec needs a real output device inside the VM to capture sound.
Inside the VM:
1. Download VB-CABLE (VB-Audio Virtual Cable).
2. Extract and run the installer (VBCABLE_Setup_x64.exe) as Administrator.
3. Install the driver and reboot the VM.
After reboot:
1. Open Windows Sound settings in the VM.
2. Under Output, select “CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)” and set it as the default
playback device.
3. In Parsec (inside the VM), open Settings ® Host and set the Sound Output Device to “Default
Playback Device” or directly to the VB-Cable device.
Now when games or applications play audio in the VM, it will flow through VB-Cable and Parsec
will carry that audio back to your host machine.

Step 7 – Install and Run Ghost Recon Wildlands
==============================================
With GPU-P and audio set up, you can treat the VM like a normal gaming PC:
Inside the VM:
1. Install Ubisoft Connect / Steam as needed.
2. Install Ghost Recon Wildlands to the VM’s virtual disk.
3. Launch the game from inside the VM.
4. Use Parsec on the host to view and control the VM while you play.
On systems where Ghost Recon Wildlands refused to load at all on bare metal Core Ultra CPUs
(stuck on the loading screen indefinitely), this Hyper-V + GPU-P + Parsec + VB-Cable setup has
been observed to run the game reliably and smoothly.
Example Resource Allocation
===========================
On a system with an Intel Core Ultra processor and an 4090 GPU, a good starting VM
configuration is:
- 8 vCPUs
- 8 GB RAM
- 60–70% of the GPU assigned via GPU-P
- Windows 11 guest (same major build as the host)
You can tune these later for performance, but this configuration has proven sufficient to make Wildlands playable at 1080p with good responsiveness through Parsec.

Notes and Caveats
=================
- This is an advanced workaround, not an officially supported configuration from Ubisoft,
Intel, Microsoft, or NVIDIA.
- Hyper-V GPU-P is a paravirtualized solution, not full PCIe passthrough, but performance can be close to native for many workloads.
- Some DRM or anti-cheat systems may not behave well in virtual machines; in the case of Ghost Recon Wildlands, this VM-based approach has helped sidestep issues caused by hybrid CPU detection on bare metal.
- Resolution may initially be limited to 1920x1080 depending on the virtual display
configuration. Higher resolutions may be possible by adjusting Parsec’s virtual display
settings, Windows Display Settings inside the VM, and the capabilities of the Parsec Virtual
Display Driver.

Summary
=======
When a game like Ghost Recon Wildlands refuses to run on modern hybrid CPUs and there is no BIOS option to disable E-cores, a virtualized setup using Hyper-V, GPU-P, Parsec, and VB-Cable can serve as a powerful compatibility layer. The VM presents a simpler, more traditional environment to the game and its DRM, while still leveraging the full power of a modern GPU through GPU partitioning and low-latency streaming.
This approach allowed Wildlands to run smoothly on an Intel Core Ultra processor that was
previously considered “incompatible” without firmware-level core configuration changes, and it can be shared as a practical recipe for others facing the same limitation.

Steps such as finding some of the downloads needed or extremely detailed steps are left as exercise to the reader, or those who want to contribute further. Good hunting Ghosts!

[wespe___o=/;;;:*]

Or just don´t buy Intel CPU

... Compilation /Decompression /Encryption /Rendering etc -- AMD outperforms INTEL and is on par or ahead @gaming
... INTEL has fallen behind in AI against Nvidia and AMD
... INTEL stock drops since 2022, but especially since Mar 2025 when TSMC rejected Intel. Now Open-AI also rejected Intel few days ago and even bought-out Intel´s AI lead engineer

-> currently INTEL has fired 24.000 employees in Q3/Q4 2025
-> INTEL also revoked all investment plans in Europe
-> What kept INTEL alive in 2025 is huge US-government investment for the USA production plants and the Nvidia cooperation

Supporting such a company ???

[sENoZ]

Infinite Loading Screen happen because of some win update.
found/fixed that back in 2023.

Process lasso user should not park core with any ubisoft game btw.

[stinky [retired] [afk forever]]

Originally posted by sENoZ:

Infinite Loading Screen happen because of some win update.
found/fixed that back in 2023.

Process lasso user should not park core with any ubisoft game btw.

exactly. It was an update that killed this game back in 2023. After that I have not been able to get this game running on any of my rigs and Ubisoft refuses to address the issue with an update or patch. Ubisoft should be ashamed of themselves. No wonder their stonk porice is down -100% in the past few years.

[Darkhalo314]

This sucks man. I just bought a Legion Pro 7i with a Ultra 9 275HX and a 5090 and I can't even get this game past the loading screen. Completely unplayable.

[DudeBro69]

Did this ever get fixed?

Or is Ubisoft offering refunds?

[KenTWOu]

Originally posted by DudeBro69:

Did this ever get fixed?

This thread is few weeks old, of course it wasn't fixed, Ubisoft doesn't fix technical issues and bugs in their old games.

Originally posted by DudeBro69:

Or is Ubisoft offering refunds?

We're discussing this on Steam, so you should ask Steam/Valve about that.

[MarkDarkness]

PLEASE FIX THIS, Ubisoft.

[Seibzehn]

Same problem with my 14900KS.

In the past the game run on this cpu.
Its not regarding the VC++ libraries. Only disable E-Core and HT will fix it.

[Dbentzjr]

What a load of ♥♥♥♥ that they cant come up with a simple patch to fix this hot mess.

[tigre17]

Originally posted by stinky retired afk forever:

Originally posted by sENoZ:

Infinite Loading Screen happen because of some win update.
found/fixed that back in 2023.

Process lasso user should not park core with any ubisoft game btw.

exactly. It was an update that killed this game back in 2023. After that I have not been able to get this game running on any of my rigs and Ubisoft refuses to address the issue with an update or patch. Ubisoft should be ashamed of themselves. No wonder their stonk porice is down -100% in the past few years.

-------------------------
I also have this problem with a new super pc intel core ultra 9. Steam and ubisoft zero support, a great shame

[KenTWOu]

Originally posted by tigre17:

I also have this problem with a new super pc intel core ultra 9. Steam and ubisoft zero support, a great shame

Disable E-cores through BIOS, this Virtual Machine workaround is for people who can't do that, because they're using laptops with hidden BIOS features.

[KenTWOu]

Apparently people found a way to tweak number of threads on laptops through MSConfig:

• Open MSCONFIG
  
• Click on the STARTUP tab
  
• Click on ADVANCED OPTIONS
  
• Click on NUMBER OF PROCESSORS
  
• Select a maximum of 10
  
• OK
  
• Restart

This player confirmed that it works.

THERE IS NO NEED TO USE A VIRTUAL MACHINE!!!

[Lasagnahvcks]

I just realized if you have valorant installed or riot in general. The valorant anti-cheat will not allow it to load at all this is why sometimes people get infinite load screen. just realized this last night trying to load for 3 hours

[RMJ]

The maker of old discontinued software has no responsibility on what you "attempt" to run it on!

This is like blaming the fuel maker for the fuel leak in your car!
It is not their issue!

Buy the newest hardware. You should have to sign a "TESTER" agreement. As this is what you become! I gave that nonsense up decades ago.

I prefer stability-versatility over speed.

[DAV3NATOR]

Just wanted to share this with you all. I have found that Wildlands works, without any issues, on my AMD R9 5900X and my Legion Go 1, both are Windows 11. It is clear that the forever loading screen is an Intel CPU issue that may have been patched by Microsoft. I've read this has been an issue since 2023; however, I was able to play Wildlands on my 14700K with Windows 11 as recently as October 2025, but it no longer works, well. I can't say that it works on all AMD CPUs, and I am hesitant to do a conversion at this time with the inflated prices, but I think in the future I will go with AMD for my primary PC. I have tried all the tips, except for disabling the e-cores and hyperthreading, and nothing has improved the load time. The game sometimes loads on my Intel PC, but it could take up to or more than 30 minutes.

Update: I finally broke down and disabled my e-cores and hyperthreading; and overclocked the p-cores and ram using the genie. Wildlands works perfectly.