Stuttering and unsmooth gameplay

[aameghoo]

Whenever I crank up AA I find that I have increased stuttering and gameplay becomes very unsmooth as if Im playing with very bag lag (Battlefield Bad Company 2) I've tired all recent drivers from 11.4-11.6 and experience the same problem with framerates averaging around 50fps, I can see that crossfire is working as I have AMD overdrive open on a sperate screen and I can see that both cards are under load, only around 50% however.

I then decided to partition my hardrive and do a fresh install on it however every time I try to install the drivers on the fresh install I get an error saying "Application Install: install package failure!" and in the installation log I see that Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable failed. I did notice something interesting however and that was on the first attempt on installing the drivers, it caused my computer to crash (BSOD) during mid install (11.6).

I fired everything back up and CCC was not present on my system but I tried running BFBC2 to see what would happen and I was getting fps around 100, I could see that AA was down a little but everything was extremely smooth with absolutely no stuttering at all! After a couple hours I decided to try installing the drivers overs again, got the same errors but it didnt crash this time, CCC was there upon restart but now im back to 50fps with very bad stuttering -_- so thats when I came here for further help, I know it's a long post but I figured I'd give full details oh and btw I have the cards running on the stock bios for now


System specs:
Processor- AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE C2 currently @ 3.8GHz
Motherboard-ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3
Ram-A-DATA 4 x 2GB DDR3 1600
Power Supply- Corsair 850HX Modular 850W
Hard drive-Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
Video Card- CrossFireX x2 SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950(Flashed to 6970)
Cooling- XSPC Rasa 750
Windows 7 x64

 

[falcon26]

That is exactly what is happening to me in BC2 except I am using a GTX570. Their is a hugh thread over here that talks about it with Nvidia hardware, but not with Ati. I actually just returned my GTX570 and went with a 6870 myself...

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/788307-fermi-issues-low-gpu-usage-bad.html

 

[RejZoR]

6870 is like miles worse compared to GTX 570...

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Try tips #9 and #11 from this post.
I want you to also know that many have been complaining that PB has caused all sorts of stuttering and performance problems since the last update. What is being said is that PB is consuming a lot more processing power then before. You can follow up on this in the following links:
link 1
link 2

 

[aameghoo]

@falcon- are you still seeing it with the 6870?

@rej-hopefully he meant 6970 lol

@law- honestly I only notice actual stuttering in BFBC2(with fps in the 70s), although I feel as if I should be getting better performance in other games as well as far a fps goes considering my setup, I decided to try BF2 and NFS Carbon today with crossfire disabled and was getting only around 35fps with everything maxed so something seems really off there especially considering how old those games are. I also tried Just Case 2 however that seemed to run just fine I think, i was getting around 100fps. Exactly what is this "Catalyst_11.6_CAPS1 re-boot" dont think i've ever really come across that. Its funny that u mention my mb, I was thinking about it today if that could be the basis of some of the problems considering that one card is running much slower, I do remember that when I was considering getting the second 6950 I started a thread on here and someone with a similar setup and MB said they didnt have any problems running it like that although it could be that BFBC2 takes a big hit from it? I plan on buying a new MB for BD just been waiting for it to release. Im going to trying removing one of the cards and see how that goes and get back to you. Oh and I would also like to note im running on 11.3 right now with no change in problems

@eastcoast- I've been hearing about the PB problems as well, the only thing though is that it happens in SP as well, PB wouldnt be a factor there would it? Will try the windows performance thing

 

[Thatguy]

Sometime Game makers write shitty software and blame it on everyone else.

 

[aameghoo]

true...its really a shame :shadedshu

oh and I would also like to note in BFBC2 if I start recording in fraps it locks the fps at 30fps and I find that the stuttering goes away and the game becomes perfectly smooth

 

[falcon26]

No with the 6870 its smooth all the way threw. No I know the GTX570 is a much faster card. But it certainly doesn't feel that way when playing BC2. Not sure what it is, but the 6870 feels much better than the GTX570 in BC2..

 

[OneMoar]

console port was ported from console ?

 

[aameghoo]

ok so after following everyone's advice, doing some decent reseach and doing some extensive benching I came to the conclusion that morphological filtering was what was putting such a huge dent in my performance (Well in BFBC2 atleast).

With everything maxed out but morphological filtering off I was getting 74fps min...118fps max...and 92fps avg. Upon turning morphological filtering I went down to 41fps min...57fps max...and 49fps avg. The game was stuttering really bad in those framerate my guess since the fps were jumping around so much. So after turning morphological filtering off and forcing V-Sync and triple buffering with D3D I've been getting the smoothest gameplay ever, some trees do look slightly pix-elated but it's nothing that noticeable. Also a constant 60fps vs. constant 30fps is truly night and day Guess the 30fps had just felt amazing since it was locked and smooth compared to the jumping around I was getting

Guess I thought my hardware was more powerful that it actually was (maybe mostly due to my MB and processor? Cant wait for my BD(@Law-bulldozer lol) update) As stated before the scaling isnt too great in BFBC2, with one card I got 50fps min...92fps max...and 68fps avg, with crossfire I got the 74fps min...118fps max...and 92fps avg. The only thing bothering me right now is my mouse feeling like it's being dragged through mud even with "enhance pointer precion" and "mouse smoothing' disabled

Does my performance sound like where it should be, or should I be able to run morphological filtering with better fps than that? Just curious as I kinda figured my rig would be more than able to handle everything at 1080p

Oh and just fyi im using the 11.6 drivers

 

[EastCoasthandle]

How much CPU is used in BC2?

 

[OneMoar]

the game is poorly optimized thats about right for your hardware at 1080
you can add me ingame btw
OneMoar

 

[LDNL]

As already mentioned your mb does not support crossfire with one lane running at the full 16x bandwith and the other only at 4x. The desired would atleast be a split which is 8x/8x but your board does not have that feature either.

 

[aameghoo]

@falcon- well that's what matters right?

@Eastcoast- almost always in the high 90s like around 94-98%

@OneMoar- haha ok ill shoot you a friend request later today when I get on

@Law- the pointer shadow seem to have helped with the mouse lagging in the top right hand corner of my monitors, as far as the suggestion for connecting the monitor that you mentioned, only the bottom card will display anything (the one in the 4x lane), I dont get anything out of the top card if I try connecting anything to it through any of the ports, also I connect the 1080p monitor to one dvi (never had to adjust scaling for dvi btw, just hdmi if i decide to use it) and then I have a small 15" that I connect to the other dvi with a vga to dvi connector

The thing is I actually see a different with morphological filtering off, things look a lot smoother with it on like trees, fences and bushes for example.

haha and true about the console port, hope BF3 lives up to their claims

@LDNL- The thing is though I did some benching before and after crossfire when I first got the cards and in heaven and 3dmark and I remember seeing around 90% scaling if I remember correctly

 

[aameghoo]

@eastcoast- with crossfire disabled 3 of the 4 cores hover around 40% while the forth is at 98-99% with a total usage of around 50-60% compared to a total of 90-98%with crossfire enabled

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Unfortunately you are CPU limited and that is causing the stuttering. The cpu is charged not only with processing the data for the game but also feeding the GPU. When the CPU reaches the maximum amount of load something is going to give. In this case how much data is feed to your video card.

Overclocking can help some but you will need a more beefier CPU. For example, if you maintain a CPU load less then 50% in this case would be an example of that. This is one of the things a lot people don't research or understand when they want CF or SLI. You have to have a CPU that is capable of feeding the video cards while still processing whatever features are left for the game itself such as:
-physics
-some visual effects
-ai
-pathfinding
-incoming/outgoing data for internet
-etc

But lets not forget that people are also complaining that PB is causing an unusual amount of processor load. What I suggest is that you download and install Process Lasso. Make sure you read the install instructions carefully and choose the options that best relate to you and how you run your PC (ask if you are not sure). Once installed re-run the game and see if things smooth out for you.

Edit:
BC2 is one particular game inwhich latency (in game ping you see) is effected by how well your PC can process the game. For example, if you can maintain good frame rate of 90 FPS in a relatively low ping server (using the server browser) you should have a relatively low latency in game (which is less then 100). If you have dips in frame rate there can be increases in latency (in game). So when playing online it's important to turn off or reduce all the eyecandy that you can to keep your latency in line. This also includes reducing the resolution as well. For example going from 1920x1200 to 1680x1050.

Edit 2:
I would also like to know what is the maximum frequency when in game? Open Resource Monitor and use the CPU tab. Post a pic.

 

[GotNoRice]

BFBC_2 dose not scale well in crossfire and it may be possible that it is only able to use half of your cards bandwidth in its current configuration

Since when does BFBC2 not scale well in crossfire? For a while, it scaled so well that many people used it as an example of how good crossfire support should look like in a game. With my 2x 4870x2 I regularly see 85%+ usage on all 4 GPUs. I know it's pretty amazing on my friend's 5970 as well. Is it something unique to the 6xxx cards that causes crossfire issues?

 

[erocker]

Is it something unique to the 6xxx cards that causes crossfire issues?

Nope, I get great scaling with two 6950's CrossFired in BFBC2. I don't know where LawII got the info that they don't work well.

In response to the original post, leave CCC settings at default and adjust the in game settings.

 

[erocker]

Hi

See you later, much; much later; if ever

atb

Law-II

That's your response? I'm a bit dissapointed. I am interested to know why you think CrossFire doesn't work well in BFBC2 and I hope you don't think my post comes off as mean spirited or anything.

Since you changed your post, you need to do your research better. Also, suck it up and don't get so offended if someone contridicts you. I have a good reason to contridict you as what you said (regardless of your "well researched" knowledge) is wrong.


Here's some research done 5 minutes ago:

Laguna Alta MP single 6950:
52/ 154/ 80 min/max/avg.

Laguna Alta MP CrossFire 6950:
112/ 191/ 146.422 min/max/avg.

So, CrossFire works without a doubt. Now, if the OP's 2nd slot is running a x4 I could see that being a problem with the cards not syncing correctly. Hence, the stutter and lack of "smoothness".

 

[Law-II]

That's your response? I'm a bit dissapointed. I am interested to know why you think CrossFire doesn't work well in BFBC2 and I hope you don't think my post comes off as mean spirited or anything.

Since you changed your post, you need to do your research better. Also, suck it up and don't get so offended if someone contridicts you. I have a good reason to contridict you as what you said (regardless of your "well researched" knowledge) is wrong.

Hi

I will PM you

atb

Law-II

 

[D007]

Try tips #9 and #11 from this post.
I want you to also know that many have been complaining that PB has caused all sorts of stuttering and performance problems since the last update. What is being said is that PB is consuming a lot more processing power then before. You can follow up on this in the following links:
link 1
link 2

PB has always caused problems, will they ever fix that God awful nonsense? ug..

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

i can also say Crossfire works great in BC2, sadly im cpu limited at the moment and on an old as dirt windows install even so the gain is easily noticeable.

 

[Raijian]

5870 here, and running BC2 at full settings 60 frames steady, never dips.

Just thought I'd share my results.

 

[DZZRtt]

Hi, guys. Sometimes i'm geting huge drops to 30-32 FPS usaly it happens in the midle of explosion. And some maps like Nelsson Bay runs with fps around 50-58. Is that ok, or my system can preform better?
1920x1080 4xMSAA everything else maxed out

 

[Law-II]

Hi, guys. Sometimes i'm geting huge drops to 30-32 FPS usaly it happens in the midle of explosion. And some maps like Nelsson Bay runs with fps around 50-58. Is that ok, or my system can preform better?
1920x1080 4xMSAA everything else maxed out

Hi

You are getting good frames for your rig

atb

Law-II