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Windows Mild to moderate 'stuttering' in BF3

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Tripwires, 25 Jul 2012.

  1. Tripwires

    Tripwires What's a Dremel?

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    Hi everyone,

    Just purchased BF3 yesterday.

    The problem is, I am getting some mild to moderate (depending on map above all else) 'stuttering.' this occurs when moving, and isn't a frame rate issue. My fps rarely dips below 40, and it doesn't have the low fps look, it just looks jumpy / jittery / jerky when moving. If I run staring at the ground for example, the ground 'skips' every now and then.

    Please see my rig in my sig :)thumb:) I am running the game with all ULTRA settings except effects on high. Anti aliasing MSAA 2X and post anti aliasing on High.

    I am running at resolution 1440 X 900

    The game is playable but it's irritating especially considering my rig should have no problems at all running this smooth as silk with my low resolution 19" monitor.

    My computer is only a few months old so its free of crap like malware / spyware / startup programmes. I've run McAffee full scan, and I do defrags / junk cleaning often. I also recently did a disk error check.

    I tried disabling McAffee real time scanning but this made no discernible difference.

    Maybe I should try Gamebooster or something but I doubt anything is running in the background since the only thing on my machine are games, fraps and some remote desktop software. That's literally it.

    Running latest Nvidia driver.

    Any help or input from anyone with a similar rig would be very much appreciated. I've had a fair few problems with this PC. (first one arrived damaged, second one had a GPU failure within a month)


    Many thanks
     
  2. T2I3M

    T2I3M Minimodder

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    Is this online or offline? This would indicate whether it is a broadband speed/cap issue or not.

    Have you got any other games you can test this out on? Or use some benchmarks. This will help to determine whether it is just BF3 or the GPU.

    Have you monitored the temps of your card?

    Is the power cables inserted properly into the card?
     
  3. Pookeyhead

    Pookeyhead It's big, and it's clever.

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    If offline, it sounds like low VRAM, but you're running at a very low screen res, so I'm not sure. Any other PCI-E devices plugged in? If so, try removing them all except the GPU.

    If online, it could just be down to the number of players. It just happens in online games. When playing SWTOR I get it at the imperial fleet when there are over 250 players camped out there. Anywhere else in the game and I never get less than 120fps at 1600P with everything on.. but on a busy night at the fleet, exactly the same thing. Not FPS... but stutters... sort of freezes for perhaps a fifth of a second every now and again.
     
  4. Tripwires

    Tripwires What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks for the replies guys. I get it offline too, and now you mention it I also get it (offline and online) in Red Orchestra 2. However, I do not get it in The Witcher 2, Skyrim, Shogun 2, or Arma 2.

    It is mostly quite mild, nothing like some youtube videos I've seen of people pointing out this issue in BF3 from late 2011, but it is a milder version of the same thing. So then why does RO2 do it as well? Strange. It is nothing like the fps slowdown that happens in Arma 2 if I put too much AI on the map in the editor, or have everything on Ultra with AA in shogun 2, it's like smooth-skip-smooth.

    I will download some software to monitor my temps, I don't have any installed at the moment as I am not overclocking.

    As for other stuff plugged into the PCI-E slot....really I'm not sure....this PC was built for me. What else would be plugged into these slots? I don't have a sound card.

    And for the power cable thing, again I don't see why they wouldn't be secure, since the PC was built professionally, I guess they could have come loose in transit. But would the component operate at all if this was the case? I could open the case up and check though.

    What sort of benchmarking could help narrow down the problem? I have used Unigine Heaven before but that stutters loads (although I've read it does that for everyone? Right? lol)

    I am going to check the games which I mentioned don't stutter now, as I've just realised I've played none of them since I noticed stuttering in BF3 and RO2.

    Thanks for all your help!


    EDIT: Just checked another game and Arma 2 is still stutter free
     
    Last edited: 26 Jul 2012
  5. Tripwires

    Tripwires What's a Dremel?

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    I've just remembered something probably useful - Sometimes, after playing BF3 (and RO2) I have received a windows message upon shutting down the game, asking me to consider switching to the 'basic' appearance mode of the desktop, because my "Computer appears to be running slow" ?
     
  6. Tripwires

    Tripwires What's a Dremel?

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    Is there anyway this could have anything to do with my Hard disk? It's a Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST1000DM003-9YN162 ATA

    On my Windows experience Index everything gets a 7.6, 7.7 or 7.8 but my Hard Disk only gets a 5.9?!

    Also although I have 8gb or Ram, it is of the cheap 'unbranded' variety (see my sig)
     
  7. jimmyjj

    jimmyjj Minimodder

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    Use GPU-Z to monitor VRAM usage during the game.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

    If you are close to maxing your VRAM then I would suggest that it is stuttering as info is swapped in to and out of VRAM from RAM or HD.

    BF3 needs 1.5 gigs of VRAM to play maxed out I believe, despite your somewhat low resolution I would be prepared to bet this is the issue.
     
  8. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    Just remove Msaa and it should be fine
     
  9. Tripwires

    Tripwires What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks to both of you.

    I had heard about the Vram issue before so I tried putting texture quality on medium...it didn't seem to help.

    As for MSAA - disabling that has actually greatly improved the stuttering (it is still there though.)

    It sucks though because aliasing is really obvious on my small monitor especially with no AA at all. :sigh:

    I do find it odd that when searching the net for this problem most forum posts etc seem to be from 2011, with virtually none from 2012 - suggesting a patch fixed this.

    Also Nvidia's own gtx 560 ti optimization guide suggests everything on ULTRA and 4x MSAA with larger resolutions than mine...

    Just wish this game could run like the Witcher 2, where I have everything maxed out except for Ubersampling.

    Thanks for the help though guys :thumb:
     
  10. twiztid-kid

    twiztid-kid What's a Dremel?

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    The GTX 560ti only has 1024MB of VRam. For ultra textures you need 1.5GB.

    I'd drop them down to high (how I ran on my GTX460 before). Turn off MSAA aswell.
    BF3 maxes out my 2GB VRam now. It doesnt need all that therefore I dont get any stuttering problems.
     

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