Stuttering in games

[wedge22]

I seem to get lots of stuttering in games like Farcry and X2 can anyone let me know what could be causing this.

[neonplanet40]

em anti virus' running in the backround. hardware jsut not up to the settings uve made?

try defragging harddrive etc

[r1zeek]

Your kinda vague there wedge, it could be alotta things.
Could be your version of the Cats (or Omegas) that you're using, I know its hard to find the right ones but you need to keep trying.
Has this only just started occuring as I doubt an x800 would stutter on Far Cry (on reasonable settings that is, not sure how it would cope with it maxed out)
Feed us some more info!

[wedge22]

Well it does need a defrag thats for sure.
I am trying to run farcry at 1280x1024 with high settings and vsync on but i get stuttering especially in cutscenes.
i have the latest drivers for my x800.

[r1zeek]

Are they the Catalyst or the Omegas?
Try something like the 4.4's or 4.6's, they might sort the problem.

[wedge22]

They are the catalysts mate.
Why will going backwards sort the problem?

[neonplanet40]

Because drivers can be like that and u are safer trying every possible thing to help sort the problem. but i think a defrag mite help. thats what u done.

gd luck

PyRo

[r1zeek]

Sometimes when ATi work to try and fix a certain problem, they may inadvertantly create another problem, such as stuttering in far cry.

I think as a safe bet you should try turning v sync off, it has been know (with me anyhow) to create probs with my frame rate in some games.
Try it, it can't hurt

[wedge22]

OK i will defrag and turn vsync off thanx for your help i will update you soon on the situation.

[LayZeh]

Introduction
Ever since purchasing my nForce2 board and accompanying Radeon 9700 i'd always experienced stuttering, i tried so many different things in order to solve it and many suggestions from others but never quite got there.

I reached a point where i just put up with it, this didn't last long and eventually i decided to either solve it myself or fly out to nvidia hq and have it out with them (no joke).

To learn how i managed to solve this problem please read on.


Specific Games
Below you can find information on certain games that experiencing graphical anomalies in is something everyone must put up with, this part of the thread is to prevent false diagnosis and to save you, the reader, reading a load of waffle that you don't need to.

Far Cry
Patch v1.1 addresses stuttering within game and before sounds are played, any further stuttering you experience is probably down to a lack of ram as the game is very memory intensive. Toward the end of the game you will play a level called "Boat" this is particularly system demanding and i get a lot of hdd activity throughout that causes stuttering, this may be addressed in a later patch, fingers crossed.

Unreal Tournament 2004
To run this game smoothly at anything above 800x600 with a specification similar to mine you will need to add an additional 512 ram.

Alternatively i've browsed the internet for some configuration advice to decrease loading times and increase performance.

* In-game disable speech-recognition (recommended)
* In-game disable precaching of player skins (i wouldn't recommend this)
* In X:\UT2004\System open UT2004.ini and locate the following making sure they're the same as below.

[ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]
UseEAX=False
Use3DSound=True
UseDefaultDriver=False
CompatibilityMode=False
MaxEAXVersion=255
UsePrecache=False

Need For Speed: Underground
During the first lap of this game you may experience 2 maybe 3 stutters, this is caused by files being cached, anything more than say 4-5 stutters during the first lap you may want to read on.

Deux Ex 2
Leaving your Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick plugged into the onboard gameport can cause severe stuttering, my advice, remove it before running the game.


Overclocking
My system is overclocked in order to gain free performance, overclocking is very popular but can often cause more problems than the increase in performance is worth.

Components like the processor and memory are very fickle, those of you who've overclocked will know that the system can boot fine at a certain speed but the boot process will actually be slower than default speeds because the processor isn't getting enough voltage although appears to be perfectly stable.

Memory is another component that can appear perfectly stable but suffer a serious performance hit if not given enough voltage. Someone running at 200FSB can get the performance of a system running at 166FSB if the voltage being fed to the memory isn't sufficient.

My advice to overclockers would be, once you've reached a speed you're happy with run the various stress tests available to ensure stability and then up the voltage to both memory and processor one notch this ensures the components aren't fighting for voltage and gives them the necessary headroom if they ever for whatever reason need that little bit of extra juice.


Bios Settings ( Those That Differ From Optimized Defaults )

Motherboard: Abit NF7-S v2.0

BIOS Version: 23


Category: Softmenu 3 Setup

>
CPU Interface: Enabled


Category: Standard CMOS Features
>
Halt On: No Errors


Category: Advanced BIOS Features
>
First Boot Device: HDD 0
Second Boot Device: CDROM
Third Boot Device: Floppy
Boot Other Device: Disabled


Category: Advanced Chipset Features
>
System BIOS Cacheable: Disabled
Video RAM Cacheable: Disabled
AGP Aperture Size: 64 (officially recommended by ATi)
FSB Spread Spectrum: Disabled
AGP Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Thermal Throttling: Disabled
Enhanced PCI Performance: Enabled
CPU Disconnect Function: Disabled
AGP Transfer Rate: 8x
AGP Fastwrite Capability: Disabled


Category: Integrated Peripherals
>
OnChip PCI Device
USB Keyboard: BIOS
IEEE1394: Disabled
Onboard PCI Device:
Serial ATA Controller: Disabled
Init Display First: AGP
Onboard Serial Port 1: Disabled
Onboard Serial Port 2: Disabled
Onboard Parallel Port: Disabled


Device Drivers

Video
Omega v2.5.58 ( based on 4.7's )

Chipset
nForce v4.27 international

Video Driver Configuration

OpenGL

Settings: Custom Settings

Anti-Aliasing: Application Preference
Anisotropic Filtering: Application Preference
Texture Preference: High Quality
Mipmap Detail Level: High Quality
Wait for Vertical Sync: Always On
TRUEFORM(tm): Always Off (having it on seriously impacts FPS negatively)

Direct3D

Settings: Custom Settings

Anti-Aliasing: Application Preference
Anisotropic Filtering: Application Preference
Texture Preference: High Quality
Mipmap Detail Level: High Quality
Wait for Vertical Sync: Always Off (very important)
TRUEFORM(tm): Always Off (having it on seriously impacts FPS negatively)

Before i'm asked, of course i use AA/AF but i use the in-game menus to enable it, i've found forcing AA/AF via the CPanel can and often does cause stuttering.

Chipset Driver Configuration

After installing the drivers the only thing i do is visit device manager and disable the power down features on all USB Root Hubs and most importantly the onboard NIC.

The onboard NIC has been known to cause stuttering and to ensure it isn't the cause you should do the following: Open device manager > network adapters > right click the onboard nvidia lan and go to properties then advanced > speed/duplex settings and set it to 100 Full Duplex, if of course, your onboard lan is 10/100. This really does improve "in my experience" browsing speeds and removes the need for windows to auto-detect your onboard lans configuration when network activity occurs which eliminates, however little, the need for the cpu's attention.


Background Applications
I have the following applications running at all times and have found they do not cause stuttering or impact game performance negatively.

* mIRC v6.14
* NetLimiter v1.21
* Avast Anti-Virus v4.1
* Open Office Quick Start
* MSN Messenger v6.1

Below are a list of applications i've tested that do cause stuttering or impact game performance negatively.

* DC++ v0.4 and upward
* Winamp v5.0 and upward
* Motherboard Monitor v5.0 and upward
* nVidia System Utility

Disable these applications before playing games.


My Miscellaneous Settings & Suggestions

Right Click on Desktop > Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot > Lower one notch (ATi Cards)

Equalizer in the SoundStorm Control Panel should be disabled, there's no reason for it to be enabled, if you want to change the way music sounds use the in-program equalizers.

The Page File. Windows will automatically, when available, use the Page File on an alternate physical drive from where the original program is being ran. For example, if i ran Hitman (the game) from the C:\ drive and had allocated a Page File on the D:\ windows would use the D Drives Page File instead of the C's. This is only true if C and D are two different physical drives, partitions on the same drive count for nothing. To conclude, if your D Drive is a different physical drive from your C then i advise you to make a Page File on the D aswell as keeping the Page File on C, giving windows the option of what Page File to use.

Use the "Hide Icon" feature to permanently hide any Icons that aren't really necessary but need to be there, for example i hide netlimiter, my anti-virus active icon and open office quickstart as i rarely click any of them.

In extreme circumstances you can try disabling APIC in BIOS, APIC is mainly a feature created for mutliprocessor systems but it is still used with single processor systems, what it does is gives the processor(s) an additional 10 IRQs. If you feel your problem could be caused by IRQ sharing disabling APIC is a good way to cause an IRQ shake up and possibly solve your problem. Please be aware that disabling APIC in BIOS on an installation that has been installed with it enabled will cause the system to fail to boot. An alternative to disabling APIC in BIOS is to change the computer driver, it more-or-less has the same effect as disabling APIC but will not cause the system to fail to boot or require a fresh installation. To change the computer driver go into device manager and expand the computer tree, double click the existing item go to the driver tab then click update, install from a list or specific location and then select "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC". You will need to reboot twice, once for the IRQs to be re-assigned and again to refresh the installation.

Start run > dxdiag > sound tab > lower hardware sound acceleration 1 notch (this really helps with sound generated stuttering)


Other Peoples Miscellaneous Settings & Suggestions

Change AGP to 4x in BIOS

Set FSB Spread Spectrum to 1%

Increase AGP voltage to v1.6

If you have <=512 ram it may be worth getting a bit more for todays latest games.

Audigy 2 owners, disable the gameport in device manager and enable the one in your bios whether you use it or not

PCI Latency can and has been related to stuttering, using this tool (email request) you can edit it.

Enabling Coolbits on nVidia ForceWare v61.11 has been directly related to in-game stuttering, you don't even need to overclock, simply enabling it is enough


Worth Knowing

PCI 3 does not share an IRQ, it's the only slot that doesn't (Abit NF7-S v2.0)

You should defragment your drive every 3 months, minimum.

You must install the chipset drivers before the video drivers, it's essential you do this and advised against for you not to.

You must uninstall current drivers before installing new ones, a very useful program that i highly recommend using is Driver Cleaner.

[mr_anderson187]

You must install the chipset drivers before the video drivers, it's essential you do this and unacceptable for you not to.

pardon? wtf? u wha? i got a 9600 se, i jsut bang it in after a reformat get teh drivers, (couple of months old) install them, then bang in the games, am i doing this wrong???

[LayZeh]

Ok the GART driver is part of the chipset drivers, the GART driver acts as an interface between the cards drivers and the board, all card drivers configure themselves against the GART driver. If there's no GART driver but the generic one that ships with windows then the video drivers wont configure themselves correctly which means you'll lose performance, installing the chipset drivers aftward may prompt the video drivers to wake up and realise the GART driver has changed or they'll still function as if the original GART driver is still installed. It's highly recommended to install chipset then video.

[Lee H]

I had stuttering in games using an nforce2 based motherboard as well.

Turned out that the nvidia IDE drivers for some bizarre reason were making my hard-drive on the IDE channel I used for swapfile run in PIO mode, thus making my system as slow as a slug dipped in a superglue.

[r1zeek]

my system as slow as a slug dipped in a superglue.

Now that is slow!

How ya get on Wedge?

[the insaan]

the last time i had a similar problem on midnight club II, i used zonealarm to engage the internet lock and everything worked fine, i was on broadband at the time of the incident

[wedge22]

ts better but still not great i just dont understand it.