Micro freezes in games

semichaud1

Honorable
Aug 4, 2013
132
0
10,680
My system:

GPU: HD 7870 (brand new)
CPU: fx6100 (brand new)
Motherboard: GA-78LMT-S2P (brand new)
ram: 8 gb ddr3 (brand new)
hdd: samsung hd103sj ata

Got latest drivers update for the entirety of every single program and feature on that PC including windows. Don't tell me it's a driver issue.

This has occured on previous systems I assembled in the past notably. So don't ask me to RMA any component or card. They are not causing the problem.

Problem occurs despite having my windows power options set to high performance and visual settings disabled and set to performance, and having all services off at start up except microsoft services. also have all startup programs off except for catalyst.

The problem is as follows and occurs in every game i play. Whenever the game comes to a point where it needs to load from the HDD, for example streaming bad guys or new areas in an fps or rpg game, the game freezes completely for a fragment of a second. The framerate in those games are always at 60 fps except for when the microfreeze happens then the framerate drops to 0 then goes back to 60 fps straight away again after less than a second. this seems to occur whenever the game needs to load something from the hdd. Have tried 3 different hdds and same problem occur. for same games reducing graphics settings relating to draw distance fixes the problem to some extent. for others even the lowest possible settings and resolution does not solve the microfreezing (this is especially true in arkham city). and also why is it that every time i pick up a riddler question mark on the map in the city or break a camera with a battarang the game microfreezes as if accessing the hdd.

My build should be able to run these games on very high settings at the least. but settings are irrelevant since the microfreezing still occurs despite all graphics settings being set to the lowest possible and disabled if possible and the resoiution being set to 800x600. Some games like mass effect 2, dead space 3 and metro last light run perfectly without a single microfreeze stuttering or even a hint of it.

have been trying to fix this problem since 2009. if you can give me the solution to this there is no word that can qualify how good your PC skills are.

i bet you all though that you will never find a solution to this microfreezing.
 
Solution
Well, fixing the problem requires more than merely a faster permanent storage medium. Being able to fully utilize any particular storage medium without sacrificing the ability to fully utilize the rest of the system would be a nice solution. As it stands, you can't really read from or write to a hard disk without it impacting the rest of the system more than it should. When engineers get that sorted, I think you'll be well on your way to where you want to be. In the mean time, best we can do is minimize the effects.
Doesn't sound like anything is necessarily broken at all. Sounds to me like the normal stutter experienced when the system is waiting on data to be shuffled around so that it can render new scenes.

Have you ever looked at the latencies in your system, to see if something in particular is being overly hoggish of system time?

I recommend a program such as Latency Monitor:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

There is a free for home use version available on their site if you look. I also would add the caveat that I recommend this program over the seemingly more popular program, DPC Latency Checker, as that tool does not yet work correctly under Windows 8 despite it's appearance to run correctly.

Once you determine the source of your annoying lag spikes, all you can really do is seek to minimize them. I doubt it's possible to eliminate them altogether.

The easiest fix I can think of is to upgrade the disk that the game data is being loaded from to an SSD. The latency difference between a spinning platter storage medium and a flash based alternative is pretty significant.
 

semichaud1

Honorable
Aug 4, 2013
132
0
10,680


thanks for the reply. i was thinking of buying a ssd tomorrow after work but i think the problem is that the gpu, cpu and ram seem to be operating at a speed at which the hdd can't keep up with. whenever i have upgraded to more powerful gpus or cpus the microfreeze has been worse. switching to a ssd will just minimize that. what needs to happen is one or both of two things: game developers taking into account the fact that today's hdds are not fast enough to run their games on high recommended settings for powerful gpus (just because a gpu can handle a game on very high/ultra settings does not mean the hdd will keep up with textures and polygon load ups), and someone needs to invent hdds that are more and more powerful and fast just as amd and nvidia do with gpus.

that said a ssd is around £200 in pc world, here and i am reluctant to spend more than half my weekly wage on something that might not fix the problem.
 
Well, fixing the problem requires more than merely a faster permanent storage medium. Being able to fully utilize any particular storage medium without sacrificing the ability to fully utilize the rest of the system would be a nice solution. As it stands, you can't really read from or write to a hard disk without it impacting the rest of the system more than it should. When engineers get that sorted, I think you'll be well on your way to where you want to be. In the mean time, best we can do is minimize the effects.
 
Solution