Stuttering is games

[bimkoblerutso]

Hello everyone. I'm obviously not a regular here, but my problem has gotten so out of hand that I finally had to cave and admit that I have absolutely no idea what is causing my problem. It seriously seems to defy all logic...I apologize if I'm long-winded.

Practically all of my games "stutter." It's a common problem from what I've been reading in forums, but as far as I can tell it's usually software based and only plagues a game here or there for some people. ALL of my games stutter. I get stuttering in everything from The Witcher 2 to Arkham City to Dragon Age: Origins to Tribes Vengeance. My framerates are fine, but there's just a distinct jerkiness in every game I play; it's game-ruining in some, less noticeable in others. It happens all the time, about every two or three seconds, and it just looks like a couple of frames are skipped. Sometimes, like in Dragon Age 2, things will sort of speed up for a split second after the stutter as if it was lag in an online game or something.

Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon II X2 250
Zotac Geforce GTX 460 1GB
4GB PC6400
500GB Western Digital HDD @7200rpm
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ Mobo
500w Flex Force Xfinity PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Now, before accusing me of simply having outdated components, let me tell you what I've already tried:

- I thought it was time for an upgrade anyway, so I bought a new 650w PSU, a new motherboard, 6 gigs of ram, and an i3 processor...didn't change a thing, even after a windows refresh.
- I borrowed my brothers 560ti...same thing.
- I've defragged multiple times, nothing. Went ahead and bought a new 7200rpm HDD, because what the heck, right? No change.
- I have updated every driver known to man, multiple times. Audio drivers, graphics drivers, chipset drivers etc. etc. I've tried beta drivers and all that good stuff too.
- I have moved all my games to my second hard drive so I have my OS on one and games on the other. No go.
- I have plugged my comp into no less than four different monitors and/or TV's. No difference between any of them.
- I've tweaked settings in the nvidia control panel and in the individual games. It might be interesting to note that even at lowest settings with pretty much everything turned off, stuttering still persists. Vsync does nothing on or off, just FYI. I've gotten that advice multiple times
- I've installed a fresh version of Vista to see if maybe it has something to do with the OS, but no.

I mean, what else is there!? I've pretty much replaced EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT in my machine. Could it possibly be the case or something? Can that happen!?

Oh, and I ended up taking all those components back, by the way (except for the HDD). I'm back at my current listed specs up there now, and it's still, obviously, doing the same thing. I'm seriously at my wit's end here. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[rglaredo]

Have you upgraded your internet connection ??? are you playing with the least recommended system settings? I think those game need a better system/cpu ..try adding more memory 6 gigs seem to low ..

 

[HEXiT]

what kind of stutter is it... is it smooth then stop, smooth then stop for 10 seconds or so then 1 second stop? ot is it stuttering from 60 to 30 and back to 60 in 1 second constantly or is the gameplay just constantly jerky.

 

[box o rocks]

Hello everyone. I'm obviously not a regular here, but my problem has gotten so out of hand that I finally had to cave and admit that I have absolutely no idea what is causing my problem. It seriously seems to defy all logic...I apologize if I'm long-winded.

Practically all of my games "stutter." It's a common problem from what I've been reading in forums, but as far as I can tell it's usually software based and only plagues a game here or there for some people. ALL of my games stutter. I get stuttering in everything from The Witcher 2 to Arkham City to Dragon Age: Origins to Tribes Vengeance. My framerates are fine, but there's just a distinct jerkiness in every game I play; it's game-ruining in some, less noticeable in others. It happens all the time, about every two or three seconds, and it just looks like a couple of frames are skipped. Sometimes, like in Dragon Age 2, things will sort of speed up for a split second after the stutter as if it was lag in an online game or something.

Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon II X2 250
Zotac Geforce GTX 460 1GB
4GB PC6400
500GB Western Digital HDD @7200rpm
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ Mobo
500w Flex Force Xfinity PSU
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Now, before accusing me of simply having outdated components, let me tell you what I've already tried:

- I thought it was time for an upgrade anyway, so I bought a new 650w PSU, a new motherboard, 6 gigs of ram, and an i3 processor...didn't change a thing, even after a windows refresh.
- I borrowed my brothers 560ti...same thing.
- I've defragged multiple times, nothing. Went ahead and bought a new 7200rpm HDD, because what the heck, right? No change.
- I have updated every driver known to man, multiple times. Audio drivers, graphics drivers, chipset drivers etc. etc. I've tried beta drivers and all that good stuff too.
- I have moved all my games to my second hard drive so I have my OS on one and games on the other. No go.
- I have plugged my comp into no less than four different monitors and/or TV's. No difference between any of them.
- I've tweaked settings in the nvidia control panel and in the individual games. It might be interesting to note that even at lowest settings with pretty much everything turned off, stuttering still persists. Vsync does nothing on or off, just FYI. I've gotten that advice multiple times
- I've installed a fresh version of Vista to see if maybe it has something to do with the OS, but no.

I mean, what else is there!? I've pretty much replaced EVERY SINGLE COMPONENT in my machine. Could it possibly be the case or something? Can that happen!?

Oh, and I ended up taking all those components back, by the way (except for the HDD). I'm back at my current listed specs up there now, and it's still, obviously, doing the same thing. I'm seriously at my wit's end here. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

What resolution is your monitor... What rez are you gaming at?

 

[bystander]

So basically you've completely replaced the computer at different stages and returned the parts as you ruled out each part. That doesn't make a lot of sense. Something has to be causing the issue. Do you have an Anti-virus software running, or perhaps an auto-backup happening? Perhaps your RAM is defective?

This problem does not sound like a video card issue, but I've had similar issues a long time ago with an outdated HDD, but if yours has 500gb's, it's probably not that outdated.

 

[box o rocks]

Something sounds fishy here. He says he buys a new i3-21xx processor, new motherboard (!) for the new processor, upgrades from DDR2 to DDR3 RAM, and a new more powerful PSU. Then says he returns everything because the problem supposedly still persists. I don't think I'd be going back to an Athlon II 250 DDR2 machine after having the cash to buy a modern Sandy Bridge system... stutter or no stutter. Is anyone else besides me suspicious here?

 

[bimkoblerutso]

Well, you caught me. It was all a clever ruse. I'm sitting here laughing maniacally, twirling my Dick Dastardly mustache between my fingers.

Let's see, for those that were genuinely trying to help (and God bless your naive souls, you still haven't seen through my deception):

- I'm running my games through HDMI on a 32" Vizio LED currently @1920x1080, but changing the resolution hasn't really helped me, and I've actually tried several different monitors.

- It's a jerky stutter. The frame rate in (just as an example) Dragon Age: Origins stays at 60+ FPS in between the stutters. It's pretty much the "micro stutter" that seems to be plaguing a lot of people right now, only it's happening in everything I play.

- I use Avast. I haven't really tinkered with anti-virus other than disabling when I'm gaming to see if it helped, but it made no difference. Is that something I should look into?

I will say that there has been no point when EVERYTHING has been replaced at the same time. I bought the mobo, ram, and processor all at the same time, had the same problems and took it all back. Then I bought another HDD and PSU, had the same problems (even after trying things out with my brothers 560ti) and took the PSU back.

I'm going to try a few more things here and there, and any advice you guys give me here, but I suppose if none of this works I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and invest in a completely new system eventually.

 

[HEXiT]

sounds to me like avast is scanning each file your loading as the game is playing. put it into gamer mode. and the problem should go away.

 

[rglaredo]

I can tell you that avast sucks I tried it and slowed my system bad ...I use the Microsoft one ...gives me no problems ...and I do stay away from websites that can potentially harm my system ...ohh and I would have not sent the Intel parts back ...and yes ..get a new system ... don't know much about calling it an Investment since computers and their components depreciate over time ..so ...just get one of the IB chips and get rid of that Athlon system ...