BleepingComputer.com: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT - Gaming Cinematic Lag/Stutter

OS : Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3.
MB : Intel® Desktop Board DQ45CB.
GFX CARD : GEFORCE 9800 GT - Driver Vers 258.96.
CPU : 2.67 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q9400.
MEM : 4 Gig.



Been tearing my hair out over this for a while now - searching vainly through Google for any problems/solutions vaguely similar to mine, which is where i found this thread on here with a similar problem but no cigar.

The problem I'm having is not in actual gameplay but only the starting titles (ironically the Nvidia one) and cinematic parts of games, the graphics slow right down and become choppy/stutter and the sound gets gaps in it, the sound doesn't just go silent it actually has half second gaps (approx).

I have updated all drivers, checked temperatures, messed about with Nvidia settings 6 ways from Sunday and sacrificed several fluffy animals to various gods of technology, all to no avail. If anyone could possibly offer sensible advice I will willingly give you my first-born child or, if preferred, my sister (I have two, my parents won't miss one.)

Are you playing the games from the game disks or are you playing the games directly from the hard drive?

Also I am just curious if you are playing games across the Internet?

If you could post the names of the games you are having problems with we may be able suggest a fix.

Bruce.

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 06 September 2010 - 10:40 PM

Playing games both from hard drive and from disc, like I say it's not the gameplay that's lagging only the starting splashscreen type things at the beginning and then the cinematic story portions of games like the intro and set pieces. Titles I have had the problem on include Disciples III, Borderlands and Warhammer : Mark of chaos.

Yes, I play borderlands on steam, in response to whether it's online or not but again this isn't the issue, it's a gfx problem not actual lag. Forcing V-Sync makes it slightly better but still doesn't fix it.

This post has been edited by kalak2211: 07 September 2010 - 12:12 AM

I just checked Nvidia's web site, I see you have the latest driver for Windows XP.

Is your graphics card temperature raising up into the danger zone that you are aware of?

I mean have you tired monitoring the temperature of the GPU during game play to see if its bordering near the unstable hot side?

Also one last thought, have you checked the motherboard BIOS for any settings that may enhance the video performance?

Bruce.

This post has been edited by MrBruce1959: 07 September 2010 - 12:28 AM

Right, i just took the whole PC apart, cleaned everything, including the fan assembly on the GFX card. Re-seated everything and booted up, at idle the GPU runs at 51 Deg C (121 deg F) and only climbs to 57 after an hour of gaming. Also it's the very first thing you see in games i.e the splashscreens that are getting the stutter so heat is unlikely, as I say, gameplay is fine, it's just the cinemtaics.

I also checked the BIOS and there are only options for the apeture size and memory allowance of the IGD and boot priority of the on board or external GFX Driver.

I don't know if it's comparable or not but it plays .mkv files and Blu-rays fine.

Ok, this is a bit weird - I have been going through all the options in the nVidia control panel, one at a time (again) to see if anything will resolve this, after trying many permutations and nothing working I ran Avira (my antivirus program) whilst it was scanning I decided to try all 3 games I mentioned before and, lo and behold, they all work fine!

I then restarted the pc, tried it with virus scan running, all fine. Stopped scan, problem resurfaces. I uninstalled Avira and ran Malwarebytes and the same thing, as long as the cpu has something else to be doing I have no problems at all - WTH???

This post has been edited by kalak2211: 07 September 2010 - 01:35 PM