IlhanK Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 (edited) Hello, a friend of mine recently bought GTA4 via Steam. Unfortunately there is an technical issue with his copy of the game that I was unable to resolve. Every couple of minutes FPS drops from 40-60 fps to 10-15 fps. It stays that low for 10-30 seconds and then it gets back to 40-60 fps. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the graphics settings; when I turn every option to its lowest possible setting (Sliders to 1, resolution 800x600 etc.) there are still some serious lagspikes -> FPS value's around 70-100, but drops every couple of minutes to about 30. Clip recording is disabled. There are no problems at all with other games, they all run smoothly (Crysis1, Prototype, Bulletstorm, NFS-HP, SF4 etc.), only GTA4 doesn't run well. I myself have a similar rig but I dont have any problems with GTA4. Maybe because I have the disc version of the game and he has a steam copy? I tried the following: - Updating driver for the graphics card - played around with CPU-affinity - unplugged the network cable - disabling windows event log service - closed some non-critical tasks in task-manager - enabled/disabled vsync His Rig: - Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.4 GHz - GTX 460 1GB - 8 GB DD3 - Win 7 64 Prof. SP1 - No Overclocking EDIT 1: Both GTA4 and EFLC are affected. EDIT 2: CPU is overheating -> throttles down!!! EDIT 3: I've found the solution: Lowering VCORE by 0.1V -> everything works like a charme now! Your thoughts? Edited May 12, 2011 by IlhanK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopHat01 Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Perhaps it's a loading issue? Defrag the HDD, particularly the install files/folders, and see if the problem persists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjMiikkii Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 What hard drive does he have and what is he using to measure FPS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FF_sniper Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 yeah well the game isnt wowish http://www.google.ca/search?client=firefox...G=Google+Search just google and try there fixes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exxon Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 What are the temperatures of your videocard (and processor)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlhanK Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 What hard drive does he have and what is he using to measure FPS? His hard drive: Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD103SJ / 1 TB / SATA-II @ 7200 rpm / 32 MB Cache I use Fraps. Defrag the HDD, particularly the install files/folders, and see if the problem persists. I'll do that. What are the temperatures of your videocard (and processor)? Don't know. I'll look into it. I'll be tomorrow at my friends house, so for today I won't be able to try out something new. If the problem still persists I'll post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unc13bud Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 whats the antivirus? my computers slow down on both avira and bitdefender when they do their updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlhanK Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 whats the antivirus? my computers slow down on both avira and bitdefender when they do their updates It's Avira AntiVir. Obviously I disabled AntiVir real-time protection when I was testing his GTA. Also his AntiVir isn't set to update every 3-4 minutes, it's set to update every 8 hours. I have AntiVir too on my computer and it doesnt affect my copy of GTA, even with real-time protection enabled, so I would rule out AntiVir as a cause for these FPS drops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlhanK Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 I found the cause! It is the CPU, or the CPU temperature to be precise. The periodic drops in FPS are caused by a throttling mechanism. The Phenom II X4 965 has a multiplier of x17 (3400 Mhz). As soon as the cpu temperature reaches 51° Celsius, the multiplier drops to x4 (800 Mhz) and then after a while gets back to x17. I was able to confirm it with CPU-Z running on the secondary screen. I cross-checked with Prime95, it also causes the multiplier to drop. It's quite interesting that only due to the odd behaviour of GTA4 I was able to discover the deficiency in his computer setup. It seems that all the other games on the pc are not demanding enough to trigger the throttling mechanism. What seems odd though is that the CPU throttles at 51° Celsius already, which is a relativly low temperature. But still, I have now something to work with. Next week or so I'll improve his cooling system. Thank you guys for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unc13bud Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 ah, i read it as 34 minutes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeesPwnMets Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Disable AMD Cool n Quiet, and your CPU will never slow down. However, it could lead to more noise and heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlhanK Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 Problem is fixed! See first post. Thank you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diablo440 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 easy way: the advance settings on your active power plan in windows..active cooling and 100% on minimum.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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