Getting smooth performance?

mattzilla · 13 Apr 2006 at 09:33

I've recently got back into PC gaming and upgraded my PC with a new GFX card, motherboard and CPU.

Though I've noticed that in some games I get a bit of a stuttering effect (for example in TR: Legend on the cut-scenes where there's a bit of a fly-by its not quite smooth, and it 'jumps' slightly every few seconds. Thats with Next Gen off. I get the same thing on the Doom 3 intro).

So I've been thinking it might be down to my hard drive (an old 1st generation WD SATA drive), or my memory (1GB Corsair LL RAM, bought about 2 years ago).

What would be better to upgrade to smooth this out? Or are there other performance tweaks i've missed that could help fix this?

I'm running an Athlon 3700+ CPU and an XFX 7900GT XXX GFX card.

Any help appreciated!

vanandjuanunited · 13 Apr 2006 at 09:35

Have you tried defragging the hard drive , checking for spyware etc.
Latest drivers etc.

mattzilla · 13 Apr 2006 at 09:52

Yep, latest drivers on everything. Defragged after I install each game, no spyware, nothing running in the background.

Its a bit confusing :/ I am thinking it might be the hard drive though.

n3x · 13 Apr 2006 at 11:08

i got the same thing with the quake 4 demo but only on the intro for that game, everything else has been perfectly fine! Not sure why but its only on that game intro and nothing else so doesnt bother me much.

Im on a SATA2 WD Caviar by the way!

Could it be something to do with max render frames ahead? :confused:

mattzilla · 13 Apr 2006 at 11:13

Hmm, where can I change that?

Black Dog · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:20

I've always had this on intro's for as long as I can remember.

The intro's are usually video based and not acual in game graphics, bink video ect.

Upgrading codecs may help but I doubt it would be anything hardware based.

Don't worry about it as long as the game run's fine.

Sweetloaf · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:27

Black Dog said:
The intro's are usually video based and not acual in game graphics, bink video ect.
.

Pretty sure that isn't the case for the games mentioned!

n3x said:
Could it be something to do with max render frames ahead?

It's more likely to be something like this, try with vsync off and see what happens!

mattzilla said:
Hmm, where can I change that?

Install coolbits (Nvidia OC tool) and click the advanced tab!

Black Dog said:
Don't worry about it as long as the game run's fine.

Or do that

I've noticed it myself, it's hardly a nightmare just one of those annoyances that you want to iron out

DaveyD · 13 Apr 2006 at 14:31

To be honest, one of the main smoothing out thing you'd be able to do is by tweaking your detail setting on said games. But I think the odd jerk here and there can be down to caching, or lack of maybe. Another gig of RAM would probably help you out a little.

mattzilla · 13 Apr 2006 at 15:33

Yeah the games I mentioned have scenes in the engine itself, not prerendered ones.

I've tried turning the detail down and get the same thing which is a bit odd. But i'll try out some of the recommendations here, thanks

speeduk · 13 Apr 2006 at 16:00

Sometimes video or sound codecs can mess up a games performance. Try a new soundcard or drivers/codec packs etc.

Most of the time the stuttering is down to info being loaded from the hard drive into system ram, or not enough system ram being available.

HangTime · 13 Apr 2006 at 19:56

Stuttering at the start of cutscenes is probably due to it loading the 'level' and starting the scene immediately. Enhanced disk performance would probably help a little but it's not worth the expense to sort it IMO.

smit101 · 13 Apr 2006 at 20:28

Try setting your pagefile size to 2560MB,initial and maximum,also make sure it is set to the primary drive,only set it to a drive other than the main if it is a physical drive.

This is a recommended windows tweak for max gaming performance and is regardless of how much system ram you have,setting things this way prevents the pagefile from becoming fragmented and can effectively reduce/eliminate in game stuttering.