Dirt 2 and CAT 9.12 :)

I am very happy to report that Cat 9.12 has solved my Dirt 2 stutter problems ! I was very frustrated and disheartened when my i7 @ 4.2Ghz and my 5870 was lagging badly with this game, even with AA completely turned off. Then I discovered by running fraps that my frame rate was solid above 45fps even when the stuttering occurred. So I knew it was a problem similar to the Far Cry 2 problems with the 48xx cards.

I tried the 9.11 dirt hotfix and its effects were minimal. I was pretty disappointed as this game had me hooked. I'm happy to report that cat 9.12 has fixed the issue, and i can play all maxed settings @ 4xAA with no stutter (1920x1200).

Just wondering who else had this problem and did 9.12 fix your issues as well?

Well nevermind the first post... It seems that it plays flawlessly with 4xaa only on a fresh restart. After I quit playing and came back a few hours later the stutter was back. Turning aa completely off is the only way to get it to stop. This leads me to think that there are still memory problems with the game? Hopefully codemasters patches soon. Because it seems ATi drivers are no longer an issue.

kkpudge7 said:

Well nevermind the first post... It seems that it plays flawlessly with 4xaa only on a fresh restart. After I quit playing and came back a few hours later the stutter was back. Turning aa completely off is the only way to get it to stop. This leads me to think that there are still memory problems with the game? Hopefully codemasters patches soon. Because it seems ATi drivers are no longer an issue.

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I've had no such issue with my setup, perhaps your overclock is slightly unstable? Try boosting the voltage to your CPU by a bit, sometimes games will run into problems with an overclock even if it's stable running Prime. I've had no problem with the 9.11 drivers and Dirt 2 and I run it at the settings you described.

The fact that it's fine on a fresh start is unusual, this could be a ram issue also.

haven't played DIRT 2 yet with the new 9.12 drivers, but didn't have any problems before so i don't anticipate any problems now.........looks great and plays well, even on 5770......

Seems to be an issue related to vsync. I read on codemaster's forums that others are having the same issues. Some of them found that adding a little voltage to the cpu solved it, while others changed the ram timings slightly. I added one notch to my cpu, which it needed anyway because i got a prime failure after 5 hrs today. and I loosened my ram a little and changed it from 1t to 2t.

The game still behaves weird though. The Malaysia races are almost unplayable on high settings with 4xaa. vsync off i can have it on ultra with 4x and it stays locked at 55-60 fps. But with vsync on it stays at 60 and then will drop to 30 and go back up to 60.

Had a lot of problems with DiRT 2 and older Cat, after installing 9.12 everything is working(though I have 4890 not 58xx cards).

@kkpudge7-I am sure drivers are still problem..

@kkpudge7

That's a standard issue with Vsync; if GPU it cannot match monitor's refresh rate, FPS will be halved. Turn on triple-buffer to solve that (uses more VRAM tho)... or lower details

Ha-Nocri said:

@kkpudge7

That's a standard issue with Vsync; if GPU it cannot match monitor's refresh rate, FPS will be halved. Turn on triple-buffer to solve that (uses more VRAM tho)... or lower details

Click to expand...

This is why I never use v-sync.

To the OP: In order for v-sync to work and not cause tearing, it works by using fractions of your refresh rate. So with a 60hz monitor it will lock frames to 60, 30, 20, 12 or even lower if the graphics card can't output the frames fast enough. So say if the GPU delivers 45fps and not 60fps with v-sync on, it discards those extra 15 frames over 30 because they are not complete frames according to the 60hz rate, so it kicks it back to 30 and then uses those frames twice.

An excellent more in-depth post can be found here. Triple buffering seems to be the way forward and Valve currently supports it in L4D2.

I played Dirt2 for about four hours straight today - damn that game is addictive!! It looked gorgeous though; DX11 is awesome! No issues at all for me. Occasionally one can have problems playing games (studdering/lockup) when the CPU isn't stable.

Or try defragmenting your HDD some say it help

I just dropped my overclock down to all stock last night to do a few bench marks, so I'll test dirt 2 with out my overclock and see how it behaves. As for the v sync, I was aware of the strain it puts on the gpu, the numbers just dont seem to match up, because with v sync off I get a solid 75 fps, I can even run the aa @ 8x with v sync off. Its very playable with it turned off, the only time it really tears is when walking out of the trailer, other than that there isn't much of a difference, other than the annoying stutter.

Got a 5850 last night (9.12), and I notice -slight- stuttering when outside of a race, putzing around in the camper, etc. And I guess what could be best described as tearing on the splash screens as the game loads.

I swear that the GTX280 I replaced looked better overall. It was certainly smoother...

What resolution are you guys playing at for the stuttering issues?

Your GTX280 was probably smoother because it's not a DX11 card like the new 5800 series.. DX11 does cause for a pretty good strain on the GPU. I don't have any stuttering, but I also have two 5870's in crossfire.

Sad to hear of all the issues. Makes me nervous to pull the trigger on a 5 series card. My 4980 is rocking 65fps with everything maxed except the dx11 stuff. Smooth as butter and looks great on my 50" TV.
Im gonna try some of the config file tweaks when I get home today.

DX11 is significantly more demanding on the GPU..

Pretty good comparision at [H] http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/12/23/dirt_2_gameplay_performance_image_quality

I ran the Demo with 9.12 cats. With my xfired 4850's and all the settings maxed, my FPS was floating between 60-65. No need for me to jump on the 5-series cards just yet. I can wait a tad longer.

@mattspalace

I'm only at 1680X1050

Now I'm experiencing odd issues all around in that game and in general, since the upgrade. While playing today, there was stuttering in-race and at the same point when exiting a race, and some audio issues. The in game jawing that some of your opponents do, was absent, as was music while outside of a race, in the camper, etc. Hard to imagine that the audio stuff has anything to do with popping in a new card... I also made sure I cleaned out the Nvidia drivers thoroughly before that.

Just toying around, I did a small oc to 750/1100 (stock725/1000), and my FR went down to 52, from 59...

I was also finally cleaning out my storage drive and burning a bunch of tv shows, and while using that program, I was getting random reboots and locks. Haven't had a single issue with this PC since I built it back in April, until I popped this card in.

Could have to do with QPI voltage though. I lowered it to 1.25, from 1.35. I then went back up to 1.35, and the issues while burning stopped, but issues in game still exist.


edit: upon some investigation, lots of stuttering being reported with the 5xxx series and Dirt 2. Some people are saying that vysnc is the issue. Going to try and disable that...

I've heard a number of different things. I saw on the codemaster forums that some people were having problems with that audio driver that the game installs...might be worth a look.

I'm running it at 1920x1200. I know that is a large resolution, but a 5870 with settings on high and 2x or 4x aa it should be well within attainable settings. I get stutter with aa completely off. v sync has to be disabled for the stutter to go away for me. And its odd because then I can crank aa all the way up to 8x and still my frame rates stay above 55.

kkpudge7 said:

I've heard a number of different things. I saw on the codemaster forums that some people were having problems with that audio driver that the game installs...might be worth a look.

I'm running it at 1920x1200. I know that is a large resolution, but a 5870 with settings on high and 2x or 4x aa it should be well within attainable settings. I get stutter with aa completely off. v sync has to be disabled for the stutter to go away for me. And its odd because then I can crank aa all the way up to 8x and still my frame rates stay above 55.

Click to expand...

I play it at 1920x1200 with 4x MSAA with no stuttering issues. V-sync is crap anyway, the image only really tears when you're looking around your trailer, not in the races.

Yeah, played today and audio was fine. It appears you can uninstall the 3-rd party audio driver...

I tried both that driver and hardware, my card is worlds better.

As far as the CCC drivers, they did release a hotfix after the 9.12 release. But I didn't install the hotfix because I figured that between that time, they almost certainly re-issued the the proper 9.12. It doesn't say anything on the driver page...