NVIDIA 6 series stuttering
 

This is a little old now but still current and thought some of you might want know if you hadn't seen it and are on old drivers with a 6 series Nvidia card.
So please dont blame everything on the developers and the game!

There are still reportedly issues even with current drivers on some games so it wouldnt surprise me if some of the stutter issues with COD are related because I get zero stutters on 5 series hardware and some users are still reporting issues on 6 series hardware.

The thread on the Nvidia forums is almost 95 pages. At first, this issue was passed off as some minor bug, and presently , has several Nvidia engineers whose sole purpose is this bug and working to fix it, so far 3 different causes of frame hitching have been fixed. This is still not completely resolved.

Game and tech forums globally are full of threads about this issue across many games including BF3 that people love to compare to COD! :O
Games confirmed effected that ive found in a quick search.. There are sure to be others...
BF3
Rage
Titan Quest
Dirt 3
Sniper Elite V2
Diablo 3

Here's an extract from Toms Hardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/GeF...Fix,15670.html

"Tom's Hardware has received several requests to look into a v-sync issue that a number of owners are seeing with Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 600-series graphics cards. A number of readers have pointed us in the direction of a very long forum thread where multiple customers express concern over stuttering problems with their Kepler-based graphics cards."

NVIDIA's Official Response...
We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.

Thought it might help some of you still experiencing stutters on newer cards to make sure you disable vsync which is the opposite of what you would logically think! Vsync normally smooths games out.... The frame limiters that people have been using also seems to be another work around for this.

And lastly an interesting post at Guru3d about the issue across multiple platforms and hardware combinations.....
Quote:
"Just like to add that I had this issue with 3 different cpu/mobo builds. X58 & i7 920, x79 & 3820, and z77 & i52550k. I got rid of it prior to moving over to my now current ivybridge. The problem was also with 2 different 680's, a Gainward Phantom and iirc a standard Gainward. The 2 680's having different clock speeds and power phasing.

I did however manage to reduce the issue signifcantly to the point of making it appear non existant during gaming. On a game by game basis, I often resolved by combination of max frames to 60, pre rendered to 1, power management to always max etc etc. Deep diving driver config could resolve those games of which it presented itself for me usually.

Going back to my current 580, resolved the need for any driver tweaks to work around the stutter I had with the 680's. I just found the driver/680 to be a load of hassle on every other game to get working as I wanted.

iirc correctly the latest driver at the time though was the 301.42, of which I personally found the 300.83 to greatly improve the situation. So I cant comment on the situation post those drivers today.

"If this issue is so "minority" associated, as is being alleged on this thread. Then I for one think its strange that I had the issue across so many different set ups and using 2 different 680's. Also if the issue didnt exist for a large number of users, why did the 95 page thread at Nvidia have over 1 million hits before forums went down. And lastly if the issue does not exist, why did Nvidia confirm that it did/does?" end quote

Naughty Nvidia! :(

This is not only a 600 series problem. It was introduced by one of the drivers. I had this too on the 590. I think the problems is still present in the latest driver, but I already disabled the vsinc.

Current drivers reportedly still have the problem and I dont have stuttering in my games so I think its more of a 6 series issue. Certainly most posts in the forums about the place have referenced 6 series from what I saw. Could be just lies damned lies and "internet" ... ;)

Also heres an extract from the Nvidia release notes for R304 but it hasnt completely fixed the issue.

I think you will find your stutter issues are a result of your dual GPU card.

Key Fixes from R304
Fixes an intermittent vsync stuttering issue with GeForce GTX 600-series GPUs.
Fixes an issue where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks.
Fixes a performance issue in Total War: Shogun 2 with the latest game patch.

I think it is also worth mentioning that there is another bug with Nvidia cards that I suffered from that can cause real problems with gaming and is difficult to pin down. I wasn't sure about sharing the last half of the fix as it can cause irreparable damage to your GPU and is not recommended unless you cannot fix it. It worked for me but I wouldn't easily tell other people to do it- use at your own risk.

Symptoms: You sometimes get good fps when running applications but then other times get poor fps until reboot. This happens seemingly randomly.

I noticed this when playing league of legends. I would get major FPS issues, down from 60fps to a stuttery 28, this continued in other games- including RO2 and CLoD.

It can be a problem in the GTX460 but I have heard of it in other cards, different fixes seem to be required based on the card.

It is caused by the card not triggering into the full 3d power mode and staying in 2d/powerful 2d mode which gives half the clock speed, testable by (for example) MSI afterburner in game.

Fixes:
1- Update drivers (most usually fixes it). This fixes the bug with the power states for some people. Completely uninstalling the old ones first can make a difference.

If it persists:
2- Set power management mode to prefer maximum performance in NVIDIA control panel.

The final fix is dangerous and I would not recommend doing it unless you are very comfortable with making system changes. I have only heard of this fix needing to be done on specific cards (like mine): the Gigabyte GTX460 (1gb, overclocked version). IF you don't have this card, dont try it as I dont want people to get angry with me for sharing this fix.

Gigabyte have released a new BIOS for the GPU (not mb) which fixes problems in power states. This was the only fix that would stop the GPU from clocking down after having switched to 2D rendering back to 3D. I will not link to it, but it is available on their website if you look for your model. Always make a backup of your GPU bios and do not attempt if you have fears about your PSU, power surges, internet corruption etc. Replacing the BIOS can brick your card if anything goes wrong.

As I said, this last option is only for specific cases. My friend only had to update drivers so don't forge ahead and do it anyway. This problem had been affecting me for months and was making gaming pretty bad. Sometimes I flew CLoD at 40fps, other times 15.

I have a Gainward GTX 670 Phantom and no stutters here. Neither in BF3...I must try Diablo III (I've just formatted).
P.S.: Latest beta drivers installed.

If you're running an Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) check what version you are running... if it is anything higher than the 11.2.0.1006 release, you may have been boned by an unintentional (yet WHQL signed driver - go figure) memory leak associated with it.
It also appears to be a bit of a mess to uninstall.

Another to try is to set (nVidia cpl) setting Threaded Optimisation to OFF

hmm , I have the same problem with my EVGA gtx460 and noticed that after a reboot the problem mostly goes away.I am still using the 103 beta driver.maybe i should get a newer driver?


amd dual core 5400
gtx460se
6gb ram
Win7 ultimate (performance mode)

I know that problem caused by vram on nvidia cards at arma 2, but this should already be fixed by nvidia. There was a key combination or work around, how to unload the vram on the fly without rebooting. But I don't know, if this fault perhaps came back in some ways???

590 = live with stutters as it is your dual card causing it in close work to the vram. Again I have to say my opinion: Bad technique causes bad and unefficient work!

This power setting issue sounds like the problem with ati cards, which are running only at 500mhz video mode, when watching tracks. Perhaps, this problem is now also arising for imprved power settings of the nvidia cards? Did you already delete the ubi teaser file? This forces ati's to run only in video mode.

And again: stutters with a 680 should happen, because they again have insufficient vram! See phat's testings!

I have a PNY GTX460 (factory oc) video card, and don't have any problems,,, no stuttering, good fps..
it is on an older MSI P7N motherboard with 4 gb ddr2 ram...

I use the latest video drivers..

This is just an FYI, not to just say, hey I don't have problems with my gtx460 in 2d/3d, just sayin' it's a good video card.. I have had it about 1 year.

Of course with several flight sims, once in a while something gets bugged and I have to restart, or reboot, but that's normal for all computers...

I used to run ATI / Radeon, but Nvidia work much much better for me and my friends for flight sims.. (Opinion).

I just bought a evga gtx670 ftw and I ran CoD, Skyrim, Alan Wake, Crysis2 and Shogun2 with it and did not encounter any stutters.
I am however using the latest beta driver and have v-sync enabled in most games together with triple buffering.

As previously posted, the 304.xx beta driver officially is made to fix intermittend stuttering due to v-sync, that made me use that driver, didn't even try the latest whql driver.

For anyone who is thinking about a 670, all I can say is it took me a long time to be able to upgrade my gpu and I am very happy I did. Performance is awesome (compared to my old 470) and the card runs silent and about 10 to 15 celsius lower under load (with increased settings) with the same afterburner fan profile that I used for my old card. It is at average at about 50 to 55 celsius and so far nerver broke 62 celsius.

Yes, I am using the latest Nvidia 304.79 beta drivers and it seems to have fixed the problem for now......

Invest in a SSD if possible. My stutters went instantly.

Or, if you have enough RAM installed, install RAMDRIVE

~S~

SSD does not solve the stuttering with GTX 600

I don't know, why people do not listen to the posts of phat and me. It seems, that some just know it better.. Omg....

And again, one post tell us about crysis, skyrim and games like these. Please do us all a favour and do not mention performances on such games. On my old gtx 285 ssc, all these games ran also in acceptable fps and quality. So you can see, that they are simply casual games with eye candy and a totally different way to program a game. And they are multi platform, which means, that they have to suite to all platforms. That means ps3, which has an incredibly low ram and up to some opinions, never was able to compete with a pc! Guys who think, that it was better than any gaming pc in its first months, are totally wrong.

To come back to multiplatform games: they are mainly programmed for xbox and ps3, so they manage to use low ram, low visibility distances and too much eye candy to camouflage bad things. If you will now buy a graphics card, it is bored to death. Scenario: ps3 and xbox360 will stay for 10 years longer ->this will mean, that you are able to play actual games with a gtx 580 even in 10 years, because we currently see not much development in games. Bf3 is also only bf:bad company 2 with eye candy, not more! So, please do not compare any game of these with clod or pc exclusive games. There are good games, bit technically they are eye candy and no improvement of gaming! That is not only my opinion, bit also the opinion of othe core gamers, who are waiting for new big improvements and not for hollywood games, where the developer/publisher earns millions with crappy games, who will be over after 5 hours and have no motivation to play it even twice. Some games like call of duty and bf3 are just copied and pasted, with new textures and new featured eye candy techniques, not more in my opinion.

All in all, please stop mention skyrim as comparison. It is totally the other party of gaming development.

Jeez...Stublerone, you don't get it do you?

Skyrim with textures and mods eats up more vram than a current console can handle and the pc version is far superior to the console versions in.....yes....eyecandy, what do you think graphic cards are made for.....right...to handle eyecandy.

Sure my old 470 could handle Crysis2, with texture pack enabled, sounding like a blowdrier next to me.....read the post. Btw, Crysis2, all turned up, uses more vram than any game I tried so far, so your old gtx 285 is getting ram from somewhere else, shared ram.

These two pc versions of console games do not use low visibility distances, they improve upon the console versions.

And did I mention pc exclusives such as Shogun2 and Cliffs of Dover (CoD)?

My point,that you apparently missed, was with the latest beta driver the problem of intermittend stuttering due to v-sync has been confirmed and seemingly fixed by nvidia.

And maybe, just maybe gamers are allowed to enjoy a variety of genres such as strategy (Shogun2), roleplaying (Skyrim) and simulations (CoD), if you don't mind.

It hasn't yet been fixed properly by nVidia....

SSD is good I use them.

Does this issue also by any chance also apply to the 5xx series of cards?

Only 600 series cards are mentioned in regards to intermittend stuttering in the latest beta driver release.
Plus a couple of other key fixes that do not mention a specific series.

I think you do not get it! ;) Skyrim with mod for example (compketely crabked up) uses about 1.2 gb vram
PS3 has 256 gb vram!!! So, the initial game for multiplatform has to deal with that 10 year old amount of crappy ram! Even if skyrim uses more and runs bad on ps3, it is near to it. Sure with better looking stock version, skyrim uses more on pc and more texture packs = more load, but hey boy: It is still below 1.5. So, it is no wonder, that u can play it. Clod uses up to 2.7 gb! This is a little more and as u have a card with insufficient vram, you have to live with your stutters. Some stutters will sure be solved by optimized driver, but you will never have stutterless clod with current facts.

Jeeeze, live with it. Shogun is also JUST a non demanding game and you should have a look over benchmarks. Kepler is still performing bad at shogun 2 after all. Crysis 2 is a demanding game. You should not be able to crank out the game, because it could use up to 3.8 gb vram!!!! So you are right with that but it is not a streaming engine!!!! So it is not comparable in managing to use vram, ram and hdd. Just dumb, that you do not see such things. It has not the same view distance, the game loads totally different, and so on!

Do not compare as kiddies do and read a bit about the techniques.

With eye candy, I just mean new features with dx9, 10, 11 cards. They get new processing units to calculate and us these eye candys. Graphics is far more than just AA, Shaders, blurr and bloom, etc. A graphic card is not only there to produce effects. There are far more interesting things to calculate, which makes the base of the game. No core gamer initially is interested in the best eye candy, but in the base game, its techniques and its competetiveness for gaming it over more than just 4 days. Many games nowadays went away from being a long term game, because they can currently make more money with games, who are supported for just 1 year.

This is casual gaming and I do not need to talk about the whole bunch of fps games with all the same code behind it. Q

I was wondering? Could the resolution one runs the game under also contribute to stutters? If I'm not mistaken a higher res would require higher VRam usage. Maybe this is the cause of some people reporting stutters with a gpu, while others using the same gpu have no issues.