Stuttering in all 3D games

informalmrtom

Active member
Hi I bought this about a month a go...

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-4770k Quad Core (3.50GHz @ max 4.40GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH Z87: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, THERMAL ARMOR
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
4TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD4001FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ MODULAR TXM-650 V2-80 PLUS®
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 150Mbps PCI-E CARD (Special Offer)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

... and I've since reinstalled Windows on it, updated all the drivers and such. But when it comes to playing any games there is stutter every few seconds and even sound cutting out, before, everything ran flawlessly, any ideas of where to begin to find a fix?
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Maybe try a clean install of the graphics drivers and if that doesn't work then reinstall Windows
 

informalmrtom

Active member
I'm on a freshly installed Windows 7, I've uninstalled/reinstalled and even downgraded my drivers to no effect... Although I've now realised it's not actual gameplay that stutters... its the FMV's and in game audio that is stuttering... gameplay is silky smooth. (tested with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, Arma 3, Metro Last Light, Team Fortress 2 and Company of Heroes 2)
 

baron75mk2

Banned
Try forcing V-sync to "on" in nvidia control panel.

Also how do you get your sound ? , from the GPU though hdmi or from a sound card ?
 

informalmrtom

Active member
I've tried forcing v-sync on, no improvement :( i'm using the GPU through HDMI for sound, I've a sneaky suspicion it might be a HDD problem... I'm going to install something onto my SSD and see what happens.

edit: It might be also worth noting that after I reinstalled Windows all the CPU overclocks set by PC Specialist revert back to stock.
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Weird, maybe try this

Go to power settings in control panel, then change the settings of whichever is your current settings. Then change advanced settings, then open up the hard disk section, then set the "turn hard disk off" to never. Then save settings and see if that changes anything
 

informalmrtom

Active member
I'll try that, but in the meantime I've ran a test with HD Tune... I'm not 100% sure but this looks wrong. HD Tune.png
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Yes, looking at the graph there is definitely something wrong, I average around 130MB/s and 13ms access time.

So I recommend you ring PCS in the morning and they should set up an RMA and then give you a replacement
 

informalmrtom

Active member
I got in touch with someone at PC Specialist and they told me to download the WD Diagnostic tool... I did and the test unsurprisingly failed... in doing so it also caused SMART to fail too :( now I get an error every time I turn my computer on "Smart Status Bad" I take it my HDD is totally kaput now?
 

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
I got in touch with someone at PC Specialist and they told me to download the WD Diagnostic tool... I did and the test unsurprisingly failed... in doing so it also caused SMART to fail too :( now I get an error every time I turn my computer on "Smart Status Bad" I take it my HDD is totally kaput now?
Yes,the hard drive will need replaced.
 

Stu308

Member
Hi, sorry to hear of your problems, I have ordered a very similar spec to yours. Would just like to know how the games ran when your PC was running properly?
I will be playing similar games to you hopefully around high settings. Also keen to see if FSX runs okay on this setup.
Hope you get your problem sorted soon.
Thanks.
Stu.
 

informalmrtom

Active member
issue resolved - got sent a new HDD, fantastic service PC Specialist :)

Stu - everything runs 100% perfectly, Metro Last Light runs on average at about 70fps with everything maxed :) FSX run silky smooth too. The only game I'm struggling with is Rome 2 which still runs at a respectable 25-30fps everything maxed.

Here are my Nvidia Shadowplay test for Arkham Origins and Metro Last Light (YouTube videos are capped at 30fps) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipKHgyO8ajI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS-0k_venYA
 
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Stu308

Member
Thanks for the info informalmrtom. Glad you got it sorted out. Got a 780 Ti in the end and all is good on there too. FSX actually flies now !! :)
 
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