Constant shuttering in any games. (7870 Tahiti LE)

[maculosa]

Hi

I recently upgraded my old BFG GTX 260 Core 216 to a Powercolor Radeon 7870 Tahiti LE 2 gb.
But now i have an issue that i do not have before, now in all game i try i got constant shuttering but more in intense action.
i did not have the feeling i got the performance i should have from this card.

I monitored my Fps in the prologue of Metro 2033, for the test i put the game the game in DX9 and LOW setting! normally i those setting i should have good performance!

2013-03-03 19:54:19 - Metro2033
Frames: 33602 - Time: 318788ms - Avg: 105.405 - Min: 33 - Max: 169

It is normal my Fps drop to 33 fps where there is fight? even at 33 fps the game shutter and did not feel smooth at all!

Another exemple, in Skyrim Fraps show a constant 60 fps but i got shutters, when i lock pick a door and when i move the lock pick it's shuttering even if fraps show 60fps... i did not have that issus with my Gtx 260... strange.

My system:

Core 2 quad Q9650 3ghz (stock clock)
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P MB
Mushkin Redline 8 GB
Corsair 750 TX
2x WD 640 GB Hd
1x Powercolor 7870 Tahiti LE 2 GB
1x BFG GTX 260 Core 216 896 MB

Any idea what's the problem? (sorry for bad english)

 

[pete123edgar]

Are you having two card in one system? if so try remove your gtx 260 card and try again.

 

[maculosa]

Yes i kept the GTX 260 in the system because i want to use it as a dedicated Physx card. can i just disable the card without physicaly remove it?

 

[maculosa]

i completly removed the GTX 260, removed both Nvidia and AMD drivers, runned drivers sweeper in safemode, rebooted and reinstalled AMD drivers.

No change, still have the same problem, runned another test in Metro 2033 (intro) and got similar results:

2013-03-04 20:38:29 - Metro2033
Frames: 34256 - Time: 316822ms - Avg: 108.124 - Min: 28 - Max: 173

it's in DX9 and LOW settings! damn

There must be a problem somewhere.

 

[maculosa]

Ran another test, i put Skyrim in the exact same setting i was running it with my GTX 260 (where it ran really smooth, indoor at 60fps) now with 7870 Tahiti i got shutter/frames skipping...

Now i know it's not a CPU bottleneck since it was smooth with the GTX 260.

No one have an idea to fix the problem?

 

[bystander]

Check GPU-Z, make sure the bus interface is running at PCIe 2.0 x8 or better. Sometimes a poorly seated card can cause this sort of issue.

You might also want to check CPU and GPU temps.

 

[maculosa]

GPU-Z say the card support Pci-Express 16x v3.0 and it running at Pci-Express 16x 2.0 doing to small render test.

 

[bystander]

You may want to check CPU and GPU temps while playing. You may be experiencing throttling due to heat.

 

[maculosa]

What software to use to monitor CPU and GPU Temps?

 

[bystander]

I like MSI Afterburner for the GPU, and I have used CPUID HWMonitor for the CPU, though that may not be the best, it does get the job done. CPU-Z may also work for the CPU, and GPU-Z can work for the GPU, but they lack on screen displays.

 

[bystander]

Oh, and if possible, if you can post a video of what you see, that could help. It could be somewhat normal microstuttering, though I wouldn't expect it to be worse than the 260, as Nvidia hasn't started fixing their issues with it until the 400 series, unless their newer drivers also helped with older cards too.

 

[ben_da_destroyer]

if i remember correct 60 fps is the max allowed in skyrim or something like that. but idk about your stuttering problem.

 

[timil]

Have you got latest drivers? Latest AMD driver fixes frame latency.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

cpu bottleneck. but also AMD driver problems and remove your gtx card, its not helping stuttering to keep that power hog in therre just for physx.

 

[maculosa]

Yes i got latest drivers version (13.1) didn't try the Beta 13.2.

My GTX card is removed, uninstalled drivers and i don't think my Cpu is bottlenecking Skyrim. Skyrim was running really smooth indoor at 60 fps in High settings minus some settings.

I tryed Skyrim at the lowest possible video settings on my 7870 Tahiti and keep gettings shuttering/frame skipping.

I tryed to record a video with Dxtory using dxtory video codec in high quality and full resolution but dxtory make the game lagging too much so i can't show the effect.

Now that's strange: i Put dxtory codec at Low quality and put scaling video at 50% to take less ressource to not make the game lagging. when i started to record the video my strange shuttering/frame skipping DISAPEARED and the game was smooth!!! when i stop recording it's back! I do not understand anything!

 

[smeezekitty]

Can you use a webcam or digital camera to record? Possibly connected to something like a laptop to avoid loading down the CPU.

 

[maculosa]

Good idea. i will film my screen with my 60D (digital camera) tomorrow.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

something you have running in the background may be causing it, disable all startup items and dont load anything but the game.

 

[maculosa]

I recorded a Video with my 60D at 60 fps but youtube converted the video in SD and at 30 fps...
the first half of the video it's the shuttering and second part is when i record with Dxtory, game became really smooth in the second part but in the video it do not look smooth cause of the youtube video converting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wBUQEIhjTk

Is there any place where i could upload my video at original quality. (720p/60 fps)?
(will be easyer to see the difference)

In my system tray the only thing i have running it Kaspersky and Catalyst control center.
Closed Kaspersky and the result was the same.

 

[bystander]

Looking at the video, assuming this isn't a recording anomaly, I saw lots of static like dots all over. You may have defective card(s).

 

[cookybiscuit]

If you Google 'Skyrim Microstutter' you'll see Skyrim has alot of issues with frame latency on AMD cards. Try a different game.

 

[maculosa]

what i think you think it's "statics" it's in the game, it's water drop from the ceilling.
In fact i didn't noticed any graphical artifacts except those shuttering.

 

[bystander]

The video doesn't show anything out of the ordinary then. It probably is just the standard micro-stutter/latency issue that has been talked about. I don't think there is much you can do.
Here is a video showing a 7950 in Skyrim (be sure to watch one side at a time, you really can't focus on the two sides at once).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLcq6IQz-sM&feature=player_embedded

 

[bystander]

Be sure to get the latest beta drivers from AMD. One thing they have added to their Beta drivers, is helping to reduce that sort of problem in Skyrim, Borderlands 2 and BF3.

 

[maculosa]

Update, i tryed the latest Beta drivers from ATI but i was happy to notice that it did fix Skyrim! i still notice some little shuttering here and there but it's now way better!
Farcry 3 is also smoother.

However i still notice huge frame drop in Metro 2033 and Witcher 2, but i belive it may be Cpu bottleneck.

I think the next thing i have to try is to Overclock my CPU. it think my hardware should be able to take a nice OC.
Maybe between 3.6 to 4.0

CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q9650
CPU Cooler: OCZ Vendetta 2
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
RAM: Mushkin Redline DDR2 PC2-8000 8 GB (4x 2GB)

I do not know anything about overclocking and i never did it in my life, so i will have to be carefull to not screw anything.