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[tigerfan12345]

So I recently finished building my first computer that is capable of playing games since the 3dfx voodoo days. For some reason though, all my games stutter even though they run at nice frame rates. For example, Far Cry will run at 1280x1024 at a solid 50-60 fps and sometimes go into 90's. But it will stutter everynow and then, or the first time i shoot a weapon in a stage, or even when an enemy shoots back at first. I'm getting nice framerates in all the games, but they all stutter. Half Life 2, Doom 3.

Everything else seems perfectly fine, burning dvd's listening to music, internet. Although I have noticed multitasking seems slow. Maybe its a RAM problem.

Anyway, if it helps, this is my system. AMD mobile 2500+ overclocked to 2.4 mhz...512 2-3-3 ram, 250 gb 16mb cache SATA harddrive....and a 6600 GT AGP. This is my first computer since getting a powerbook like 3 years ago, and I love the fact that i can play pc games now, but whats up with the stuttering?!??!

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

It very well could be the RAM. You'd think 512 would be enough, but you'd often times be wrong.

 

[keeblerdrow]

512 mb of RAM? Yeah, there's your bottleneck.

 

[Neo_ZX]

I don't think there are any mobos that take a mobile XP that far with anything less than DDR. It has to be at least 400MHz FSB or running WAY out of sync.

But maybe you're out of disk space for swap file?

Fresh format with latest drivers? Try any older drivers? Could be the GPU overheating maybe?

Just some quick ideas for you.

 

[sefskillz]

One more thing, is it stuttering on sounds? Sound cards can cause some serious stutter episodes, make sure those drivers are up to date and google for anyone having similar problems with your card.

 

[tigerfan12345]

hmm...i really didnt think 512mb of ram would be a bottleneck. I'll add 512 of a friends ram and see. I havent dont a clean install. I originally had a ati 9600 in there that a friend gave me while i was waiting for my 6600 gt to come in. Once it did come in, i removed all drivers and reinstalled the new ones. Sounds are usually fine. But im using onboard audio. that might be something to consider also i suppose. My ram is pc3200. In my bios bootup, it says its running at 200mhz which is right right? FSB is 200x12. Ive tried diff ram timings, but nothing helped. I'm thinking maybe i should just do a clean install

 

[gigapower]

These days 512MB is the minimum you want in a gaming box. Add another 512MB and you'll be much happier.

 

[pestul]

hmm...i really didnt think 512mb of ram would be a bottleneck. I'll add 512 of a friends ram and see. I havent dont a clean install. I originally had a ati 9600 in there that a friend gave me while i was waiting for my 6600 gt to come in. Once it did come in, i removed all drivers and reinstalled the new ones. Sounds are usually fine. But im using onboard audio. that might be something to consider also i suppose. My ram is pc3200. In my bios bootup, it says its running at 200mhz which is right right? FSB is 200x12. Ive tried diff ram timings, but nothing helped. I'm thinking maybe i should just do a clean install

It could be the audio, but quite honestly.. even the onboard chips have improved quite a bit. I would say 1GB of ram should be your target.

 

[Maxwell House]

It really could be a poor hard drive. Games spool from the HD all the time and if you HD is slow, it will make it stutter. This used to happen to me too until I got a new HD with 8MB of buffer.

HDs are like tires on your car. Make sure you have a good one or it will make everything run slower.

 

[Darias]

IMO drop the overclocking and try it... you may just have a processor that's not capable of running at that clock setting completely, and be missing instructions...

 

[Lil' Dice]

Defnintely the RAM. Nowadays 1gig of ram is required to run most modern applications smoothly.

 

[pestul]

IMO drop the overclocking and try it... you may just have a processor that's not capable of running at that clock setting completely, and be missing instructions...

If he's worried about this.. a Prime95 torture test will quickly reveal these type of issues. A little disclaimer though. P95 sometimes craps out even when your hardware is fine due to incompatibilities.

I'm glad the HD speed/quality was brought up. It reminded me that I need to get a new one as mine are slow as crap/and ready to die Maxtors.

 

[tigerfan12345]

Thanks for all the help guys. Some more info, i averaged 51MB/s with my HD, using sisoft sandra benchmark, 3500-3600's on 3dmark. All the numbers seemed fine to me before. But I actually just got back from borrowing a 512 stick of ram from a friend, and yup, all my games no longer stutter. Except rarely when opening up a door in doom 3. I was just really surprised at first, because I'm still getting similar frame rates, maybe a little faster, but when the action gets heavy, or getting into a new area, it no longer stutters. Before it would stutter everynow and then while just walking. Now even, I boost the AA and AF and even though the frame rates are lower, it still playes much better.

Its hard to explain, before it felt like i was "losing frames" because of the skipping and stuttering, not really running a low FPS. But all is good now, but im still wondering, I didnt think i needed 1gb to run games smooth. Oh, And i've run prime95 overnight with no problems before. That test memory also right? Guess its time to order another stick anyway.