I need a professional to fix my lag spikes :)

[QuadElement]

750W PSU
GTX 960 4GB GIGABYTE
Intel Core i7 920 from 2.66GHz to 3.8 GHz stable
8GB of ram
2 TB HDD
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R v1.6
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

So, I played with this system before, except GTX 960(2 days old) and overclocked CPU. I had stock CPU and a GTX 560 Ti 1 GB. I had random lag spikes and I though that that is the GPU fault, but.. I installed 960 and overclocked CPU to 3.8 GHz(it runs fine, around 50C while gaming). For example, GTA 5 - everything at highest set. - 60+ FPS with drops per 20 sec or more. That is not the point. The point is that I get these spikes in almost every game. I tried to unpark CPU cores and I think it helped with Battlefield 3, so now I can play at 1080p Ultra 80+fps, but... there is still some spikes. I mean, not like LAG, because it stays at 80 and drops to 70 for hmm.. like 0.4 sec and comes back to 80. You understand me Windows are fresh installed, system clear from dust, newest directX, all in all, the PC works great, just.. these lag spikes.. damn I hate them. They are not so much visible, but I play concentrated and I can see them. I don't know guys, maybe the CPU is old, but still.. 2.66 GHz to 3.8 Ghz should improve the performance. I mean, the overclock improved it, more fps etc., but the lag spikes seems to be the same. No temperature issues, nothing, no virus, defragmentation done. It seems that it should be fine, but there is still these DAMN lag.. any ideas? and.. btw, on BIOS settings all power saving features are disabled.


UPDATE... SEE POST 30:http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...lag-spikes-)?p=7825281&viewfull=1#post7825281

 

[EarthDog]

lag has to do with your network, not the FPS. Are you talking network lag or FPS as you keep mentioning FPS...

 

[QuadElement]

No matter online or offline.

 

[EarthDog]

GTA5, it may be doing that because of the HDD. There is a lot of HDD use in GTA5 because its loading different parts of the levels, etc. I noticed in BF4 the same thing.

What resolution are you playing at?

 

[QuadElement]

Don't worry about that. I definelly think that this is caused by my old CPU... Im playing at 1080p. The HDD is good. No matter what graphics, well, on the lowest set I could play, but whats the point of playing at the lovest sets and get about 120 fps If I can play on max set and get 60-90. I think I should get the 3770k or something like that. Maybe 4770k. What do you think?

 

[bob4933]

"Max settings". If this includes MSAA/FXAA turn em off. Having a 2gb card, you may be going above that and breaking into your page filing, which will most certainly cause these dips youre talking about.

 

[QuadElement]

4GB DDR5

 

[EarthDog]

Don't worry about that. I definelly think that this is caused by my old CPU... Im playing at 1080p. The HDD is good. No matter what graphics, well, on the lowest set I could play, but whats the point of playing at the lovest sets and get about 120 fps If I can play on max set and get 60-90. I think I should get the 3770k or something like that. Maybe 4770k. What do you think?

When you get these spikes, take a look at your HDD activity light and see if its pretty active...

"Max settings". If this includes MSAA/FXAA turn em off. Having a 2gb card, you may be going above that and breaking into your page filing, which will most certainly cause these dips youre talking about.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gta-v-pc-graphics-performance-review,9.html

I do not recall what ultra sets the MSAA to? do you? If its more than 2xMSAA, that could be part of the issue, even with 4GB. FXAA isn't neglible as far as vRAM use goes, however, its nothing compared to MSAA.

What does ultra set MSAA and FXAA to in this game?

 

[QuadElement]

You mean the HDD seriously??? It really could be the issue?? but... even the BF3... and other old games. They cant consume such HDD space... I think that is not the problem..

 

[EarthDog]

HDD space wouldn't be the issue. Its the fact that it has to access it to load things for the CPU/GPU because it is such a big 'world' (GTA5). Just check that out and report back. If that isn't it, we can move on to something else like......

Have you tried different drivers?

 

[bob4933]

On gta 5 it hits it really hard honestly. I turn it off even though I can run it fine.

There's no way you're "maxing" gta 5 with a 960 and not having issues. Make sure your drivers are updated and turn some settings down. High fps doesn't mean much if you are taking fps drops left and right

 

[EarthDog]

On gta 5 it hits it really hard honestly. I turn it off even though I can run it fine.

Was looking for something a bit more quantifiable...I am at the office and can't fire up the game to test it now (as I imagine you are in the same boat) to see how much vram and what exact MSAA/FXAA settings 'ultra' has.

 

[bob4933]

Was looking for something a bit more quantifiable...I am at the office and can't fire up the game to test it now (as I imagine you are in the same boat) to see how much vram and what exact MSAA/FXAA settings 'ultra' has.

Nope, home today. Ill fire it up.

 

[bob4933]

Cruising around town, was hitting around 2400mb with MSAA off and everything else maxed. 2x msaa took that 2700, and 8x put it around 3400mb. Max usage was 3551Mb with msaa x8. My FPS dropped from vysnc stable (it literally never drops, I haven't seen it drop anyway) to around 38fps with msaa x8 on.

 

[t1nm4n]

I had a similar problem with my current build, never played GTA5 though, it was on anything else, including benchmarks. I play Diablo3 a lot and play it on 4k (cause I can) and it would sit at a steady 60 fps then drop ever 3-4 secs to 50 fps and come back to 60 after a second or less. It felt like there was a some throttling or a bottleneck somewhere. Tried everything I could including changing registry files (thank god for making a backup image prior to futzin' with files). Just recently (I can't say when exactly cause I've been away for 2 1/2 months,) windows got an update and all seems well now. D3 sits at a steady 60fps unless there is some intensive fighting and it drops accordingly and my benchmarks have improved with this windows update.

On a side note, you wont regret getting an SSD though. I won't go back to using HDD for anything other than mass storage/backups now.

 

[bob4933]

Im a big diablo guy myself. Get drops and crap all the time and its just "diablo". That game is so poorly optimized its not even funny. GTA on the other hand is a whole nother ball game in terms of power required.

 

[EarthDog]

Cruising around town, was hitting around 2400mb with MSAA off and everything else maxed. 2x msaa took that 2700, and 8x put it around 3400mb. Max usage was 3551Mb with msaa x8. My FPS dropped from vysnc stable (it literally never drops, I haven't seen it drop anyway) to around 38fps with msaa x8 on.

Good info...

What is MSAA and TXAA settings with the default Ultra settings?

 

[bob4933]

Good info...

What is MSAA and TXAA settings with the default Ultra settings?

Depends on the card! The 970 had different settings than the 290, and a 280x has (obviously) lower stuff. (Edit: was using Raptr and Geforce to apply these, not sure if theres a preset button in game is there?)

 

[EarthDog]

It does not depend on the card.

When you set Ultra in the game, there are specific settings it changes in game. I am asking what those settings are in regards to MSAA and TXAA.

Raptr and Geforce Experience (why do you use those?), I never install them as they are bloatware to me!! Always set your games performance in the game!!!!

 

[bob4933]

I do set my stuff in game. GTA saves your graphics settings over card changes, and I couldn't find the graphics ini file, so I had to use raptr and gefore to set it back to low so I could get it to launch without problems.

edit: loading it now, one sec


edit 2: games loaded, I dont see any "presets" buttons any where.