game stuttering

I have this stuttering problem that occurs mainly in 25 man raids and sometimes in Dalaran. The odd thing is my FPS remains relatively high in the 40-60s, but the screen just starts to stutter intermittently which makes it seem like my FPS dropped below 10 or something.

I have tried numerous things to try and resolve this, but none has worked so far, so I haven't the slightest idea what seems to be causing this. Things I've tried include: reinstalling my graphics drivers from a fresh install, disabling my power saving options for the CPU in the BIOS, running the game with minimal addons, toning everything down to minimum settings, vertical sync off, etc. I know my computer is more than capable of running WoW at high/ultra settings.

Current system:
I7 920 @ stock speeds (2.6GHz)
6 GB RAM
GTX 285
WD 300GB Velociraptor HD/1TB WD storage drive (I have WoW installed on the slower 7200 rpm drive. I am going to try to copy the WoW directory over to my raptor drive next.)

I'm not really sure what else to try after that, short of getting a new ISP, as I normally hover around 250 ms to my server usually.

Turn off all your addons and see if it still does it.

Wow, after extensive googling and reading all kinds of possibilities, it was my video card hardware monitoring program, EVGA Precision that seemed to be the culprit. Of all things.

Heh.
Annoying obscure application bugs are annoyingly obscure

The sad thing is I have to use it to adjust my gpu fan speed or else it'll start artifacting in SC2 after a while =/, I suppose opening it, adjusting the fan, then closing it is my only option...unless MSI Afterburner I can keep it open and monitor my temps without the stutter.

Do you have your FPS capped?

There's a great program called Speedfan I think (I'll check when I get home and edit if the name is wrong) that lets you monitor and adjust fan speeds and temp sensors. I used it on a similar system and its nice considering my case has 6 or 7 fans in it total.

What do you mean capped? If you mean by turning vertical sync on, then yes, I do have that on to prevent any tearing that might happen. It's definitely Precision though...I closed it in Dalaran, ran a lap around, and it was quite smooth. However, immediately after I opened it, ran another lap around Dalaran and noticed heavy stuttering.

I'll give Speedfan a try too if Afterburner has the same results, either way WoW doesn't make the card run hot enough to artifact, just SC2 atm. Probably going to test one of my friend's 5870s on my computer to see what kind of temperatures it pushes if I max SC2.

Nothan wrote:What do you mean capped? If you mean by turning vertical sync on, then yes, I do have that on to prevent any tearing that might happen. It's definitely Precision though...I closed it in Dalaran, ran a lap around, and it was quite smooth. However, immediately after I opened it, ran another lap around Dalaran and noticed heavy stuttering.

I'll give Speedfan a try too if Afterburner has the same results, either way WoW doesn't make the card run hot enough to artifact, just SC2 atm. Probably going to test one of my friend's 5870s on my computer to see what kind of temperatures it pushes if I max SC2.

I think he meant, do you have Vertical Sync on in SC2, since there is a known issue that causes cards to overheat in SC2 when it is not on.

I'm currently running a 2gb 5870 with SC2 cranked, and I've never seen mine go over 32c. It honestly doesn't even make the system blink twice. I usually don't check in the middle of a match, but I have an alarm in speedfan set to alert me if it goes over 34c (there's also a color indicator on the side of the card), and I've never had it go off.

Warden wrote:I'm currently running a 2gb 5870 with SC2 cranked, and I've never seen mine go over 32c. It honestly doesn't even make the system blink twice. I usually don't check in the middle of a match, but I have an alarm in speedfan set to alert me if it goes over 34c (there's also a color indicator on the side of the card), and I've never had it go off.

His issue may be an nvidia one, whereas your card is ATI.

Yeah, I have v-sync on in SC2 as well, pretty much any game I play. It is an nvidia card, EVGA 285 GTX. By letting the fan speed be auto I have seen temps as high as 93C at one point. If I crank it to 100% speed, it stays at around the low 70s. I don't know, but that seems way too hot and my case has ample ventilation and I dust out the fan/heatsinks on a regular basis.

Belloc wrote:

Warden wrote:I'm currently running a 2gb 5870 with SC2 cranked, and I've never seen mine go over 32c. It honestly doesn't even make the system blink twice. I usually don't check in the middle of a match, but I have an alarm in speedfan set to alert me if it goes over 34c (there's also a color indicator on the side of the card), and I've never had it go off.

His issue may be an nvidia one, whereas your card is ATI.

Right, but he also mentioned trying out a buddy's 5870, which is why I mentioned this. ATIs actually have some nice monitoring software built into the CCC (Catalyst Control Center) that comes with them, IIRC, but that wouldn't work for his own card. I'll crank SC2 up tonight and have speedfan keep a log of all my temp sensors and see how it looks after a couple matches.