Graphic lag or network lag?

[olmek]

I am experiencing a very unique kind of lag that I've never gotten before. Whenever I am in game, regardless of game (WoW, SWOTR, DOTA2, ect.) I experience these "micro-stutters". The game will just stop for a milisecond and then quickly catch back up with itself about once every 5 seconds or so.

It is NOT FPS dropping. It is NOT input latency. It's just as I described it, and I cannot find out what is causing it.

I have more than powerful enough hardware for the games and even have tried them on all low settings without any success. CPU and GPU temps seem to both be below 70 degrees. But at the same time, I have a decent network connection, so I have no idea what it is.

Any suggestions or ways to troubleshoot the problem?


It is extremely annoying and almost makes the games unplayable.

Thank you!

-CPU: AMD Phenom x4 980
-GPU: ATI HD 6950 2GB
-RAM: 4GB
-HDD: old WDD 320GB 7200rpm (<could this be problem maybe?)
-700w PSU
-ect.


Let me know what you think guys, thanks!

 

[smorizio]

try updating your network drivers. if your mb has intel network chipset there is a bug with the new intel network safety and there network drivers. caused your download speed and upload speed to be cut down.

 

[olmek]

Sorry, I forgot to add my motherboard. But no, I do not have an intel based mobo. I have an AsRock 990FX Extreme3 (http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/990FX%20Extreme3/).

Nonetheless I still tried updating network drivers, but nothing has changed unfortunately.

Other suggestions or insight?

 

[Deemo13]

What kind of 700W PSU do you have?

Does this occurr in offline games as well?

 

[danawesome89]

Yeah, all the games that you mention are online games. Does this still happen with offline games? Because that would answer your question of whether or not it is network related.

 

[olmek]

What kind of 700W PSU do you have?

Does this occurr in offline games as well?

PSU= 700w OCZ ModXStream

And yes, I just tested it with Crysis2 completely singleplayer campaign, so I guess that answers that it is NOT network lag. But what could it be then? Its driving me crazy!

Yeah, all the games that you mention are online games. Does this still happen with offline games? Because that would answer your question of whether or not it is network related.

See above response. Not an online problem. What are some other troubleshoots?


Perhaps some type of setting in my Catalyst? Maybe improper hardware seating? The way my RAM is put in?

It happens regardless of my graphics settings being all low or all high.

 

[danawesome89]

This isn't really something I have experienced before.

I have a few ideas to check, but not too sure if they will actually help.

1) I wonder if there is something running in the background that is causing problems? Maybe antivirus, system backup, defrag, virus, something else? Maybe try turning off antivirus to see if it somehow affecting your games?

2) When in doubt, clear and update drivers. I don't really think they would cause this specific problem in every single game, but you never know. Might be worth a shot.

3) Hard drive dying? This is a total guess and not really my area of expertise so really don't quote me on this. But the way you described it as the game trying to "catch up" makes me wonder if it is like having trouble reading off the HDD or something? I don't know.

These are really just guesses, but that's the only things that come to mind right now.

 

[smorizio]

try running cpu-z and gpu-z make sure the mb and video card speed are read right. (pci 2.0 @16x). and look at your ram speed and timing. if your ram is rated 1600 it might not be running at that speed. look at the spd tab in cpu-z.

 

[smorizio]

also in the bios turn off power saving mode on the cpu/mb. it stop the cpu from clocking down..on intel mb it would be the c1 states. in ccc make sure you turn off power saving settings. it stop the gpu from down clocking.

 

[Temile]

Download process explorer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

View menu...System Information will bring up a window showing all the cores on your cpu and how much they are being used. Watch and see if some background task (virus scanner, system service) is running. Mouse over will tell you what process it is. Might not be any process, in which case the other suggestions on this thread about cpu/gpu speeds and temps are more likely to uncover the problem.