PC Experts - Game Graphics Problem

[Philliesfan980]

Because of the vast knowledge base that frequents this board on a regular basis, I figured that I'd run my problem by you guys before I go forward to a tech only forum.

I'm running into the problem of "stuttering" (thats the best way I can really describe it) graphics on the games I've been playing. I've always built my own PC's, and I just upgraded over the past 3 months. The stats of my system are fairly good:

AMD 2700
2 gigs corsair ram
320 WD hdd
ATI All in Wonder X800 , 256 megs ram
Hyundai 19 LCD 8ms refresh.

The only part thats old in my computer is the CPU. I've been running the AMD 2700 for about 2.5 years now, and decided it was good enough for the time being when I was upgrading my new PC (all other components listed above are new).

I've upgraded all my video card drivers, and everything else on my computer runs great (outside of games). For an example, I can watch full screen DVD movies without and hitches or hesitations. Only in games do I experience the stuttering that I mentioned above. Since my last upgrade, I've only now begun to play PC games, so thats why I'm noticing these problems now even though I've been upgraded for the past few months.

Could it be that my 2.5 year old CPU could use an upgrade? I've never really spent money on MB's, always went for the NVIDIA ones that retail for around 80-100. Could that use an upgrade? I'm pretty baffled on this one. Any good diagnostic tools?

Thanks for all your help in advance!

[Yellow5]

Does this happen on every game you play? And what sound card do you have?

[Philliesfan980]

Does this happen on every game you play? And what sound card do you have?

Onboard sound. I've only tried a few games so far, I'm not a huge PC gamer by any means, but I would like to play a few. Mainly I've tried the EA sports ones.

[Airhog]

I doubt its your CPU. Most new games don't tax the CPU as much as they do the video card. Your CPU is perfectly fine in that regard.

1. Check your graphics settings. You might check out a guide on tweaking. I am curious though, are you trying to run the games at max AA filtering? That puts a heavy load on your game, and might be causing the stuttering.

2. Try lowering the graphics settings to the lowest setting. Do you still get the problem? If so, you might have a hardware problem. Sound cards have been known to cause stuttering in some games. If you eliminate all other sources of the problem, you might try disabling your sound card and seeing if that makes it go away.

[Philliesfan980]

I doubt its your CPU. Most new games don't tax the CPU as much as they do the video card. Your CPU is perfectly fine in that regard.

1. Check your graphics settings. You might check out a guide on tweaking. I am curious though, are you trying to run the games at max AA filtering? That puts a heavy load on your game, and might be causing the stuttering.

2. Try lowering the graphics settings to the lowest setting. Do you still get the problem? If so, you might have a hardware problem. Sound cards have been known to cause stuttering in some games. If you eliminate all other sources of the problem, you might try disabling your sound card and seeing if that makes it go away.

1. I've been trying various video settings. I'm really only trying to play Madden and MVP, those aren't the most intense (graphically) games out there. I really hope its nothing with my video card, because it cost a pretty penny, and I bought it a few months back, and don't have the receipt. But like I said, it plays movies and everything else on my pc fine.

2. I'll have to try and disable the onboard sound through the control panel. Thanks for the tip.

[Airhog]

Even a game like madden or MVP will take a big perfomance hit, if you try to play then with AA at 4X. This is a setting you can turn to always on the the Viedo Card control panel, and could be a reason why.

[Yellow5]

Something else to think about...

What do you have running in the backround when this happens? Are you running any anri virus software? Is there something taking up more cpu usage than normal?

[MizzouRah]

MVP runs fine at 1028x768 on my pc that is a 2.0 p4, 1 768mb of ram and a geforce 5500 graphics card, so your pc specs sound fine to me.

For some reason your monitor sticks out to me as maybe the culprit, meaning your graphics card is too fast for your monitor, but it's just a guess. LCD monitors are not the best for gaming. Your pc should run those games fine, but I guess your graphics card could be taxing your processor, making a bottleneck there as well.

Have you tried to go back to the original drivers that came with the card or the ones certified by Windows?

[Philliesfan980]

MVP runs fine at 1028x768 on my pc that is a 2.0 p4, 1 768mb of ram and a geforce 5500 graphics card, so your pc specs sound fine to me.

For some reason your monitor sticks out to me as maybe the culprit, meaning your graphics card is too fast for your monitor, but it's just a guess. LCD monitors are not the best for gaming. Your pc should run those games fine, but I guess your graphics card could be taxing your processor, making a bottleneck there as well.

Have you tried to go back to the original drivers that came with the card or the ones certified by Windows?

Thanks for the throughts..

I was thinking that it might be the monitor as well, but everything that I've read about this monitor is that its great for gaming. The 8 MS refresh rate is what drew me to this monitor. I've tried as many drivers as I can find, even modified ones. I'm also having lock up problems in MVP/Madden as well, in which my whole system crashes. So I think that all in all, something isn't right. Maybe my CPU can't handle games anymore? Another thing pointing to a bad CPU (for games at least anyway), is that it really run's pretty hot now adays. It's been idling at 44C, and gets up there 51-52 during gaming. And I have a great fan, as well as Artic Silver compound paste on that bad boy.

[jeff061]

51-52 is on the high end of the spectrum, but I think it should be fine.

Is it a constant stutter or every once and awhile? Try disabling Fast Rewrites, it may be an option in the ATI display properties, not sure. I had to download RivaTuner to disable it on my Nvidia card.

[Airhog]

The Graphics card will not tax the CPU. As I stated in an early post, most new games need a powerful video card, more than they need a powerful CPU. There is nothing wrong with your computer spec wise.

AMD chips do run hotter. My old AMD 1600xp ran in the 51-52c range, and It was a very stable machine.

I do agree with you that something isnt right, it can just be a pain to try and figure out what it is. Does your system lock up while using other software? If it locks up in other games too, you definately have a problem. I had a machine once with a bad stick of memory, and it would lock up only in games, or cause them to crash with page faults.

I assume that when you add all those new components, you formatted your Computer and did a clean install? Even though you didnt change the MB and CPU it is something to consider.

And one last thing you might try if nothing else seems to work. Remove the memory sticks one at a time. If the problems go away when one paticular stick is removed, it could be bad.

[Philliesfan980]

The Graphics card will not tax the CPU. As I stated in an early post, most new games need a powerful video card, more than they need a powerful CPU. There is nothing wrong with your computer spec wise.

AMD chips do run hotter. My old AMD 1600xp ran in the 51-52c range, and It was a very stable machine.

I do agree with you that something isnt right, it can just be a pain to try and figure out what it is. Does your system lock up while using other software? If it locks up in other games too, you definately have a problem. I had a machine once with a bad stick of memory, and it would lock up only in games, or cause them to crash with page faults.

I assume that when you add all those new components, you formatted your Computer and did a clean install? Even though you didnt change the MB and CPU it is something to consider.

And one last thing you might try if nothing else seems to work. Remove the memory sticks one at a time. If the problems go away when one paticular stick is removed, it could be bad.


Thanks for the tips. To answer your questions:

1. The computer doesn't lock up during anything else. It's really very stable except for gaming.

2. I'll give the memory swap a try. You're right, it could be that.

3. Did a clean install when I upgraded the computer.

[Yellow5]

Video card could also be running a little hot.

I know it has a huge fan on it, but take a look at it while you are running a game and see if it's actually kicking on.

[gstelmack]

Make sure you aren't using too high a texture detail in your games. If you're trying to swap too many textures per frame, that can cause stuttering.

Run dxdiag (Start -> Run -> type dxdiag) and make sure it doesn't gripe about your motherboard's AGP drivers also.

[sterlingice]

That made me go and check my chip temp. Running an Athlon64 2800 and it's only running at 41C with 32C on the mobo. Nice and cool :)

As to the problem, do you have a non-EA game to try? Something to show that it's not just screwing up on some shoddy EA programming but on all games that require DirectX or something?

SI

[Philliesfan980]

Thanks for all the input guys... I think I've isolated the problem somewhat. But please tell me if this makes sense at all:

I started out by pulling all the ram out of my computer that I bought a few months back (2 x 1GB Corsair PC3200 chips), and replacing it with 2x512 valueram (forget the name exactly) chips. I ran a CPU vs CPU game of MVP and things looked great. No lockups, I was able to complete the game.

I decided to put back the 2x1GB Corsair chips and suddenly in the 3rd inning, the machine just rebooted for no apparent reason. This is one of the ways it crashed on me before while playing this game.

So I decided to isolate the problem by sticking in 1x1GB stick of the Corsair at a time and I was able to get through 2 games (1 each stick by itself) with no problems.

So, I'm somehow concluding (albeit one game, I was never able to complete one before) that my MB somehow messes up when both chips are in there? How does this make sense?

Thanks again for the help guys.

[Airhog]

I don't really think you need 2gb of ram. 1gb is plenty right now. It could be that your MB just cannot quite handle 2gb of ram. both sticks of memory are probably fine, but it looks to me like your MB may be the problem. Now I am not suggesting to go out and buy a new MB, since your MB is probably still good. I would set that memory aside for now, and when you do decide to replace your MB down the road in a year or two you can pull that memory back out and try it again. I would think that unless you are really taxing your system, 2gb is only going to be a minimal increase in performance...

[hukarez]

Good idea to look up your MB's website, to see if it's got an official listing of compatible memory chips. Had to do that with my ASUS board awhile ago. Also, try running a full memory test on your Corsair chips. I forget the name of the program(s) that he used, but it's saved him a *lot* of headache dealing with a bad batch of chips on his sticks.

It'll take awhile to finish, but a buddy of mine ended up having to RMA his Corsair, because of defects and failures in some tests.

[sterlingice]

Good idea to look up your MB's website, to see if it's got an official listing of compatible memory chips. Had to do that with my ASUS board awhile ago. Also, try running a full memory test on your Corsair chips. I forget the name of the program(s) that he used, but it's saved him a *lot* of headache dealing with a bad batch of chips on his sticks.

It'll take awhile to finish, but a buddy of mine ended up having to RMA his Corsair, because of defects and failures in some tests.
Dang- I had a bad mem chip once, too, and forgot what I used to check it. It was a cinch to replace since I got it through Crucial- just sent it back and got it replaced.

SI

[hukarez]

Dang- I had a bad mem chip once, too, and forgot what I used to check it. It was a cinch to replace since I got it through Crucial- just sent it back and got it replaced.

SI
If I invested in some high end, brand name memory, I'd definitely check them. Alas, I've relegated myself to using generics -- probably more so because I realize it'll be awhile before I can go 64-bit (at least, the non-entry level stage!).

I know my buddy was extremely irritated with the whole 'process' of having to send his stuff back. Naturally, we're always hoping for our parts to be in tip top shape and working order when we get them, but that's not often the case. How's the turnaround time for Crucial? I think my friend ended up having to wait almost a month before getting his replacements.

Luckily, those replacements passed his tests as well!

[sterlingice]

I want to say Crucial was about 2 weeks. Three days there and back and in their hands roughly 5 business days. Didn't think it was too bad.

I'm like you- can't afford to dip into the high end stuff even tho I have a 64-bit board and mobo. Had to go the Best Buy el-cheapo route for now :(

SI

[hukarez]

I want to say Crucial was about 2 weeks. Three days there and back and in their hands roughly 5 business days. Didn't think it was too bad.

I'm like you- can't afford to dip into the high end stuff even tho I have a 64-bit board and mobo. Had to go the Best Buy el-cheapo route for now :(

SI
Wow, that's not too bad at all. It seemed like forever when my buddy's (back then) prime machine was sitting quietly on the table. I'll have to keep Crucial in mind, when I decide to go online for my purchases next time around...(too many third party computer shops competing here in SD for me not to notice!)

[Philliesfan980]

Thanks again for all the tips guys. I think I nailed down the problem even further.

I went on my MB's (Asus A7V880) website and looked at the PDF manual they had online. I scrolled down to the "qualified memory provider list" and although corsair is on here, it doesn't seem to support the 1 GIG chip, only combinations of the 512 chip. Strange that my system isn't crashing during non games, but hey, it makes sense now.

I don't want all this memory sitting around, so I think I'm going to try and find a MB that supports this, I wanted to upgrade the CPU to an AMD 64 3700 anyway, which means that I'll need to get a new MB that will most likely only support PCI Express cards.

With that being said, does anyone want to buy a ATI all in Wonder X800 XT (256 Megs, AGP interface)? Paid 383 for it on newegg a few months back. Runs great.

[Airhog]

Thanks again for all the tips guys. I think I nailed down the problem even further.

I went on my MB's (Asus A7V880) website and looked at the PDF manual they had online. I scrolled down to the "qualified memory provider list" and although corsair is on here, it doesn't seem to support the 1 GIG chip, only combinations of the 512 chip. Strange that my system isn't crashing during non games, but hey, it makes sense now.

I know it seems strange, but it's quite logical. Games require lots of resources, and you really put your machine through the paces running them. Windows isnt going to use your memory as much as a game would, it doesnt have tons of data, and graphics to move in and out of memory. And if just a few bits gets reported wrong, then your gonna crash and burn...

[hukarez]

Windows isnt going to use your memory as much as a game would
Unless we're talking about Vista. http://dynamic.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

[hukarez]

With that being said, does anyone want to buy a ATI all in Wonder X800 XT (256 Megs, AGP interface)? Paid 383 for it on newegg a few months back. Runs great.
How much are you asking for? I have to admit, my curiousity is piqued.

[gstelmack]

Memfree86 is the utility that will test your memory. Get the boot CD image, boot from it, and let it run for a couple of hours.

[Philliesfan980]

How much are you asking for? I have to admit, my curiousity is piqued.

Would you like to start the offer?