Frame stuttering/skipping in 2D High res indie games only. What's going on?

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NShukla

NShukla

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Jan 13, 2010
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So I've been googling all over the place, and I've found a lot of solutions to frame stuttering in 3D games. 3D games run smooth as butter, but I've noticed a short skipping effect in games such as Don't Starve and Guacamelee, titles that run at 60fps with a high res 2D art style. It's as if the game is dropping frames.

I've tried everything in the book, re-installing graphics drivers, playing with v-sync and triple buffering, refresh rate, etc. Even tried underclocking and overclocking my GPU/CPU, reducing polling rate on mouse, nothing works.

This happens in EVERY 2D high res indie game, but 3D games are fine. What's going on here?

Specs:
-Haswell Core i5
-Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 OC Edition
-Windows 8.1
-8gb HyperX RAM
-Samsung EVO 256GB SSD
 
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NShukla

NShukla

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I just tried testing the game on a different monitor. Same issue. Tested it on a different pc with the same monitor, no issue. This rules out both the monitor and the game as the problem
 
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NShukla

NShukla

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Okay check this out: I actually run a hackintosh on a separate SSD. I tested Don't Starve for Mac on OS X and the frame skipping behaviour is still there. This rules out the problem with Windows.

So it's not Windows, the game, or the monitor.

Another theory: could it be that my since my graphics card is a Sapphire "OC edition", perhaps it's a problem with the clock speeds? Unfortunately I don't have a separate graphics card to test this out.
 
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NShukla

NShukla

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Hmm I'll try it out, but I think I just ruled out my graphics card: I took it out of the case, and used my Core i5's integrated graphics to run the game. The frame stutter was still there! It would be a coincidence to have the same problem on both the CPU's graphics and my graphics card.

So not Windows, not the game, not the monitor, not the graphics card. Could it be the CPU or RAM?

BTW, thanks again for the suggestions, much appreciated.
 
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Dazinek

Dazinek

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More likely you have something set on the CPU that is messing with things... Look around your CPU settings..

Also look in your bios and see what your RAM frequency is set at. Mobo's like to set the ram below what they are rated for(You buy a 1600 ram stick, mobo clocks it at 1333). If it is like that, bump it up to whatever you feel.

Last note, update your bios and check into your chipset driver.

Intel Driver: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect?iid=dc_iduu
 
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mountainmohawk

mountainmohawk

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Any updates or improvements?

I have the same issue it seems. 2d games like Ittle Dew and Secrets of Raetikon have what appears to be microstutter/frameskip. The only 3D game I notice that is Far-Cry 4 and that's just a notoriously bad port.

My specs are:
-4790k
-GTX t80 ti
-windows 8.1
-16 gb RAM
 
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Y

yopadato

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Feb 9, 2015
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Same issue with Guacamelee STCE on a laptop with a Geforce 765M GPU, it happens with Aquaria too ! If choose to launch the game using integrated GPU (Intel HD 4600), the game runs smooth at 60fps. So yeah, I can play the game, but I really wanna know why the most powerful GPU in my laptop can't run a f*****g 2D game without this annoying stuttering issue.

I've also tried everything in the nvidia control panel, but no success so far...

If I select windowed mode in game options, no stuttering anymore, wtf ?!
 
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A

AnythingButTangerines

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Feb 20, 2015
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I've noticed this issue on Windows 8.1 and it is very frustrating. Framerate looks like it drops, FPS counters stay the same. Games such as Lethal League, Chariot and Secrets of Raetikon, like to drop down to what looks like 30FPS~ but without the frame counter actually dropping for a second or two.

If a game is exclusive fullscreen I won't get this issue, but if it's "fullscreen"/borderless windowed and a 2D game, it'll always show microstuttering. On my girlfriend's PC which is running Windows 7 and the same games, it does not exhibit this behaviour with Aero switched off also on a multi monitor setup, so I'm inclined to think it is completely down to Windows 8.1. Before anyone goes to investigate 8.1 and switching off DWM (Windows 8's equivalent of aero), all it does is give horrible screen tearing instead of the stutter (or sometimes with the stutter added on top!) and mess with other applications, so it's entirely not worth it. :p

If I run the game on my 144hz monitor the stuttering is nowhere near as noticeable, but if I run it on my 60hz HDTV, it is atrocious. I run multiple monitors, but using only 1 doesn't seem to make any difference. I have tried practically everything I can think of.

tl;dr: It's probably an issue with Windows 8.1! Which is a shame, since I really like the improvements it brought to my firestrike benches. Ah well.

Specs:
3930k 4.3GHz
16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL7
2x GTX980 OC
********WINDOWS 8.1*********


@yopadato, are you also running Windows 8.1?


Edit:
Today I did a full wipe and put 7 Ultimate back on my system. Everything is perfect with no stuttering, go figure!
 
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