Stuttering at high fps! ($10 paypal if you can solve)

[Jenny69]

So I'm playing a OpenGL game(Q4) which can either be played at 60 or 90 fps. 60 is fine, but 90 even though the framerate is solid, it gives stutters, like its 30fps. The stuttering is slight, but its enough to notice and after awhile it will give me a headache.

I have a completly different second system which behaves the same way.

Viewsonic vx922
8800GTX
e6600
Raptor RAID 0
2 gig
Vista / XP
X-fi

Samsung 930BF
6800GT
3.4ht p4
Samsung HD
1gig
XP
Sound Audigy 2zs

Now I don't get puzzled easily, but I just can't work this one out.
My refresh rate in windows is 75hz and in game 75hz, using monitor controls I can confirm its set at this correctly. This doesn't happen for everyone. Some people with same monitor and graphics card run it fine (drivers included)

Things I've gathered so far:
- Tried various monitor drivers.
- Tried Nvidia drivers, old, current, beta.
- Not connection related. (tested offline)
- Not low performance connected, my fps is always max.
- CPU, RAM is always below 60%.
- Not O/S specific.
- Clean installation doesn't help.
- In-game refresh and vsync commands don't help.
- Different resolutions in game and windows don't help.
- Disabling X-fi sound.
- Latest sound drivers.
- Forcing vsync or disabling it through windows.
- Defrag didn't help.
- Deleting/increasing page file didn't help.
- No game commands helped.
- No windows processes are taking up anything.
- Tried lowest gfx settings, same.

I'm starting to think it could be power supply?

 

[mike99]

I'm starting to think it could be power supply?

So, what make/model PSU :?:

Mike.

 

[sirheck]

Sounds like you have covered just about every thing.

It could be your psu.

 

[Jenny69]

Corsair HX620W

I've seen others with similar problem..

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=17067

 

[sirheck]

Hmm the corsair should be able to handle the gtx just fine.
But ya never know

 

[betunn]

I normally get a small sttutering in BF2 when a new round starts with a new map.

The sttutering was said to be caused by the loading of the map or something like that. It was also said that by the 2nd round with same map it will not happen.

Can't remmeber where I read it nor can say about 2nd round with same map.

Next time I play will try to check on that.

What game are you playing?

Maybe someone has figured it out for that game.

What's the memory on your GPUs. 128? 256? 320? etc.

 

[just2good4u3434]

Try changing the refresh rate on your monitor, and do you experience this problem in any other games?

 

[rawsteel]

What cpu you have. I have noticed that if you have slow cpu sometimes you get shuter or lag although the fps is big. I played UT2004 on max settings with GF6600 GT and old proc and I got terrible lag but over 100 fps all the time.

At what resolution you are playing? Try lowering resolution or turning off foliage (grass etc) if game have lot of it. I am almost sure its something like that (foliage).

 

[eagles453809]

not to be a smartass but have you heard of vsync? over 60+ frames you can get tearing from TOO MANY frames. Vsyc will limit the FPS to the refresh rate of your monitor. hope that helps.

 

[Niglex]

maybe try taking out the xi-fi and see if that does anything. also do you have a virus scanner installed at all? maybe try running adaware and spybot to see if anything is screwy too sometimes a windows install can have some spyware or a virus. Try running an online virus scanner too. hope you figure out whats wrong it really sucks when you go though something like that.

 

[lmimmfn]

I would agree with the above, enable vsync and see if that sorts it, theres no chance theres something running in the background gobbling CPU cycles preventing the CPU from giving new in game location info? im only speculating as there cant be much more to cover

 

[rawsteel]

Are you kidding me. Do you believe the guy/girl with the problem is so lame to not figure out that it is virus or spyware. He/She listed a LONG list of things he/she tried. if you have virus taking CPU then you will not get lot of fps and also you can see that on Task Manager. Dont be lame, if you have no idea what could cause it dont post at all. He/She doesnt need 23234234 lame ideas which he/she already tried

 

[gomerpile]

what is the temps of the gpu, when this happens.

 

[Gh0stDrag0n]

Both systems behave the same way 8O
Are you using the same PSU and/or monitor with both systems?
I have the Corsair HX620W and have had no problems with my 8800GTX. Might be your monitor...what resolution are you using? It really sounds like a vSync problem to me, vSync enabled should reduce image tearing but you will loose some FPS.
Changing your refresh rate in windows shouldn't have any effect on your LCD monitor, LCDs do not refresh. But try 60mhz anyway with triple buffering set on your videocard.

 

[systemlord]

A week ago I downloaded Doom3 benchmark demo from a website (don't remember) so that I could loop it for stability testing. Thats when all hell came loose, It started shuttering very bad right away so I uninstalled it and started play other games and next thing I see is all my fken games started to shutter BAD!. So next I did "System Restore" after that it was all gone, no more shuttering. I think that it screwd up Dx9 or something. Hope this helps!

 

[JustJack]

There is a graphics option (do not know which exactly as I'm at work and cannot check) that you should only set to the highest setting if you have 512Mb or more on you GPU card as it means it uses the largest textures or something like that for better detail/quality. Basically large amounts of data being shifted/used by your GPU.

With the 6800GT , which only has 256Mb, you may get away with it on low resolutions but once you crank it up you will get problems.

However the 8800GTX has 640Mb (if I remember correctly) so this should not be a problem.

If this does turn out to be the cause then it is interesting that the 8800GTX cannot cope either.

 

[Jenny69]

@ Justjack, I tested on lowest settings too.

@ systemlord, Sounds intresting, however timedemos will run like that since they're intensive, thats why u need to run timedemos twice (first time they cache), the test probably hogged alot of your system resources, so it continued to other game. The difference with my problem is fps is at a solid 90 and stuttering, where as I'm guessing your fps was dropping regular.

@ ghostdragon, I use different monitor / psu's.

@ gomerpile, low.

@ Rawsteel,

@ lmimmfn, tried

@ Niglex, no x-fi on pc 2, no spyware / virus

@ eagles, yes, tearing isn't an issue for me.

@ Rawsteel, e6600 @ 2.4 (tried using 2 cores in game, no diff)

@ Just2good, I'm currently testing other games, my current games aren't fast/demading enough to test.

@ betunn, ye BF2 is prone to lag anyway, 768.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, though my quest continues

 

[systemlord]

Thats how it seemed to me, almost like it never stopped running even though it was uninstalled it graphics settings were running together with other games. None the less it scared the crap out of me as I just finish a fresh install of XP Home on my new build. Thats not a good way to start out. I'm a lot more picky on what I download now. I'd still like to help trouble shoot whats going on with everyone else.

 

[systemlord]

Have you checked your AC outlets for voltage spikes? Mine last summer the power went on off on off many time and screwd up all my third party drivers. After that my PC was running two NVidia drivers, two mouse drivers in a loop and now I have my PC set to stay at power off if AC is lost. I can't believe that you have tried everything and have had no luck.

 

[Jenny69]

Have you checked your AC outlets for voltage spikes? Mine last summer the power went on off on off many time and screwd up all my third party drivers. After that my PC was running two NVidia drivers, two mouse drivers in a loop and now I have my PC set to stay at power off if AC is lost. I can't believe that you have tried everything and have had no luck.

You mean, check the actual plug sockets? not yet.

Would a windows reinstall fix it anyway?

 

[systemlord]

Have you checked your AC outlets for voltage spikes? Mine last summer the power went on off on off many time and screwd up all my third party drivers. After that my PC was running two NVidia drivers, two mouse drivers in a loop and now I have my PC set to stay at power off if AC is lost. I can't believe that you have tried everything and have had no luck.

You mean, check the actual plug sockets? not yet.

Would a windows reinstall fix it anyway?

Has you power/ lights been acting funny, thing turning off by themselfs?
It really does sound more like a software problem as you have tried many different hardware changes. If you do reinstall it at least you will have eliminated that as the cause and knowing is better than not knowing. I know its a pain to start over but at least you'll know for sure.

 

[byrddogg77]

Hello Jenny69,
You didn't list your motherboard manufacture and model/BIOS Revision unless I missed it. As far as your other specs you are have everything top notch, however, you are still encountering a issue. I would say it is due to one of two things. Poor programming in Quake 4, or you motherboard is bottlenecking, either voltage or bandwidth on the controller chip. Your shuttering is likey due to delays in disk drive reads but with RAID 0 Stripped drives this isn't even a possibility, so it has to the motherboard controller. Can you try another top of the line Motherboard with a different chip set from a different Manufacture?

Do you have any other friends who do not have this issue? If so, compare your specs, but focus on the motherboard.

 

[elbert]

Heres a guide that lists many reasons for FPS issues.
http://www.tweakguides.com/Quake4_1.html
Not sure if this will help but worth a try.

 

[Jenny69]

Hello Jenny69,
You didn't list your motherboard manufacture and model/BIOS Revision unless I missed it. As far as your other specs you are have everything top notch, however, you are still encountering a issue. I would say it is due to one of two things. Poor programming in Quake 4, or you motherboard is bottlenecking, either voltage or bandwidth on the controller chip. Your shuttering is likey due to delays in disk drive reads but with RAID 0 Stripped drives this isn't even a possibility, so it has to the motherboard controller. Can you try another top of the line Motherboard with a different chip set from a different Manufacture?

Do you have any other friends who do not have this issue? If so, compare your specs, but focus on the motherboard.

EVGA 680i, i flash updated a few times months, i'm a few revisions behind now. Raid 0 is at 32k stripe.

Yes I think its time to start swapping out hardware and reinstalling.

 

[merlin3791]

Jenny why do you have your refresh rate at 75 Hz? Page 7 in the User's Manual of your VX922 monitor says to use 60 Hz which I think is the norm for LCD's.

Might have nothing to do with your problem but I would change it to the manufacter's recommended settings.

Good Luck.