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Erratic CPU Usage With Some Source Games - Need Help :)

LifeOnMars

LifeOnMars

Joined
Jun 20, 2008
Messages
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Location
Northants. UK
System Specs
System Name Bad Moon Ryzen
Processor Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard Asrock B450M Pro4-F
Cooling Vetroo V5
Memory 16Gb (8gb x 2) 3200 MHz DDR 4
Video Card(s) Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
Storage Samsung 860 Evo 500Gb SSD, Samsung 860 Evo 1Tb SSD
Display(s) Asus VG249Q3A (180Hz Freesync/Gsync) & 4K Samsung TV
Case Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact w/Dark Tempered Glass
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply MSI MPG A850GF (850w)
VR HMD Rift S
Believe it or not I have never played through the Half-Life series of games before, I have tried them but never sat down and properly played through the series.

I recently updated my rig from a Phenom II/HD 5770 to an i5 2500K/GTX 560Ti 1 GB. Importantly, the same RAM/PSU and HDD's have been used in both.

I first noticed the source stutter issue on my new rig in Portal, jittery gameplay with an erratic stutter. I had never had this before on my old rig both with vsync off, or with vsync on (though I had to set fps max 61 fps to get rid of a consistent tick like stutter with vsync on)

So I fire up HL2 today and it's exactly the same as Portal, jittery with erratic stutter. I tried my old fix of fps max 61fps with vsync on but no joy.

I have subsequently tried all of the drivers available for use with my GTX 560Ti and all display exactly the same stuttering issue.

I decided to try some other source engine games.

Portal 2 - No problems Max Details 1080p
Half Life 1 - No Problems
CSS - No problems
HL2 Episode 1 - Exactly the same stutter issues

I then decided to check CPU usage in the problem games, here's what it showed -

Source CPU Usage.jpg


:twitch: What the hell is going on there then? I have tried running the problem games at the lowest settings, multicore enable/disabled, lower resolutions etc and still no change:wtf:

Anyone have any ideas how I can sort this?

I currently have no issues with other games -
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
Portal 2
Alan Wake
Mafia 2
WOW
GTA IV
Mass Effect
Ghostbusters
Oblivion
Fallout 3

So therefore I would like to think it is not a hardware problem, let me know your thoughts and ideas please :)

I'm gonna download left for dead 1 & 2 tonight, I have previously run these on my old rig flawlessly so will be interesting to see if they have suffered also.
 
Last edited:
Just let you know I sorted this (I hate it when people don't follow up their problems), it was Microsoft Office 2010 causing the strange in game behaviour, .net runtimes in the background. I noticed that Portal played fine when I recently tried the new Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Reinstalled windows 7 and then the game, played absolutely fine. Rechecked the game after I installed all my other usual stuff and bang, as soon as I had installed Office it displayed the same weird behaviour. Uninstalled it and all is fine !!!
 
I got same issues with a game.
copy your save games to a different location,uninstall the game,reinstall the game,and copy back ur saved games.
this fixed the problem for me.
hope it helps
 
Mafia, see the post above yours mate....I sorted it :)
 
oh sorry mate,i didnt read the above post.
My bad :)
 
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