Video card not being fully detected (not providing acceleration)?

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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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For several months now, I've noticed large CPU usage on what should be simple tasks. For example, all I have being displayed right now is Task Manager and a Chrome window, and Chrome is taking half of my CPU (3GHz quad core) just because there's a Flash ad playing above this text box. It's even adding a noticeable processing time for typing this message. Scrolling until the ad is no longer visible reduces the load to 25%, but typing in this text box adds another 25% or so, in a separate process.

If I use Select All in a Notepad file with enough text to require some scrolling, I can actually see the cursor going through the whole file (over a fraction of a second, but still). Toggling word wrap and resizing the window have noticeable processing time, and resizing also causes the text to flicker.

Even the simplest tasks, like moving the cursor around any text field, require inordinate amounts of CPU resources.

I made a short video (18 seconds, <500K) illustrating the problem. In it, I start to rename a folder in Windows Explorer and drag the mouse around. You can see flickering and high CPU usage. Link: http://www.tigerhawkt3.com/videos/problem.avi

I don't know if it's a hardware problem, software problem, power problem, or what, but my best guess is that something is wrong with the hardware acceleration.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3

Video card: XFX FX-777A-ZNF4 Radeon HD 7770 Core Edition

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-750TX

RAM: Gskill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

C drive: Western Digital WD1600AAJS
 
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RaDiKaL_

RaDiKaL_

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Apr 17, 2006
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Make sure you have latest AMD video drivers instead of those that get installed automatically on windows.

Also open the directx menu start->run->dxdiag->Screen: make sure DirectDraw and Direct3D are enabled.

Other than that, it would be good to see if there's any issue in other type of application,the video you posted points to some DirectDraw issue, try a few 3D games to see if you have any issue there.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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I've already tried updating video drivers to no avail. DirectDraw and Direct3D are enabled.

Some games run fine, other games experience slow framerates because they're maxing out a CPU core.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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I checked GPU usage a while ago with the Overdrive section in the CCC. While under low load it throttles the clock down to a few hundred MHz, but under load (moving windows around, playing games, etc.) it goes up to the full 1GHz.
 
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RaDiKaL_

RaDiKaL_

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Yeah I noticed that in the video, still, try changing windows visual effects under control panel->System->advanced settings->performance->settings->Visual Effects

I remember having a similar issue on XP with a flickering effect whenever i moved the mouse, it was a combination of those visual effect settings + the drivers I had.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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I disabled everything and it seemed to make a difference in the speed at which Notepad can Select All, but renaming a file/folder and then dragging the mouse around the name (the exercise in the video) retained its flickering.

And then I reenabled everything and it matched the "everything disabled" performance.

If I notice the problems creeping back up (Notepad, etc.), I'll try disabling/reenabling and see if that produces a similar effect.

Note: I did not try any games while all effects were disabled. Next time I load something up, I'll try disabling the effects first to see if I notice any performance difference in-game.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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Chrome is also having trouble with interactive JavaScript web pages that used to run functions/animations pretty much in real time. Now, however, it's like a slideshow, taking half a second to do something as simple as an image swap, and hogging a whole core if I try to do them repeatedly. Chrome used to handle it just fine, but no longer does. Strangely, Firefox can still handle it perfectly.

Perhaps it's some conflict with acceleration settings or something?
 
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RaDiKaL_

RaDiKaL_

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Apr 17, 2006
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maybe, as you mention it I remember I used to have that same problem with Chrome in an XP machine, however it was a bug reported and was fixed on a chrome update...

There's also the chance of a corrupted java installation, you could try reinstalling it (and adobe flash player too) to see if there's any improvement, at least for the web-browser issues.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Feb 22, 2014
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Small update: I haven't solved the issue, and it's manifesting itself in more applications.

I just got Intrusion 2 - a basic side-scrolling platformer - and it's unplayable. Any time the game needs to animate a bridge, or a rope, or some boxes, it starts lagging. I often have to wait a second or two for it to catch up, which kind of makes it impossible to aim at enemies. I'm monitoring the standard XP Task Manager, AnVir Task Manager, the CCC, and the tower's HDD activity light while I play, and I don't see anything different during the lag. It's always using a lot of CPU but only about 20% of the GPU, and HDDs aren't being accessed.

EDIT: I tried the fix from http://steamcommunity.com/app/214970/discussions/0/828925849130208744/ without success.
 
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