Inexplicable Lag

[jrgray93]

Specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD FX-4100 @ stock with turbo on
4GB DDR3 1600 @ 1333
GeForce GTX 550 Ti @ stock
1920x1080 resolution

I am having issues running certain games. I am able to run games like BioShock at maximum settings with a solid 60 fps at almost all times, yet Duke Nukem Foerver and Counter Strike: Global Offensive run slowly. Duke is reported to be able to average 50 or so FPS on maximum settings with my graphics card and resolution. In fact, people have recorded gameplay videos using my graphics card. I am able to pull 40 if nothing is happening and the graphics are knocked down. Movement instantly causes light stuttering. CS:GO is another story entirely, and is usually at 5-15 FPS. That is really far off of where it should be.

These two games are the only ones giving me trouble. I've tried resets, clean installing the graphics drivers, reseating my hardware, and any other obvious solution. Boot-time Avast scans read clean, TDSSKiller reads nothing on max parameters, and there is no sign of hardware failure.

I run many background applications, but that doesn't cause problems in other games, even CPU-reliant ones, such as StarCraft 2 and Supreme Commander. I currently run:

- Avast Antivirus
- Comodo Firewall
- Razer Synapse 2.0
- Razer Anansi Config
- Lexmark Productivity Studio
- Xonar DG Audio Center
- Steam (all mentioned games played via steam, going to try validating game files)
- NVidia Control Panel

It may be worth mentioning that these two games are the most recently installed on my computer. I'm not sure why that would change anything, but if I knew the problem, I wouldn't be here.

I am going to try defragging my HDD, although that shouldn't be causing in-game lag, and I will also be installing Skyrim to see how it runs. I have an identical computer as my friend, as we built them both at the same time. I played Skyrim on his rig with no problems, so I will easily be able to tell if this is actually my computer's fault and not something else.

Anyway, any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Questions...

1 - Nvidia GeForce drivers. What version?

2 - Have your tried running both games with the following settings
. Disabled VSync
. Lower your AA (Antialiasing) to none or at most 2X

What gives?

 

[jrgray93]

Questions...

1 - Nvidia GeForce drivers. What version?

2 - Have your tried running both games with the following settings
. Disabled VSync
. Lower your AA (Antialiasing) to none or at most 2X

What gives?

Version 306.97

I've tried disabling VSync and lowering many graphical settings, including AA. It seems to help, but just barely.

CS:GO is pulling 5 fps. It doesn't matter what settings I have it on, it should do better than that.

Also, I got Skyrim installed and it runs perfectly, with 60 fps on high settings.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Ok, so I've checked your Driver's version (as it's not the latest) but downloading the latest beta would (it seems) only give your the option to turn on Ambient Occlusion from the control panel in CS:GO...but doesn't seem to have any performance boost.

So, are you saying that "all" games installed and played through STEAM are running badly? Or was Skyrim or other games running great were also installed/played through STEAM?

 

[jrgray93]

Ok, so I've checked your Driver's version (as it's not the latest) but downloading the latest beta would (it seems) only give your the option to turn on Ambient Occlusion from the control panel in CS:GO...but doesn't seem to have any performance boost.

So, are you saying that "all" games installed and played through STEAM are running badly? Or was Skyrim or other games running great were also installed/played through STEAM?

My driver control panel appears to be failing to detect updates then, so I will install them manually.

All games are running smoothly except those two. At first I thought Worms Revolution was running poorly, but it turns out it was temporary and everyone has issues with it. So far, I've tried Skyrim, BioShock, Supreme Commander 2, StarCraft 2, Trine 2, and a few others, and every single one is averaging 50-60 fps on high to maximum settings.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Answer this though... those 2 games you're having trouble with...are those the only games you run through STEAM? I'm thinking STEAM in-game interface might be the issue (or at least, we'd eliminate that as part of the trouble shooting).

 

[jrgray93]

Answer this though... those 2 games you're having trouble with...are those the only games you run through STEAM? I'm thinking STEAM in-game interface might be the issue (or at least, we'd eliminate that as part of the trouble shooting).

I run all of my games through Steam, aside from Blizzard's StarCraft 2. I also just tried the demo of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and it was just as bad, despite my system being well beyond the requirements. I will try running them with Steam disabled and see if that helps.

EDIT: Games won't run without Steam active, but I other games on Steam run perfectly fine.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Man, that's weird. Have you tried reinstalling both these games? I know it sucks redownloading them from Steam (i've had to do this in the past) but you've already done a fair amount of trouble shooting so I'd say that's the next logical thing to do.

 

[jrgray93]

Man, that's weird. Have you tried reinstalling both these games? I know it sucks redownloading them from Steam (i've had to do this in the past) but you've already done a fair amount of trouble shooting so I'd say that's the next logical thing to do.

I just spent my entire Thanksgiving day fixing my family's computers and I am now putting Ice Cream Sandwich on my friend's Nook Color. Yet I can't even fix my own computer ;_;

But yeah, I will update this when I have tried that... might be tomorrow.

EDIT: Reinstalled CS:GO, same issues still. Finally contacted my friend with the identical rig, and he is experiencing the same exact problem, exclusively with CS:GO. I guess I need to report this to the devs somehow.

Additionally, I tried dropping EVERY setting to the bare minimum. I was pulling 15-20 fps.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Something's messing up with the DirectX box (the games). At this point, I'd say you're right. Contact Steam support (or check out their forums for same issue as yours). Once you figure out CS:GO, you might be able to take on the same fix for Bioshock. Sorry I couldn't help you more.

 

[jrgray93]

Something's messing up with the DirectX box (the games). At this point, I'd say you're right. Contact Steam support (or check out their forums for same issue as yours). Once you figure out CS:GO, you might be able to take on the same fix for Bioshock. Sorry I couldn't help you more.

BioShock is one of the ones that is functioning well. It's Duke Nukem Forever that is chugging. CS:GO is the one that is unbearable, but Duke is able to do passable framerates with low settings. Passable, but not something I want to play when I know damned well it should be blazing fast.

But I will be looking around and perhaps reporting it on the Steam forums. Can't win em all, but the help was very much appreciated.

 

[HEXiT]

looks to me your having the threading issue that the buldoser sufferes from. when a game uses 1 or 2 threads the perfomance of the fx cpu seems to crumple and bottleneck... they just aint good gaming cpu's and if i were you i would have went with an older and better for gaming phenom 2 black edition.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Oops, sorry, I meant Duke Nukem, not Bioshock.

 

[jrgray93]

Best answer selected by jrgray93.

 

[jrgray93]

looks to me your having the threading issue that the buldoser sufferes from. when a game uses 1 or 2 threads the perfomance of the fx cpu seems to crumple and bottleneck... they just aint good gaming cpu's and if i were you i would have went with an older and better for gaming phenom 2 black edition.

Your mentioning of those issues made me look further into Bulldozer in regards to these particular games. I was able to find a little executable somebody threw together that fixes the performance issues entirely, but must be used every time you reboot. A small price to pay for fully functional games.

CS:GO is now on maximum settings, including tons of AA and AF, with 55-60 fps average. DNF is still a little screwy at max settings, but that game is horribly optimized.

So thanks to both of you for the help. It is resolved.