poor performance whenever displaying char models and animati

[gdeman]

hi, every game i play it seems i notice this issue. whenever a character model whether it be npc or pc is on the screen my graphics really start stuttering and the more models on the screen the worse it gets. i notice this bad in nolf2, morrowind, ao, moh, rtcw ET, daoc, i dont notice it in games like ut 2k3, or vice city, jk2, serious sam tse. but most of my games this happens. it happens regardless of settings, it gets only slightly better on performance settings so i leave them on.

any other in game effects have no bearing whether or not my stutters and freezes (4-8 fps) happen around character models.
this happened on my geforce 4 ti 4200 and now its happening on my radeon 9800 pro, Ive tried every tweak that ive seen and it makes no difference. other than graphics card( which ive tried 2 different graphics cards so im sure its not that) what could cause this horrible stutter? ive tried everything.


_epox 8rda+
amd 2400+
radeon 9800 pro
1 g pc 2700
450 psu
_________________

[djvanders]

I know my system stutters and carries on in games if i leave the norton anti virus running in the background.. As soon as i close it problem solved..
Do you have a virus scanner running? Not sure if that will help.. best of luck


Leigh VDB

[zeradul]

What is your OS? and what is your in-game resolution? Are you using default Graphical settings in your games?

[gdeman]

XP is my OS.. I have nothing unnecessary running in the background.. in game resolution is the same as my desktop, im using max settings in-game.


AS IVE said i dotn believe its video card related. its character models usually in every game that stutter my pc out.... adjusting in game and out of game video settings makes no difference in this.

What besides video could cause this..
I think it has to do with games A.I. because once those character model begin to do actions my system totally lags out.

[The__tweaker]

It sounds like driver problems to me. :confused:

Btw sweet system.. :)

[gdeman]

thanks.. although a low end system is running much better than mine atm.
I just cant believe it has to do with my video card or drivers.
my drivers are gotten at the ati site.. 3.4, also tried 3.5, and 3.2.
nvidia driver at the nvidia site, 2.03, have tried 2.o, 2.01
.

what about the processor? could it cause stutters like this when handling A.I. code?
isnt the processor in charge of A.I. in the first place?
what about the sound ? i tried lowering the acceleration, and all i got was skipping static. so i use full acceleration..
my processor cannot handle much prime95 burnin stress test, i know that. and my new 3000+ barton does not work on this mobo no matter what ive tried.

more suggestions please.

[The__tweaker]

my processor cannot handle much prime95 burnin stress test, i know that. and my new 3000+ barton does not work on this mobo no matter what ive tried.

First what do you mean by it can't handle mutch prime95..:?:

As for the cpu, have ya flashed to the latest bios version..:?:

[gdeman]

what mean is prime95 will only run for about an hour before failure. cpu bios?.. are you referring to my motherboard? if so yes i have the most current bios for my 8rda+.

[maximus7001]

Did u swith cards since the last format?

[zeradul]

in game resolution is the same as my desktop

Which is what resolution?

What brand and model Heatsink Fan do you use? And what kind of thermal 'goop'? (try downloading the EPOX motherboard Temp program - They call it the USDM - and see what you have for temps, and tell us about it, run Prime 95 and see how the temps change)

What is the room temperature of the room your computer is in?

Do you have plenty of fans bringing air IN the front, and taking air OUT the back?

Are you running Full Anti-Aliasing, AND Full Anisotropic Filtering? Try turning these off for a bit. Try the games again.

and my new 3000+ barton does not work on this mobo no matter what ive tried.

What do you mean by this? What 'happens' when you install it?

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Please respond to all qustions to save time.

[gdeman]

1024x768.

what ever graphic setting I use does not change the fact that when in games, the character models lag out my system when they become active.. whether its control panel level settings , such as fsaa, or aniso, or truform,, in gmae settings like shadows, LOD, dynamic lighting, or even bios level agp settings.

so I just leave my graphics on High IQ because its not going to make any difference. I've theorized that my systme lags out in response to char, A.I.... because its fine when the models are just standing there in view... it wont start to stutter and jerk until the characters either start doing an activity, or if the characters become alerted to my presence there and begin to act on it.

Ive used the epox usdm since i installed the motherboard
my temps are at 36-40 idle and 39- 43 load (depending on ambient room temp) when i run prime95 with this proc my temps can get up to about 46-48.


now you mention the barton 3000+ well I think it had to do with heat why it wouldnt run. the stock HSF that came with it didnt seem to do so well.. my temps with it were about 53 idle and 64 load... and these temps would jump up and down at random seemingly very unstable. my 2400+ temps are like a rock, providing i dont change my thermostat in the house they stay constantly the same temp.


the barton would fail prime95 in about 2 or 3 seconds.

i have very good airflow to my case.

right now ive concluded that these are not the problem.

1: driver trouble.
2: heat problems
3: dodgy video card (ive tried 3 different video cards and the same effect)
4: bad memory.. ( memtest 86 runs overnoght at 5,2,2,2 and 6, 3,3,3)


here are the suspects i have

1: processor
2: mobo
3: hard drive
4: power supply

the reason why i think it could be the processor is I thought the CPU was the component in charge of handling the A.I. in games..
and this is the only time i have trouble with any game is when A.I begins doing its thing.

[zeradul]

What brand is your memory?

At the moment I am out of ideas. You have done your homework.

the reason why i think it could be the processor is I thought the CPU was the component in charge of handling the A.I. in games..

I really do not think this is it. For two reasons...

AI is constantly running, for all 'active' creatures, NPCs, etc. So even if they not in view, your processor is working equally hard on their AI. The only exception to this is a creature in a single player mode in which you haven't 'triggered' yet and he's just standing there waiting for you to cross a certain line.

And secondly, AI is NOT a difficult task for a processor. Compared with everything else going on it is negligable. It is very odd that some games work fine.

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I had a similar problem recently, exept mine was purely out of game, and completely random. SOMETHING (which remains unknown to me) caused my mouse to hang for a slip second. This also caused my audio to skip, and video to skip as well. But it didn't happen in game!

I did a clean install of XP Pro, installing one driver, one piece of software at a time. Each time testing to see if the problem came back. (a very slow process) and what the hell, the problem has not come back. I still haven't the foggyest what caused it, but its gone now ! Hehe. :cool:

So thats what I suggest, re-install XP and see what happens. Once you get it installed, leave the default drivers XP installs (for both your chipset and vid card) and then install one of the problem games and see if it happens.

If you want you can do this on a spare hard drive and leave your main hard drive in tact and ready to use whenever you need to.

[gdeman]

I have corsair XMS memory.

The only exception to this is a creature in a single player mode in which you haven't 'triggered' yet and he's just standing there waiting for you to cross a certain line.

Right and this is exactly the point at which my system starts stuttering. after I cross this line.. here ill use NOLF 2 as an example as this is the game where its most obvious. if im in stealth and the enemy is in view but does not see me im fine, but once the enemy is alerted to me, and starts running about trying to get me thats when i start to stutter. once i kill the offending enemy that is alerted my performance goes back to normal..also the enemy does not necessarily have to be in view for me to stutter, but say if one of the enemies has run off to set the alarm... hes still alerted and i still stutter.


I have reformatted several times over the past 4-5 months I do each time i install new hardware or sometimes ive done it due to this problem and it remains,..

what about sound? Ive noticed in some games when a certain sound is played my FPS will skip for a second, but nothing like what i mentioned about nolf2.


I guess i could try to reformat again.. but im at a loss, Ive tried to troubleshoot this forever it seems and im to the point now where im just going to gut my pc and install a new mobo, hard drive, proc,(i have a new 3000+ rmad the last one, and im waiting to get an SKu900a thermalright).. and maybew even a new psu.

[zeradul]

Well thats a thought, what kind of sound card are you using? Are you using the on-board sound? If so, try disabling it in the BIOS and see if the problem still exists.

And here's another thought that we didn't cover before. How are your IRQ's? I know your mobo has 24 IRQ's but its still possible to get devices trying to share the same IRQ.

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information... Open 'Hardware Resources' and click 'IRQs'

[gdeman]

ACPI>> none of my IRQ's are sharing atm my device mgr says im on a ACPI uniprocessor mode , if i change this driver to Advanced configuration bleh , bleh,,, my sound and video are sittin fat on IRQ 6 so i swithched it back to uniprocessor mode.

ill disable the sound while i can.. also Im not sure on how easy it would be to change IRQ's I can try to disable ACPI but that generally causes more trouble then its worth.. IRQ's arent easy to switch up. and i have no pci slots filled so i cant do it by just changing my soundcard to another pci slot (I have nVidia soundstorm) on mobo.