New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Choppiness in Games

post #1 of 12
4/27/04 at 2:04am
Thread Starter 
I am having problems playing games. What happens is that randomly the game will get choppy or go into periods of "slow-motion" basically and then just as suddenly as it began it will end. These periods last anywhere from 30 seconds to about 2 minutes. It happens in several games including Max Payne 2 and NBA Live 2004 and Far Cry. I have tried many drivers including the sager drivers and the omega drivers. Is is possible that it is a conflict between drivers that is causing the problem? Also, no programs are running so I don't think it should be a CPU overload but the symptoms do appear to be a lack of processing power.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 12
4/27/04 at 12:07pm
I have the exact same system as you do and occasionally get low FPS too. The only game you mentioned that I have is Far Cry, so we'll work with that. What settings do you play on? I play at 1024x768 with everything set to medium except for Texture Quality/Enviroment Quality (V. high) and Water (Ultra High). With those settings, I get FPS around 40 occasionally dropping to 30 during lots of action. If you check your FPS, that should give you an indication of why you're slowing down. Hit tab in game and type "\r_displayinfo 1" to check your FPS (and same again but with a 0 to turn it off).

EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm using the Omega 4.3 drivers.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 12
4/27/04 at 1:43pm
Are either of you running virus scanners that might be doing background updates, or are you set up to do Windows Update automatically? Both of those can cause momentary slowdowns on occasion.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 12
4/27/04 at 1:49pm
Also e-mail checkers, etc...
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 12
4/27/04 at 6:20pm
Hmm, I hadn't thought of that... Thanks!
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 12
4/27/04 at 7:03pm
Thread Starter 
I am using the VirusScan 7.0 which I got from my school and I don't think leaves much of a footprint. I will try turning off automatic updates and see what that does.

I am also having a problem where sometimes the num lock and caps lock keys will flash on and off perodically for anwhere from 2 to 5 minutes and then they will stop. I can't seem to figure out what triggers this. Has anyone seen this before??
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 12
4/27/04 at 7:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sni425
I am also having a problem where sometimes the num lock and caps lock keys will flash on and off perodically for anwhere from 2 to 5 minutes and then they will stop.
Saw this on an 8790 -- HEAT WAS THE ISSUE --. I think that this is a warning sequence that would indicate that the CPU might be soon burning up - or more correct, it should have shut off because of high heat but did not. See if you can get a temperature monitoring program and see if you are near CPU meltdown. I can't tell what that is because I don't know what your configuration is. For the 8790, that I had, this behavior was evident at 67C and the "burn point" for the 3.4Ghz P4 Northwood is 68C.

Hope that this helps. Check your heat, you wouldn't want to "burn it up".

High heat could also cause the "erratic behavior".
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 12
4/29/04 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 
I took your advice and checked the temperature. During games it goes up to about 72 and in normal usage it around 56. Something weird I noticed was that when the num lock and caps lock keys began to flash again the temperature was still at about 56. Is heat the only thing that could make those lights do that? Also, is 56 a good temp or is that too hot?

BTW, my specs are in my signature.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 12
4/29/04 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sni425
I took your advice and checked the temperature. During games it goes up to about 72 and in normal usage it around 56. Something weird I noticed was that when the num lock and caps lock keys began to flash again the temperature was still at about 56. Is heat the only thing that could make those lights do that? Also, is 56 a good temp or is that too hot?

BTW, my specs are in my signature.
72!!! Ouch. During normal use, my fans kick on at 54 and drops the temp down to 44 before the fans go off again. During heavy gaming, I rarely exeed 61-62. Sounds like you need to clean out your heatsink. Search for violetdream's walkthrough. Also, you should consider applying Arcitc Silver. Search for that too. Sounds like heat is the problem.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 12
4/29/04 at 10:21pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the help. I cleaned out the heatsink and that seemed to do the trick. I am now hovering around 46 in normal use and about 60 in games. The choppiness appears to be gone but I have not had a lot of time to test it. Gotta finish up my finals!
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 12
5/2/04 at 9:55am
I had the EXACT same thing happening to me in Unreal Tournament 2004. After trying everything else it was... a heat issue. Cleaned out the heatsink and even gave it the Arctic Silver treatment, and everything is good now.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 12
5/2/04 at 10:40am
We all need to remember to clean out the dust every other week/month or so. Heck, I often forget, and it's re-posts like this thread that remind me!

-myrkat
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home