Stuttering problems

[Gtadam]

I got problems with visual stuttering in game and sometimes in windows(not as certain tho).

Its almost like the graphics card is skipping a couple of rames every 5 secs and then return to normal, im not talking about lockups when the whole screen is frozen for a second, its just "jerky", tiny jumps, that are quite annoying.


I got an x800xl with newest drivers i run both vista and xp 32bit so its no operative system problem i think. Is it a memory problem or graphics card related? or even motherboard? or even more far fetched my harddrives?
ive tried removing my soundcard but it dont help.

Tagan 480w black
Asus P5k Vanilla edition
Q6600 @ 2.4ghz
2x 1024 pc6400@800mhz ddr2 from corsair cas 4-4-4-12
Powercolor X800xl @ stock speeds
2 x Samsung sp120 in raid 0 striped (Silcon Pci express x1 raid controller)

would love to get any response

[SRTDodge05]

Run memtest for awhile to see what happens. It could be a driver problems or a video card issue. Maybe try one card to see if the problem goes away. How about the power supply?

[Gtadam]

i ran memtest the other day, 6 hours without any errors, does that count?

about the power supply, hmm.. i dunno, it deliver quite a lot of amps on the neccesary rails

Rails:
+5V = 48A
+12V = 30A

-5V = 0.5A // not sure about these
-12V = 0.8A // not sure about these

[SRTDodge05]

With no errors after 6hours should be ok. Power looks good, what about drivers? I know ati has been having trouble in that area.

[GWillakers]

I don't see this as a memory issue.

Seems like you have plenty.

I would more tend to look towards your hard drives and their controller.
To skip a few frames {enough to make it noticible} means you have a delay in the realm of milliseconds.

Defrag your volumes. Possibly move the page file.
Monitor hard drive access. See if it doesn't coincide with the stutter.

What version of Windows? In XP you can eliminate the pagefile completely. As a test you could temporarily set it to zero in XP.

[Gtadam]

hmm.... ya.. perhaps, i think i need to point out that
i reduced the stutters by going from vista 64bit to windows xp professional 32bit, everything ran smoother, but i still suffer from the stuttering even tho its not as frequent as on vista every 3 secs on vista, about every 6 secs on xp.

I dunno if that sounds like a driver problem? what do you think.
the card functioned excellent before i upgraded my cpu/motherboard/memory
its just after the upgrade that ive experienceed the stutters, with no real explanation

[Gtadam]

Originally Posted by GWillakers

I don't see this as a memory issue.

Seems like you have plenty.

I would more tend to look towards your hard drives and their controller.
To skip a few frames {enough to make it noticible} means you have a delay in the realm of milliseconds.

Defrag your volumes. Possibly move the page file.
Monitor hard drive access. See if it doesn't coincide with the stutter.

i will do as you say, im out to buy a few things, afterwards ill give it a shot

[iMogal]

On the minus side, those of you with older cards may find a few problems. We've been hearing reports of glitches with AGP performance which may cause instability, to the point of needing to roll back to 7.7

Ati Driver 7.8 Issues

Although this states for the AGP varient, it may apply to the PCI-E as well for the 800xl, try rolling back to 7.7 and see what happens.
(I'm assuming your running 7.8?)

[Gtadam]

im not sure about this, but i think the suttering decreased when i turned "OFF" the paging file O.O!

[GWillakers]

When one has a page fault, nothing else is gonna happen on the system till it is resolved. I don't know if you complicate the issue by having your page file on a stripped volume. I imagine if the page is stripped along two disks, and you need to pull it in, two real i/o's would have to occur, and their interrupts would have to be handled accordingly.

Recommondation: If 2 Gig of real memory is suitable for your needs, then I would recommend keeping the pagefile turned off in XP.

[SRTDodge05]

You said you have shuttering in games and not in games. what are you doing in windows when it starts to shutter? Surfing the web and playing music or whatever in xp shouldnt use no were near 1gb of ram.

[Gtadam]

hmm... strange memtest says i got no memory errors after 6 hours and yet,
when i look into the performance monitior software in vista, it says
"World Of Warcraft for example has 1100 hard errors per minute" and in the performance help section it says hard errors is not errors, but could be page file acess or reading from disc

[Gtadam]

it could also be my graphics card i guess, i just wonder
do you think my 480w psu can handle a 8800gts 320mbs?


30amp combined on 12v, (and it got a pci express dedicated power cord)
360w on 12v
______________
48amp on 5v
w? uh.. the rest i guess
_____________________________________________
Your Recommended Minimum Power Supply is 450 Watts
according to nvidia calculator
_____________________________________________
Im about to upgrade anyhow, but since it improved by disabling my paging file do you think it would be better to upgrade to a 75gb non raid raptor
and a 8600gts(the budget card)

Im on a tight budget and cannot really buy psu at the same time

[specmike]

What specific PSU do you have? 48a on the 5v sounds like a very old 20 pin PSU which may not be good for your video card or the MOBO.

[Gtadam]

here this is the one
roughly 1.5 years old, so i guess i need to upgrade

performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177&products_id=3213