Game Suttering for Eternity!

[OsirisEG]

Alright, so, I've dealt with this stuff for nearly a year now. It's driving me crazy, and I've had 8 system replacements --literally! I've went through Dual HD 5970's, Dual HD 6950's, Dual HD 6990's, and finally land on Dual HD 590's.

All the demanding games I play receive some form of stuttering effect.

System:
•Alienware Area-51 ALX
•6GB 1866MHz DDR3 Kingston Tri-Channel Memory
•Intel Core i7 980x Extreme Six Core Processor (3.33GHz, 12MB Cache)
•Dual NVIDIA GTX 590 SLI Enabled
•512GB Raid 0 (2x 256GB Samsung Solid State HDDs)
•Windows 7 Home Premium
•Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
•Alienware TactX Mouse
•Alienware TactX Keyboard
•Alienware AW2210 OptX Full HD Gaming Monitor

Problems persist on:
Metro 2033
Crysis 2
Dead Island
Battlefield 3
The Witcher 2

It's always the same, too! No matter the system, or combination. Single GPU or Dual! It's driving me friggen crazy! Even menial games, such as WoW have problems, the only problem, currently is some flickering on unit frame images (the picture of each player's head in a frame).

Please, someone solve this stuttering, it's driving me mad!

Edit: Should probably mention that I've tried dozens of drivers, also...

 

[OsirisEG]

Please help! >_<

 

[akijon]

Please help! >_<

Well that beast of a computer should run every FPS game to date with 100+ fps.

I notice you always have SLI/CF configurations.. After years of reading about SLI/CF there seems to be this so called "micro stuttering" that only persists on dual GPU configurations, I'm sorry but I can't verify this because I have never gone the SLI/CF way.

Have you tried removing one of those 590's and only use one?

 

[akijon]

Well I see I made a mistake. You have tried. No answers here

 

[AntiZig]

wow, if I may ask how much did all that cost?

afaik, micro stuttering happens on any dual gpu setup and only way to fix it is drivers and vsync. and even then it's not a 100%.

what resolution are you running your games in?

does it happen regardless of res and game gfx settings?

 

[OsirisEG]

$7,000 give or take, including warranty. (I'm aware of the hefty premium due to brand name --still looks bad ass)

Another person believes it's due to graphics being throttled by heat. That may be the problem, however, the fix is a difficult one. Alienware/Dell in all their 'genius', decided on a mobo with 2 x16 PCI-E slots, and one x8 slot. Too bad the x16's are sandwiched together, allowing very little ventilation.

I already purchased a seperate rear-case fan and installed it so that it would blow air OUT of the case, but it still must be getting too hot.

Here is the video I posted on youtube showing my problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLSGY10hkM8&feature=feedu
Due to not having the full version of Fraps it's only a 30 second video. Imagine, about 30 seconds before that, I had no stuttering, and no lag --and then BAM!

You can read more about my problem along with GPU-Z displays on this forum. http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19420573.aspx?PageIndex=2

I appreciate all feedback, even if it's just theorycrafting!

 

[AntiZig]

Well if your cards are running 85+ it's definitely a cooling issue then. sorry to hear, but I assumed with such expensive setup cooling wouldn't be an issue.

For desktops you don't want to run above 75 at stock clocks,

looking at those GPU=z shots you got the card at 30% load and it's hitting 85, that's no good at all.

also how are you taking those screen shots? by tabbing out of the game? that's not good enough, set it to log to file.

as far as why dell used only 2 slot mobo, to save money of course.

 

[joedastudd]

Have you tried running the SSD's outside of RAID?

 

[OsirisEG]

First, i have not attempted to run them outside of RAID 0. Not sure what that would do, but, after setting both the GPU fans to 100% and the PCI-E slot fans to 100%, and tested games for 2 hours. Turns out the GPU's were downclocking themselves which caused the stuttering. Because after that, I had zero stutters.

However, that is unacceptable, and now I have to look to either air or liquid cooling. I would prefer air, but, I heard air is much more expensive than liquid. As much as I wish I could claim that I could set up either of them, I do not know how. So, I'd end up having to take it to a PC specialist to have them do it.

The reason I want air is because you don't really have to 'maintain' air, the way you'd have to maintain liquid cooling (I.E. changing the coolant).

It all really comes down which is better for my rig.

Are there any liquid cooling kits that would fit in my PC? (Alienware Area-51 ALX)

Could you guys recommend me any solutions? (I don't want to hear about changing GPU's or eliminating one of them)

 

[joedastudd]

I seem to remember there being issues a while back with some SSD's causing stuttering which is why I asked about the raid.

For a cooling solution we need to know your full load temperatures.
Download, install and run SpeedFan, then post the results here.

 

[AntiZig]

umm, not only that don't forget the fact that you have zero space between the cards, where do you plan to put your cooling?

ps> air cooling isn't much different than what you got right now

 

[Kef]

Intel Core i7 980x Extreme Six Core Processor (3.33GHz, 12MB Cache)

Please, someone solve this stuttering, it's driving me mad!

-----

I have a thought that I don't see from speed reading the thread (sorry at work)

I bought a Dell XPS without reading the small print (really stupid I know), I spec'd it how I wanted but failed to pay attention to the stock mother board and power supply.

With my i7, raid drives and a single 5770 I've been having ongoing stuttering problems after playing MW2Crysis 2 for any length of time, I'm convinced that the poxy dell 350watt power supply is the culprit, not sure what's in the alienware version, but more dell cost cutting wouldn't suprise me - so might be worth investigating an upgrade - I'd have though with your beast of a rig you'd be looking for >800 watts.

I've ordered an Antec Truepower new 650 to arrive this week (hopefully in time for MW3), I'm praying this fixes is

 

[AntiZig]

Take a look at this article 4th image down ...look familiar?

 

[OsirisEG]

Yes, that looks very familiar. But, I don't have very many options. I might have to use the PCI-E x8 slot at the bottom if I want space.

That's kind of a downer.