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Looking to upgrade PC to fix stutters


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Hi everyone,

 

I haven't simmed in quite a while but all the news about DCS World and such is getting me a little antsy and I'm thinking about possibly getting back into it a bit. I haven't played DCS: A-10C since shortly after the final version was released, but I remember having an issue with stuttering. My overall framerate felt very smooth, but every 4-5 seconds or so, I'd have a stutter where the game would freeze (although the sound still continued fine) for maybe 1/4-1/2 of a second or so. I'm thinking that perhaps it was accessing data from the hard drive for terrain and that was causing the stutter, but feel free to correct me if that's not what was causing it.

 

I want to upgrade my computer to fix that problem, and I'm thinking that perhaps a SSD would be the way to go. But if the problem is something else, I'd be glad to update whatever is needed. Here's my computer specs:

 

-Case: NZXT Gamma Gaming Case - Black

-iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion [6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System

-Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 950 Processor (4x 3.06GHz/8MB L3 Cache)

-Processor Cooling: Liquid CPU Cooling System [sOCKET-1366] --- Standard 120mm Fan

-Memory: 6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1600 - Corsair

-Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - 2GB

-Motherboard: ASUS P6T SE

-Motherboard USB / SATA Interface: Internal USB 3.0 PCI-E x1 Expansion Card

-Power Supply: 750 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-750TX

-Primary Hard Drive: 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive*

-Optical Drive 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black

-Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard

-Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)

 

Any suggestions on what I could do to get better performance and stop the stuttering? Once again, the framerate feels absolutely fine and the stutters feel like a very different incident than the GPU or CPU getting bogged down. They're pretty far apart (4-5 seconds between them).

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Disable V-sync (in graphics driver, game etc anywhere where it could be enabled, even in OS - Win7 by Aero theme if running windowed mode) and see if it still happens, that would be the first place to look.

 

If yout stutters are short but consistent (about every same time interval) it's guaranteed some service causing it, and one of them could be v-sync


Edited by Kuky

No longer active in DCS...

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I know what V-sync is and I can assure you it can cause stutters... don't know if its techically correct to call it a service but it is part of OS now (Win7 Aero) and this is somewhat like a service, or part of one.

No longer active in DCS...

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V-sync will cause the frambuffer to hold towards syncronising. This inherently causes delays and depending on workload, stutters. Usually though the effects are in low(er than normal) FPS and not "stutters", but stutters are a possible sideeffect when rendering speed changes.

 

Analogies to analog TV (lol, had to think twice there :P ) are not directly applicable. I understand your point shadowze, but you're not getting the full picture. However, I would agree that most of the time V-sync is unrelated to problems experienced by DCS customers. (A desync in simulation engine and graphics engine is way more probable in this case, as is several other possible contributors.)

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What you don't understand is that when sync is not 100% a frame will have to be dropped and that will cause this stutter... you can call this what ever you want but fact is that is exactly what will appear in game as micro-stutter that will repeat in consistent intervals.

No longer active in DCS...

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Vsync is a must use for DCS with a TIR to prevent tearing. I would not even consider it an option to turn it off.

 

Try D3D Overrider Triple Buffer. I've seen this prevent stutters in another sim I used with my 7970. Made it smooth as glass.

 

Good luck to you. I know nothing compared to these guys.

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Thanks for all the tips, guys!

 

Admittedly I haven't tried them yet, I just fired up the sims for the first time in over a year today. But I'll definitely have to go through the tips and threads mentioned and tweak things a bit.

 

Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised. Last time I played DCS: A-10C was shortly after the final version was released (late 2010) on the same PC. It had the problems that I was describing (framerate seemed smooth overall, but stutters every once in a while). But running the current version in DCS World seems to have great results! I have the settings about the same as I used to (as far as I can remember), and now the framerate seems even better than before and the stutters seem to be completely gone (unless I enable HDR, but I don't really care for it anyway). I guess a lot of optimizing has been done.

 

I also decided to try out Flaming Cliffs 2 again. Using similar settings to DCS: A-10C, it seems to run the way I had remembered from before (what I described in my first post). However, the stutters aren't necessarily at intervals like I had previously thought. It seems that they happen (for 1/4 of a second or so) whenever I fire a weapon and whenever something happens on the radio. Also of note is the fact that as soon as I enter the cockpit, if I pan my head to the sides, the framerate will slow down and seem to stutter for a second or so when I look to each side the first time (then it seems fine after that). I remember DCS: A-10C doing that before, but now it doesn't (now it's smooth as ever, even the first time I pan my view around after entering the cockpit). I'm wondering if maybe these stutters in FC2 are caused by some types of data not being preloaded during the loading screen, but instead the engine is loading them right as they happen in the game, whereas perhaps in DCS: A-10C it loads more stuff during the loading screen. Does that sound plausible?

 

Anyway, I'm still very excited to see the DCS: A-10C is working much better than it did before. I hope FC3 gets optimized for that kind of performance as well!

 

EDIT: I should note that I've only tried Instant Action and Training so far, and I know the Campaign and Multiplayer missions are going to load a lot more things and use more resources.


Edited by Markdude
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Still relevant since FC2 runs as my original post described. :smilewink:

 

Basically I assumed that since FC2 is simpler (in about every way conceivable), and had been out for quite a while at the time of DCS: A-10C's release, the LAST thing I was expecting was for DCS: A-10C to actually run better than FC2 in any way. It honestly didn't seem logical to me that DCS: A-10C would be running better than it, no matter how many updates there had been (since there have been plenty for FC2 but the performance never seemed to improve much for me), but hey, I'm pleasantly surprised. Besides, I was posting from work and I couldn't give the sims a try at the time, but was still curious (and antsy).


Edited by Markdude
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