EA games stuttering with new computer!

"turk" <turk.RemoveThis@nowaynohow.com> wrote in message
news:Upmdndco58rjAPzZRVn-vg@comcast.com...
> Just got a new comp: AMD X2 4400+, dual GeForce 7900 GTs, 2GB RAM,
> Soundblaster Audigy 4 and now both NHL 06 and Madden 06 stutter like
crazy.
> I've updated to the latest drivers and every other game I have has no
> problems. Both these games played like butter with my old AMD 3500+,
> GeForce 6800, 1 GB RAM and built in sound. What gives?
>
> I've searched EA forums and found nothing and they don't answer my tech
> support requests except with auto-replies. Anyone seen this or have any
> ideas?
>
> Thanks,
> turk
> --
> The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and
> hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series
> of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
> -H.L. Menkin
>

Try changing your refresh rate to 60mhz
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

In article <Upmdndco58rjAPzZRVn-vg DeleteThis @comcast.com>,
turk <turk DeleteThis @nowaynohow.com> wrote:
>Just got a new comp: AMD X2 4400+, dual GeForce 7900 GTs, 2GB RAM,
>Soundblaster Audigy 4 and now both NHL 06 and Madden 06 stutter like crazy.

Wow.. Nice rig! If I didn't have mortgage payments, I'd probably have
something like that too

>I've updated to the latest drivers and every other game I have has no
>problems. Both these games played like butter with my old AMD 3500+,
>GeForce 6800, 1 GB RAM and built in sound. What gives?

Can I have your old rig?

MH
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

"MH" <mghembru DeleteThis @harshrealm.uwaterloo.ca> wrote in message
news:e3t8dm$nd4$1@rumours.uwaterloo.ca...
> In article <Upmdndco58rjAPzZRVn-vg DeleteThis @comcast.com>,
> turk <turk DeleteThis @nowaynohow.com> wrote:
>>Just got a new comp: AMD X2 4400+, dual GeForce 7900 GTs, 2GB RAM,
>>Soundblaster Audigy 4 and now both NHL 06 and Madden 06 stutter like
>>crazy.
>
> Wow.. Nice rig! If I didn't have mortgage payments, I'd probably have
> something like that too

Ironically, my mortgage payment kind of got me the new computer. I overpaid
my escrow and got an unexpected check for $2400 last month. I thought it
was one of those loan check deals with 30% interest and almost threw it out
before I realized what it was.

>>I've updated to the latest drivers and every other game I have has no
>>problems. Both these games played like butter with my old AMD 3500+,
>>GeForce 6800, 1 GB RAM and built in sound. What gives?
>
> Can I have your old rig?

Sorry, it got moved into the kitchen. I now have five computers in the
house (my former gaming comps from the last few years, and the laptop)...and
I'm a bachelor. I just have them all networked up. Figure I'll start
getting rid of them when I have computers in the bathrooms.

turk
--
"I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe
it-I'm going to repeat what I said before-I'd pull the troops out, nor if I
believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."-G.W. Bush, Charlotte,
N.C., April 6, 2006
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

"news.15503" <pfalvey RemoveThis @buckeye-express.com> wrote in message
news:096dnZV3-aKwl__ZnZ2dnUVZ_umdnZ2d@buckeye-express.com...
>
> "turk" <turk RemoveThis @nowaynohow.com> wrote in message
> news:Upmdndco58rjAPzZRVn-vg@comcast.com...
>> Just got a new comp: AMD X2 4400+, dual GeForce 7900 GTs, 2GB RAM,
>> Soundblaster Audigy 4 and now both NHL 06 and Madden 06 stutter like
> crazy.
>> I've updated to the latest drivers and every other game I have has no
>> problems. Both these games played like butter with my old AMD 3500+,
>> GeForce 6800, 1 GB RAM and built in sound. What gives?
>>
>> I've searched EA forums and found nothing and they don't answer my tech
>> support requests except with auto-replies. Anyone seen this or have any
>> ideas?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> turk
>> --
>> The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and
>> hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
>> series
>> of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
>> -H.L. Menkin
>>
>
> Try changing your refresh rate to 60mhz

It was at 60mhz. But I found the problem. I had to start the game, alt-tab
out and then go to my system processes screen and set Affinity and then turn
off one of my CPUs for that game (it doesn't like dual core for some
reason). Ridiculous, but it works.

Thanks for the help, though.

turk
--
"I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe
it-I'm going to repeat what I said before-I'd pull the troops out, nor if I
believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."-G.W. Bush, Charlotte,
N.C., April 6, 2006
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

"Alan Bernardo" <ifeelyourpain DeleteThis @ihatebush.net> wrote in message
news:CLqdnUFyJrLfY_zZnZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d@comcast.com...
>
> "turk" <turk DeleteThis @nowaynohow.com> wrote in message
> news:Upmdndco58rjAPzZRVn-vg@comcast.com...
> | Just got a new comp: AMD X2 4400+, dual GeForce 7900 GTs, 2GB RAM,
> | Soundblaster Audigy 4 and now both NHL 06 and Madden 06 stutter like
> crazy.
> | I've updated to the latest drivers and every other game I have has no
> | problems. Both these games played like butter with my old AMD 3500+,
> | GeForce 6800, 1 GB RAM and built in sound. What gives?
> |
> | I've searched EA forums and found nothing and they don't answer my tech
> | support requests except with auto-replies. Anyone seen this or have any
> | ideas?
> |
> | Thanks,
> | turk
> | --
> | The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and
> | hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
> series
> | of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
> | -H.L. Menkin
> |
> |
>
> Sometimes stuttering can be fixed by changing a video-card setting.
>
> You can try this, it will do no harm otherwise. The first thing you need
> to
> do is run or install coolbits. After that, go to your video-card
> settings.
> Under "Additional Direct 3D Settings, change the "Max frames to render
> ahead" to "0". It default to "3", I think.
>
> This has stopped stuttering in the past for me. Try it and see if it
> works.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I actually had to go to my processes while
the game was running and go to affinity and turn off one of my CPU cores.
EA games don't like dual core I guess. I'm going to try it on
Counterstrike, too, since that is stuttering a bit as well.

turk
--
"I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe
it-I'm going to repeat what I said before-I'd pull the troops out, nor if I
believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."-G.W. Bush, Charlotte,
N.C., April 6, 2006
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

>> "turk" wrote:
> Ah, yeah...didn't notice that little link given the colors are so close.
> Regardless, I was hoping this would help my Counterstrike issue and it hasn't.
> The EA games play fine by turning off the second CPU, but Counterstrike is still
> acting weird. Connects fine and quickly to servers, then ping skyrockets.
> Sometimes it comes down for a while, then shoots up again. Even when my ping is
> fine, the framerates are still jerkier than normal. My less powerful comp on
> the same internet connection works fine with CS and UT2004 and BF2 both do fine
> on the new machine as well.
>
> Something is wonky with dual core and/or SLI. I'm really regretting this
> purchase. AMD may have just lost a longtime customer. I shouldn't have to play
> games with their processor to get games that are not even that new to run,
> particularly something as popular as HL2/CS.
>
> turk

I don't think that you are experiencing an inherent problem with the hardware
design of AMD processors, or nVidia video cards and chipsets (sorry, but I can't
recall what you have for a motherboard). There is a massive volume of these
systems out there and we'd know if there was a fundamental flaw in the design as
the problems would be much more widespread.

I would suggest that your issues are more software related, be it video driver,
chipset driver, mobo bios, etc. For a frame of reference I am using the 84.43
beta vid drivers and 6.70 nForce driver on an Asus A8N (with latest bios) with a
7900GT CO Superclock.

My dual core experience w/nForce 4 has been phenomenal. Battlefield 2 runs pegged
@ my lcd's vsync of 75Hz with 4xAA and 8x Ansio while crunching on folding@home at
the same time. Simply amazing.

After installing the pair of updates mentioned earlier I have not experienced any
gameplay issues of any kind. I play BF2, Civ4, HL2, DoD/CS:Source, GalCiv2, Q4,
etc.

Before the 84.43 drivers I did have some strange video anomolies with CS:Source
and DoD:Source (but not HL2 funny enough). The games ran smoothly, but I had some
strange colored polka dots in the sky. My hunch is that nVidia has some work to
do on the drivers to fix/optimize for the 7900's. I thought the 7900 was mainly a
die shrink, but they may have tweaked some some of the inner workings a tad as
well.

Good luck...

(*>
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

"Hawk" <jedi001 RemoveThis @netscape.net> wrote in message
news:126pf4bhi1vk839@corp.supernews.com...
>>> "turk" wrote:
>> Ah, yeah...didn't notice that little link given the colors are so close.
>> Regardless, I was hoping this would help my Counterstrike issue and it
>> hasn't. The EA games play fine by turning off the second CPU, but
>> Counterstrike is still acting weird. Connects fine and quickly to
>> servers, then ping skyrockets. Sometimes it comes down for a while, then
>> shoots up again. Even when my ping is fine, the framerates are still
>> jerkier than normal. My less powerful comp on the same internet
>> connection works fine with CS and UT2004 and BF2 both do fine on the new
>> machine as well.
>>
>> Something is wonky with dual core and/or SLI. I'm really regretting this
>> purchase. AMD may have just lost a longtime customer. I shouldn't have
>> to play games with their processor to get games that are not even that
>> new to run, particularly something as popular as HL2/CS.
>>
>> turk
>
> I don't think that you are experiencing an inherent problem with the
> hardware design of AMD processors, or nVidia video cards and chipsets
> (sorry, but I can't recall what you have for a motherboard). There is a
> massive volume of these systems out there and we'd know if there was a
> fundamental flaw in the design as the problems would be much more
> widespread.
>
> I would suggest that your issues are more software related, be it video
> driver, chipset driver, mobo bios, etc. For a frame of reference I am
> using the 84.43 beta vid drivers and 6.70 nForce driver on an Asus A8N
> (with latest bios) with a 7900GT CO Superclock.
>
> My dual core experience w/nForce 4 has been phenomenal. Battlefield 2
> runs pegged @ my lcd's vsync of 75Hz with 4xAA and 8x Ansio while
> crunching on folding@home at the same time. Simply amazing.
>
> After installing the pair of updates mentioned earlier I have not
> experienced any gameplay issues of any kind. I play BF2, Civ4, HL2,
> DoD/CS:Source, GalCiv2, Q4, etc.
>
> Before the 84.43 drivers I did have some strange video anomolies with
> CS:Source and DoD:Source (but not HL2 funny enough). The games ran
> smoothly, but I had some strange colored polka dots in the sky. My hunch
> is that nVidia has some work to do on the drivers to fix/optimize for the
> 7900's. I thought the 7900 was mainly a die shrink, but they may have
> tweaked some some of the inner workings a tad as well.
>
> Good luck...

Well, the EA games were certainly a hardware issue, since I had to turn off
a CPU core to get them to run at playable rates. BF2 and UT2004 do work
fine on my computer (which rules out my wireless cable internet connection),
but CS continues to act strange with frequent ping spikes that did not
happen on my older computer. I've tried more drivers than you can imagine
for video card, mainboard, chipset, etc., including the ones you have. CS
also runs great on the same connection with my older rig.

Really, I'm just disappointed that I have this $2000+ brand spanking new
machine that can't play my favorite time waster at anywhere near acceptable
performance levels. I've never upgraded to a new machine and had problems
this perplexing with a fairly modern game in all the years I've been
gaming...and that's a long time. Something is wrong here, and I'm really
leaning hardware given the fixes for other games. I can't imagine how
someone less tech savvy would have been able to get even a common game like
Madden going had they picked up a new dual core computer at BestBuy or
something. This is like going back to the old days of using boot disks with
memory managers to get DOS games going. No wonder people are fleeing in
droves to consoles for gaming.

turk
--
"I strongly believe what we're doing is the right thing. If I didn't believe
it-I'm going to repeat what I said before-I'd pull the troops out, nor if I
believed we could win, I would pull the troops out."-G.W. Bush, Charlotte,
N.C., April 6, 2006
 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer! 

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 >> Stay informed about: EA games stuttering with new computer!