- Jul 23, 2013
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I have a dilemma. I have two Geforce 7950 GX2's in Quad SLI and there are two things that i can't put my head around.
In Windows XP (both 32 bit and 64 bit), all games run stutter free with no massive microstuttering frame drops to 0. But the frame rate isn't very good overall. VSYNC works flawlessly, and in some cases, for whatever reason, actually BOOSTS the fps instead of decreasing it (far cry 2 for instance). GPU usage on card 1 and 3 hovers around 90% and card 2 and 4 GPU usage is around 10%. The cards with low GPU usage clock down to 2D speeds. Sometimes the GPU usage will suddenly rise to about 80% on all four GPUs, but for the most part they are sitting almost idle. Drivers will never crash or freeze and system is always stable.
In Windows 7 x64, all games run at much higher fps, but have constant frame rate drops and microstutter, to the point of making things unplayable. These frame drops happen when panning the camera around, especially 180 degree turns and fast twitching. If I stay in one place and not move around much, the frame rates are fairly stable. VSYNC causes the drivers to crash instantly in any game, over and over and after about 5 times leads to a TDR crash. I have tried drivers from 2009 all the way up to 2014 and they all do the same TDR crash with vsync. GPU usage always stays between 75-98% on all four GPUs. The drivers will also get random TDR's while on the desktop, but then resume working for a random amount of time before crashing again.
TLDR:
Windows XP is providing lower FPS, but smoother more playable gameplay with working vsync. Windows 7 provides much higher FPS, but unplayable microstutter, TDR crashing vsync, and random TDR's in 2D.
Is there any middleground I can get? I don't mind using XP, but I'd really like to get the higher framerates 7 seems to want to output.
Far Cry 2 with the same game save and graphics settings nets about 25 fps in XP, with no stutter, and 55 fps on 7, but dare move the mouse around 180 degrees and you'll see it drop to 0 fps for a split second
System Specifications:
Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6700 (3.2 GHz at 1.275V, 1066 MHz fsb)
GSKILL 2x 2GB DDR2 1066 MHz (5-5-4-12 @ 2.05V)
nVidia nForce 680i LT Motherboard
Conexant Falcon 2 TV Tuner
eVGA Geforce 7950 GX2 (flashed to Dell BIOS to support 2d downclock and gpu usage monitoring)
Dell Geforce 7950 GX2
EDIT: I know this is an ancient system, but I am really not interested in buying a new GPU for it. I am just trying to fix the problems with the existing system. Modern cards are not going to work in this computer anyway because of the UEFI bios. It's PCI express 1.0. Tomb Raider 2013 for instance, runs great on it in XP, and not even at the lowest graphics settings. I simply would like to fix the issue with windows 7
In Windows XP (both 32 bit and 64 bit), all games run stutter free with no massive microstuttering frame drops to 0. But the frame rate isn't very good overall. VSYNC works flawlessly, and in some cases, for whatever reason, actually BOOSTS the fps instead of decreasing it (far cry 2 for instance). GPU usage on card 1 and 3 hovers around 90% and card 2 and 4 GPU usage is around 10%. The cards with low GPU usage clock down to 2D speeds. Sometimes the GPU usage will suddenly rise to about 80% on all four GPUs, but for the most part they are sitting almost idle. Drivers will never crash or freeze and system is always stable.
In Windows 7 x64, all games run at much higher fps, but have constant frame rate drops and microstutter, to the point of making things unplayable. These frame drops happen when panning the camera around, especially 180 degree turns and fast twitching. If I stay in one place and not move around much, the frame rates are fairly stable. VSYNC causes the drivers to crash instantly in any game, over and over and after about 5 times leads to a TDR crash. I have tried drivers from 2009 all the way up to 2014 and they all do the same TDR crash with vsync. GPU usage always stays between 75-98% on all four GPUs. The drivers will also get random TDR's while on the desktop, but then resume working for a random amount of time before crashing again.
TLDR:
Windows XP is providing lower FPS, but smoother more playable gameplay with working vsync. Windows 7 provides much higher FPS, but unplayable microstutter, TDR crashing vsync, and random TDR's in 2D.
Is there any middleground I can get? I don't mind using XP, but I'd really like to get the higher framerates 7 seems to want to output.
Far Cry 2 with the same game save and graphics settings nets about 25 fps in XP, with no stutter, and 55 fps on 7, but dare move the mouse around 180 degrees and you'll see it drop to 0 fps for a split second
System Specifications:
Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX6700 (3.2 GHz at 1.275V, 1066 MHz fsb)
GSKILL 2x 2GB DDR2 1066 MHz (5-5-4-12 @ 2.05V)
nVidia nForce 680i LT Motherboard
Conexant Falcon 2 TV Tuner
eVGA Geforce 7950 GX2 (flashed to Dell BIOS to support 2d downclock and gpu usage monitoring)
Dell Geforce 7950 GX2
EDIT: I know this is an ancient system, but I am really not interested in buying a new GPU for it. I am just trying to fix the problems with the existing system. Modern cards are not going to work in this computer anyway because of the UEFI bios. It's PCI express 1.0. Tomb Raider 2013 for instance, runs great on it in XP, and not even at the lowest graphics settings. I simply would like to fix the issue with windows 7
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