Stutter in some games

Hi,

My machine spec is Intel Sandybridge 2820QM with Radeon 6970m (Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit) with 8 gig ram. I am really happy with the machine since I got it a couple of months ago. Runs pretty decent on high spec games like Crysis. 3dmark 06 pulls a score of about 19,800 which I think is roughly normal. I run the Dell Stock drivers that came with it. Looking on the Alienware downloads and drivers site these are the latest drivers (updated 31/3/11 if I remember rightly) so I am up to date.

For most part games run more than adequately but there are a few (for the most part older titles) that seem to stutter a bit on screen. Some worse than others. It’s hard to describe but the worst offending game is Pro Evolution Soccer 6. It stutters a lot. If I switch to Intergrated graphics it then runs smooth as silk. But the 6970m performs poorly with this stutter. A later inferior version, PES 2010, doesn’t seem to exhibit same issue. Football Manager also does it. It can’t be micro stutter as I don’t have crossfire but there is definitely some kind of stutter going on. Bizarrely on Football Manager (both version 2010 & 2011 – relatively new games) whilst watching a 3d match, if I run fraps, the frame rate shows at a constant 60 despite being able to detect this slight stutter/lag. It’s hard to explain but I can definitely detect it. It might be the game being buggy itself as switching between full screen and windowed mode (stretched to virtually full screen) seems to alleviate it. However I find it odd that it’s happening in a couple of games. Any ideas? Anyone get similar?

Why would the integrated Intel card perform better in say PES 6 than the Radeon (which should absolutely gobble up these low demanding graphics games)?

Thanks in advance,
Wayne

 

Any chance to monitor your 6970 frequencies? Gpuz should do the trick. Some people are reporting 6970 operating at lower frequencies than they should be if i'm not mistaken

 

Thank you. Yes downloaded GPUZ. It seems on the offending game the gpu core clock is logging periodically down to 100mhz and the gpu memory clock to 150 mhz during the game. It seems to go up and down to these and the default 680 mhz, 900 mhz clocks during gameplay (and clocks in between). So I guess this coincides with the slight stuttering despite FRAPS reporting 60 fps.

So Powerplay is the offender perhaps? I tried to disable it but all that then happens is (judging by 3d mark 06) it just uses the intergated gpu.

It doesn't seem to underclock during 3d Mark 06 staying at default clocks so maybe these 2 games are not properly optimised for the 6970m and it's powerplay function?

Is there a way to keep the core and memory clock up at default at all times?

Funny that most of my other games like Crysis, Hellgate seem absolutely fine though. Pro Evo 6 and Football Manager 2010 & 2011 are the affected games I have found (so far!)

My BIOS is InsydeH20 Version 1.0 AO3 (according to Dxdiag). Should I update the BIOS?

Thanks in advance
Wayne

 

Done some more testing looking at the GPU-Z logs. The core and memory clock on the graphics card is definetely staying at default on games like Crysis & Hellgate. Also does the same in 3dmark 06 so I got a normal score of about 19800 to 20000.

However on Pro Evolution Soccer 2006 & both Football Manager 2010 & 2011 the clocks are up and down. Often as low as 100 & 150 mhz which I believe explains the stutter I see. However, FRAPS always reports both games are running at 60 FPS. Weird huh? If I run both games on the Intel Integrated GPU then they run fine. Maybe they are badly coded and not optimised well for the card.

Tried Sapphire Trixx but it doesn't seem to help. I only overclocked each clock by a couple mhz. So although the defaults go higher it looks like the card is still dropping to low clocks during these games. Should having Sapphire Trixx running force the clocks to stay at the MHZ's I specified (in my case 682 mhz & 902 mhz)? Enabling and disabling Powerplay has no effect. In fact disabling it just makes the performance worse.

I am a bit nervous about updating the BIOS from A03 to A04. Do you think doing this may help? I am worried about something like that bricking the laptop.

Thanks,
Wayne