stutter in 80% of my games

[turbocabbage]

HI guys.

i've just recently bought i new system which has specs:

gigabyte z68-UD3
intel i5 2500k
8gb ddr3 ram
1 TB seagate TB
550W gigabyte odin gt psu

on this system is an HD 4870 1 gig which i didnt get new, it was part of my old pc.

unfortunately im getting frame skipping or stutterring in almost all of my games. im getting a better fps than I was on my old system, but its much less playable because of the stutter.

i have tried fiddling with all of the options (that i know of) in ati catalyst control center including v sync/ triple bufferring, anti aliasing etc, none make any difference, although the lower the fps the worse the stutterring, but generally so long as its below 60 it stutters pretty madly.

overclocking/underclocking gpu/cpu also makes no difference, and drivers for the g card are the latest. 12.1 CCC.

im not sure if i dont understand the FRAPS program but if this helps, the only thing that can stop the stutter in games is when i record with fraps!!? ill be running fraps, at about 30fps in skyrim or crysis, then the moment i start recording, it drops to say 21 but completely removes the frame skipping. the frame skipping returns the moment the video recording ends.

my friend said it might be that i need to disable some video encoding thing in bios that intel has on its chips? but i couldnt find this option because he wasnt sure exactly what it was.

any help would be much appreciated!! thanks

[Raptor]

550W is pushing it.

[turbocabbage]

so you think insufficient power could be the reason for the stutter?

[Raptor]

so you think insufficient power could be the reason for the stutter?

Well, it's a brand PSU but it is a bit low for a high-end system like that. I think a minimum of 600W would be more suitable.
There seems to be some kind of monitoring software available for your PSU.. Did you install that to see what it says? Get the latest version from Gigabyte.

Also, you should diagnose your hard drive with Hard Disk Sentinel, since it's used, and you should disable any onboard video you may have.
Not sure what option your friend is on about, I only work with AMD. All options are mentioned in the manual, though.

Are you using default settings on everything? Did you reset your BIOS to defaults after your over- and underclocking stint?

[turbocabbage]

ok so when the runnin "ptuner" which is the software for the psu, it says the computer is only using 170w max when i was running like 2 different games at the same time of which one crysis 2. maybe im not reading correct? but it did say peak "w" was 170. i havnt reset my bios, im guessing ill try that next. also tried uninstalling the onboard video card on several occasions, to no avail... really hoping its just that the g card doesnt function properly on this m board or soemthing.

any other thoughts? any idea on why fraps recording stops the frame sutter?

thanks for the help so far!

[Raptor]

Hm, that is a bit low. Of course, there's no telling if the software is in any way correct. I've never actually seen this software myself, just noticed it in a review of your PSU. The PSU got high appraisal but the software was considered buggy.

Did you set the power saving scheme of Windows to performance?

As for disabling the onboard videocard, do this from the BIOS. Deleting the driver will just cause it to be reinstalled.

Your videocard is two generations old. How does it run games from its own generation?

[turbocabbage]

ah ok, well is there any other software you can suggest that i should monitor ppwer consumption?

windows power options was set to 'balanced'.

well, not all games are stutterring, but most are. world of warcraft doesnt, deadspace 2 doesnt, borderlands doesnt. crysis 2 does, skyrim does, dead island does, deus ex human revolution does.

some games i cant paly because the graphics are all messed up, im guessing this points towards gfx card issues. the witcher 2, for example, is just all orange when i get past the cinematics and into the first gameplay.

the thing is, skyrim never used to frame stutter on my old pc with the same gfx card.
i tried putting all the skyrim gfx settings on the same as they were on my old pc (except resolution which  was 1400x900, but im now palying at 1920x1080) and i see a higher fps (40-60) but still choppyness and stutterring that makes it less enjoyable that 18-25 fps with no stutter.

i tihnk after resetting bios options, i will procede to put a friends graphics card in the system and see if that removes the stutter, wihhc i guess could confirm the gfx card as an issue.

ps. ive looked so hard but cant find any option to disable on board gfx in the bios. i can only set primary display to pci x16/ pci/ pcix8 etc..

[Raptor]

well, not all games are stutterring, but most are. world of warcraft doesnt, deadspace 2 doesnt, borderlands doesnt. crysis 2 does, skyrim does, dead island does, deus ex human revolution does.

the thing is, skyrim never used to frame stutter on my old pc with the same gfx card.
i tried putting all the skyrim gfx settings on the same as they were on my old pc (except resolution which  was 1400x900, but im now palying at 1920x1080) and i see a higher fps (40-60) but still choppyness and stutterring that makes it less enjoyable that 18-25 fps with no stutter.

I think your videocard is the problem. It's 4th gen and you listed a bunch of games that do run well, those came out around the time your videocard was released. The other games are relatively new and came out around the time 5th and 6th gen came out.

I'd recommend purchasing a 6770. Good budget card. Anything above that will naturally be faster.
If all your other hardware checks out and your Windows installation is clean, then it's probably the aging videocard.

ah ok, well is there any other software you can suggest that i should monitor ppwer consumption?

Nah, we don't normally do that sort of thing with software. I was just curious about the application.
This doesn't seem to be a PSU problem. Although 550W is sort of minimum, it is a decent PSU.
You might want to do a wattage calculation here to see if a new videocard would change the demand: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

(set it to 30% capacitor aging and 90% TDP)

ps. ive looked so hard but cant find any option to disable on board gfx in the bios. i can only set primary display to pci x16/ pci/ pcix8 etc..

It's under advanced BIOS features -> onboard video. Set it to the below:


Enable If No Ext PEG
Activates the onboard graphics only when no PCI Express graphics card is installed.

[turbocabbage]

i tihnk i agree with you.
thanks for all the help.
am going to try swapping gfx cards and see if that makes a difference