[Manticore]

I just got a new system with a DualCore Intel Pentium D 840, 3200 MHZ (16x200), an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX, and 1 GB of RAM. My problem involves how certain games are running.

The demos for Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2 run at max settings with an average of about 80-100 FPS with barely noticeable and rare stutters. Meanwhile, Half Life 2 and Doom 3 also can be run at max settings and get a great FPS count. However, the problem with those games is that they have this incessant minor stuttering that I can't get rid of. I told myself with HL2, "Maybe my computer can't handle the highest settings". So, I tuned things down a bit, but had the same exact problem.

I then went down to 800x600 resolution, all my graphics settings on low, and no HDR lighting. Those are settings worse than what I used on my old computer. And yet, to my disbelief, I still got the exact same stuttering. What could possibly be the problem with my system? It can run HL2 and Doom 3 much better than my old computer, but this stuttering just will not go away, no matter how low I set the graphics options. I even tried defragging the hard drive, which had no success. Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with this computer?

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I just got a new system with a DualCore Intel Pentium D 840, 3200 MHZ (16x200), an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX, and 1 GB of RAM. My problem involves how certain games are running.

The demos for Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2 run at max settings with an average of about 80-100 FPS with barely noticeable and rare stutters. Meanwhile, Half Life 2 and Doom 3 also can be run at max settings and get a great FPS count. However, the problem with those games is that they have this incessant minor stuttering that I can't get rid of. I told myself with HL2, "Maybe my computer can't handle the highest settings". So, I tuned things down a bit, but had the same exact problem.

I then went down to 800x600 resolution, all my graphics settings on low, and no HDR lighting. Those are settings worse than what I used on my old computer. And yet, to my disbelief, I still got the exact same stuttering. What could possibly be the problem with my system? It can run HL2 and Doom 3 much better than my old computer, but this stuttering just will not go away, no matter how low I set the graphics options. I even tried defragging the hard drive, which had no success. Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with this computer?

Make shure you dont have the anti-alias on a high setting and make shure the antistrophic filtering isnt on 16x. I would try that first.

Put the resolution at 1024x768 and see how that goes. Work your way up on the resolution if you want if it seems better. Dont leave the resolution at 800x600 because that runs horrible on the newer cards. 1024x768 will run good. Some people like higher resolutions.

[jrm20]

I just got a new system with a DualCore Intel Pentium D 840, 3200 MHZ (16x200), an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX, and 1 GB of RAM. My problem involves how certain games are running.

The demos for Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2 run at max settings with an average of about 80-100 FPS with barely noticeable and rare stutters. Meanwhile, Half Life 2 and Doom 3 also can be run at max settings and get a great FPS count. However, the problem with those games is that they have this incessant minor stuttering that I can't get rid of. I told myself with HL2, "Maybe my computer can't handle the highest settings". So, I tuned things down a bit, but had the same exact problem.

I then went down to 800x600 resolution, all my graphics settings on low, and no HDR lighting. Those are settings worse than what I used on my old computer. And yet, to my disbelief, I still got the exact same stuttering. What could possibly be the problem with my system? It can run HL2 and Doom 3 much better than my old computer, but this stuttering just will not go away, no matter how low I set the graphics options. I even tried defragging the hard drive, which had no success. Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with this computer?

Make shure you dont have the anti-alias on a high setting and make shure the antistrophic filtering isnt on 16x. I would try that first.

Put the resolution at 1024x768 and see how that goes. Work your way up on the resolution if you want if it seems better. Dont leave the resolution at 800x600 because that runs horrible on the newer cards. 1024x768 will run good. Some people like higher resolutions.

[p-zero]

Couple of things, get the latest drivers for your video card. There is some sort of forceware driver(forgot the name of it) for the new Geforce cards. I had a similar problem with HL2, thinkin it was other things on my computer, but it wasnt. Now mind you on my machine, which is by no means a powerhouse by todays standards, I run BF2, HL2, CSS, COD2, and all of the other games I have all at the maximum video and audio settings, with very little slowdown ONLY on initial startup of the game, bet if i had one more gig of ram that would go away.
Also, make sure you have service pack 2 for XP, the latest BIOS, and all the newest drivers for you hardware. That should take care of the problem.
Also Ive noticed that certain programs such as x-fire or gamespy tend to use up resources that would otherwise be used for the game. When I play, because I want the best of both worlds playability and quality video, I make sure ALL background (unneccesary) processes are disabled or turned off.
Try that and see what happens.
-Pete.

[warriorscot]

P-zero you really dont run them on high settings on a 6200 its physically impossible mate, if that were true you would be running games at the same settings as me and i can only just run them like that on a much better faster card.

[SuperSam]

Manti-Core, it may be a program running in the background. Have you had any of these problems before this?

I have heard that the newer nVidia cards don't include 24-bit support which is needed in HL2, weather thats a reason for the stuttering (which i doubt)

[kingpup]

I'm having a similar problem with my notebook with 2 gigs of RAM and a 7800 GTX go. I haven't actually played any new games on it yet, but I do still play Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty. Both run beautifully at max resolution and settings, with vertical synch on. A pleasure to play.

Battlefield Vietnam however, stutters. It's the same problem I used to get on Battlefield 1942 on my older setup. The framerate looks high enough - and yet every second or so I get a stutter or skipped frame. My 7800 GTX gave me 6700 3D Mark05 points straight out of the box (pretty standard for the "go") so I fail to see why it should have a problem with Vietnam, which although having a lot of foliage and detail, is still a 2 year old game.

One thing I've noticed as well - sometimes games seem to stutter a little when you first start playing them, then smooth out after a while. It almost feels like the graphics card is warming up or something. And another thing - sometimes when I first start playing 1942, moving in and out of the screen looks perfectly smooth yet when I add a bit of left or right motion, it stutters. My old computer used to do this as well.

[SuperSam]

Stuttering at the start is correct, kingpup. This is your computer creating a cache which will reduce lag, as the computer/notebook in your case doesn't have to re-create the cache files it has already created.

[rov]

only time my 7800gtx stutters is when i turn aa on past 30% or so

[kingpup]

only time my 7800gtx stutters is when i turn aa on past 30% or so

How do you set AA as a percentage? Or are you talking about adjusting it from within a particular game.

With Call of Duty 1, I can have every setting on max, including 8x anti-aliasing (the highest my NVidia settings allow) and vertical synch and it never misses a frame.