(FIXED) Micro Stuttering - Please help

[Macciavelo 8]

Hi guys,

I have been having this really wierd problem as of late. Everytime I play dayz, I get this wierd micro stuttering (Frames hang for like .05-2 seconds). I begun having this micro stuttering 1 month ago and it really renders the game unplayable. So, I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix this problem.

I have tried updating my drivers, tried using RAMDisk, tried to place my router closer to my computer (to speed up internet), and I have reinstalling dayz.

*Which version of the game did you purchase? STEAM or RETAIL or MIXED:

STEAM

*Are you running an Arma 2 OA beta patch? If so what version?:

Yes. 103419.

*Which method are you using to launch the game? I.E Sixupdater/steam/batch file:

DayZ Commander.

*What is the Error/Problem you're having? Please provide screenshots if possible:

I'm having micro stuttering problems. Even in fields where there's supposed to be really high fps, I get the stuttering.

*Your PC specs:

CPU: AMD FX-6100 Six processor at 3.30 GHz each.

GPU: AMD Radeon 6850 HD.

RAM: 8 GB RAM at 1333 MHz.

Windows 7 64 bit.

So, does anyone have any idea how to fix the micro stutters? I'll pay handsomely (With some beans) to whoever helps me!

EDIT: I have also tried modifying the .cfg files (The max render things) to no avail. Forgot to add that to the list.

EDIT2: It was one of my startup programs causing the problem. It was either RadeonPro, ZoneAlarm or ATI Catalyst. Hope that this thread helps someone else in the future.

Thanks,

Mac.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Macciavelo

[DirtyCry 118]

Hi,

is there a HD6859 out there? I think you mean a HD6850. Whatever... :)

Which Resolution do you play?

Do you use AA? How much?

What are your driver settings? Are you forcing anything per driver? (Morph AA or Edge deteceted?)

What kind of harddrive do you have? Size, Cache, rounds per minute.

What kind of programms are running at the background?

Are you using Programms like fraps to get your FPS shown? Programms like that, who are updating a visual think(the small FPS number in the corners) sometimes are making this kind of mikrostuttering.

Or any other programms which is writing logs or something every 2 seconds?

What programms are in your autostart?

Is you Antivirus software starting a complet scan everytime you start your pc?

Edited April 2, 2013 by DirtyCry

[byrgesen 1341]

DayZ commander is know to "eat" resources like a mofo :) Just saying.

This could also be caused by your HDD, as Arma reads directly from the HDD and doesnt really use RAM that much.

So if you have a great CPU/GPU but an older HDD that will be your bottleneck and it will slow your entire game down, alot actually.

SSD makes a world of difference in Arma.

And unless you have 16+gb RAM, RAMDISK isnt an option really, as Arma II is 8gb+ in size and you would need to move most, if not all files, to the RAMDISK to get improvements.

Also, dont ever expect Arma to utilize 6 cores, it just wont. Its only 32 bit exe so anything above 4gb RAM and 4 cores isnt gonna be used in Arma.

Heck it even has trouble using 4 cores properly :)

But you are deffinatly not the only one with this issue in Arma. Dont have a solid fix for it though :(

[Macciavelo 8]

Hi,

is there a HD6859 out there? I think you mean a HD6850. Whatever... :)

Which Resolution do you play?

Do you use AA? How much?

What are your driver settings? Are you forcing anything per driver? (Morph AA or Edge deteceted?)

What kind of harddrive do you have? Size, Cache, rounds per minute.

What kind of programms are running at the background?

Are you using Programms like fraps to get your FPS shown? Programms like that, who are updating a visual think(the small FPS number in the corners) sometimes are making this kind of mikrostuttering.

Or any other programms which is writing logs or something every 2 seconds?

What programms are in your autostart?

Is you Antivirus software starting a complet scan everytime you start your pc?

6850 HD, yeah. Sorry, kinda missed that typo.

I play in 1600x900, but that really doesnt matter since I have fiddled with it and no matter what resolution I use, it still stutters.

I have also disabled AA inside Arma, and still nothing.

Nothing forced. In my driver, I have AA Method: Multisampling, Filter: Standard, Morphological filtering: off, Texture filtering: standard, Surface format optimization: On.

My HDD is a Hitachi HDT725025VLA380 ATA Device. It has 250 GB, at 7200 RPM, SATA 3.0 GB/s, and I think that it has a 8MB BUFFER (Hope that answers your questions. I have no idea which other data matters about the HDD).

As for programs running in the background, I have ZoneAlarm with no Antivirus scans schedules, so it doesn't look for virus on startup. And I don't have any other programs running at the same time, except DayZ commander and Steam sometimes.

[byrgesen 1341]

I know Arma III has issue with Zone-Alarm, dunno about Arma II though.

But you are saying you have stuttering even on low resolution and with no "special effects" on?

So it doesnt matter if its 1600x900 or 800x600, it still stutteres? Even with everything on low/off?

If thats the case, it can almost only be hardware related.

Maybe you should get a program to show read/write to the HDD and see how much load its under?

Try this: http://crystalmark.i...rk/index-e.html

Another possible culprit could be a Beta patch, doing something weird o your Hardware.

Its seen before with Beta patches making the game perform worse, but im really not sure about this.

[Macciavelo 8]

I know Arma III has issue with Zone-Alarm, dunno about Arma II though.

But you are saying you have stuttering even on low resolution and with no "special effects" on?

So it doesnt matter if its 1600x900 or 800x600, it still stutteres? Even with everything on low/off?

If thats the case, it can almost only be hardware related.

Maybe you should get a program to show read/write to the HDD and see how much load its under?

Try this: http://crystalmark.i...rk/index-e.html

Another possible culprit could be a Beta patch, doing something weird o your Hardware.

Its seen before with Beta patches making the game perform worse, but im really not sure about this.

I don't know about the hardware. I have been playing dayz since June, and this micro stuttering only begun happening about 1-2 months ago, I'm not really sure, so I have no idea if it's hardware related (Maybe something is failing in my PC?)

And yes, I have tried lowest settings, highest settings (Someone told me to put shadows on the highest settings, since anything other than that will use the cpu), and just trying to disable as many things as I can.

My theory: It might be a beta patch or maybe something is corrupted with my Arma install. I'm gonna try reinstalling ArmA+Dayz completely today.

[byrgesen 1341]

Yeh it could be corrupt files, but i really doubt it.

Are you using Beta drivers for your hardware?

It could possible be your hardware working temp? If you say it started some months ago and before that it was fine.

Is your CPU or GPU fan full of crap? Is it the correct working temp or to hot/cold?

Perhaps it got overheated at some point is is partially damages now? It has happened to me before, on GTX 560 TI.

[badluckburt 974]

Arma does not like those CPU's I think:

http://forums.unitedoperations.net/index.php/topic/13152-amd-fx-cpus-and-arma-2/

The OP in that thread does seem to get better results by fiddling with some AMD settings so maybe that could help?

[Macciavelo 8]

Okay, I think that I have fixed it. I disabled all startup programs it it's running a lot smoother now, without the micro stutterings. The Three suspects are: ZoneAlarm, RadeonPro and ATI Catalyst.

Edit: Beans to all that helped me! Yay!

Edited April 3, 2013 by Macciavelo

[byrgesen 1341]

Nice one mate.

Zonealarm might be the biggest culprit, theres major issues with it and Arma III, so it might be the same with Arma II :)

But ive never heard about Catalyst or RadeonPRO slowing a system like that.

Nice you got it fixed though :)

Edited April 3, 2013 by Byrgesen

[jbec-john 33]

I've been running an older driver for my 7870 for a while now when a newer one gave me these issues. I reverted back to an older version and it went back to normal. I just tried the latest drivers hoping the issue would be fixed, but it's still there. I'll try what you've done and see how I get on.

[beavis_5000 111]

Im so glad I found this thread. This should be stickyed.