Steady FPS but Bioshock Stutters.....

So for some reason my game Bioshock stutters every now and then during gameplay. Its usually not a major stutter, buts its enough for me to notice it. I get a steady 60 FPS using Fraps, but the game can still stutter.

Here is my PC...

http://www.techcomputer.com.au/mambo/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=268&category_id=11&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

So as you can see, my PC can more than handle the game. I have tried heaps of things to stop it but none of it works. I have tried reinstalling the drivers, turning V Sync off, disabling virus checkers in the background etc. But nothing has worked yet.

Now I have no other games to test apart from Counter Strike Source. But I guess its good to know that I can play Counter Strike Source with no stutters at all.

So what could be my problem here? Is it just normal for Bioshock to stutter or is their something wrong/not right with my PC?

I run on high settings.

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention, even when I put the graphics on low it stutters.

I also tried turning the in game audio off and it still stuttered.

I don't know if that card is good enough or not.

Use this to test for me:

www.systemrequirementslab.com

Of course an ATI HD 4850 card is good enough. My whole PC blows this games requirements out of the water on high settings, and especially on low settings.

Yet even on low it still stutters.

Of course an ATI HD 4850 card is good enough. My whole PC blows this games requirements out of the water on high settings, and especially on low settings.

Yet even on low it still stutters.

cw131313

Did you at least use the test? I just want to make sure.

Patch the game too.

[QUOTE="cw131313"]

Of course an ATI HD 4850 card is good enough. My whole PC blows this games requirements out of the water on high settings, and especially on low settings.

Yet even on low it still stutters.

biggest_loser

Did you at least use the test? I just want to make sure.

Patch the game too.

Drivers are updated.

I do not want to try a defrag yet because first of all it takes hours and that could not even be the problem. Second of all my PC is 4 days old so I doubt it would need to be defragged already.

Drivers are updated.

I do not want to try a defrag yet because first of all it takes hours and that could not even be the problem. Second of all my PC is 4 days old so I doubt it would need to be defragged already.

cw131313

Yes I have tried reinstalling it.

What I really need to do is find another game with equal or better graphics to Bioshock and see if that runs fine. I cannot afford to buy a new game now though.

Defrag would be my last option for now, I might try it later tonight.

What else could be the cause of this stuttering?

I don't know if that card is good enough or not.

Use this to test for me

biggest_loser

SQLab is not accurate so don't trust it.

I have already tried the V sync thing, and how do I change my monitor refresh rate?cw131313

Right click on your desktop -> Personalize -> Display Settings -> Advanced settings -> Monitor -> Refresh Rate

Vsync needs to be on and the refresh rate as low as possible. This will lower your maximum FPS.

I don't know if it will help because it sounds like you are getting a constant 60FPS. Lowering refresh rate reduces your maximum FPS so you don't get a stutter between 30 and 70 which is definitely noticeable. I can tell when my FPS drops in CS:S because it's usually at 140 (no human can see that, but they can easily see the difference between 140 and 35).

ATI cards and UE 3 don't mix. Some are lucky enough to have no problems but I guess you are one of the not so lucky ones :(. There are a lot of problems in UT3 and Bioshock on ATI cards, other UE 3 games don't have as many problems.

How do you know that mate? Could you please give me some proof?

I am quite happy to believe you because it makes sense why its not working, but do you have a link or some proof?

How do you know that mate? Could you please give me some proof?

I am quite happy to believe you because it makes sense why its not working, but do you have a link or some proof?

cw131313

Well my ATI Radeon 3850 had this problem, there are also extreme slowdowns in some games that I should be able to run fine. Ah well i'll just stick with Nvidia in the future.

Really? So do you guys think that my card is just not very compatible with this game?

I wish I could believe that so then I could move on, but I hear many people with the same card as me who can play this game fine.

How do you know that mate? Could you please give me some proof?

I am quite happy to believe you because it makes sense why its not working, but do you have a link or some proof?

cw131313

I don't really know if I can find something about it now, but when they were released, both UT3 and Bioshock there was a huge scandal between the devs and the consumers that had ATI cards. Many of them were complaining that the game doesn't work at all, that they have different problems, crashes, bugs, and Epic, promised they will optimize the enine for ATI cards because they did found a lot of compatibility problems and together with 2K they promised an immediate patch to fix those problems. Many were fixed but there still are quite a few ATI users that have such problems, like stuttering, weird crashes, artifacts, etc. I don't really know what to tell you, but I am sure that UE 3 had and still has quite a few problems on ATI cards.

UT 3 was mostly fixed, but I still hear from time to time complaints about poor performance in Bioshock, from ATI users.

Really? So do you guys think that my card is just not very compatible with this game?

I wish I could believe that so then I could move on, but I hear many people with the same card as me who can play this game fine.

Yeah I know that many play it without a problem, but as I said there are a few unlucky ones that still have those supposedly fixed ATI issues:(.

I think I might wait and try another game with similar graphics.

I just ordered Lost Via Domus really cheap (I know crap game) only because it has pretty good graphics and I can test to see if that stutters or not.

I am not to keen on doing any of these rememdies unless they have a high chance of working, I have nearly done everything to try and fix it and so far nothing works.

[QUOTE="cw131313"]

How do you know that mate? Could you please give me some proof?

I am quite happy to believe you because it makes sense why its not working, but do you have a link or some proof?

DanielDust

I don't really know if I can find something about it now, but when they were released, both UT3 and Bioshock there was a huge scandal between the devs and the consumers that had ATI cards. Many of them were complaining that the game doesn't work at all, that they have different problems, crashes, bugs, and Epic, promised they will optimize the enine for ATI cards because they did found a lot of compatibility problems and together with 2K they promised an immediate patch to fix those problems. Many were fixed but there still are quite a few ATI users that have such problems, like stuttering, weird crashes, artifacts, etc. I don't really know what to tell you, but I am sure that UE 3 had and still has quite a few problems on ATI cards.

UT 3 was mostly fixed, but I still hear from time to time complaints about poor performance in Bioshock, from ATI users.

Really? So do you guys think that my card is just not very compatible with this game?

I wish I could believe that so then I could move on, but I hear many people with the same card as me who can play this game fine.

Yeah I know that many play it without a problem, but as I said there are a few unlucky ones that still have those supposedly fixed ATI issues:(.

Computers are mysterious machines, like someone said earlier. One person could be using the same graphics card, with the same drivers and see nearly perfect performance, while another person suffers from minor to severe issues. It's a tough call but I would say it's a driver and compatibility issue. Some games are poorly optimized, and some are not optimized for ATi or Nvidia. Some will argue, that it isn't true.

How do I change the refresh rate?cw131313

Go into CCC, click display manager, and at the bottom right hand corner, change the refresh rate.

To be honest I am not really sure how to update the intel chipsets and motherboards etc.

I have put the drivers that came with the PC on their, but I am not sure if they are up to date. Would that really affect my game though?

Do some of you think it could just possibly be the game?

All signs point to that I have a healthy PC, there is nothing wrong with it.

I have tested my system in 3D mark and it works fine.

What would/could be wrong with my current copy?cw131313

Maybe there's a scratch on the disc. Its worth a shot. You did pay for it.....right?!!

[QUOTE="cw131313"]What would/could be wrong with my current copy?biggest_loser

Maybe there's a scratch on the disc. Its worth a shot. You did pay for it.....right?!!

....

you install the game on to your computor and I really doubt that hiccups would come from a scratched disk.

Yea I had this exact same problem : My Pc was capable of running bioshock on its highest settings ( 8800GTX, Core 2 duo 2.6, 4 gigs of ram) but it still stuttered when i played and was annoying. i tried everything V sync, defrag, i even borrowed friends graphic card and tested it!!!!

Finally i realized the problem was the new drivers. Go to nvdia or google and type in 178.26 driver and when u download it , it should automatically replace the new one when u run the setup.

when i ran the game with the old driver, it ran perfectly,

try it , takes about 15 - 20 min

Well i've got a fairly decent computer and it plays most games i've thrown at it. This game runs real bad on my pc but i believe the term is micro-stutter. The same thing that happens to Fallout 3 and but its much worse in this game. What happens is that everytime you goto a new area, it loads the information on the fly and the game freezes while the data loads. Once i'm in a level, its fine throughout that area. For example, i'm near the start of the game, i had to find the Telekinesis plasmid. When i go through the Dandy Dentist door and it loads the level, the whole game stutters, drops down to near 10FPS (I have FRAPS running). Once its done, it goes right back around 45-50FPS. The whole dentist area then plays fine once it stops stuttering, when i goto leave the area, it loads the foyer section and the whole game stutters again.

My Specs

Core 2 Duo e6600 (OC'd 3Ghz)

2gb DDR2

NVidia GForce 8800 GTS 640MB

WD 250Gb Sata HD

From my experience with various games. Most console ports are usually terrible when ported to the PC, they have small levels and long loads. The load times aren't all that bad but its the stutter that gets me. It makes it worse because most of the time, whenever you open the door, a slicer attacks you and you're still trying to recover from the stuttering...

Do the defrag already, guy