games stuttering even though running at 60fps

[kuliksco]

I'm running a q6600 at stock speeds (2.4ghz) with an ati 5850 (just replaced an 8800gtx) and 4gb ram on win7 64. I'm trying to run these games 1920x1200

I noticed that in a handful of games like Oblivion, Alien Swarm (steam), and Booster Trooper (steam) are stuttering every few seconds even though fraps says i'm getting a stable 60fps with vsync on.

then other games like bioshock 2, counter strike source, and starcraft II don't have any issues.

I tried OC'ing to 3.0ghz with the same results. I'm not sure if it's a cpu bottleneck and I should upgrade to a newer processor. I didn't see any kind of cpu spiking though that might be causing the problem.

Anybody have any tips for troubleshooting what could be the cause? I have tried different resolutions on some of the games and it helped but oblivion I get skipping no matter what, even running at 800x600 getting over 150fps while inside a building.

I just don't understand why FRAPS is saying a steady 60fps in these games and yet they are still stuttering.

[OS-Wiz]

ATI drivers can be problematic, here's latest: 10.7 http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_ca...indows-7-64bit

There are some beta drivers you might try. And make sure you games have all the latest patches applied.

[kuliksco]

thanks, unfortunately i'm already running the latest. do they have beta drivers available? i didn't see any.

[Learux]

I don't think it is your ATI drivers, have not heard of this before.

See if there is a process using CPU cycles.

[PriMaTe]

maybe your hard drive is being hit and causing stuttering?

[kuliksco]

hmm...i dont think so. i have 4gb ram and it doesnt seem to be even close to swapping. just in case too i tried moving the pagefile to a secondary controller.

[kuliksco]

wow i think i figured it out. i tried out team fortress 2 and noticed that had a slight lag, too...so i was checking their message boards and someone said that ccc.exe and mom.exe (ATI catalyst control center and another ati monitoring process) aren't compatible with steam. Once i killed those everything seems to be back to normal without the lag.

[PriMaTe]

thanks for the info, im going to try that see if it helps my fps any

[rimmerchant]

I have similiar hardware and ran into the same problem with Sega Rally Revo. (I don't have steam)

I reinstalled Win 7, and updated all my drivers and it seems to fix the problem. (I didn't reinstall just for that game though)

you might want to also try:
- update ati drivers
- update windows 7
- remove unnecessary apps running in background

[patchnoid]

I have similiar hardware and ran into the same problem with Sega Rally Revo. (I don't have steam)

I reinstalled Win 7, and updated all my drivers and it seems to fix the problem. (I didn't reinstall just for that game though)

you might want to also try:
- update ati drivers
- update windows 7
- remove unnecessary apps running in background

If your video card takes power direct from the psu it may be the psu, not enough juice may need an upgrade. Maybe