TF2/Source FPS stutter
Kouji_San
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
My turn!
Since a few months ago, I started to have these weird FPS stutters. It's not a constant bad low FPS rate, just a weird stutter/s (every second a small stutter for I guess 10ms)
Thing's I've noticed during the FPS stutter are that when I enter a freshly load map, it starts and sometimes goes away (rarely). But when it does go away and I enter a new area of the map it start up once more... The thing is the FPS stays completely constant and during the stutter I hear a cracking sound in the current sounds being played (10ms duration). What's weird is that it doesn't matter if I'm on a fully loaded 32slots server or an empty local server...
List of stuff I've checked or have done:<ul><li>defragged the Drive and checked it for errors</li><li>defragged the Steam source files and checked them for errors</li><li>full virus/spybot/cookiemonster scans</li><li>firewall outgoing traffic check, just source (hl2.exe is active during gaming)</li><li>TF2 lowest settings testing (sound and graphics)</li><li>suggested rate settings for mah connections are set</li><li>playing without none-essential services and programs running (low system priorities)</li><li>muticore rending on/off</li><li>netgraph doesn't show anything weird</li><li>new drivers and shizzle</li><li>nothing is overheating</li><li>hl2.exe running on one core or two cores doesn't seem to make any difference (constantly around 50% when ingame)</li><li>no processes hogging the cpu either...</li></ul>
Running on an Intel PIV E6420, 2Gb OCZ @ 1333Mhz RAM on XP pro 32bits, ATIHD4850, SB Audigy 2. All in all more then enough to run TF2...
In other words WTF!
Since a few months ago, I started to have these weird FPS stutters. It's not a constant bad low FPS rate, just a weird stutter/s (every second a small stutter for I guess 10ms)
Thing's I've noticed during the FPS stutter are that when I enter a freshly load map, it starts and sometimes goes away (rarely). But when it does go away and I enter a new area of the map it start up once more... The thing is the FPS stays completely constant and during the stutter I hear a cracking sound in the current sounds being played (10ms duration). What's weird is that it doesn't matter if I'm on a fully loaded 32slots server or an empty local server...
List of stuff I've checked or have done:<ul><li>defragged the Drive and checked it for errors</li><li>defragged the Steam source files and checked them for errors</li><li>full virus/spybot/cookiemonster scans</li><li>firewall outgoing traffic check, just source (hl2.exe is active during gaming)</li><li>TF2 lowest settings testing (sound and graphics)</li><li>suggested rate settings for mah connections are set</li><li>playing without none-essential services and programs running (low system priorities)</li><li>muticore rending on/off</li><li>netgraph doesn't show anything weird</li><li>new drivers and shizzle</li><li>nothing is overheating</li><li>hl2.exe running on one core or two cores doesn't seem to make any difference (constantly around 50% when ingame)</li><li>no processes hogging the cpu either...</li></ul>
Running on an Intel PIV E6420, 2Gb OCZ @ 1333Mhz RAM on XP pro 32bits, ATIHD4850, SB Audigy 2. All in all more then enough to run TF2...
In other words WTF!
Comments
My solution? Got a new graphics card. The actual problem? Not a dingdoodley idea.
You have not found this post informative.
Far fetched: Run steam as "administrator" and try again.
Also I am running XP Pro, not Vista. Logged in as administrator all the time anyways :P
Sounds like a lack of memory to me. Or a slow/full HDD?
I disable netlimiter services, changed it to manual start. I need that for youtube and flickruploaders or else they wont upload properly. But TF2 now runs at least a little bit smoother...
<!--quoteo(post=1772624:date=May 28 2010, 06:57 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ May 28 2010, 06:57 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1772624"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Sounds like a lack of memory to me. Or a slow/full HDD?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Memory is fine, it loads around 800Mb of 2Gb with enought swap available, and running on WD raptor and 1TB spinpoint drives. HDD isn't loading during the stutter either
Since a few months ago, I started to have these weird FPS stutters. It's not a constant bad low FPS rate, just a weird stutter/s (every second a small stutter for I guess 10ms)
Thing's I've noticed during the FPS stutter are that when I enter a freshly load map, it starts and sometimes goes away (rarely). But when it does go away and I enter a new area of the map it start up once more... The thing is the FPS stays completely constant and during the stutter I hear a cracking sound in the current sounds being played (10ms duration). What's weird is that it doesn't matter if I'm on a fully loaded 32slots server or an empty local server...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I would try swapping in an old graphics card capable of running Source at the same settings if you have one.
The fact it's happening when you move into new areas implies the problem lies with writing new data to memory. Since it happens without any other players in the game, and you have a Pentium 4 (more than capable of running TF2), I would guess it's graphics- or memory-related and not CPU-related. Try turning all the gfx settings down to lowest and seeing if the issue happens with the same frequency, or if it happens at a reduced frequency. That might help confirm the suspicion. [Edit - NM you tried this already]
Like I said, swap in a different graphics card. You could also try giving your current graphics card (and its fan) a de-dusting to see if it's an issue with overheating. Failing that try swapping out the memory. Failing that try swapping out the CPU. Failing that try swapping out the motherboard. (If you have any of those luxuries).
Those are my guesses, btw. I'm not an expert on PC architecture.
However Memtest shows the memory as fine and dandy...
It also doesn't matter if I turn the graphics from high to low or even all settings to low, the stutter has the same weird interval...
I'll have a looksee if the other "slower" 3Dcard or memory solves the problem
Steam Cloud may not be the culprit, I'm not sure exactly what it does, when it does it and what its overheads are, but it may just have been the tipping point. So disabling it may have just made the issue less apparent. Although it's possible that a bug with Steamcloud could cause performance issues.
<!--quoteo(post=1772798:date=May 29 2010, 08:27 PM:name=Shzar)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shzar @ May 29 2010, 08:27 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1772798"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->This has been an interesting read for me since I've been having a nearly identical problem:<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The main reason I posted about this problem, where most forums just post <b>OMG I HAZ THE SAME PROBLEM</b> over and over again. Resulting in a thread with just that and no possible solutions...
Also, I'm playing in borderless windowmode because of multiscreen usage... But even in fullscreen the problem occurs, at least now with Steamcloud sync disabled, it is less of an issue. Heck I could actually backstab people into insanity once more :D However I do occasionally get an <b>OMG LAG</b> issue, which last for about 3-5 seconds. After which everything is back to normal. Thank god this is very rare though...
And I am suspecting some kind of weird Source incompatibility with my pc somehow... I mean I can play other much more demanding games, without any issues at all... BFBC2 for instance...
Surprisingly, this problem normally shows in either steam games, or more often WoW than anything else. Wow is normally where I see my issue with stuttering, and a good look into my heat sink on my CPU, and cleaning normally clears it right out and i'm back to normal. It has usually looked like a graphics issue with stuff having very intermittent stumbles that stay for a while, and normally only after i've had my PC on for a while, if I started playing games from a cold boot, never usually have the stutters til about 10-15 minutes later.
This is just from my experience, and never made a lot of sense, since the CPU isn't being taxed too hard and the heat doesn't seem to be an issue, but apparently was for me.
Hell, the game even stuttered in the menu! In the MENU! Really???
I have:
Core i7 920
6GB ddr3 1600
GTX 260
I just now tried setting the hl2.exe priority to above normal, though and it SEEMS to have solved it for now.
I actually used that one for defrag
Guess what, today my PSU died... And I know a faulty PSU running on it's last limbs can produce some very weird computer issues... It has seen about 3 computer updates over the years and I guess it was indeed dieing over the last 2 maybe 3 months... Well I'll see how it goes when the new one arrives...
[edit]
The new engy update did make it stutter less... But apparantly it wasn't just Source, it was having an adverse effect on some startup and loading stuff as well. Which really has me thinking the PSU was indeed at fault... Damn those things can give strange problems, while not actually telling you they are borked...