PC Game stuttering problems. What is to blame?

[stainer711]

I have a dimension e5150 dell computer with a pentium 4 3.4 ghz processor, 1 gb of ram, and a gefore 7800gt graphics card. I have bought and played Neverwinter nights, Unreal tournament 2004, CS:S and Half-life 2. All but UT 2004 experience stuttoring. I do not know what is causing this problem. i have downloaded nvidia's Latest drivers. When you do that are you supposed to delete the ones that came with the card? I don't know if that would affect anything. Any suggestions as to what i could do to help determine what my problem is would be appreciated. i have steam so getting an update is not a solution for half-life 2 and CS:S. My OS is windows xp SP2. The stuttoring happens when entering new areas, turning quickly, or viewing a bunch of action on screen. This effect is characterized by severe frame rate loss, and in the case of half-life 2, sound looping. I have been troubleshooting the problem for a great deal of time and would like to finally be rid of it.

 

[Trotter]

Your computer only has a 350W PSU. Your graphics card needs a minimum of a 400W.

 

[stainer711]

In t hat case my pc would not start. It is likely not the psu.

 

[Metr01973]

Yes you do need to uninstall the previous driver for the graphic card and then restart and then install the latest one which is 81.89 I think. HL2 has got sound loop problems when you enter a new area or when the game auto saves, you will keep downloading updates through Steam whenever you fire up CS:S or HL2, it seemed to take ages before I could start HL2 without downloading updates. Also even though you have a top end graphics card, you only have 1gb ram. So if you have all the settings maxed out the ram won't be able to cope. Trying lowering the settings slightly especially AA and/or AF (anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering) Post again after you've reinstalled the graphics card driver and lowered you're settings a little and let us know how you got on.

 

[stainer711]

I just uninstalled it and then installed the drivers for it. I noticed that some of the card's settings have changed. I will come back and let you know how everything works.

 

[stainer711]

I'm still having the same problems.

I only have the game on 4x anti-aliasing and 8x antiscopic filtering. The resolution is 1280 * 980 or something. (The one right before lcd resolution.) Every other setting is maxed out. I get the same problems even if i lower some of the settings.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

In t hat case my pc would not start. It is likely not the psu.

You can start PC's with very small PSU's, it just takes a bigger one to handle the increased load of games.

 

[MADWAD]

It's your PSU, thats my guess. Go get a better one........

 

[stainer711]

That is kind of hard to do with a dell... Anyway, is there a sure fire way of determining what the exact problem is? Don't they have a psu testing program that can detect if it is causing decreased system performance?

 

[Metr01973]

Have you tried contacting Dell and see what they have to say? If you've tried lowering the settings and uninstalling before reinstalling the graphics driver it could well be the psu. Have you upgraded anything since you bought the computer from Dell? If not and it's still covered contact Dell and tell them you're not happy. Let us know what you do.