View Full Version : NFS Underground Stutter
Anyone using a Geforce FX 5900, Windows XP and 53.03 drivers without problems? I get a 1 second freeze at certain points around the track. Eg. the clock tower on the first race.
Thanks for the reply. Originally I was using the 45.23 drivers and NFS was totally smooth. However, the 45.23s had a lot of other issues with my 5900 so I cant go back to them. The 52.16s were the worst with a near 3 second pause. I tried all of the NFS detail settings without success. Wonder if there is anything enabled/disabled differently in the nvidia drivers between the versions... will try playing with nvidia settings again later.
PS my brother is playing it with a 5200 and the 45.33 drivers and he doesnt have this problem :-(
EvilEye
12-05-03, 02:38 PM
Well, the only problem Iīm havinī is how the *censured* does a Peugeot 206 outrun my Nissan Skyline GT-R?!?!?! I mean, it doesnīt matter how much you put under the hood of the 206 it will still not outrun a Skyline. Aggressive "catchup" perhaps?
saturnotaku
12-05-03, 02:57 PM
Cheap, cheating AI in a Need for Speed game? Say it ain't so! :eek:
EvilEye
12-05-03, 06:34 PM
Iīm going to try this unlock patch...just to take a peek ;)
EDIT: Do the "cosmetic parts", like the spoiler, really have an effect on the carīs perfermance?
*sigh* got to admit I like this game, but didnt really want to play it until the stuttering was solved. Tried everything I could think of last night. Tried all in game settings and resolutions, even 640x480 has the same stutters. Tried with / without AA, AF... changed Mipmap quality, adjusted performance settings in the Forceware drivers, still no good.
The only thing I did notice is that running task manager, as the stutter occurs, the page file grows larger. Suggesting that NFS is dumping stuff in there... although, I have 1gb ram and even when racing I have about 700mb physical ram unused.
One thought that did occur is that it doesnt stutter at the start of the race and it doesnt stutter on the second lap... is it possible that the stutter occurs as its loading more track info, on the second lap it is already cached. No matter what I do, the stutters are always in the same places on each track.
saturnotaku
12-06-03, 07:03 AM
Originally posted by Jon
The only thing I did notice is that running task manager, as the stutter occurs, the page file grows larger. Suggesting that NFS is dumping stuff in there... although, I have 1gb ram and even when racing I have about 700mb physical ram unused.
Lousy coding in an EA console port? Say it ain't so! :eek:
EvilEye
12-06-03, 08:12 AM
Originally posted by saturnotaku
Cheap, cheating AI in a Need for Speed game? Say it ain't so! :eek:
Originally posted by saturnotaku
Lousy coding in an EA console port? Say it ain't so! :eek:
:D :D
Well I have to admit, donīt know why Iīm suprised :o
I enabled the performance graph in the drivers and whenever there is a stutter, the yellow line and purple line jump off the graph. Now, I just need to figure out what they represent... can't seem to find this information anywhere. Don't know what EA fixed in the 1.1 or 1.2 patches, I can only hope for 1.3 soon.
Ive tried changing the priority of Speed.exe to high and adjusted the priority of the temporary process it creates with it, but still the same problems.@I have tried all the 55.03 options, all the NFS game options and a lot of stuff otherwise. My mobo is an A7V266 based on the Via KT266 chipset. I use the 4.48 hyperion drivers.
I do believe it is the game, I play GTA and GTA Vice city a lot and neither of these has ever stuttered like this. Im wondering what exactly the game does in this brief stutter, is it dumping data out or reading track data/music in. I dont remember the demo stuttering at all, I wonder if its some kind of copy protection code. When NFS starts, it starts a temp process which is something to do with Macrovision protection.
My friend has a similar computer with a Geforce 4400 and his doesnt stutter, but he uses a no cd patch.
saturnotaku
12-07-03, 09:20 AM
Macrovision/Safedisk is notorious for causing bad game performance. A no-cd crack is just the ticket.
Originally posted by Jon
Anyone using a Geforce FX 5900, Windows XP and 53.03 drivers without problems? I get a 1 second freeze at certain points around the track. Eg. the clock tower on the first race.
Clearly another 'Hyped" game of these year do not you think????
As probably DEUS EX IW was...
Probably it's time EA create something new and stop continue the NFS series...The latest NFS series games were, sorry to say it but, CRAP!!!!
Anyway i think i have heard several problems with some ATI cards as well...
I believe its to do with the Nvidia drivers. Using the 52.16s the game froze for about 3 seconds, using the 53.03 its only 1 second. I have read a lot of threads about this problem and it seems ATI owners solved the stutter problem with a new beta driver (3.10 I think). I just played a little of Simpsons hit and run and that stutters every so often too... Definately did not notice this with the old detonator 4x.xx drivers...
Don't understand, if you start a race and it stutters, restart the race and it doesn't stutter until you go past the place you reached before you restarted as if its already cached then.
I did see on the NFS forum that the stuttering stopped for some people when they lowered hardware acceleration one notch for graphics... the top notch is supposed to include hardware mouse pointer!
Yeah, its the official NFS forum... seems like a lot of people are getting crashes with it.
I've pretty much tried every bios setting (agp aperture, 4x,2x, fastwrites on/off, sideband addressing on/off) all the driver settings I can think of (vsync, AA, AF, quality/performance) and all the NFS settings (Resolution, glow, blur, etc).
Let me know how the hardware acceleration slider goes.
NVidia have put official 55.03 drivers on their site, don't know if there are any difference between these and the evga drivers though.
I am going to try the 45.23 drivers again tonight. I'm sure that when I first played it I didn't notice this stutter. I am sure my bios/driver settings are the same as when I started, also, I have reformatted and reinstalled about 4 times in the last two weeks so I could try different driver versions. I noticed in the 53.03, Nvidia fixed stuttering in the X2 benchmark I think. I believe the problem is caused by one of the optimisations in the 5x.xx drivers.
Mullins1060
12-10-03, 02:53 AM
Originally posted by EvilEye
Well, the only problem Iīm havinī is how the *censured* does a Peugeot 206 outrun my Nissan Skyline GT-R?!?!?! I mean, it doesnīt matter how much you put under the hood of the 206 it will still not outrun a Skyline. Aggressive "catchup" perhaps?
the ai doesnt cheat i completed the whole game just using a golf. with all the upgrades and special bonus unique upgrades you get it gives u a fast car lol. then once i had completed the game i got a mazda mx7 i think and it didnt go any faster but it did handle better
Oh good, I'm not going totally crazy... I reinstalled the 45.23 drivers... the stutter is still there, but you have to be looking hard for it to see it. In the 52.16s the stutter is terrible, the 53.03 is somewhere in between the two.
So I guess there are two solutions.... either Nvidia fix it in the drivers or EA patch it so that it stops doing whatever it is doing during the stutter. By the way, does anyone know how I can submit this problem to NVidia so it stands a chance of actually getting fixed (not everyone is suffering from it so there is a chance it won't be)?
I submitted the problem to EA tech support about 9:00 last night... no solution yet, but I got an email from them this morning saying they would be happy to help me work out the problem and asking for diagnostic info. So I'll let you know what happens with that. I am pleasantly suprised in getting such a quick and positive response as generally, I stopped writing to companies for tech suppot due to never getting a response (Asus, Creative, Asaka, etc).
I used the ask a question tab on the ea support site. Just mailed them the stuff they asked for.
Out of pure desperation, I disabled the page file in XP. NFS performance seems to be much improved overall, but the stutter is still there. Plus the hard disk light flickers madly when it stutters. Guess it must be loading stuff.
Just a thought, but what sound cards are you using in your 2 computers?
The response from EA Tech support after checking my diagnostic info reveals that the source of the stutter is in fact.... because I have a via chipset... and is therefore nothing to do with them or the game and they directed me to viaarena.com to fix it.
So there we have it, problem solved... I realise that via have had and still have some problems with there motherboards, but I really think that all companies use it as a scapegoat for poor software.
I notice that you have 2 A7N8X's which use the nforce chipset... mine is the A7V8X so uses the via chipset. I bet your response from EA will be... all your problems are related to the nforce chipset, go to this totally unrelated web page.
Looking at the evidence, a lot of people are experiencing stutters with the 9800/5900 cards. Not just in need for speed. In the 45.23 drivers I didn't even notice the stutter. In the 52.16 is was totally unplayable. The 53.03 is just annoying. Many people say the Cat 3.10 beta did the trick for them. So I think it is probably safe to say my only option is to stick need for speed in the cupboard until Nvidia release some drivers that fix it.
Just for information, my friend has an almost identical system to mine, the only difference being he has a 5200 and I have a 5900. NFS runs smoothly on his system, maybe I should swap cards with him.
By the way, the website I was directed to says that video editing and secondary IDE channel performance are bad on the MSI KT266 when the CPU temperature alarm is enabled in the bios.
Which is greatly helpful except for the fact that I have never had a problem with the secondary IDE channel, the hard disc is on the primary channel and I don't have an MSI KT266.
I think I have an option to shut off at 90 degress in the bios or something like that. I will disable it anyway and see if it helps. *holding breath* Fire extinguisher on standby.
Hope you have better luck than I did. My latest response suggests lowering all detail settings. Which I did explain to them I had already done. What part of why does my game stutter with a Geforce FX 5900, 1024mb of ram, Windows XP and a 2ghz processor at 640x480 with all details at low don't they understand.
I'm afraid to say that if I have no luck with the MSI 53.03 drivers then I will be putting my Ti4600 back in.
The only advice I can give is that I downloaded powerstrip yesterday. Looking at the PCI latency, the 5900 was at 248, NIC at 128 and Audigy 2 at 32. I lowered all of the usb ports to latency 8. Changed the NIC to 8 as well, Audigy 2 to 30 and FX5900 to 42. This reduced the stutter noticeably. Possibly you will have better luck with it than me... it was late last night and I lost patience with it (haven't played any games for 2 weeks now, spent all my time troubleshooting NFS).
I'll post any relevations I come across.
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