Stuttering During Games

[rjkucia]

I have a problem where, in pretty much all of my games, when I raise the settings there is noticeable stuttering. Framerate and latency are otherwise fine. The game is playable, but the stuttering is annoying nonetheless. I didn't even really think anything of it until I got my laptop and gamed on that. On there, despite the lower overall framerate, games still play more smoothly. Problem notably occurs in CS:S, TF2, Boarderlands, Fallout 3/New Vegas. This problem has continued to occur despite switching out the GPU, RAM, HDD, cooling, and OS (pretty much all components except CPU and mobo). I have Win7 Home, C2D E8400 @3.6GHz, 4GB DDR2-800 RAM, Asus P5Q-SE2 mobo, Radeon 5850 graphics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rjkucia]

Right now I'm going to switch out the HDD and quickly reinstall Win7 and see if that makes a difference. I've done that before and didn't notice anything, but I'll try again.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Well I looked up your mobo because since you have tried everything else, its either that or the CPU. Maybe.

From what I can see your mobo doe have a few electolytic capacitors. Check them to see if any of them are bulging. If so then the mobo is pretty much done for.

I would also check all your voltages, CPU and RAM and also memory timings. Make sure they are set to spec. In CSS/TF2 you shouldn't be having much in issues. They are built on Source and that engine will run on most hardware.

If you have access to another CPU, you can try using it to test. But I feel it could be memory or mobo too. Try running Memtest 86+ 4.20 for 12 hours and at least 8 passes. Some of the tests are random and may not fail until they find the right sequence which there are a lot of.

 

[jdwii]

I have a problem where, in pretty much all of my games, when I raise the settings there is noticeable stuttering. Framerate and latency are otherwise fine. The game is playable, but the stuttering is annoying nonetheless. I didn't even really think anything of it until I got my laptop and gamed on that. On there, despite the lower overall framerate, games still play more smoothly. Problem notably occurs in CS:S, TF2, Boarderlands, Fallout 3/New Vegas. This problem has continued to occur despite switching out the GPU, RAM, HDD, cooling, and OS (pretty much all components except CPU and mobo). I have Win7 Home, C2D E8400 @3.6GHz, 4GB DDR2-800 RAM, Asus P5Q-SE2 mobo, Radeon 5850 graphics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey do you have Vsync on. ?

 

[rjkucia]

I was going to ask/suggest that, let me know what happens.

I tried it, but it didn't help. Fortunately I put it on a separate hard drive, so I have both my original installation on one and this fresh one on another, in case I need it again.

 

[rjkucia]

Well I looked up your mobo because since you have tried everything else, its either that or the CPU. Maybe.

From what I can see your mobo doe have a few electolytic capacitors. Check them to see if any of them are bulging. If so then the mobo is pretty much done for.

I would also check all your voltages, CPU and RAM and also memory timings. Make sure they are set to spec. In CSS/TF2 you shouldn't be having much in issues. They are built on Source and that engine will run on most hardware.

If you have access to another CPU, you can try using it to test. But I feel it could be memory or mobo too. Try running Memtest 86+ 4.20 for 12 hours and at least 8 passes. Some of the tests are random and may not fail until they find the right sequence which there are a lot of.

The only other LGA 775 CPU I have available is a Pentium D; I suppose I could try that, but it's rather old so I don't know what would happen. I will check the capacitors next time I open up my PC, however since I've had this problem the whole life of the mobo (2.5 years) I wouldn't expect that to be it. I will double check my voltages and timings, but I have not touched them so they should still be at defaults. I could run Memtest86+ tomorrow, but even then I doubt it's a memory problem since I switched out the RAM and continued to have the problem. Do any of you guys know a good way to record a video, so that I can show you guys exactly what I'm talking about?

 

[rjkucia]

Hey do you have Vsync on. ?

The problem occurs when Vsync is both off and on, although I believe I have noticed it less when it is off.

 

[khubani]

Maybe it's a driver issue.

 

[jdwii]

Has it always done this. If so it could be your card is getting weird voltage or somthing meaning its getting close to going out. This happen to my firend recently. Also have you updated all your drivers.

 

[rjkucia]

Definitely not a driver/GPU issue, the same problem occurs with my 9800GT. This is partially why I got the 5850, I thought it might help with this.

 

[Gman450]

Stuttering might be an issue of overheating.
Did you check your temps ?
Check your GPU and CPU temps with HWMonitor.

 

[rjkucia]

Since the problem occurred with both GPUs, I ran Prime95 for a bit and got the following max temps:
CPUTIN: 56C
Core 0: 44C
Core 1: 48C

My cooler is a CM Hyper 212+, and the problem also occurred on the stock Intel cooler. The only thing I could think of would be to reapply the thermal paste, but I don't think the temps are that high anyways. Room temp is around 19C, in case you were wondering.

 

[rjkucia]

Correct, but overclocking didn't make a major difference, maybe a minor one, but I don't have any objective evidence to support it. I have a single Acer X223w, 23", 1680x1050. This is also one of the few components I haven't yet replaced during the life of my computer, so maybe there's a problem with processing the DVI input? I really don't know if that makes any sense lol

 

[jdwii]

Correct, but overclocking didn't make a major difference, maybe a minor one, but I don't have any objective evidence to support it. I have a single Acer X223w, 23", 1680x1050. This is also one of the few components I haven't yet replaced during the life of my computer, so maybe there's a problem with processing the DVI input? I really don't know if that makes any sense lol

Get the newest bios for your board also go into the bios and make sure VOLTAGE to your cpu is the stock or more. CPU might not be getting the right amonunt of voltage or just slightly under.

Also maybe your CPU is just kinda weak i notice slight shuttering on my Athlon II X4 OC 3.25GHz

 

[FlintIronStagg]

what ram/HDD are you using?

 

[jdwii]

I'm pretty sure its FPS jumping and this can be do to a strong GPU but weaker cpu. CPU cant keep up. that's why its less noticeable when you overclock.

 

[Gman450]

I've seen mousemonkey use his SLi GTX 560 Ti's on an E8600 @ 3.6 GHz. There wasn't any sort of bottleneck whatsoever.
But you've got an E8400. Maybe an upgrade in the CPU can help you.

 

[Gman450]

I know that.
I was just saying.
Better mobo in this case can help.

 

[jdwii]

^
possibly but part of me says processor.

Diffidently mainly because he said when he overclocked it helped the shuttering.

Cheapest way would to overclock more and buy a new heat-sink. If not upgrade to a sandy or wait until bulldozer.

 

[rjkucia]

Diffidently mainly because he said when he overclocked it helped the shuttering.

Cheapest way would to overclock more and buy a new heat-sink. If not upgrade to a sandy or wait until bulldozer.

I did try overclocking slightly more, but for some reason I wasn't able to get much more out of it unless I pumped up the voltage more than I was really comfortable with. But maybe I'll try again. I don't think I'll need a new heatsink, since my temps are good. One other thing is that a while back I thought maybe the CPU was throttling itself when it shouldn't. I ran Prime95 and TMonitor, and while there wasn't necessarily a significant amount of throttling, every couple seconds it would show a small bump. Not sure if this is normal, or a bug in the program, or something else. Any ideas?

 

[rjkucia]

I've seen mousemonkey use his SLi GTX 560 Ti's on an E8600 @ 3.6 GHz. There wasn't any sort of bottleneck whatsoever.
But you've got an E8400. Maybe an upgrade in the CPU can help you.

Since mine's running at 3.6 also, and I believe the two chips have the same cache sizes, there shouldn't be any difference, right? In any case, if I'm getting a better CPU then it won't be on LGA775 lol

 

[Gman450]

Yeah
Try for a 1155.

 

[rjkucia]

Yeah
Try for a 1155.

I'm waiting until Bulldozer comes and then I'll see what happens then. If it's a dud, then yeah, that's what I'll go with. 2500K looks pretty good to me

 

[jdwii]

Sweet,I would Wait Also at least until the end of this month. If you need help with anything else just Give me a private message through toms.

 

[rjkucia]

I was really hoping to wait for Ivy Bridge, but that probably won't be happening at this point. Anyone else have any ideas about how to know 100% that it's a CPU or mobo problem?