8800GT framerate issues - Overclock.net

soutpark2033 · 07-17-08

:::For those who don't want to read everything below:::

Hello, and thanks for looking,

I have trouple with dropped/skipped frames when looking side to side or strafing. Done on clean windows installs, using 8800GT. Basically whenever the camera moves, either because of a mouse look, or a cinematic event, objects, especially close up objects, render slower than everything else, and it feels like I'm losing frames, BUT It's not the case, because FPS is good (shown as steadily above 40, 60, etc, depending on game). The effect is like skipping/jumping every 3 - 5 sec. Resolution and LOD have no influence on this. Drivers are up to date.

So, can CPU, LCD response time, or OC on GPU be explanation to this?

:::More detailed info:::

:::I have the following setup:::

ZOTAC AMP! Edition 8800GT 512MB:
FACTORY OC'D @ 700mhz CORE & @ 2000mhz MEM

AMD 64 X2 3800+ @ Stock 2.0Ghz

G.SKILL DDR2 6400/800Mhz RAM, 2GB

ABIT M2-NF nView MOBO, Chipset: 6150/430

HP 2035 (kinda old) 1600 x 1200 LCD @ 60Hz and 75 Hz, 16ms response time.

:::

I have run tests on CLEAN INSTALLS of both WINDOWS XP and WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE on my machine.

I have used NVIDIA's AUTOMATIC DETECTION to download drivers directly from their site BOTH TIMES.

:::

Running Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark:

(Nvidia Panel set to Default: Performance (no AA, no AF), w/Single Display Perfornace and V-sync FORCED ON unless otherwise mentioned)

1st test: Win XP: DX9: ALL HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 75Hz: 60FPS CONSTANT: Every 4 - 5 seconds the camera "jumps" ESPECIALLY when rendering SIDEWAYS MOVING OBJECTS THAT ARE CLOSE UP. All Character models smooth and fast.

2nd test: Win Vista x86: DX10: ALL HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 75Hz: VARIABLE FPS: Again, every 4 - 5 seconds the camera "jumps" ESPECIALLY when rendering SIDEWAYS MOVING OBJECTS THAT ARE CLOSE UP (+ Massive drop in frames on close up objects into 20's and 30's). All Character models smooth and fast.

3rd test: Win Vista x86: DX10: ALL SUPER HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 60hz: 60FPS CONSTANT: Best test of all 4. MUCH better in every aspect, BUT, again, every 3 - 5 seconds massive skip in frames. THIS IS VERY ANNOYING! Characters render flawlessly, far off detail and architecture exellent. COLSE UP ARCHITECTURE (Balconies, or Plants) JUMPING FORWARD EVERY FEW SECONDS. Otherwise, SMOOTH AND BEAUTIFUL character models. IN FACT best performance was in boss battle, noticed that there was less straight lines and architecture in this part, possibly why it worked better.

4th test: ALL LOW, 1024 x 786, and V-SYNC OFF, SAME RESULTS! Jumps forward/skipps frames every 3 - 5 sec.

:::

This card seems to hate "smooth/fluid camera operation" The kind you expect from a console game like 360 or PS3. Wether I'm getting 40FPS in Crysis Demo, 60 - 75 in DMC4, or 75+ in HL2, DOES NOT MATTER HOW MANY FRAMES, the CAMERA, SIDE TO SIDE, when panning, or looking left to right, is NEVER smooth. CLOSE UP objects always rendering at what seems like slowwer/skipping than far off stuff. No matter what Resolution or Detail. Always jumping every few seconds, skipping frames here and there. REMEMBER I am NOT using AF or AA. I must be going crazy but this is not what I expected from a 8800GT.

::: THE QUESTION :::

Obviously my processor is old, but not THAT old. If you're at least 95% sure that's my problem, please ASSURE me before I drop $$$ on a new one.

-Also could it be the 16ms craw rate on the monitor?

-Or the OC on the card, making it do weird buisiness?

-I would love it to be as simple as CPU issue but it seems like I should be able to run these games on 2Ghz. Even more so , it seems that the issues I am having wouldn't result in lower frames when Panning/looking, or moving. If i understand correctly, if the CPU weasn't fast enough, I would have an OVERALL/GLOBAL underperfornace issue.

I do not have this problem if, for example, i was stationary, and watching stuff render on screen.

But it does It feels like something is not up to speed in this rig. Solve this problem and I'll love you forever.

FieryCoD · 07-17-08

Possibly your CPU is bottlenecking?

I'm getting really decent frames at 1400x900 with C8xQ anti-aliasing with everything on max settings. Try to overclock the CPU, that is my guess.

brettjv · 07-17-08

Dude ... the problem is obvious...

You need a new Flux Capacitor.

For reals, though, I *seriously* doubt it's your card, given your description of circumstances. That wouldn't make much sense to me. You would be seeing the problem get worse as the res went up, without a doubt, if the problem was the card itself.

Do you (or does anyone else) know whether this bench is designed to be a total system bench, or is it a GPU bench?

If it's a system bench, then these periods of lagging are most likely the portions of the test designed to test your cpu. Your cpu, I'm afraid, may not be up to the task of providing a smooth framerate when it's taxed by a benchmark that is specifically targeting the cpu. I mean, is this kind of like what happens when you run 3dMark06 and the cpu tests come on and you get like 1 fps and the motion is all jerky?

If it's a GPU bench exclusively, then the CPU *should* not be the problem (but it depends on how well they coded the bench). In this case, I'd lean more towards suspecting drivers as the problem.

How does the game itself play? It may be that your slower cpu doesn't really effect much, in-game, in which case, don't sweat it. It's just a benchmark!

But I gotta ask, man ... who the heck has a 3800X2 and DOESN'T overclock it? You oughta be able to coax at least 2.6MHz out of that thing. And thats like a 30% boost. I would get on that if I were you, regardless

Another handy tool for troubleshooting something like this is to use RT to track your FPS and CPU usage while running the bench. Then after the bench finishes go back and try to find the places on the graph where the slowdowns were, and look to see if they coincide with a pegged (which basically means each core at 50%) processor. That will give you a real good hint, if you see that happening...

soutpark2033 · 07-17-08

Thanks for the answer. THe prospect of testing running prime, etc, for hours is kind of a put off for me. If i could set it and forget it, i would, but i dont want to set my pc on fire! I have seen this effect IN GAME in Crysis but only in the bench in DMC4 (ill try ASAP). I WILL buy a 6400+ really soon, seeing as its the best that will work with my non AM2+ mobo. Just want to know if thatll fix it. and YES i DO get less than 1fps on cpu bench in 06, Will 6400+ fix that? Also how can I get my drive score in Vista Higher? I have 5.2 but I'ts sata II so idunno whats faster than that... except maybe RAM DRIVE...

CorryBasler · 07-17-08

Fill out your specs in the user cp!

brettjv · 07-17-08

Who said anything about running prime for hours?

Use the Rivatuner graphing function to track the FPS and CPU usage (u may have to enable a plug-in for the cpu, I forget ATM), and leave it on while you run the DMC bench. Check out the graphs immediately afterwards and see if the slowdowns you see correspond to the CPU getting pegged.

And NO, cpu bottlenecking will *not* necessarily (not often, in fact) cause 'across the board' slowdowns in graphical performance. You'll get slowdowns only at the times where the cpu is being used heavily by the program in question.

And no processor does much better then 1fps in the 1st 3dMark06 cpu perf test, it's basically designed to completely overwhelm the cpu with data to process.

To answer your other question, here's what's faster than SATA II:
SATA II in Raid-0 (the more drives, the faster it is)
SCSI drive (especially if tested with non-sequential data, or using lot of concurrent data requests, aka, if you have a 'request queue')
SAS drive (same stipulations as SCSI)
Solid State Drive

(and of course, the last three could also be run in RAID-0 for even greater perf gains)

soutpark2033 · 07-17-08

TY your advice will really help me figure this out. I really appreciate your help and will do this as soon as i get back saturday!

soutpark2033 · 07-18-08

Well i played the trail through, gotta say, in game dx10 looks great! incredible stuff. However cutscense still have that jump every 5 sec problem with camera... sigh.

TheSubtleKnife · 07-18-08

Could be screen tearing... try enabling vertical syncronization (vsync) or cap the FPS to the refresh rate of your screen (60, 75,80,etc)

GreatBigMouth · 07-19-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by soutpark2033

Well i played the trail through, gotta say, in game dx10 looks great! incredible stuff. However cutscense still have that jump every 5 sec problem with camera... sigh.

This happened to me when I still had my 3800+. The CPU just couldn't handle the newer games. After I upgraded, the jumps and stutters were gone. I'm 90% sure it's your CPU. Try testing it with a better cpu and see if that helped.

07-17-08	#1 (permalink)
soutpark2033 New to Overclock.net Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 4 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	8800GT framerate issues :::For those who don't want to read everything below::: Hello, and thanks for looking, I have trouple with dropped/skipped frames when looking side to side or strafing. Done on clean windows installs, using 8800GT. Basically whenever the camera moves, either because of a mouse look, or a cinematic event, objects, especially close up objects, render slower than everything else, and it feels like I'm losing frames, BUT It's not the case, because FPS is good (shown as steadily above 40, 60, etc, depending on game). The effect is like skipping/jumping every 3 - 5 sec. Resolution and LOD have no influence on this. Drivers are up to date. So, can CPU, LCD response time, or OC on GPU be explanation to this? :::More detailed info::: :::I have the following setup::: ZOTAC AMP! Edition 8800GT 512MB: FACTORY OC'D @ 700mhz CORE & @ 2000mhz MEM AMD 64 X2 3800+ @ Stock 2.0Ghz G.SKILL DDR2 6400/800Mhz RAM, 2GB ABIT M2-NF nView MOBO, Chipset: 6150/430 HP 2035 (kinda old) 1600 x 1200 LCD @ 60Hz and 75 Hz, 16ms response time. ::: I have run tests on CLEAN INSTALLS of both WINDOWS XP and WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE on my machine. I have used NVIDIA's AUTOMATIC DETECTION to download drivers directly from their site BOTH TIMES. ::: Running Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark: (Nvidia Panel set to Default: Performance (no AA, no AF), w/Single Display Perfornace and V-sync FORCED ON unless otherwise mentioned) 1st test: Win XP: DX9: ALL HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 75Hz: 60FPS CONSTANT: Every 4 - 5 seconds the camera "jumps" ESPECIALLY when rendering SIDEWAYS MOVING OBJECTS THAT ARE CLOSE UP. All Character models smooth and fast. 2nd test: Win Vista x86: DX10: ALL HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 75Hz: VARIABLE FPS: Again, every 4 - 5 seconds the camera "jumps" ESPECIALLY when rendering SIDEWAYS MOVING OBJECTS THAT ARE CLOSE UP (+ Massive drop in frames on close up objects into 20's and 30's). All Character models smooth and fast. 3rd test: Win Vista x86: DX10: ALL SUPER HIGH: 1600 x 1200: 60hz: 60FPS CONSTANT: Best test of all 4. MUCH better in every aspect, BUT, again, every 3 - 5 seconds massive skip in frames. THIS IS VERY ANNOYING! Characters render flawlessly, far off detail and architecture exellent. COLSE UP ARCHITECTURE (Balconies, or Plants) JUMPING FORWARD EVERY FEW SECONDS. Otherwise, SMOOTH AND BEAUTIFUL character models. IN FACT best performance was in boss battle, noticed that there was less straight lines and architecture in this part, possibly why it worked better. 4th test: ALL LOW, 1024 x 786, and V-SYNC OFF, SAME RESULTS! Jumps forward/skipps frames every 3 - 5 sec. ::: This card seems to hate "smooth/fluid camera operation" The kind you expect from a console game like 360 or PS3. Wether I'm getting 40FPS in Crysis Demo, 60 - 75 in DMC4, or 75+ in HL2, DOES NOT MATTER HOW MANY FRAMES, the CAMERA, SIDE TO SIDE, when panning, or looking left to right, is NEVER smooth. CLOSE UP objects always rendering at what seems like slowwer/skipping than far off stuff. No matter what Resolution or Detail. Always jumping every few seconds, skipping frames here and there. REMEMBER I am NOT using AF or AA. I must be going crazy but this is not what I expected from a 8800GT. ::: THE QUESTION ::: Obviously my processor is old, but not THAT old. If you're at least 95% sure that's my problem, please ASSURE me before I drop $$$ on a new one. -Also could it be the 16ms craw rate on the monitor? -Or the OC on the card, making it do weird buisiness? -I would love it to be as simple as CPU issue but it seems like I should be able to run these games on 2Ghz. Even more so , it seems that the issues I am having wouldn't result in lower frames when Panning/looking, or moving. If i understand correctly, if the CPU weasn't fast enough, I would have an OVERALL/GLOBAL underperfornace issue. I do not have this problem if, for example, i was stationary, and watching stuff render on screen. But it does It feels like something is not up to speed in this rig. Solve this problem and I'll love you forever. Last edited by t4ct1c47 : 07-17-08 at 07:28 PM. Reason: Thread title

		Overclock.net - Overclocking.net > Graphics Cards > NVIDIA
8800GT framerate issues

07-17-08	#4 (permalink)
soutpark2033 New to Overclock.net Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 4 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	Thanks for the answer. THe prospect of testing running prime, etc, for hours is kind of a put off for me. If i could set it and forget it, i would, but i dont want to set my pc on fire! I have seen this effect IN GAME in Crysis but only in the bench in DMC4 (ill try ASAP). I WILL buy a 6400+ really soon, seeing as its the best that will work with my non AM2+ mobo. Just want to know if thatll fix it. and YES i DO get less than 1fps on cpu bench in 06, Will 6400+ fix that? Also how can I get my drive score in Vista Higher? I have 5.2 but I'ts sata II so idunno whats faster than that... except maybe RAM DRIVE...

07-17-08	#7 (permalink)
soutpark2033 New to Overclock.net Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 4 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	TY your advice will really help me figure this out. I really appreciate your help and will do this as soon as i get back saturday!

07-18-08	#8 (permalink)
soutpark2033 New to Overclock.net Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 4 Rep: 0 Unique Rep: 0 Trader Rating: 0	Well i played the trail through, gotta say, in game dx10 looks great! incredible stuff. However cutscense still have that jump every 5 sec problem with camera... sigh.

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