Why are my games stuttering every second?

[smeezekitty]

Recently my games including Rigs of Rods, Neverball, Minecraft and The Sims 2 are all stuttering rhythmically every one second.

The effect is very noticeable like the whole scene jumps several frames ahead for some reason.

I don't know what changed because they all used to run silky smooth. I am still getting solid 60FPS with VSYNC on although every stutter FRAPS reports it dropping to 56-59FPS.

My specs (don't laugh):

Core 2 Duo E6700
Asrock G41M-S3
4 GB Mushkin DDR3 RAM
XFX AMD Radeon 6670
Windows Vista 32 bit Home basic

MSI afterburner does not seem to show anything unusual.

Any help would be appreciated thanks.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

This may give a clue

http://techreport.com/review/23981/radeon-hd-7950-vs-geforce-gtx-660-ti-revisited/11

Instead, the Radeon's performance was hampered by delays in frame delivery across a number of games. Our first instinct upon seeing these results was to wonder if we hadn't somehow misconfigured our test systems or had some sort of failing hardware. We test Nvidia and AMD GPUs on separate but identical systems, so to confirm our numbers, we switched the cards between the systems and re-tested. The Radeons still exhibited the same patterns of frame latency, with no meaningful change in the results.

Hopefully, AMD gets this fixed in the rumored July 31 driver release

 

[smeezekitty]

I am absolutely certain this wasn't occurring 1-2 weeks ago.
Not minor frame latency variances but rather a very regular and very noticeable jerk.

 

[sourodip]

tried the latest driver's from amd(13.6) and ur cpu and gpu are not that powerful, so u cannot expect your games always stick to 60fps.
what psu do u have?

 

[smeezekitty]

But these games aren't very heavy.
My PSU is a corsair CX430. I will try the newer drivers tomorrow if I cannot fix this otherwise.

All of them run at 60 FPS except rigs of rods which takes a bit more GPU/CPU but the framerates are still good.

 

[sourodip]

yeah, these games aren't that heavy. But still update ur drivers

 

[smeezekitty]

Thanks for the replies. I will keep you posted but in the mean time any other ideas are welcome.

 

[sourodip]

are u using vista?what psu do u have?
It would be better if u upgrade to windows 7 64-bit

 

[smeezekitty]

are u using vista?what psu do u have?
It would be better if u upgrade to windows 7 64-bit

Yes using Vista. PSU is a Corsair CX430.
Upgrading Windows is not in the budget at this time.

 

[sourodip]

yup, everything is fine,update ur drivers and keep updating

 

[smeezekitty]

I found the problem!
A few days ago I installed F.lux to change the color temp of the screen at night.

It causes a huge stutter every second. Uninstalled and everything is butter smooth.

 

[sourodip]

change the color temp while at night by decreasing the brightness of ur monitor, it would be much easier and stutter free
Glad u solved it

 

[sourodip]

i'm picking ur own answer as the solution bro as u solved it

 

[smeezekitty]

Thanks

 

[Mr_StarDelta]

Do you still have the PC? Because upgrading to Windows 7 would be great in helping your performance as Vista is just laggy and slow. You can get Windows 7 for $110 from stores or cheaper if there is a sale.

 

[smeezekitty]

Do you still have the PC? Because upgrading to Windows 7 would be great in helping your performance as Vista is just laggy and slow. You can get Windows 7 for $110 from stores or cheaper if there is a sale.

Yeah still have it
I know I have a laptop with 7 and I like it alot. I have considered it but I am not so sure.

 

[Motorider71]

Glad it fixed it for you. I was having the same issue though and this is not the solution for me. I did however just figure it out (after a frustrating year of "dealing with it"). I have an x58 chipset motherboard and in my case, the northbridge was running hot (75 degrees celcius). The problem was fixed after replacing the thermal paste on the heat spreaders and adding a fan I robbed from an old video card, now it runs much cooler (55 Degrees Celcius) and now it works fine! FINALLY! All other hardware is well below operating temperature, but that northbridge was running hot.

Specs:
MSI x58 Pro-e Motherboard
Core i7 950 (LGA 1366) 3.2 Ghz
3x2gb Kingston Hyper X DDR3 @ 1600 mhz
MSI GeForce GTX 760 2gb
Creative Labs Soundblaster FX
Ultra LSP750V2 PSU
Kingston SSD now 64 GB SSD
3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDDs (Program files/User files/ Movies)

 

[smeezekitty]

Glad it fixed it for you. I was having the same issue though and this is not the solution for me. I did however just figure it out (after a frustrating year of "dealing with it"). I have an x58 chipset motherboard and in my case, the northbridge was running hot (75 degrees celcius). The problem was fixed after replacing the thermal paste on the heat spreaders and adding a fan I robbed from an old video card, now it runs much cooler (55 Degrees Celcius) and now it works fine! FINALLY! All other hardware is well below operating temperature, but that northbridge was running hot.

Specs:
MSI x58 Pro-e Motherboard
Core i7 950 (LGA 1366) 3.2 Ghz
3x2gb Kingston Hyper X DDR3 @ 1600 mhz
MSI GeForce GTX 760 2gb
Creative Labs Soundblaster FX
Ultra LSP750V2 PSU
Kingston SSD now 64 GB SSD
3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDDs (Program files/User files/ Movies)

Glad you fixed it. The biggest cause of northbridge heating problems would probably be the type of
CPU cooler used. The NB cooler relies on the air through the CPU fan to keep it cool
but many aftermarket coolers do not provide sufficient airflow

Wish I had 3 TB!