Help me figure out my PC problems.

Pogue

Hey everyone,

I built a new quad core rig this summer, and since then, I've noticed some "off" things that weren't present with my dual core setup. Please note I haven't been able to test the problematic applications on the dual core machine.

Some games have newfound performance problems. On UT3 engine games - everything except Gears of War and Borderlands - there's stuttering. It'll play smooth, then hit a random hiccup, then be smooth again, then hiccup again. These games played smooth on the dual core.

COD4's bog level has slowed down dramatically on the quad rig. It played smooth on the dual, now I can barely make it through the foggy marshes. When the fighting starts, everything is smooth again. MW2, for the most part, runs fine. Until I get to the level late in the game where the Rangers are running for cover after the EMP and everything is exploding around them. This makes no sense as people with lesser rigs than mine are running maxed out and this level is smooth.

My specs are as follows -- Motherboard: Gigabyte EP43-UD3L Proccessor: Intel Core 2 Q9550 @ stock Memory: 4 gigs G.Skill DDR2 1066 @ stock Video: eVGA GTS250 1GB @ stock HDD : 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 2nd HDD : 500 GB Seagate Barracuda CD/DVD 1: Lite-On DVD/CD-RW combo CD/DVD 2: HP DVD burner Case: Apevia Xplorer Monitor: Asus VW224U OS: Windows XP MCE 2005 w/ SP3

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

TetraNitroCubane

The first and most obvious thing to try is updating all of your drivers. I'd make sure you've got motherboard drivers up to date and chipset drivers that might be appropriate. Take a look at your temperatures, too, just in case you're topping out your CPU and it's throttling back to avoid heat damage. If your CPU temps are getting too high, you may need to reseat the heatsink/fan. The periodic nature of the issue makes the heat possibility unlikely, though...

Honestly, I'm guessing that what you might be seeing there is the notorious eVGA downclocking bug in action. The 200 series video cards will throttle back their clocks on the desktop to lower heat output and energy consumption, then throttle up to stock speeds when a 3D app launches. Sometimes, they fail to step up. In the nVidia control panel, there should be an option for 'prefer maximum performance' mode you can set. This solves the problem for some folks. I'm not sure exactly where in the menu structure it's located at the moment.

If you can download and install the eVGA precision tool, there's a way to get an overlay so you can see all of your clock ratings in-game. If nothing else, you can install the tool to keep an eye on your clocks at the time these stutters hit - If they're below stock speeds, you'll know that's what the problem is.

A bit of personal advice: Contraty to my early words, if you keep having problems you might want to install older video card drivers (just video card drivers!). The 186.18 drivers are regarded by some as the most stable, and the later 19X.XX drivers have been nothing but trouble for some folks. Just make sure you clean out the old drivers with a proper uninstall / driversweeper run before you roll back.

Pogue

My temps are fine. I think. Observed using OOCT: my GPU never gets above 75c, and my CPU never really breaches 60c. It idles at about.. looks like 36c across all cores.

eVGA Precision is a no-no for me. It caused stuttering in all my games, a pretty well documented problem on the eVGA forums. Maybe they've fixed it? I've got my GPU fan set at 70% with RivaTuner and use OOCT to monitor the temps.

I'll try to find the setting you're talking about. I honestly never even knew that was an issue! My last card was an eVGA 8800GTS 640, and I loved it.

All my drivers are up to date. I'm using the latest nVidia official beta. Every driver series from way back when to now had the same problem.

An interesting note that slipped my mind: I had to RMA my 250, so I was stucking using the 8800 for a few weeks. The COD4 Bog level played just as badly on that.

Pogue

Installed eVGA Precision for a little while - no downclocking...

This is a really strange problem. The graphics card works okay in the dual core system, so I can't figure out what's holding back my quad core. The performance problems are really, really odd. I can max out Crysis and it runs fine but MW2 throws a fit on levels with explosions?

Dman

I've found that even with a souped up rig some settings like vsync wreak havoc with some games.

vsync in particular I had to turn off from a general setting, not from within the game, but if that is your problem there should be noticeable tearing that's not really the same as stuttering.

Can you cause the hiccups to occur via spinning?

Pogue

I don't have vsync on, no. There's tearing, but I really don't mind it. It's.. well, it's a hard problem to actually explain. If you were sitting here and trying to play Stranglehold, you'd understand what I mean perfectly.

For now, I come back on the level on Modern Warfare 2: once everything starts exploding, the game is nearly unplayable due to the FPS drop. Which, again, boggles my mind because people with way less powerful hardware are cranking through that level with everything at 11.

Dunadan019

first, check your memory. make sure your computer recognizes both strips and doesn't have your memory underclocked to 800mhz or something.

second, its probably a problem with the motherboard.

Pogue

Nope - both sticks show up, clocked at 1066... believe me, THAT'S crossed my mind.

Well.. shit. I was hoping it wouldn't be my motherboard.. but you're right. There's a good chance it is. What would cause this do you think? It's just so inconsistent in what, exactly, it decides is demanding.. oh well.

Does anyone know if my old motherboard - P35-DS3L - will support a Q9550 and 4GB of 1066 RAM? It says so on the box, but there's an OC* next to where it says it.

Pogue

Okay.. I may have solved this myself, though I honestly have no idea why what I did helped. All I know is that it helped.

This summer when I upgraded to a quad rig, BioShock was unplayable under XP. It was a combination od an nVidia driver bug - see the 2K Forums for documentation on the bug - and something else I couldn't diagnose. At my wit's end, I installed the Windows 7 RC. BioShock was not only playable, but ran better than it ever did on XP.

I went back to XP after BioShock, because no other games at the time were acting strangely. Well, as of last week, I'm back on the 7 RC so I can relearn the new ins and outs before upgrading, and all my games run fine. MW2 is playable. No hitching, no slowdown in the Whiskey Hotel level, or slowdown in the other levels.