What's the likely cause of this - Gaming Issue?

Hey fellas kind of frustrated and wanted some input on what's causing this problem. In certain racing games running in Windows XP Pro SP2 I get a slight (millisecond pause) but ultra smooth framerates. It most noticeable when i'm turning a corner and the scenery is moving (i.e. rally games such as Richard Burns, Colin McRae 3, EA Sports Nascar Sim Racing).

I'm leaning on a disk performance issue as the framerates are ultra smooth on my 9800GTX+. In fact I have to run V-Sync or the higher framerates will cause cause the 9800GTX+ to run hotter because it will produce framerates in the range of 250fps or more. The drive has been defraged with Windows XP built-in defrag program.

I have experimented with different Nvidia drivers 191.07, 196.21, 197.45 and 258.96 and the results are sometimes a little bit better with certain games so it could be a placebo effect.

Anyways some input would be appreciated.

I know this is a notebook forum but it's relating to my desktop rig. Whether it's a notebook or desktop, performance issues generally apply to the two platforms.

If it's a problem for the mods just move it to the desktop forum but it will probably get more responses here.

Here are my specs:
E6750 stock 2.67ghz, 4GB PC5400, 9800GTX+, 400GB Samsung HDD.Onboard Realtek Audio

 

Try enabling or disabling V-Sync.

 

I did and the problem is still there except my card runs hotter because of the higher framerates.

 

Info: Intel SpeedStep Technology/Thermal Throttling - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Could it be related to the speedstep technology? I've always had it turned off since i have OC'ed my desktop cpu (E8500), and it might cause this kind of behaviour.

Is it only these games and is it only in windows xp?
Have you tried other games and have you tried playing those problematic games on another OS?

 

Genius dude I totally forgot about that and it's enabled.

I'll disable it later and post the results !

 

Hope it works out for you!

Remember to disable all of those settings. You'll of course probably notice a temperature increase but i'm gonna guess its negligible.
I recall having two or three different settings on my motherboard that regulates this. C1E and EIST i believe they were called.

 

Alright tried the disabling the CPU throttling and it was still there.

I tried OC'ing the CPU to 3.0ghz, disabling FSAA and one of my Cores and no changes. I may try these games under 7 as the power management system is more robust.

No i'm off to try different drivers to see if it fixes the problem.

 

It's better now although I still have a very slight pause but nothing like before. I turned off shadow mapping on the games that exhibited the problem and I tried several archived Nvidia drivers. I found v197.45 to be the most stable across the board and the latest 258.96 to cause the most in game pauses.

I'm really tempted to use my ATI 4670 except I know it's half the videocard of the 9800GTX+.

 

Well it could also be something with your antivirus (if you have one installed).
BC2 had some microstuttering when using nod32 and that was fixed by excluding the config folder and the bad company 2 folder.

You could try monitoring cpu/gpu load and see if it registers a significant jump (up or down) when the stutter occurs.
While it could be possible it's your harddrive performance, i'd doubt it (unless it's been showing typical wear and tear signs, which suggest it might be failing). I can't recall when gameplay slowdowns were last seen due to harddrives, except for maybe during load times.

If you have your ati card available you could always try it and see if you get rid of the stuttering.

 

We can rule out AV since I don't use one, offline mode only. IIRC my ATI 4670 also generated pauses but that was likely due to it being a 128bit card whereas the 9800GTX+ is a 256bit.

I'm going to try turning 'write flush cache - off'. I hate to do that since i'm not on a UPS but oh well i'm the daring type.

 

Well looking at how old some of these games are you shouldn't experience any slowdown with the current hardware.
What happens if you run the games on lowest possible settings? Still stuttering?

While you are at it, remember to disable spindown on your harddrive through power options. It's never good letting it spin up and down all the time.

Update your games to latest patch.

I was also thinking it might be sound related. If you can, disable onboard sound in bios and try playing.

 

Download game booster (google it) from iobit.

 

Thanks i'll try all of the above especially Gamebooster. Is it free or a trial version?

 

its free but its only frees up RAM and "boosts" the game.. but why are u using XP for gaming when u have windows 7?

 

Because a few of my (older) games either don't run under Seven or perform worse than XP.

I think I found my stop gap solution. I just ordered an ATI 5830 to replace my 9800GTX+, all for $190.

 

This has been proven several times to not improve gaming performance. I don't recommend it at all, especially since the OP's hardware specs are plenty high. This really only makes a difference with weak integrated graphics and overall low system specs.

 

ooohh... you got a 5830 that cheap? Is it stock or one of the modified versions?

 

Newegg.com - ASUS EAH5830 DIRECTCU/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

Features:
ASUS Exclusive Voltage Tweak Technology for up to 50% performance
Up to 20% COOLER during game play and up to 35% QUIETER under idle mode than generic HD 5830 with DIRECTCU Technology

 

Here's a review from Techpowerup, doesn't look like they were too impressed. Has me thinking about whether I should accept this card or return it.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/EAH_5830_DirectCu/1.html

 

You should only return it if it does not provide you with the performance boost you are looking for/helps with your problem/can't afford it/Whatever reason you can come up with.
Not because of some reviewer claiming the card isn't worth the money.
Reading the conclusion he says he's not happy about it not being better than 4890 and that it's priced to high, but also mentions that once the card drops below $200 the card actually looks interesting.

Whether it will fix your problem or not, i'm leaving towards no.
Your current hardware should be more than fine for games that old.

Are you experiencing that kind of slowdown/stuttering in other games?

 

Yeah I emailed Newegg CS and asked if I can refuse the package. This item doesn't allow for a return once opened, only a replacement if it's defective. I agree with you that the 9800GTX+ should be adequate and should easily handle all my older games. And $190 for an experiment is too risky.

And yes there are a few racing games I need to run in XP experience a little stutter. I'm going to experiment a little more and compare them in 7 and see how they run. One of the many things I like about 7 is the power manager so maybe it can smooth things out.

 

Well I returned the 5830 and now i'm leaning on the GTX 460 because it uses the newer GF104 chips. I forgot to ask would memory cause this (slight pause) in game problem?

I'm using DDR2 667mhz ram 4x1 sticks btw.

 

Memory could be an issue, I know Crysis 32-bit stutters when I turn my view very quickly, but the 64-bit version does not (and has access to more memory).

Slightly different issue, Halo 1 stutters a bit if run on a 64-bit OS, but runs perfectly on a 32-bit one.

 

certainly no stuttering in between vista 32 and windows 7 64 bit.. i had none of that.

 

Just an update and i'm happy to report that my persistence has paid off, problem solved, no more pauses.

Here's what I did and it could help others out. It was a combination of setting the application to REALTIME along with configuring my Nvidia 3D settings, that did it !

In my Nvidia profile I did the following:

1) Threaded optimization = off
2) Single display performance mode
3) Max prerendered frames = 0
4) Force V-Sync On

edit: I just created a profile for the above game, the general profile was left in it's default settings.