9800 GTX+ / 9800 GT Physx choppiness in game

[KinkiKowBoi]

So I've been trying to solve this problem for the week or so. Nothing worked so now I'm asking you guys for help. Here is what happens, when I play Heroes of Newerth, the game skips frames whenever I'm walking, whether I have 60 fps or 125 fps. Sometimes, the screen freezes and the audio stutters between 5-10 seconds ever 20 minutes or so (it hasn't happened in a while so I don't know if I still have it). I fold on my 9800 GT in the background but I doubt it does anything to the gameplay because when I stopped folding, the game stutters still occur. My nvidia control panel settings are all reset to stock settings. I oc'ed my 9800 GTX+ but it's been stable under 24 hours of GPUTOOL stress test. My CPU is also OC'ed but is stable under 50 linpack tests and 12 hours of prime. I don't know if those have to deal with the problem at hand but I'm still throwing it out nonetheless. Even at stock settings on the GTX+, the game still stutters. I'm currently using 196.21 driver of nvidia for this card. Let me know if you need any more information.

GA-EP45-UD3P Rev#: 1.6
Bios FD
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz @ 3.12 GHz
Freezer Pro 7 Rev.2
G.Skill PC2-6400 4x1Gb DDR2-800 (5-5-5-15 @ 2.0)
EVGA 9800 GTX+
NVidia GeForce 9800GT (PhysX)
Corsair 650W
Antec 300
Win7 Ultimate 64x

 

[Schmide]

Did you check it at stock? Just because a piecewise overclock is stable doesn't mean it's stable when all components are active. Active VC draw power, cause dips in voltage, etc.

 

[lavaheadache]

try enableing vsync to see if that helps. My Hd4870x2 and hd4870 don't seem smooth sometimes even with extremely high fps. Vsync always does the trick

 

[tviceman]

I had this exact same problem with Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack the Ripper. In Windows 7 x64, I could tell it was ultra smooth but stuttered/skipped horribly. The only solution I found was to run the game in windows XP 32-bit, which fixed all the issues.

Do other games stutter? Try running the game from a fresh boot without running any external programs/apps. And definitely run the game at stock speeds. Also try running the game at the lowest graphical settings and see if that still causes the stutter.

If none of that works, try rolling back to the 195 drivers, or even 191. Also, assuming you have integrated sound, go to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download the latest sound drivers.

 

[MarcVenice]

Weird, sounds more like a driver issue to me. Maybe the drivers get whacky because of 1 gpu being configured as a renderer, whilst the other is just 'there', and the drivers do communicate with both of them. I dunno, there's tons of possibilities that might cause your setup to act weird. Do you know for a fact the problem stops when you remove the 9800GT ?

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

I've tried stock settings, still doesn't work. I've rolled back to 191 and all the ones in between. Still skippy. I've already downloaded latest Realteks HD Audio driver. Didn't solve the problem. I've tried Vsync and it still is choppy at 60 fps. I've done CPU combos with /w 9800 GT, 8600 GTS, and 9800GTX+ by itself. Still didn't solve the issue. I've played Need for Speed Shift perfect at medium settings with the 9800 GTX+ and the 8600 GTS.

 

[MarcVenice]

So in short, no matter the videocard combination, or even when using ONLY the 9800GTX+, the game doesn't run without hickups?

It's more likely to be game-related, or even hdd related? What you should do is run taskmanager and gpu-z in the background, and monitor gpu-usage, cpu-usage, ram usage and temperatures. As soon as it stutters, alt-tab and look at those apps and see what they show.

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

Yea, any combination. I also tried using lowest graphic settings and it still didn't work.

The gpu usage fluctuate between 10-20, cpu usage fluctuates between 10-15. Gpup temp stays at 50 when playing. ram is at 50% also

 

[Schmide]

Shot in the dark. Do you have the latest realtek driver for both sound and ethernet?

 

[MarcVenice]

So it only happens in that game, which after googling doesn't look very demanding and isn't very demanding judging by your numbers. Since it 'only' happens every 20 minutes, it doesn't seem very structural. Couldn't it be the hdd that's loading up new areas? Couldn't it be Windows thats backing up something? Is it 20 minutes every time, or does it also happen every few minutes sometimes, in essence, how randomn or not randomn is it?

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

I have the latest for sound, but not ethernet. I'll go get it now.

EDIT: Which one am I supposed to get? >.<

Oh, where did you get 20 minutes? I mean 10-20&#37;. My bad. It happens like every other second. When I'm standing still, it's perfectly fine, but when I start moving, it happens.

 

[MarcVenice]

I have the latest for sound, but not ethernet. I'll go get it now.

Oh, where did you get 20 minutes? I mean 10-20%. My bad. It happens like every other second. When I'm standing still, it's perfectly fine, but when I start moving, it happens.

You said: "when I play Heroes of Newerth, the game skips frames whenever I'm walking, whether I have 60 fps or 125 fps. Sometimes, the screen freezes and the audio stutters between 5-10 seconds ever 20 minutes or so". So only the audio stutters every 20 minutes, but the fps stutter whenever you start walking? So the game is unplayable? I think I misread it the first time

So when you stand still, all is fine. What if you stand still and move the camera ? Does it stutter?

All I can think of right now, is driver cleaner and reinstalling the latest drivers.

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

Oh. Yea, the audio sometimes does that. It actually hasn't happened since I reinstalled the drivers so I'll let you know if it pops up again. But for now, my main concern is the skippy frames while playing. When I walk, it feels like my dude, instead of walking, is teleporting a short distance ahead of him lol. I don't know how else to say it. I can upload a video if you want to see what I mean. The game is still playable, it's just that I wouldn't think a card like this would do that in such a non-intensive game. When I move the camera and stand still, it's ok but when I walk, it gets bad. When I stand still and watch other people walk, it's bad. Basically, anything that moves skips. I've done 191, 195, and 196 two times each already haha.

 

[MisterDonut]

If nothing else has worked, it sounds like a HDD problem to me. Try re-installing ? Or maybe testing the game on another HDD. Much like those who take 30 seconds to load DoTA....

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

If nothing else has worked, it sounds like a HDD problem to me. Try re-installing ? Or maybe testing the game on another HDD. Much like those who take 30 seconds to load DoTA....

I do have 2 hdd. 1 seagate and 1 western digital I got form my friend. It's not in raid or anything. Could this be the culprit then?

 

[MisterDonut]

I don't know at all =/. But it seems like the last culprit to test. Could be some slow loading. Ah, I just noticed. You're running the older drivers for physx without SLI. I haven't read the thread too thoroughly, but since Win7 doesn't have any current drivers to support it, it could be that. But it seems you've already individually tested each card. If Nvidia's real drivers don't work with a single card, your HDD is probably the baddie. Re-install or put it on the other hard disk and run it. If that doesn't fix it, it's telling you to go back to DoTA .

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

I think I'm going to reinstall and hopefully it will work haha. I'm done with dota. My league years are over.

 

[tviceman]

It is windows 7 x64. If you have windows xp, play it on that. I'm not hating on windows 7 as it's what I boot into 98&#37; of the time now, but reread my earlier post. http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29270245&postcount=4

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

My friend plays on window 7 64x and it's fine for her though.

 

[tviceman]

My friend plays on window 7 64x and it's fine for her though.

And I did not encounter one person on vista/win 7x64 that had skipping issues with my game, either. It's weird like that.

Something else you can try is to download the actual (and latest) drivers for your motherboard chipset as opposed to using the windows 7 generic drivers. I was having issues with my pc resuming from an idle state and I didn't figure out it was my chipset drivers until I installed windows 7 on my laptop and started having the same issues.

 

[lavaheadache]

i just remembered something from the past. I used to get terrible hitching in need for speed most wanted but no other game. I was convinced it was my video card, an x800 pro. I tried changing drivers to no avail. Meanwhile, i upgraded my hdd and ghosted the maxtor drive i was using on to a new western digital caviar. All of a sudden my hiching was fixed. So I guess I'm getting at that it may be your hdd

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

And I did not encounter one person on vista/win 7x64 that had skipping issues with my game, either. It's weird like that.

Something else you can try is to download the actual (and latest) drivers for your motherboard chipset as opposed to using the windows 7 generic drivers. I was having issues with my pc resuming from an idle state and I didn't figure out it was my chipset drivers until I installed windows 7 on my laptop and started having the same issues.

I've upgraded the chipset drivers already and to no avail =[[

i just remembered something from the past. I used to get terrible hitching in need for speed most wanted but no other game. I was convinced it was my video card, an x800 pro. I tried changing drivers to no avail. Meanwhile, i upgraded my hdd and ghosted the maxtor drive i was using on to a new western digital caviar. All of a sudden my hiching was fixed. So I guess I'm getting at that it may be your hdd

What do you mean by ghosting? Like copying over?

EDIT: Do you guys know if me running 1920x1200 is causing this issue? I have a 27' Apple Cinema Display.

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

reformatting did not work.

 

[MarcVenice]

reformatting did not work.

This must be frustrating. Have you tried running it in windowx xp-mode? Right click the executable, compatibility mode and select windows XP sp3.

 

[KinkiKowBoi]

yea i tried that =[[