Mafia 2 Problems - Steam Version Stuttering & Hitching

[LifeOnMars]

I have never managed to get this game running smoothly and the stuttering/hitches I get are ridiculous. I have loads of other graphically demanding modern games which run without a hitch but this one just doesn't seem to play ball.

I have tried reinstalls, different drivers, different operating systems, different in game settings, with physx, without physx, different hard drives, disabling sound.

What's worse is that throughout my research on the game I find that most people say it runs uber smooth on configurations lower than mine, smooth on the same card and just generally SMOOTH

WTF do I have to do to find what is causing this problem?

It's the only game now that just will not play ball?

EDIT - There are differences in the degree of stuttering I get between different driver versions. However, they all stutter in some form or another. 11.6 is actually by far the worst, causing pauses in game of a second or so.

 

[yogurt_21]

vsync = on

fixes it for me every time

 

[newtekie1]

What do you have the ApexPhysX option set to?

 

[LifeOnMars]

vsync = on

fixes it for me every time

I actually play most of my games with vsync off as with the right driver, you can have minimal tearing.

I have however tried both on and off and also D3doverrider which I use every now and again. Doesn't make any difference with this game.

@newtekie1 - I have tried with it off, medium and high. Off gives me the frame rates but still massive stutter.

 

[newtekie1]

Well you have to play with it off since your rig doesn't support PhysX. I see that being the main cause of stutter from most people. Other than that, I don't know what to say, your rig should handle the game without a problem.

 

[yogurt_21]

is it just mafia 2?

 

[LifeOnMars]

is it just mafia 2?

Yep, it's just Mafia 2. Like I said, it's very strange. Bad Company 2, Metro, Crysis, GTA IV and a hell of alot of other games - smooth as you like.

Mafia 2 - expected framerate but game wrecking stutter

@Newtekie - I have actually tried it with a dedicated physx card to see if that's where the problem was originating from, unfortunately, the stutter remained.


EDIT - Actually, I did have a weird thing happen with FEAR 1. Framerates were really low. I looked into it and it turned out there was a conflict going on with my Logitech G5 mouse. I had to disable HID devices and the framerates soared.

 

[Shou Miko]

u totally updated the game? if not, do it, it helps not only for DLC's but the game aswell.

 

[LifeOnMars]

u totally updated the game? if not, do it, it helps not only for DLC's but the game aswell.

It's the Steam version which should be auto updated right? I have it set to automatic updates.

 

[Funtoss]

yeah v sync is on for me and it runs much smoother!

 

[FordGT90Concept]

What's your CPU usage look like? If you got something like BOINC, WCG, or F@H running, some games stutter and some games don't. Stop it when gaming and it should go away.

 

[Shou Miko]

It's the Steam version which should be auto updated right? I have it set to automatic updates.

than it should update automatically bcs ino the updates improve a lot, even for me when i jumped from GTX460 to a GTX570, but the updates mainly do improvement and fixes and let the game be compatible with dlc's.

 

[LifeOnMars]

What's your CPU usage look like? If you got something like BOINC, WCG, or F@H running, some games stutter and some games don't. Stop it when gaming and it should go away.

I don't run anything in the background like that unfortunately. I have had a look at CPU usage whilst running the game and it looks perfectly normal. No weird spikes or 100% usage at all so

than it should update automatically bcs ino the updates improve a lot, even for me when i jumped from GTX460 to a GTX570, but the updates mainly do improvement and fixes and let the game be compatible with dlc's.

So I must be fully updated then. I have both of the DLC also and they display exactly the same level of stuttering as the main story.





Something in my system just doesn't agree with Mafia 2 and I cannot for the life of me figure it out.
Heres a full list of the hardware I'm using -

i5 2500k - I run this anywhere from 3.7 turbo stock to 4.9GHZ without issues in anything else

P8P67 - It's a first revision meaning it technically comes with the intel flawed chipset, I only run 2 hard drives however and both of those are connected to the Sata 6Gb intel controller without issues in any other games. HD tach and HD tune look normal.

Gskill 1600Mhz 7-8-7-24 - Runs at those timings perfectly fine with just 1.6v. I have tried the game with the voltage at 1.65v just to check but it makes no difference to the stuttering

Gigabyte HD 5870 (Reference) - I have tried the stock bios, flashed it to powerplay disabled clocks. 100% fan. No difference. I have also tried it underclocked, overclocked, added more voltage and still no difference. I have also tried drivers from 9.11 to 11.6. 11.6 being by far the worst and actually causing pauses in game. 11.6 looks visually like ATI have improved the quality, could this be a clue that the problem lies with the card? It plays fine with other games

Antec 650w True New Power PSU - I don't have bsods, the computer has never shut down and all other games are flawless. I really don't believe this is a power issue else surely Metro 2033 and Crysis would suffer?

Realtek Onboard Sound - Fully updated drivers, but I have also tried without them installed. No difference.

Logitech G5 Mouse - I mentioned it had caused issues in FEAR which were rectified once I disabled HID Devices, other than that...no issues.

Generic USB keyboard - Hasn't caused any issues in other games, why should it with Mafia 2?

Xbox 360 wired USB Controller - Perfectly fine and responsive in game, no correlation between movement and the stuttering

Dell SP2008WFP - 1680 x 1050 monitor - No issue with other games, v sync works in them and I get minimal tearing when turned off

 

[Shou Miko]

So I must be fully updated then. I have both of the DLC also and they display exactly the same level of stuttering as the main story.

both there are 3 which u can play, there are Joe's Adventures, Jimmy's Vendetta and The Betrayle of Jimmy, together with the 5 others (War Hero pack, Greaser, Vegas Pack, Renegade Pack and Made Man Pack)

but still i only got up to Update 3 bcs i don't see any point of Update 4 bcs it only fixes this:

- Fixed an issue where French, Italian, German and Spanish users would be unable to save their settings from the mafia launcher on a 64 bit Operating system.

but than again Update 5 make sure u got that one it gives u this and fixes:

Added the 9 JA songs.
Added Joe's Hawaiian shirt as a bonus.
Several small bug Fixed

but still should be update-2-date or try to update the game urself if not than reinstall it, and remember to install, DirectX, C++, not PhysX but everything else than PhysX and than take the Updates @ Steam as they come.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

try a realy low resolution, say 800*600 (this will / should improve frame rate) and show that it is the game which is unable to sync with your monitor; I think you already know it's a ready poor console port, as the rest of your games are o.k - if the stutter dose improve at 800*600 try the next res 1024*768 and so on

nb: the game was ported over from the x-box 360 which runs at 1280*720 (may be worth a shot) set the catalyst drivers to auto aa; af; disable Morphological filtering; cat A.I to high quality; Mipmap Detail Quality; v-sync on; anti-aliasing to performance

try putting the shaders at High, if you are given that option ingame; would not be the first time NV have manipulated shaders to show there cards in a better light; however saying that I see from the www that NV users are having trouble with this game also

hope this helps

atb

Law-II

 

[LifeOnMars]

both there are 3 which u can play, there are Joe's Adventures, Jimmy's Vendetta and The Betrayle of Jimmy, together with the 5 others (War Hero pack, Greaser, Vegas Pack, Renegade Pack and Made Man Pack)

but still i only got up to Update 3 bcs i don't see any point of Update 4 bcs it only fixes this:

- Fixed an issue where French, Italian, German and Spanish users would be unable to save their settings from the mafia launcher on a 64 bit Operating system.

but than again Update 5 make sure u got that one it gives u this and fixes:

Added the 9 JA songs.
Added Joe's Hawaiian shirt as a bonus.
Several small bug Fixed

but still should be update-2-date or try to update the game urself if not than reinstall it, and remember to install, DirectX, C++, not PhysX but everything else than PhysX and than take the Updates @ Steam as they come.

Er...I see no Betrayal Of Jimmy on steam and as for the vehicles and costume DLC, it's just fluff so I didn't bother.

I always install the latest Direct X, C++. All of the games on Steam are updated automatically unless you state otherwise, hence, it's fully updated.


@ Law-II - Nice suggestions bud but I have already tried messing with in game settings and resolution without any difference. Also, it bothers me that other people have the game running flawlessly and yet it runs like crap on my rig. It should be perfectly fine as Newtekie pointed out earlier in the thread.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

With the systems that run Mafia 2 smoothly, have you seen a common denominator- CPU / GPU / MEM / Mobo; - config's

CPU, HT Hyper Threading? springs to mind, a lot of the ports rely on HT

5870 scores 10 points and your CPU 9 points; with the OC CPU is 11pt; mem is 7pts but low latency. - your hardware is fine

Could try more system memory!, take it up to 8Gb or 16Gb (16 is possibly overkill)

You may find your answer in a config file for the game, nb: I had an issue with Far Cry 2, similar to this, I had to enable the console commands for the game and set MaxFPS 60, this cured the stutter in FC2.

Hope you find a solution

atb

Law-II

 

[Shou Miko]

Er...I see no Betrayal Of Jimmy on steam and as for the vehicles and costume DLC, it's just fluff so I didn't bother.

I always install the latest Direct X, C++. All of the games on Steam are updated automatically unless you state otherwise, hence, it's fully updated.

"Betrayal of Jimmy" is available on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/50146/

but it's only available for Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia atm but i got it and i completed it

Proof that i got it:

Here is all the DLC's ino u can buy ^^

Last time i switched motherboard Mafia II was one of the games i needed to reinstall before it would work again, but i still didn't re-install my Windows 7 Ultimate x86 Service Pack 1 i don't really wanna do that, but ino i need to sooner than later bcs it will be good for my system

 

[LifeOnMars]

Hi

With the systems that run Mafia 2 smoothly, have you seen a common denominator- CPU / GPU / MEM / Mobo; - config's

CPU, HT Hyper Threading? springs to mind, a lot of the ports rely on HT

5870 scores 10 points and your CPU 9 points; with the OC CPU is 11pt; mem is 7pts but low latency. - your hardware is fine

Could try more system memory!, take it up to 8Gb or 16Gb (16 is possibly overkill)

You may find your answer in a config file for the game, nb: I had an issue with Far Cry 2, similar to this, I had to enable the console commands for the game and set MaxFPS 60, this cured the stutter in FC2.

Hope you find a solution

atb

Law-II

TBH mate, I have seen all sorts of configs - a dual core with hd4850, tri core 720 with an HD5870, nvidia cards etc and most seem to run the game without any issues. The majority of peeps say there is a minute hitch when travelling between tunnels in the game but this is supposedly where the maps are joined and it is just loading in the new data.

I just seem to be SOL with this game, I may have to hold off on it until I change a few things around in my rig and see if there is any difference.

That said if anyone else has any suggestions I'm all ears