Gaming - Jerky graphics. Please help

gbdtil1

gbdtil1

gbdtil1

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Good day to all you forum readers out there. I seek your advice on a problem which has been plaguing my enjoyment of pc gaming for the best part of 18 months. My current gaming loves are Far Cry and, moreso in recent times, BF2.

My Problem: Very stuttery graphics during periods of relative calm and intense action periods during a game. This does not occur constantly throughout a given game but periodically during most games. I have updated my graphics and sound drivers to the latest versions in an attempt to cure this but to no avail. I have added various upgrades to my machine over the last 18 months in a move to play these games at the best resolution and highest detail possible. For example in BF2, I currently have all settings on High and 2 x AA. Resolution at 1280 x 1024 and refresh rate of 75. Even when I turn these settings down to lower resolution and selective Medium settings (AA knocked off), I still get the occasional jerky frame rates.

My PC specs:

Dell Dimension 8400 series machine
CPU: Intel Pentium 4. 3 Ghz (500 series I believe)
Mobo: Intel 925x chipset. Pci express
GPU: Nvidia XFX 7800GTX (Gamers edition - 475 Core clock speed)
Memory: 2 x 1 Gig sticks of Corsair XMS Ram - 667mhz speed (DDR2)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
Hard Drive: 250 Gig Maxtor (not sure of speed but think 7200 rpm)
PSU: 500 Watt Bluestorm

In addition to the above specs I also have installed Panda Platinum Security product. (This was a must following a particularly nasty double clicker virus contracted which high-jacked my home page).

As you can see from above, the spec has evolved a fair bit from a standard Dell Dimension 8400 machine, though I accept that the Pentium 4 is hardly comparable to a decent AMD chip.

Fraps readings normally show a high position of circa 45 fps (best recored in BF2) at the high settings but a dip to (sometimes) 15 and below. Don't know how to call up average fps ratings!

Questions:
Are my upgrades potentially causing conflict with the unchanged parts of my Dell machine?
Are there known conflict issues with Panda Platinum security and gaming? (I have turned automatic updates off and knocked off the Windows Firewall).
My previous Memory was 1.5 Gig of Dell 533Mhz Ram (DDR2). The original Ram was half a gig of 400mhz Ram. Is my Ram too quick for the Motherboard?

You can tell from my questions that I (openly) know nothing about pc technology. I am trying to build/buy my way past these problems but they still persist. Having invested the price of a half decent AlienWare machine I'm loathe to throw more money at this now, but having said that, I do have some monies left in the slush fund to purchase new kit if it sorts the problem.

I would welcome all ideas - excluding anything to do with overclocking - as that scares the hell out of me! Am I being naive in thinking that my current spec should run these games comfortably at high(ish) settings???

Thanks in advance for any responses. ;)
 
have you checked your temps? the P4 stock cooling 'orb' is awful!!! i used to have that. id play a game for a bit. and like 30-60 mins later its go rly rly stuttery. CPU got to like 70C O_o
 
NeptuneUK - thanks for the swift response. Now to expose myself as a complete pc Noob - can you advise me of a programme to use for measuring CPU temperature? I would also think that given the size of the Dell Dimension 8400 casing - options for decent cooling upgrades would be somewhat limited? Was yours a Dell machine and therefore a midi casing?

I will investigate this as its a new avenue to explore. I will say however that my experience of jerky graphics can often take place well ahead of 30 mins play time :mad:

Thanks for your input ;)
 
try speedfan or motherboard monitor 5. It could be that your CPU is throttling under high temps, ie restricting cpu speed to stop it dieing.

Hope this helps, good luck.
 
Thanx guys I'll give this a try - assuming my motherboard is supported by these programmes!! Going back to an earlier statement however, is it possible my cpu could be 'throttling in games only minutes (well within 15 mins) after booting the pc up?
 
Almost sounds as if its loading stuff from the HDD. Does the stuttering continue until the game is closed, or is it only momentary?

To my mind anyway, Panda is nearly as bad as McAfee/ Norton in terms of resource hogging (And appears to be about as useful as a chocolate teapot :mad: - For example, refuses to run in less than 32 bit color), so try disabling it & see if the probs go away. If they do, then I'd reccomend Avast, which is free as well.

-Leezer-
 
it is. what cooling fans are you using on your case?
best thing to do. i reckon. is to have a fan on the front blowing air in. and a fan on the back blowing are out giving u a nice one way airflow. combined with an arctic cooler which compliments the air flow of the case by blowing the air from the front to the back.

edit: i cant see it page filing with 2gb of memory
 
the stuttering can occur at various times throughout play. From beinning to end, ie several sporadic hits of it. I also believe it is more prevalent (in BF2) when things like artillery go off and tank noise is near - this was wht I upgraded from Audigy 2 card to latest sound card and driver. Hasn't made any difference though.

I also worry that I may be somewhat of a hostage to the Panda product as if I disable it (do you mean via msconfig, complete uninstall or other?), my double clicker virus may return! (or is it a case of now that Panda has dealt with it, its done and dusted?).

Really appreciate the input so far guys. I'll try all these things later. :)
 
Formatting, its when you deleat everything on your Hard Drive, and install from scratch, word of advice back up first :p
 
I believe he's saying reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows.
You could always try a different anti virus product. Some use up quite a lot of resources (Norton is, or at least was, bad for this).
I use Avast as it's free and quite resource friendly.

Avast download page
 
If you are going to reinstall windows contact dell as I believe they use a hidden partition to help reinstall windows which you shouldn't delete, also if it is temps that are high then contact dell as it is faulty.
 
he cant, its evolved far beyond a dell ;)

anyway hes added his own stuff into. dells are poop. they should quit and just stick to manufacturing monitors
 
Panda is a hell of a resource hog but if you decide to get rid of it you may well have a nightmare on your hands. I had a trial version of Panda on my pc over a year ago and it led my pc to have problems that were similar to yours. It's not a case of just uninstalling the damn thing though as it gets so deep in your system that it is virtually impossible to get rid of. In the end i had to format the drive to get rid of every trace. I now use Avast! which is free for home use and is very low on resource usage. On top of that it is very regularly updated. It is only a AV product though so you will still need a firewall. Zonealarm maybe? Personally i hated it and use Outpost firewall.
 
NeptuneUK said:
dells are poop
Click to expand...
I'd have to disagree for gaming they are not always the best and propriatary sucks but did anyone see the quad sli machince oced to 4.26Ghz that dell did nice :), and if you just want an office pc they are not bad.

Although i'd agree build it yourself is better
 
meh. whatever. my friend had a dell. wanted to upgrade. they removed and soldered over the AGP slot... *********.
if u want to upgrade the dell yourself you void the warranty.
 
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