Stuttering in Crysis - Help me figure out what's wrong

[Selakah]

Hello,

Here's my rig for reference:

Processor: Intel i7 920 OC'd to 3.8 Ghz
Processor Heatsink: Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283V
GPU: Diamond ATI Radeon HD 5870 @ 900Mhz/1280Mhz
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator Triple Channel DDR3 Kit CMT6GX3M3A1600C6
PSU: Corsair HX1000W
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200RPM WD2001FASS
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred
Display Resolution: 1680x1050

Motherboard is updated to the latest BIOS, and all GPU, audio and motherboard drivers are up to date as well as all Windows 7 updates. I recently tried a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 too. As far as temperatures go, the highest one of my cores has gone while playing Crysis is 58C, and they usually peak at around 68-69C on Prime95. I've got the GPU fan set up manually to 70% when I game and the card doesn't get much hotter than 60C.


Problem:

One thing I've noticed when I play wide-open sandbox games is a little bit of stutter or very short pauses in the game flow as I move around. I've seen this happen in Fallout 3, it's very rare but happens nonetheless. I figure it has to do with the game loading the areas as I go around. For the most part, I've never payed much attention to this cause I figured it's a normal thing.

I decided to check out Crysis a week ago and I've had a great time with the game, it runs great with every setting on High, etc. I've noticed something very annoying with Crysis though: the stuttering I've seen in very rare occasions in other games (such as the Fallout 3 example above) is EVERYWHERE in Crysis. Walk 50 feet in one direction, slight stutter. Turn around and go back, slight stutter. The stuttering was especially annoying during the ending sequence while fighting the last boss: ducking behind some crates for cover and popping out to fire some shots at the boss would cause the small stutter to happen, as if the game was scrambling to re-load the textures/etc. for the boss.

After reading around a bit, I've come to the conclusion that it must be an issue with my setup and not with Crysis itself, as there seem to be many people around that can enjoy the game with no stuttering with other setups. I've seen people blame the Crysis stuttering issues on things like: 1) Windows 7 itself; 2) Video card running out of RAM; 3) Too many monitoring applications accessing VRAM and thus slowing down the game; 4) Slow HDD; 5) Too many background applications/processes running; 6) Page-filing going on during games; etc.

It would be awesome if you guys could help me out figure what's going on that's causing the stuttering in the game. Thanks in advance!

 

[Jimmy22]

Have you considered the effect of your sound devices? Sometimes that can have a lot of adverse effects on your game, try disable and run your game. May help.

 

[gamerk316]

Its Crysis; not exactly the most optimized game on the planet...

 

[Tamz_msc]

Hello,

Here's my rig for reference:

Processor: Intel i7 920 OC'd to 3.8 Ghz
Processor Heatsink: Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283V
GPU: Diamond ATI Radeon HD 5870 @ 900Mhz/1280Mhz
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
RAM: 6GB Corsair Dominator Triple Channel DDR3 Kit CMT6GX3M3A1600C6
PSU: Corsair HX1000W
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200RPM WD2001FASS
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred
Display Resolution: 1680x1050

Motherboard is updated to the latest BIOS, and all GPU, audio and motherboard drivers are up to date as well as all Windows 7 updates. I recently tried a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 too. As far as temperatures go, the highest one of my cores has gone while playing Crysis is 58C, and they usually peak at around 68-69C on Prime95. I've got the GPU fan set up manually to 70% when I game and the card doesn't get much hotter than 60C.


Problem:

One thing I've noticed when I play wide-open sandbox games is a little bit of stutter or very short pauses in the game flow as I move around. I've seen this happen in Fallout 3, it's very rare but happens nonetheless. I figure it has to do with the game loading the areas as I go around. For the most part, I've never payed much attention to this cause I figured it's a normal thing.

I decided to check out Crysis a week ago and I've had a great time with the game, it runs great with every setting on High, etc. I've noticed something very annoying with Crysis though: the stuttering I've seen in very rare occasions in other games (such as the Fallout 3 example above) is EVERYWHERE in Crysis. Walk 50 feet in one direction, slight stutter. Turn around and go back, slight stutter. The stuttering was especially annoying during the ending sequence while fighting the last boss: ducking behind some crates for cover and popping out to fire some shots at the boss would cause the small stutter to happen, as if the game was scrambling to re-load the textures/etc. for the boss.

After reading around a bit, I've come to the conclusion that it must be an issue with my setup and not with Crysis itself, as there seem to be many people around that can enjoy the game with no stuttering with other setups. I've seen people blame the Crysis stuttering issues on things like: 1) Windows 7 itself; 2) Video card running out of RAM; 3) Too many monitoring applications accessing VRAM and thus slowing down the game; 4) Slow HDD; 5) Too many background applications/processes running; 6) Page-filing going on during games; etc.

It would be awesome if you guys could help me out figure what's going on that's causing the stuttering in the game. Thanks in advance!

Your graphics card is overclocked, so I would recommend that you try at default clocks.This problem that you have mentioned is common, but not to the extent that you are facing.I've noticed that this happens especially when switching from a scene where there is not much to render(like the sky or the ground) to a scene where there are a lot of objects and details(like dense foliage).So try running at lower graphics settings, trying each setting out at a lower level while keeping the others constant.If you notice that everything's fine then the setting that you changed last is the culprit(I believe that the problem lies with texture settings).When you've identified the problem you should update Crysis to a newer version.

 

[Selakah]

Your graphics card is overclocked, so I would recommend that you try at default clocks.This problem that you have mentioned is common, but not to the extent that you are facing.I've noticed that this happens especially when switching from a scene where there is not much to render(like the sky or the ground) to a scene where there are a lot of objects and details(like dense foliage).So try running at lower graphics settings, trying each setting out at a lower level while keeping the others constant.If you notice that everything's fine then the setting that you changed last is the culprit(I believe that the problem lies with texture settings).When you've identified the problem you should update Crysis to a newer version.

I set the clocks on my video card to their stock values and the stuttering seemed to have gone away, but it eventually came back. I just did a full second playthrough in Delta difficulty and I noticed that the stuttering was mostly absent during the first 40% or so of the game. It was still there, but it was very rare. Once I got to the mission where you have to blow up the AAA's (the one that leads up to the harbor), the stuttering kicked back in full force, gradually getting worse and worse as I neared the end of the game.

 

[Tamz_msc]

I have faced such a problem in Far Cry 2.I suggest that you run Crysis without any background applications running - especially any software that is graphics related like GPU-Z or FRAPS.Then try to lower some details and test whether stuttering persists.If at some stage the stuttering goes away completely, then you can be sure that the problem is with Crysis and you should update to a newer version.Otherwise try to bring your CPU to default speeds as well as your RAM to stock timings(if you've changed them) and do the same all over again.In either case I would strongly recommend to update to a new version of Crysis.Best of luck!!

 

[Selakah]

I have faced such a problem in Far Cry 2.I suggest that you run Crysis without any background applications running - especially any software that is graphics related like GPU-Z or FRAPS.Then try to lower some details and test whether stuttering persists.If at some stage the stuttering goes away completely, then you can be sure that the problem is with Crysis and you should update to a newer version.Otherwise try to bring your CPU to default speeds as well as your RAM to stock timings(if you've changed them) and do the same all over again.In either case I would strongly recommend to update to a new version of Crysis.Best of luck!!

I got the Steam version of Crysis, so it's automatically updated to the latest version.

I did a little bit more testing. I was playing Crysis Warhead and found myself in an area where I get tons of stuttering. When you and O'neill are driving in those vehicles, at some point you have to cross through a KPA camp and one of those helicopters show up as well as plenty of KPA vehicles. Right as I open fire on the KPA vehicles, I get TONS of stuttering. I can replicate this any time I want by loading that save. The best part is first I tried it with every setting set at Gamer, then I set every graphical setting to the absolute lowest minimum and I was STILL getting horrible stutter. I think this rules out graphical settings as the cause.

I also went ahead and reset my processor's clocks back to stock values. The stuttering is still there. This pretty much rules out 1) CPU overclock, 2) GPU overlock and 3) Graphical settings as the cause of the stutter.

 

[Tamz_msc]

Does the stuttering occur randomly or in certain locations or points of time?(for example a few seconds after the game has loaded)Have you monitored the HDD activity when the stuttering occurs?If that's the case then its probably due to some background applications.Disabling any unwanted applications (including anti-virus) may help.You could also try reinstalling Crysis or running it in XP mode.It may help.