6970 stutter

A

adrift02

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2006
Messages
467
My 6970 has been stuttering in games (f3ar, portal 2, bf3) when vsync is disabled ever since I bought it, a few weeks ago. While I haven't done extensive testing (up till bf3 I just enable vsync), I'm fairly confident the problem exists in all games, the above three are just examples. I have tried various settings, can be well over 60 fps, and recently even tried +20 in power tune but nothing helps. As stated turning on vsync completely fixes the stutter (it's somewhat like playing at 30 fps or with frame skipping).

Any suggestions? I've tried various drivers already...Bf3 on ultra just isn't going to be doable with vsync...
 
adrift02 said:
My 6970 has been stuttering in games (f3ar, portal 2, bf3) when vsync is disabled ever since I bought it, a few weeks ago. While I haven't done extensive testing (up till bf3 I just enable vsync), I'm fairly confident the problem exists in all games, the above three are just examples. I have tried various settings, can be well over 60 fps, and recently even tried +20 in power tune but nothing helps. As stated turning on vsync completely fixes the stutter (it's somewhat like playing at 30 fps or with frame skipping).

Any suggestions? I've tried various drivers already...Bf3 on ultra just isn't going to be doable with vsync...
Click to expand...

What is your display? What refresh rate? I've seen this before when people are using a display that locks in 24Hz for some signals.
 
I'm using a Panasonic S1 plasma which doesn't have a 24hz option (it runs at 60). I've tried all three 11.10 preview drivers and the 11.9 stable release.

And just to clarify, when I mean "stutter" I mean something akin to frame-skipping. The game never freezes or locks up, it's just constantly choppy like it's skipping frames.
 
Ok after some more diagnosing I think the issue is similar to what N1ghtra1n is suggesting. I tried to record the issue with fraps at 60 fps, once I hit record and it locked my fps at 60, it was smooth as butter just like with vsync (but with screen tearing of course). So, this is an issue with my plasma doing a poor job of displaying above 60 fps? I mean technically it can't actually display above 60fps so I guess it's just syncing horribly and introducing the "stutter" effect...

Anyways, the obvious solution here is to cap my max fps at 60 in BF3 so I don't get vsync issues like input lag from triple buffering or drop to 30fps. Guess I will need to do this in all games that can't maintain 60fps and allow me to vsync....grrr

Is there any software that will put in a global limit?
 
I thought vsync limited you to 60 fps?

And I thought plasmas refreshed at like 480hz or 600hz way faster than LCDs?
 
Interesting your getting stuttering and hyperthreading is not available on a i5 2500k. Many people have found on a 2600k that if you disable hyperthreading the game runs fine.

However the OP is getting suttering even without hyperthreading involved. OP Catalyst created just tweeted if your getting stuttering remove the CAP 11.9 Cap 3 for battlefield 3. He states AMD is looking into the stuttering.

Up until now I was sure it was a bug with hyperthreading, now this thread is making me wonder.

BTW stuttering is happening on both AMD and nvidia GPU's and most fix it by disabling hyperthreading in the bios.
 
Lord Exodia: I don't think my issue is BF3 specific, it happens on other games. So different stutter issue here (guess I should have labeled it "frame-skipping").

Jbean: I don't know the specifics of the tech, but it's my understanding that while Plasma is 600hz, it's really displaying at 60hz (which is what my vid card is outputting at). I think it just displays each frame multiple times to take care of motion blur.

This brings up a good point though. Could the 600hz be contributing to this exaggerated "frame skipping" feeling when I'm not synced at 60fps? Does anyone else game on their plasma and have similar issues? It's pretty jarring, guess I'll hook up my computer monitor and see if it does the same.
 
Sorry about that this was like the 4th thread I came to in a row that was talking about stuttering. The others about BF3 and stuttering so I thought this was just another one of those.

I've seen this before on a plasma and I believe it's because the 600hz settings. I remember someone saying it's not a real 600hz but a simulated 600hz. Check your options on the tv menu, and see if there is a way for you to change settings related to the refresh rate. Also how is your card connected to the tv? HDMI dvi etc..?
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Sorry about that this was like the 4th thread I came to in a row that was talking about stuttering. The others about BF3 and stuttering so I thought this was just another one of those.

I've seen this before on a plasma and I believe it's because the 600hz settings. I remember someone saying it's not a real 600hz but a simulated 600hz. Check your options on the tv menu, and see if there is a way for you to change settings related to the refresh rate. Also how is your card connected to the tv? HDMI dvi etc..?
Click to expand...

I'm connected using the HDMI port from the card, no DVI-HDMI converter is being used. I do pass through a receiver but it's not capable of any video processing. Thanks for the suggestion re 600hz, I did try switching from Cinema to Game mode (only Cinema uses the 600hz sub-field drive) and it didn't help :(

Edit: I completed more testing and was able to reproduce the "jerkiness" on two other monitors (a 26'' LCD HDTV and 19'' computer monitor). So it's not related to my plasma. I did notice that the effect comes and goes depending on the fps in relation to the refresh rate (the hdtv was 60hz w/HDMI while the LCD was 75hz w/DVI). As an example using the LCD, ~75 was fine, ~140 was ok, ~90 was pretty bad. Not saying the effect is completely gone in any case (except when FPS=refresh rate of course) with vsync disabled, just that it gets worse/better based on the fps.

Just an FYI, I also tried switching back to my old mouse/keyboard combo to make sure it wasn't some weird wireless usb issue.

This is frustrating, hope someone has more ideas :(
 
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adrift02 said:
I'm connected using the HDMI port from the card, no DVI-HDMI converter is being used. I do pass through a receiver but it's not capable of any video processing. Thanks for the suggestion re 600hz, I did try switching from Cinema to Game mode (only Cinema uses the 600hz sub-field drive) and it didn't help :(

Edit: I completed more testing and was able to reproduce the "jerkiness" on two other monitors (a 26'' LCD HDTV and 19'' computer monitor). So it's not related to my plasma. I did notice that the effect comes and goes depending on the fps in relation to the refresh rate (the hdtv was 60hz w/HDMI while the LCD was 75hz w/DVI). As an example using the LCD, ~75 was fine, ~140 was ok, ~90 was pretty bad. Not saying the effect is completely gone in any case (except when FPS=refresh rate of course) with vsync disabled, just that it gets worse/better based on the fps.

Just an FYI, I also tried switching back to my old mouse/keyboard combo to make sure it wasn't some weird wireless usb issue.

This is frustrating, hope someone has more ideas :(
Click to expand...

I remember a thread recently where someone looked in their tv manual and found that when using a computer he was supposed to use a dual link dvi adapter to a dvi port on the back of his plasma. check your manual and see what inputs your tv has in the back. It'll be crazy as hell if it's the same type of issue.
 
Getting 2-3s stuttering every 30s-60s or more with 6950 OC'ed/unlocked|2500K in BF3 too. Tried different settings on V2/V3 preview drivers. I guess I'll have to wait for either side to patch it.

BF3 beta and BF2 have been working just fine and my hardware is all stable.
 
ATI person tweet uninstall the cap 3 if you get stuttering. IT fixed my issue
 
OOh even in the performance review [H] did they linked the new drivers :

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU124AMDCat1110PreDriverV3.aspx

Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on single GPU configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 series of products.
Click to expand...

I heard the same about the cap being the culprit for the stuttering uninstall it and you should not have any problems.
 
jbean7457 said:
I thought vsync limited you to 60 fps?

And I thought plasmas refreshed at like 480hz or 600hz way faster than LCDs?
Click to expand...

No, the panel itself refreshes at that speed, but the input only registers 60hz. It interpolates the frames in between.
 
Xephian said:
Getting 2-3s stuttering every 30s-60s or more with 6950 OC'ed/unlocked|2500K in BF3 too. Tried different settings on V2/V3 preview drivers. I guess I'll have to wait for either side to patch it.

BF3 beta and BF2 have been working just fine and my hardware is all stable.
Click to expand...
To those suggesting to uninstall CAP3, I don't have CF/CAP3. Few others have stuttering without HT/SLI and tried Vsync. Doesn't stutter in SP though.
 
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Apparently my problem was that I forgot to disable debugging in some other app. Now it's playing normally.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Unfortunately, nothing is helping and I think I need to stop using BF3 to test (going to reinstall older games to see if the issue continues). This is what I've tried so far.

Complete reformat with only my system drive and essential things connected (clean slate + testing potential PSU issue).

3 different monitors (plasma, LCD + HDTV, LCD monitor).

Disconnected USB devices.

Newest bios

Multiple drivers (with + without cap3) + power tune + 20%

Anyways, like I said I'm going to test CoD4 tonight with the cleaned system (which I used to game on using my old system), try with and without vsync. I'm leaving BF3 alone for now because even with it smoothed out locked at 60fps vsync I found it still gets oddly choppy at times (just found out testing in multiplayer and not in correlation with fps). Of course without vsync it's just a mess, I can't even look around without an incredible choppy/jerky effect at 60+ fps.
 
The stutter was still present in CoD (and all games) and it proved to be great for testing out my issue. With com_maxfps I was able to test the issue: the "jerky" framerate was "ok" at around 60fps, and considerably worse at every other increment up to 120fps being "bearable" again and 200+fps being the best. 75-80 was like a slideshow, it would be unplayable it was so bad. And more importantly, turning vsync on did not completely fix it. I would still come to points running around where a quick turn would stutter (they same thing I found out with BF3 today). The stutter seems like a rendering error, as the game isn't locking up it's just displaying the movement in a "choppy" manner.

What do you guys think? Is it time to RMA this card? All I can think of is a hardware issue at this point as it just doesn't seem software or driver related. Of course it could be some other component in my system but I had a GTX 560 in here briefly and don't recall the same issue.

Edit: I was able to capture the stutter on video using fraps. Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?j9szw92gxlgfg48
 
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I've delt with a nasty stutter since the 5870 came out in 2009. I spent many months trying to solve it by swapping every single part in my PC. Nothing fixed it untill I got rid of my i7 920 and 930 with x58 mobo and moved up to a i7 2600k and z68 with a GTX580.

My stutter was a bit more harsh and seemed to occur when loading new players/objects in the game.

Anyways, on the new setup with the GTX 580 everything seemed to be great untill these last official nvidia drivers(285.62). Now I have a similar stutter to what others have displayed in this thread and else where. It also is present in the beta drivers (285.79) for me.
 
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