Do I have OCD or is there something wrong?

[Gixbit]

So, Maybe this is the wrong place to post this and maybe it's not but it's still about gaming so. Technically I guess it could go here!

So, I've noticed on my older computer and my new computer now that I've been getting this... graphical glitch. I assume it's the monitor itself as it is a pretty big piece of crap.

Okay so, Basically, In Doom 3 I can maintain 60fps. In Half-Life 2 I maintain 60+. The question is, pretty interesting really. I'll be getting say 200FPS and I'll be walking sideways and I start to obsess because I get the same effect in doom 3 only far more noticeable in Doom 3. Okay I digress, I'll be getting 200FPS and I notice these 'skips'. I've tried this on 2 video cards. An HD4870 X2 and an X800XL. Both have produced the same effect. I think.

So, 200Frames per second, Skipping (Not freezing), framerate stays the same during the skips and they happen every second. They don't feel like freezing or game glitches. I think it's the monitor itself. To describe it accurately, It's a choppy sort of effect that seems like the character is jumping ahead as you move forward or sideways including objects themselves as you stand still and they move. Is this normal for a crapola monitor or do I have OCD or dread I ask the third one, Is something in my computer faulty? Or is this normal for some games.

Has anyone else noticed this? All I can say is this thing is 16ms response time and that is pretty slow but, is that even related?

 

[ac3144]

Ha! The sign of a true gamer; he would rather have a mental illness himself than have anything wrong with his machine. Respect to you, I feel your pain!

AC

Sorry, no idea what's going on:|

 

[Gixbit]

Hahaha

Not exactly helpful but, My cousin might agree with you there.

 

[Gixbit]

I think it actually might be the coding of the game. Like, I noticed it in Doom 3 and Quake 4 (both ID games). I've noticed it Trine and I haven't noticed it in other games like Crysis, Farcry 2, Prince of Persia (2008), Etc.

 

[Dekasav]

Hmmmm, is it screen tearing? Enable V-Sync, see if anything happens.

 

[Gixbit]

Trust me, That does nothing . All that does is get rid of the tearing which is normal for a crappy monitor or more monitors come to think of it.

Okay but, It still happens with or without VSync xD. I'm not crazy it really does happen.

 

[akara083]

Wow i thought i was the only person that would notice something like this. I have the same issues! Games run at high FPS but theres that sudden chop every now and then. Plus it only happens with certain games, and it drives me nuts! I even have a 5ms response time monitor, but i dunno if the choppiness and ghosting are related.

Sometimes when I turn down the settings of the game the framerate skip is less noticeable, but its still there. I'm gonna have to agree with you that the games coding might be flawed. I mean sometimes PC ports are just plain garbage (GTA IV).

Also, just a thought the skips usually happen with games that are more CPU intensive (for me atleast). I have an E8400 @ 3.0GHz (for now), and im thinking it might not be enough to run some games MAXED out without that skipping. I also have an HD 4890 (960/1080). So the skips are not hardware related.

 

[Snow_Patrol]

I've noticed the effect you are describing. The problem stems from a mismatch with the framerate and the monitor. At 60fps on a monitor running at 60Hz, things are as smooth as silk. At that point, your monitor's response time won't matter much because its running at a 1:1 ratio.

Now, your games are running at 200fps+, and you're still on a monitor that's running at 60Hz with a refresh rate of 16ms. Your ratio is way out, and your monitor can't keep up and drops frames during the render process. If you're running on a D-SUB connector this further complicates the problem and slows things down. The refresh rate helps, but not by much.

I had a friend who suffered from this and I reproduced the problem with Quake 2 at 1000fps and NFSU2 at 200fps with an older monitor. With a newer one on a DVI connection with 5ms response time, the problem was much less noticeable. Changing the graphics card to a less powerful one also helped this.

So, this is what happens when you play older games on much more powerful systems - it runs way too fast and ends up tripping over itself every now and then.

 

[akara083]

So your saying that the computer is TOO fast? I never would have thought that lol. Ill give you an example of a new game, ANNO 1404. I have all the settings on high (all maxed except for AA) and using a 1920 X 1080 resolution. Now the game runs smooth as silk, but when i move the camera ill get small skips in frames (exactly the same as Gixbit describes). Do you have any idea what might be causing this? I can provide my hardware setup if needed.

 

[Snow_Patrol]

So your saying that the computer is TOO fast? I never would have thought that lol. Ill give you an example of a new game, ANNO 1404. I have all the settings on high (all maxed except for AA) and using a 1920 X 1080 resolution. Now the game runs smooth as silk, but when i move the camera ill get small skips in frames (exactly the same as Gixbit describes). Do you have any idea what might be causing this? I can provide my hardware setup if needed.

Well, I'll obviously need more info than just the screen res and settings, but I'll assume you're running a decently-specced PC.

With newer games, the problem becomes more and more tricky to solve. These days its a problem with the game code than anything else - while playing Assassin's Creed on the PS3 I get the effect you describe that only occurs when the camera angle is moved. Perhaps at this point, especially with newer games, the code isn't optimized properly for any given system, and some will have the lagging and tearing problems while others wont.

Its annoying, I know. I guess with the games these days running at these crazy settings with a bajillion pixels on the screen, it creates a ton of information that must be used to render objects on the screen, and sometimes its way too much information and things start to slow down. Are you running a graphics card with more than 512MB memory? It could be that the camera angle changes introduce more information that chews the GPU's memory and forces it to work with the slower system RAM or even the pagefile, depending on how the code handles this kind of thing.

Also, on the subject of optimization, your game is guaranteed to run differently with a different processor or graphics card. Most of the optimization happens on rigs with Nvidia cards and Intel chips these days, hence the reason why the first Crysis always runs better on Nvidia/Intel hardware. The opposite is true of Far Cry 2, F.E.A.R 1+2, and GTA4 which runs so much quicker with an ATi card or AMD processor. Various things like how water effects and explosions and even camera changes are handled are affected by what hardware you are running, so you may find that running the game on a nearly identical system with a different graphics card (or whatever) won't have the same problem.

 

[overshocks]

If you are playing these games online it could be the internet connection problem, latency, ping..etc . You need to provide way more info and details man, your question will be much easier to solve.

Also if it isn't online play, then get a new LCD monitor that's about 5ms and keep the refresh rate at 60hz-70hz depending how your monitor will support it.

 

[akara083]

If you are playing these games online it could be the internet connection problem, latency, ping..etc . You need to provide way more info and details man, your question will be much easier to solve.

Also if it isn't online play, then get a new LCD monitor that's about 5ms and keep the refresh rate at 60hz-70hz depending how your monitor will support it.

ANNO 1404 isnt an online game (sadly),but if it was I think my rogers highspeed could handle it easily. I do have a 5ms response time monitor (LG W2343) and also as stated in a previous post I do have a fairly new PC.

my specs are:
Intel E8400 @3.8GHz
ASUS P5Q pro mobo
Corsair XMS2 4Gb @1066mhz
Noctua nh-u12p
XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB @ (960/1080)
PC Power &Cooling Silencer 610W
LG W2343T-PF 1920X1080 1080P Black LCD 5ms

So I'm thinking Snow_Patrol nailed it with the different hardware/software optimization. I guess I just have to live with it, but its really not that bad, and the game is very playable seeing that its only a minor thing. I'm gonna try and put all the settings and resolution on low and see if the problem goes away.

 

[Gixbit]

Still, nothing really solid. Internet connection has nothing to do with my problems as these are all single player games.

 

[Guest]

The answer to "why" you're getting this issue is still plague-ing me too.
If known, please tell....

BUT the workaround-solution for Doom and similar games is this:

try to google for com_preciseTic and/or com_fixedTic

in summary:
go into your console using alt+ctrl+` (the tilde or ¬ character on keyboard)

and change one or both of those settings as follows (I found that com_fixedTic worked okay alone)

seta com_fixedTic "1"

seta com_preciseTic "1"

other games like oblivion and stuff have other settings from console or in the files that can limit the game frame-rate-tic frequency that can also fix the problem in those games.

 

[Guest]

tried to edit post, wouldnt let me, so re-answering own post...

On the "why" question, I am beginning to suspect either XP x64 or the processor itself is causing a blockage someplace (cache?) between the various cores on this quad processor, therefore leading to this "hitching" behaviour.
Cant seem to find a fix for that tho...

 

[Gixbit]

I doubt that's the issue or it would probably be a little bit more of an issue for not just gaming.