8600M GT Stutter Fixed (Completely)

Note: The following is based on my experiences with Compal IFL90
Posted this here instead of Compal board because this is where the issue was mentioned the most... Should fix IFT0x and IFL9x based systems...


Alright. After spending several hours reading about the random framerate drops/stuttering on the 8600m gt, and a lot of trial and error... I fixed it!

I didn't play around with too many different driver versions, but I don't really think that was the problem anyway... most driver/rivatuner solutions simply lessened the impact of the stutter, they didn't actually eliminate it (certainly not in my case anyway).

The list of possible reasons for the stutter (that I've seen)
1. Memory management problem with 8600m gt
2. Overheating
3. Configuration/Other drivers issue
4. OS issues
5. not enough RAM
6. harddrive problems
7. probably some others that I'm missing


So... I changed drivers, installed Vista SP1 RC1 r2 beta, cleaned out registry entries, cleaned old devices, updated as many system drivers as I could find, booted up with minimal services, defragged, CCleaner'd, Riva tuned (blitting/vsync/negative LOD/ lock 3d performance mode)...and no luck.


Right... long story short(ish): Update your BIOS, and clean the dust out of heatsinks/fans/etc

I'm not sure if the problem was related to overheating (either real, or imagined by the system), or, more likely to the fact that somewhere in the last few BIOS versions (number escapes me at the moment) the VGA/Nvidia BIOS was updated...

Cleaned and upgraded, I fired up TF2, and... got to play it smoothly for the first time since December!!!

To check that it wasn't another setting that fixed it, I disabled all changes I made in rivatuner (blitting stuff back off, vsync off, negative LOD on, etc...), left the MobileForce 169.09 that I had on before the stuttering stopped, and actively tried to make it stutter...

Moral of the story? Upgrade to BIOS v1.16 . Not a bad idea to clean out the dust and stuff as well (remove bottom panels, use airduster to blow gunk out through exhaust vent, easy-peasy)

On upgrading the BIOS; poke around the forums to find the upgrade process...I used a USB stick formatted with KillDisk, put the BIOS folder on the USBdrive, rebooted, f12 to boot from usb, close the killdisk app (esc), change to bios folder, type bios name... computer was thereafter shiny and happy. The end.

Hope this helps!

 

Yep, worked for me. (Not that I really had a stuttering problem, but it did increase my FPS by 1 or 2.)

 

is there another safe way to update the sager 2090 bios w/o an usb stick?

 

so basicly your suggesting that this really isnt a driver issue as claimed by some companies and Nvidia? (thats what i think anyway).

To me it seems its all about companies not making bioses that work 100% with the 8xxx gpu and thereby screws up.

Toshiba users had thier stuttering problems with the 7900/7950 fixed by Bios update some time ago. This seems to be the exact same case.

 

That's what I'm thinking; I'm not a programmer/engineer, so it's really just an opinion...

From what I tried, and what other people tried, it looks like the drivers don't so much fix the problem as just make it slightly less obvious in some cases; mostly by just boosting framerates. Which probably means the problem is elsewhere.


Alright, I've got an idea.

Anyone who comes across this thread, Compal w/ 8600M GT (and apparently Zepto as well (not sure if that's a rebrand/if it uses the same BIOS):

Please post BIOS#, and whether or not you have the stuttering problem... This is more out of curiosity than anything else, but any info would be appreciated...


Ugh. Must be late... You'll either have pre-1.10, or post.

v1.02: NB8P (60.84.42.00.15) NB8M (60.86.39.00.13)
v1.10: NB8P (60.84.42.00.23) NB8M (60.86.39.00.26)


Which means....dun dun daaaaaaaa... If its pre and stutters/post it doesn't, it was a BIOS thing (sorry, if that's just stating the obvious)...

Ok, that's all for now...

 

bump, come on people this is interesting.

 

It is interesting but what can we say? We can only hope that our respective notebook manufacturers release an update instead of pretending the problem doesn't exist.

 

I'm not assuming that the 3.00 Bios for the Asus G1s that is out since dec 26th 2007 did anything to solve the problem, right?

Can someone verify that?

 

Nope, I can confirm that it did NOT fix the stutter issue.

 

Thanks, dude.

*sigh*

Let's see what else Asus have got up their sleaves... Allow me to not be too excited about it

 

You know it's funny, I went to 167.51 stock drivers...and my fps not only went up but my stuttering seemed to go away. The odd thing is...the only game that I really ever notice it in, is CoD4 SP.

 

Change your "Dual Video Cards" option in the game to Yes, even if you are not running SLI. Fixed it for me.

 

This problem seem to occur with the 8600GS as well? Or just a GT problem?

 

It has only been reported to occur on the GT cards, so far.

News, anyone?

 

Don't forget that there are probably dozens of ways to cause a stuttering problem, and not everyones is going to be caused the same way, so don't give up on other methods if the popular fix doesn't work for you.

 

The vga bios is independent of the system board bios, you would have to manually flash the vga bios yourself which you shouldn't ever have to do.

Stuttering is caused mainly by bad drivers, an unoptimised OS and either slow or not enough dedicated video ram. System ram and background process can have an influence but the cases where they are the causes are only extremes i.e (1gb ram + lots of stuff running).

In other news, holy thread revival.

Protip: Try the new 174.74 drivers, they work perfectly on the systems I've used them on.

 

Ugh, I thought there was a new development.

-_-

The only games I own that see any stuttering is the Dawn Of War series, and it's quite infrequent, but it'd be nice to see it gone nonetheless; 173.80 has improved my situation greatly though.