DirectX games not working?

[nathanbrotherbob]

My computer is a new custom built gaming rig that should theoretically be to crush most games at 1080p

Specs: Fx8350 MSI 770 TF OC gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 mobo 2x4 gb corsair vengeance ram 64gb sand disk ssd 2x1tb WD HDD for games

Unfortunately, this never seems to be the case. Most every game I try to play has tendencies to stutter, skip around, and cause my display to crash repeatedly all within 5 minutes of booting up. Even game menus are glitchy! This happens in games from Planet side 2 (unplayable) to Dishonored (unplayable) to the Witcher 2 (glitchy unless at low settings) to LoL (glitchy menus). The only exceptions I've noticed are Dota 2 (usually crashes once early on, but restarting my computer fixes it for the rest of the night) and Minecraft (no problems at all. I've noticed those two games both run primarily on OpenGL tho...

I have already made sure ALL my drivers are up to date, run driver sweeper and reinstalled latest Nvidia driver, and I am on Windows 7 64-bit ultimate. I used be running windows 8.1 and had similar problems (only a day ago actually). Thanks in advance for replying!

 

[alannm37]

Have you tried running your game in windowed mode and monitoring your GPU/CPU usage while playing? Also temperatures? Worth doing that I'd say.

 

[nathanbrotherbob]

@alannm37
I'll do that when I get back from class in about an hour. Should I just post my max temps and usage from afterburner? Or is there a better program?

 

[RobCrezz]

Yeah and also use coretemp to show CPU temps

 

[alannm37]

+1^ MSI Afterburner is good yes, there is also Speedfan and HWMonitor. Whatever you find easier yourself.

 

[nathanbrotherbob]

Have you tried running your game in windowed mode and monitoring your GPU/CPU usage while playing? Also temperatures? Worth doing that I'd say.

Yeah and also use coretemp to show CPU temps

+1^ MSI Afterburner is good yes, there is also Speedfan and HWMonitor. Whatever you find easier yourself.

Sorry it took so long, but here's the charts for each game I tested. Each game is labled pretty clearly within the screenshot. Also, each test segment was done for 5 minutes, and the areas where the game stutters/crashes are circled in red. I did my best to pick action intense spots in all games, as to "tax" my gpu as much as possible... All games are optimized by GeForce experience, and I think it got just about everything right... except it decided I should be running Planetside 2 on very low settings. I was forced to turn Vsync on for that game because otherwise the FPS was just too high and inconsistent (between 120-200, according to Afterburner), causing insane texture pop-in and a completely un-testable experience. Here are the results! http://imgur.com/a/mxomy

 

[alannm37]

Wow man them readings are pretty scary to look at, I have a GTX 760 and it is a straight constant line all the time for everything, except at the beginning when it goes up but then it stays up and never drops! Dota 2 seemed to be the best in terms of steady gameplay but Planetside and The Witcher 2 seem way to over the top when it comes to drops! Could you post what PSU you have please. (Link it on either PCPartPicker or Newegg) Thanks.

 

[nathanbrotherbob]

Wow man them readings are pretty scary to look at, I have a GTX 760 and it is a straight constant line all the time for everything, except at the beginning when it goes up but then it stays up and never drops! Dota 2 seemed to be the best in terms of steady gameplay but Planetside and The Witcher 2 seem way to over the top when it comes to drops! Could you post what PSU you have please. (Link it on either PCPartPicker or Newegg) Thanks.

Ikr! Dota 2 is really the only game I feel comfortable playing seriously, which really sucks. I actually recent upgraded form a EVGA 760 SC to my current MSI TF 770 OC, but the problems were there before as well. Here's my PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

 

[alannm37]

MSI is my favourite GPU retailer, but it's a weird problem I must say! As for your PSU, I'm not a big fan of the Corsair CX series, or even Corsair at all for the matter. I don't know what else the problem could be and it's definitely not a CPU bottleneck but I do have suggestions you can try out!

1. Check the power saving settings in the BIOS.
2. Try running this: http://unigine.com/products/heaven/ - You can also try: https://unigine.com/products/valley/ - Monitor your GPU and CPU usage.
3. Try overclocking the GPU and seeing what happens.

That's all I can think of, report back.

 

[RobCrezz]

Temps dont look like the problem, I dont see anything bad there.

 

[nathanbrotherbob]

MSI is my favourite GPU retailer, but it's a weird problem I must say! As for your PSU, I'm not a big fan of the Corsair CX series, or even Corsair at all for the matter. I don't know what else the problem could be and it's definitely not a CPU bottleneck but I do have suggestions you can try out!

1. Check the power saving settings in the BIOS.
2. Try running this: http://unigine.com/products/heaven/ - You can also try: https://unigine.com/products/valley/ - Monitor your GPU and CPU usage.
3. Try overclocking the GPU and seeing what happens.

That's all I can think of, report back.

I wouldn't say OCing the GPU fixed the problem, but I can definitely give you best answer for leading me towards the solution.

See, I noticed that my clock frequencies were all over the board during games, which resulted in weird FPS and glitchy images. So, when I found a setting called "K-Boost" in EVGA Precision X that claims to lock your clock frequency. I simply checked this box, and the problems went away entirely. After OCing a little bit, I was even able to get consistent 40-45 in the Witcher 2 maxed out with Ubersampling ON. I am now able to Heaven for as long as I want (tested it for about 2 hours) whereas before it would crash within 5 minutes. Thank you guys so much I am now a very happy camper

 

[alannm37]

Your very welcome, I'm glad I helped you get to the fix !!!

 

[nathanbrotherbob]

Your very welcome, I'm glad I helped you get to the fix !!!

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I felt the need to update and say that my K-Boost fix has slowly but surely stopped working. I created a new thread to continue to address the issue. Thanks! http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2084095/games-running-unique-problem.html