BFBC2 *sometimes* gets "lagg-y" over time; what might be my bottleneck?

[Trizik]

this happens only sometimes, but the longer i play Battlefield Bad Company 2, the more local "lagg" i may experience. by local lagg (yes, an extra "g"), i mean my display may get somewhat skippy and my input control (mouse to on-screen movement sync) may "gap" every couple of seconds. for example, if i am slowly moving my mouse upward, the display will reflect the upward input smoothly for 1-2 seconds, freeze for a brief moment, then continue reflecting the upward input smoothly for another 1-2 seconds, freeze for a brief moment, repeat...

does that make sense?

i say "may" because the lag may or may not happen. sometimes i can play for hours without any issues, while other times the lag occurs within ~10 minutes after launching the game. keep in mind i always reboot my system before launching the game.

i thought the problem may have been bogging software, so the other day i formatted the single hard drive Windows 7 was installed on and reinstalled Windows 7 on two different hard drives in a RAID 0 setup. lag still happens.

i thought the problem may have been outdated/bad drivers, so i manually installed the latest drivers for all hardware in and outside my system, including the mobo's NB/SB. lag still happens.

i thought the problem may have been an issue with my BIOS, so i updated it to the latest version. tried fail-safe defaults, optimized defaults, and custom BIOS settings. lag still happens.

i play @ my monitor's native resolution 1680x1050.

my system specs are as follows:

mobo:
MSI 790FX-GD70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130223

GPU:
CrossFire 2X 4890 1GB

CPU:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 QC 3.4GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103692

RAM:
8GB (4 x 2GB) G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1600 9-9-9-24-2N
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

PSU:
Corsair 750TX (750W)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

any ideas? does anything stand out as a possible bottleneck?

thanks!

 

[zagood]

What case? Case fans? Have you changed the fan profile on your 4890s?

Poor cooling (case airflow and/or inefficient CPU/GPU heatsinks), non-stable overclock, bad ram, crossfire problems are my first thoughts. Don't have BFBC2 so can't comment on game-specific issues.

Track your temperatures with something you can leave on in the background while you're playing, rivatuner is very good for that.

 

[Trizik]

case:
Antec Nine Hundred (2 front fans, 1 top fan, 1 rear fan)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

not sure what you mean by changing the fan profile on my 4890s, but i have manually set their fan speeds to 100% to reduce chances of overheating. lag still happens.

i don't overclock at all.

the lag feels like the result of overheating, but various temperature monitoring programs (my favorite is Open Hardware Monitor) report max temps of 64C, and normal BFBC2 load is usually between 58C and 61C.

my instinct says something is wrong with my RAM and/or northbridge; maybe one isn't keeping up with the other? but i don't know how to test for that. suggestions?

i'm also wondering if my PSU is goofing up or simply not supplying enough power, but i'm not so sure this kind of lag would be the result of that.

thanks for the reply!

 

[zagood]

To test ram, grab a blank, DVD, CD, or floppy drive and make a bootable ISO of http://www.memtest86.com/. If you get any errors, run individual sticks until you find the one that's bad. If none of them test bad by themselves, repeat with different sockets. If that doesn't come up with anything, test two sticks at a time. If still no errors, then you probably need to increase your northbridge voltage to be able to handle 4 sticks at a time.

To test PSU, replace it. Sucks, I know.