F.E.A.R STUTTERS ON MY X19000XT

[santz]

i have

1gb ram @667mhz
2 DL dvd writers
160gb 7200
dual core 2.8ghz
1907 19" lcd
375watts psu (Dell dimension 9150 psu, which i have read can beat a 500w generic psu)


when i test my @1024x768, the game demo itself stutters.
when i played halo online, after abt 20 mins, the cpu crashed and my monitor went blank. ( it could have shut down because of less ppower, i dont know)

i want to start my computer back again and use the driver cleaner to performa a clean install and test the whole thing again, but i am afraid that if it really is power starved, it will get permanently damaged., i dont even know if it is the symptoms lack of power supply

is it less ram, ?
is it my 2.8ghz dual core cpu?

every thing else is up-2-date in terms of drivers and game updates.

 

[Elfear]

I'd be willing to bet it's your PSU. Not sure which brand Dell carries but I imagine it doesn't have a very strong 12V rail. Can you tell us how many amps the 12V rail has?

 

[Xxspd88xX]

i agree with elfear, it should be your power supply. dell psu arent very strong, so you might want to consider upgrading your psu to a better brand and more power. the reason your computer crashed (i think) was because there was insufficient power to your video card.

also, i see that you have two optical drives and a fairly large hdd. that draws a lot of power already. along with a dual core and 2x ram sticks, ur video card isnt getting the power it needs.

also, if u have a spare psu, i suggest you use it, unless you have the money to upgrade to a new psu. its possible to run 2 psu in ur computer, so one powers ur motherboard, vid card, and processor, and the other could power the hdd and optical drives. just a suggestion.

 

[Keysplayr]

I had a similar problem with fear and it was due to hard drive thrashing. 375W is kind of wimpy for an X1900XT. Problem is you can't just go to CompUSA and buy an ATX power supply for Dell, (At least thats how it was for Dell's a few years back) because they are proprietary. Don't know if Dell changed this or not. And add another gig of memory. Two GB of memory stopped my stuttering, but I would see about the PSU first.

 

[shabby]

1gig of ram isnt enough for fear if you crank up all the settings.

 

[Acanthus]

Power supply usually causes crashing and errors, rarely will an underpowerd power supply cause performance issues.

Id point to 1GB of memory being the issue.

Does it run at fast fps and "stutter", or run slow at slow fps?

What was your old video card? Is it a fresh install?

 

[firewolfsm]

Originally posted by: shabby
1gig of ram isnt enough for fear if you crank up all the settings.

only depending on how many background processes you have, at full settings it'll take about 600MB (for 1152x864 at least).

i vote for PSU!

 

[003]

PSU

 

[Crescent13]

PSU is crap. That's what's causing it to crash.

CPU is crap. That's what's slowing down the FPS.

RAM is too little. That's what's causing it to stutter.

 

[003]

That about sums it up.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: firewolfsm

Originally posted by: shabby
1gig of ram isnt enough for fear if you crank up all the settings.

only depending on how many background processes you have, at full settings it'll take about 600MB (for 1152x864 at least).

i vote for PSU!

It was using a LOT more than that at 1280x960 when i played (~1300MB)

 

[BFG10K]

Have you updated your drivers?

 

[toyota]

why would you get an x1900xt when your monitor can only do 1280x1024?? an x1900xt is almost a waste if you cant run higher resolutions.

 

[BW86]

Did you use driver cleaner when you installed your new vid card?

 

[Munky]

Did you install the dual core AMD driver? I also had stuttering issues in FEAR, and with a x1900xt I should not be having any. Installed the driver and the stuttering went away.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: munky
Did you install the dual core AMD driver? I also had stuttering issues in FEAR, and with a x1900xt I should not be having any. Installed the driver and the stuttering went away.

he doesnt have amd.

 

[TheRyuu]

Overclock the 2.8 to something higher, maby the stuttering will go away then.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Overclock the 2.8 to something higher, maby the stuttering will go away then.

he is already at 2.8. is anybody actually reading the thread??

 

[pacho108]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Overclock the 2.8 to something higher, maby the stuttering will go away then.

he is already at 2.8. is anybody actually reading the thread??

are you?
he has a dell, that means P-D, 820 maybe

oh and "he doesnt have amd.", I believe you said this

 

[obeseotron]

Sounds like RAM to me, but you should be able to tell for sure by looking at the HD LED and listening to strong seeking sounds when it's stuttering. FEAR stuttered occasionally for me (1GB also) even with no background apps, and a fairly fresh XP installation, but not too much.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: pacho108

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Overclock the 2.8 to something higher, maby the stuttering will go away then.

he is already at 2.8. is anybody actually reading the thread??

are you?
he has a dell, that means P-D, 820 maybe

oh and "he doesnt have amd.", I believe you said this

what the heck does that mean? he said he had 2.8 dual core so how can you overclock to 2.8? i can read.

 

[pacho108]

Originally posted by: toyota
what the heck does that mean? he said he had 2.8 dual core so how can you overclock to 2.8? i can read.

even if the phrase "to something higher" is there for a stock cpu, the ocing idea is still there

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: pacho108

Originally posted by: toyota
what the heck does that mean? he said he had 2.8 dual core so how can you overclock to 2.8? i can read.

even if the phrase "to something higher" is there for a stock cpu, the ocing idea is still there

well maybe i cant read after all. lol. i thought he said to oc to 2.8. how can you overclock a dell anyway?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Crescent13
PSU is crap. That's what's causing it to crash.

CPU is crap. That's what's slowing down the FPS.

RAM is too little. That's what's causing it to stutter.

:thumbsup:

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: Crescent13
PSU is crap. That's what's causing it to crash.

CPU is crap. That's what's slowing down the FPS.

RAM is too little. That's what's causing it to stutter.

:thumbsup:

Crashing issues sound like PSU.

Stuttering FPS does not sound like his CPU, heck, i can run FEAR without any 'stuttering' on my tbred-b at 2.1Ghz & 1 gb RAM...

In my experience stuttering usually a driver problem or running out of VRAM/System RAM. Since this doesn't happen to me with a 128mb 6600GT@600/1150 & 1gb system ram, with a CPU that is almost certainly slower, it seems HIGHLY unlikey that either of those last points are true (remember, he says it happened in the 1024 benchmark too, i'm playing at 1024, everything maxed, softshadows off, 0xAA/4xAF atm)...

Not like you to spread FUD Zebo