Identifying GPU problems

[mbryant]

I have a GTX 780 superclocked, I was playing Chivalry earlier today and noticed it would  stutter every once in a while. I figured it was my connection. So later I played an offline match and still had the same problem. So the next thing I did was reduce the number of bots to 5, and lower my settings to medium with 4x MSAA (I think that's what it was called) and from then on the game played fine. I've never had this issue before, what could be wrong? 

[vanished]

I have a GTX 780 superclocked, I was playing Chivalry earlier today and noticed it would  stutter every once in a while. I figured it was my connection. So later I played an offline match and still had the same problem. So the next thing I did was reduce the number of bots to 5, and lower my settings to medium with 4x MSAA (I think that's what it was called) and from then on the game played fine. I've never had this issue before, what could be wrong? 

 

Have you recently updated your drivers?  Being too old or running a brand new one that is bad could both cause problems.

[mbryant]

Have you recently updated your drivers?  Being too old or running a brand new one that is bad could both cause problems.

Ah you know what, I haven't and the only "major" recent change I can say for sure was a Windows update I got yesterday. I re-installed chivilary last week and played no problem. I honestly don't know why I didn't consider a driver update I know I'm smarter than that! 

EDIT: I haven't updated them since I got the card back in July so I wouldn't assume it's a "bad new" driver

[crystal6tak]

Should be under Graphics Card section but whatever.

 

Before anything though, I would like if you could give a more detailed explanation of what the stutter you are experiencing. Is it a sudden drop in FPS causing you to feel your screen froze for a extremely short duration? Or a longer than 0.5 second freeze? Or is it that you simply see all the players on screen stand still in their position while animations of things are fine? As you refereed to thinking ping as the issue I don't know for sure what type of stutter you are experiencing.

 

Anyways, so, first, make sure you're running latest driver like the dude above me mentioned.

 

Then, check VRAM usage. You can do this with programs such as MSI afterburner. Run it in the background while you play the game. Once you have one of the stutters. Alt tab out and check the VRAM usage to see if it maxed out then dropped back down. This is an indication VRAM is running out and not being used properly, causing the stutter. This improper usage is caused by driver issues or the game optimization issues. Not much you can do if it's the latter.

 

If it's not VRAM, check temperature and core clock with afterburner. Again run in the background while you play. And wait for it to stutter. Then go back and see if temperature is hitting a maximum point and coreclock suddenly drops a lot. This would mean the stutter is caused by thermal issues. Consider checking the fans are all working or make sure your case isn't so dusted up air isn't having issue going in and out of your case.

 

If drivers are up to date and nothing of the GPU seems to be the issue. You could try making a partition on your HDD/SSD and install a fresh copy of windows. Install Steam and try chivalry and see if the stutter is gone. If it is, then unfortunately it's a software issue. Either find out what it is and delete it or do a fresh install.

[vanished]

Ah you know what, I haven't and the only "major" recent change I can say for sure was a Windows update I got yesterday. I re-installed chivilary last week and played no problem. I honestly don't know why I didn't consider a driver update I know I'm smarter than that!

 

Well give that a shot and let us know how it goes.  If that doesn't fix it, it looks like ^someone^ just posted a lot of good ideas

[mbryant]

Should be under Graphics Card section but whatever.

 

Before anything though, I would like if you could give a more detailed explanation of what the stutter you are experiencing. Is it a sudden drop in FPS causing you to feel your screen froze for a extremely short duration? Or a longer than 0.5 second freeze? Or is it that you simply see all the players on screen stand still in their position while animations of things are fine? As you refereed to thinking ping as the issue I don't know for sure what type of stutter you are experiencing.

 

Anyways, so, first, make sure you're running latest driver like the dude above me mentioned.

 

Then, check VRAM usage. You can do this with programs such as MSI afterburner. Run it in the background while you play the game. Once you have one of the stutters. Alt tab out and check the VRAM usage to see if it maxed out then dropped back down. This is an indication VRAM is running out and not being used properly, causing the stutter. This improper usage is caused by driver issues or the game optimization issues. Not much you can do if it's the latter.

 

If it's not VRAM, check temperature and core clock with afterburner. Again run in the background while you play. And wait for it to stutter. Then go back and see if temperature is hitting a maximum point and coreclock suddenly drops a lot. This would mean the stutter is caused by thermal issues. Consider checking the fans are all working or make sure your case isn't so dusted up air isn't having issue going in and out of your case.

 

If drivers are up to date and nothing of the GPU seems to be the issue. You could try making a partition on your HDD/SSD and install a fresh copy of windows. Install Steam and try chivalry and see if the stutter is gone. If it is, then unfortunately it's a software issue. Either find out what it is and delete it or do a fresh install.

I posted under here because I figure it's "general" however I did debate putting under graphics cards. The stutter, well hmm as I said I thought it was a network issue but I also played offline and tried again and got the same result. I would try another game but I need to re-install some that are more demanding than Chivilary. I also did try to run a de-frag recently on my Mass Storage drive, and noticed that Windows decided "Hey buddy we'll defrag your SSD for you every week." To which my response was "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" so my SSD has been getting de-fraged every week since August 3rd. I'm sure that wouldn't be the culprit because everything else runs fine. 

[vanished]

I posted under here because I figure it's "general" however I did debate putting under graphics cards. The stutter, well hmm as I said I thought it was a network issue but I also played offline and tried again and got the same result. I would try another game but I need to re-install some that are more demanding than Chivilary. I also did try to run a de-frag recently on my Mass Storage drive, and noticed that Windows decided "Hey buddy we'll defrag your SSD for you every week." To which my response was "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" so my SSD has been getting de-fraged every week since August 3rd. I'm sure that wouldn't be the culprit because everything else runs fine. 

I thought that too but Windows isn't actually that stupid.  They call it "drive optimization" now and it will defrag HDD and run TRIM on SSDs.

[mbryant]

Should be under Graphics Card section but whatever.

 

Before anything though, I would like if you could give a more detailed explanation of what the stutter you are experiencing. Is it a sudden drop in FPS causing you to feel your screen froze for a extremely short duration? Or a longer than 0.5 second freeze? Or is it that you simply see all the players on screen stand still in their position while animations of things are fine? As you refereed to thinking ping as the issue I don't know for sure what type of stutter you are experiencing.

 

Anyways, so, first, make sure you're running latest driver like the dude above me mentioned.

 

Then, check VRAM usage. You can do this with programs such as MSI afterburner. Run it in the background while you play the game. Once you have one of the stutters. Alt tab out and check the VRAM usage to see if it maxed out then dropped back down. This is an indication VRAM is running out and not being used properly, causing the stutter. This improper usage is caused by driver issues or the game optimization issues. Not much you can do if it's the latter.

 

If it's not VRAM, check temperature and core clock with afterburner. Again run in the background while you play. And wait for it to stutter. Then go back and see if temperature is hitting a maximum point and coreclock suddenly drops a lot. This would mean the stutter is caused by thermal issues. Consider checking the fans are all working or make sure your case isn't so dusted up air isn't having issue going in and out of your case.

 

If drivers are up to date and nothing of the GPU seems to be the issue. You could try making a partition on your HDD/SSD and install a fresh copy of windows. Install Steam and try chivalry and see if the stutter is gone. If it is, then unfortunately it's a software issue. Either find out what it is and delete it or do a fresh install.

UPDATE: I ran the FPS counter in-game on Chivilary and when it "stutters" or "chugs" my count goes down to about 49 otherwise it's a solid 60. The only variable I can seem to narrow it down to is the number of players. I played on a small map with 8 bots (9 players with myself included) and the "stuttering" happened. Then I played on a larger map with the same graphics settings just with a smaller number of bots and the game ran fine. I also played skyrim earlier which I know isn't particularly demanding but it ran just fine too. So I'm thinking it might just be that one game. Idk for sure. I did update my drivers before running my in-game tests. 

[YubinTheBunny]

I would do a complete wipe of drivers with DDU (http://www.wagnardmobile.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=123) and clean install the drivers. I find that it usually fixes most of the problems.

[crystal6tak]

UPDATE: I ran the FPS counter in-game on Chivilary and when it "stutters" or "chugs" my count goes down to about 49 otherwise it's a solid 60. The only variable I can seem to narrow it down to is the number of players. I played on a small map with 8 bots (9 players with myself included) and the "stuttering" happened. Then I played on a larger map with the same graphics settings just with a smaller number of bots and the game ran fine. I also played skyrim earlier which I know isn't particularly demanding but it ran just fine too. So I'm thinking it might just be that one game. Idk for sure. I did update my drivers before running my in-game tests. 

Hrmm, notice anything with VRAM and core clock of the GPU? Also, what CPU are you using?

[mbryant]

I didn't run afterburner, got a bit too busy yesterday. Setup is as follows: AMD FX 8320, ASUS M5A97 MOBO, 8GB of RAM with the Superclocked 780 (I don't know EXACTLY which model as it was a gift from a friend) I'm about to load up Skyrim and load up some demanding texture packs and whatnot. I may also try spawning in as many NPC's as I can. Again I don't experience the stutter in anything except for chivalry as far as I can tell. The other game I've run is Naruto ultimate ninja storm 3 which again I know isn't too intense but I just can't imagine why this issue would be limited to one game. Which I played without issue several months back on my 1GB 7770.