Format or not to format.

[Astrid]

Well, recently, I haven't formatted in about a year's time, but the reason why is that, I can't afford a Windows 7 disk, yes, I know, "pirate it" But eh, I dunno. My GTX 670 has been having some problems, first couple 'a days, fantastic, ultra, 90fps on BF3, now, it's slacking. I've had to turn down to high, some low settings, going below 50, but avg 60. It could be my CPU, I could overclock it, atm it's a i5 750 at stock, 2.66ghz, but I'm not sure. Also; in some games, in darker areas, I've been getting faint grey-ish black lines across my screen, hardly noticeable, but you know, they're there, and it bothers me. Now, Black Ops 2, I run it maxed out everything on, highest, w/e, I'm getting stuttering issues, freezing issues, lag, everything, but I get 150-200 FPS, never below 85. Maybe my HDD is just clustered, obviously it's not a bottleneck by my CPU, as it wouldn't cause that, would it? The 670 is a 550w card, my PSU is 750w, so I don't think that's the problem.. So uh, wat do? I need advice and help, basically. Any helpful feedback would be appreciated.

[Darkkel]

Format won't help ... Seems more a component problem. If you really wanna "play" with your HDD, just defragment it.

1) Try to do some heavy test through Prime95 to test if your CPU isn't going to die. If you get a blue screen during test, CPU is either badly overclocked, or going unstable even at stock if you didn't ever touch anything.

2) Next step, testing the memory : MaxxMem2 (The "preview" is more than enough). Same deal, crash during test = Memory just fcked up.

3) If none of those crash, then you should test your graphic card. And there, I got no benchmark that would test the graphic card only ... Maybe Matt does ?

Prime95 : http://download.cnet.com/Prime95/3000-20...92895.html (During install, pick the "Just stress testing")
MaxxMem2 : http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Ma...30633.html (Main website seems down, somehow ?)

[Astrid]

Format won't help ... Seems more a component problem. If you really wanna "play" with your HDD, just defragment it.

1) Try to do some heavy test through Prime95 to test if your CPU isn't going to die. If you get a blue screen during test, CPU is either badly overclocked, or going unstable even at stock if you didn't ever touch anything.

2) Next step, testing the memory : MaxxMem2 (The "preview" is more than enough). Same deal, crash during test = Memory just fcked up.

3) If none of those crash, then you should test your graphic card. And there, I got no benchmark that would test the graphic card only ... Maybe Matt does ?

Prime95 : http://download.cnet.com/Prime95/3000-20...92895.html (During install, pick the "Just stress testing")
MaxxMem2 : http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Ma...30633.html (Main website seems down, somehow ?)

I always defrag my HDD, helps sometimes, but not enough.
Thanks, anyway, I'll try those.
Oh, yeah, I didn't mention, every single other game works perfectly, BFBC2, maxed out everything high, 125fps avg no freezes, crashes, stutters, nothing.
Max Payne 3, highest, avg 50-55, no crashes, freezes, nothing.
Any other game is absolutely fine, it seems only BF3 and Black Ops 2 suck when it comes to it.

---

Format won't help ... Seems more a component problem. If you really wanna "play" with your HDD, just defragment it.

1) Try to do some heavy test through Prime95 to test if your CPU isn't going to die. If you get a blue screen during test, CPU is either badly overclocked, or going unstable even at stock if you didn't ever touch anything.

2) Next step, testing the memory : MaxxMem2 (The "preview" is more than enough). Same deal, crash during test = Memory just fcked up.

3) If none of those crash, then you should test your graphic card. And there, I got no benchmark that would test the graphic card only ... Maybe Matt does ?

Prime95 : http://download.cnet.com/Prime95/3000-20...92895.html (During install, pick the "Just stress testing")
MaxxMem2 : http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Ma...30633.html (Main website seems down, somehow ?)

Well, I did the MaxxMem thing, no crash or anything, same with Prime95.

[Darkkel]

Some games run fine, some others bug ... That could ALSO be drivers problem, in this case the graphic card drivers. You tried to update to the latest ?

[Astrid]

Some games run fine, some others bug ... That could ALSO be drivers problem, in this case the graphic card drivers. You tried to update to the latest ?

Already are the latest, before-hand, games were lagging like shit, latest drivers, smooth as silk.

[Zealord]

Well, recently, I haven't formatted in about a year's time

You mean defragmentation? As formatting does not really do any good. And no, after a year your disk won't be as extremely fragmented to cause the problems you have.

I've had to turn down to high, some low settings, going below 50, but avg 60. It could be my CPU, I could overclock it, atm it's a i5 750 at stock, 2.66ghz, but I'm not sure.

No need to over clock. Install speedfan and check if your stuff is overheating. If so, clean/replace fans and component paste.

Also; in some games, in darker areas, I've been getting faint grey-ish black lines across my screen, hardly noticeable, but you know, they're there, and it bothers me.

Turn Vsync on (Not recommended, eats a lot of memory) and check your graphics card driver software for extra options.

Now, Black Ops 2, I run it maxed out everything on, highest, w/e, I'm getting stuttering issues, freezing issues, lag, everything, but I get 150-200 FPS, never below 85.

Try running on all lowest graphics and see if it persists. If it's not the case, try upping/downing each setting individually to see what causes it.

Maybe my HDD is just clustered, obviously it's not a bottleneck by my CPU, as it wouldn't cause that, would it?

How can a HDD bottleneck a CPU to such extreme extents?

[Astrid]

Well, recently, I haven't formatted in about a year's time

You mean defragmentation? As formatting does not really do any good. And no, after a year your disk won't be as extremely fragmented to cause the problems you have.

I've had to turn down to high, some low settings, going below 50, but avg 60. It could be my CPU, I could overclock it, atm it's a i5 750 at stock, 2.66ghz, but I'm not sure.

No need to over clock. Install speedfan and check if your stuff is overheating. If so, clean/replace fans and component paste.

Also; in some games, in darker areas, I've been getting faint grey-ish black lines across my screen, hardly noticeable, but you know, they're there, and it bothers me.

Turn Vsync on (Not recommended, eats a lot of memory) and check your graphics card driver software for extra options.

Now, Black Ops 2, I run it maxed out everything on, highest, w/e, I'm getting stuttering issues, freezing issues, lag, everything, but I get 150-200 FPS, never below 85.

Try running on all lowest graphics and see if it persists. If it's not the case, try upping/downing each setting individually to see what causes it.

Maybe my HDD is just clustered, obviously it's not a bottleneck by my CPU, as it wouldn't cause that, would it?

How can a HDD bottleneck a CPU to such extreme extents?

How can a HDD bottleneck a CPU to such extreme extents?

I didn't mean the CPU would bottleneck the HDD, I meant the GPU.

Try running on all lowest graphics and see if it persists. If it's not the case, try upping/downing each setting individually to see what causes it.

Turned Mesh quality to low on BF3, went from avg 50-70fps to avg 80-100, stutters and freezes are VERY rare now, I've been playing since 11am this morning, it's now 8pm, haven't had one stutter or freeze. *touches wood*

No need to over clock. Install speedfan and check if your stuff is overheating. If so, clean/replace fans and component paste.

Nope, everything is normal and fine, 35-40c idle temps, 65-70 when playing BF3 and Far Cry 3.

Turn Vsync on (Not recommended, eats a lot of memory) and check your graphics card driver software for extra options.

No problem with that, it's only even hardly noticeable in dark areas, in such a bright and vibrant game in BF3, Blops 2 and Far Cry 3, can't see it at all.

You mean defragmentation? As formatting does not really do any good. And no, after a year your disk won't be as extremely fragmented to cause the problems you have.

Yup, thought so.

Thanks for both of your help, much appreciated, I uninstalled games and some applications today, about 10-15 and things are much better, hopefully not temporary. If the problems arise again, I'll be sure to post here; so if the thread is inactive for 2-5 days, don't close it please, I dunno though, probably just focusing on the frame-rate and worrying about problems too much to concentrate on the game. Everything is perfect now and hopefully it keeps that way, BF3 is hell'a fun when you can focus on smooth gameplay. Been getting rubberbanding sometimes, but meh, Virgin Media being Virgin media.

[wweee2345]

Well, recently, I haven't formatted in about a year's time

You mean defragmentation? As formatting does not really do any good. And no, after a year your disk won't be as extremely fragmented to cause the problems you have.

I've had to turn down to high, some low settings, going below 50, but avg 60. It could be my CPU, I could overclock it, atm it's a i5 750 at stock, 2.66ghz, but I'm not sure.

No need to over clock. Install speedfan and check if your stuff is overheating. If so, clean/replace fans and component paste.

Also; in some games, in darker areas, I've been getting faint grey-ish black lines across my screen, hardly noticeable, but you know, they're there, and it bothers me.

Turn Vsync on (Not recommended, eats a lot of memory) and check your graphics card driver software for extra options.

Now, Black Ops 2, I run it maxed out everything on, highest, w/e, I'm getting stuttering issues, freezing issues, lag, everything, but I get 150-200 FPS, never below 85.

Try running on all lowest graphics and see if it persists. If it's not the case, try upping/downing each setting individually to see what causes it.

Maybe my HDD is just clustered, obviously it's not a bottleneck by my CPU, as it wouldn't cause that, would it?

How can a HDD bottleneck a CPU to such extreme extents?

I didn't mean the CPU would bottleneck the HDD, I meant the GPU.

Nope, everything is normal and fine, 35-40c idle temps, 65-70 when playing BF3 and Far Cry 3.

No problem with that, it's only even hardly noticeable in dark areas, in such a bright and vibrant game in BF3, Blops 2 and Far Cry 3, can't see it at all.

Your HDD shouldn't affect your gaming performance at all. Your HDD is really only going to affect loading times based on read/write speeds. 7200 RPM drives are usually fine for the job, SSD's offering about 2-3 performance cutting load times. I use one myself and love the thing.

I'd be checking the voltage that your card is running at since Keplar turbo is usually enabled on the GTX 600 series. If anything is throttling something its either your temperature throttling or voltage throttling i.e. not enough power or too high an overclock on the card. The Keplar series cards start to throttle around the 67-70 range and the reference card designs make it worse as well since they tend to keep "heat pouches" within the design that keep the card hot.

Vsync isn't going to do much, but make the game more stable locking it at 60 FPS, so the card isn't working harder at times. Your card should handle any game you throw at it, so consider the above options.

[Fleet Admiral Zapington]

Pretty much what Wweee said. It doesn't sound like a HDD problem to me.

If you are still in doubt, do a HDD benchmark and stress test. Infact, do this with all your components.

[Astrid]

Well, recently, I haven't formatted in about a year's time

You mean defragmentation? As formatting does not really do any good. And no, after a year your disk won't be as extremely fragmented to cause the problems you have.

I've had to turn down to high, some low settings, going below 50, but avg 60. It could be my CPU, I could overclock it, atm it's a i5 750 at stock, 2.66ghz, but I'm not sure.

No need to over clock. Install speedfan and check if your stuff is overheating. If so, clean/replace fans and component paste.

Also; in some games, in darker areas, I've been getting faint grey-ish black lines across my screen, hardly noticeable, but you know, they're there, and it bothers me.

Turn Vsync on (Not recommended, eats a lot of memory) and check your graphics card driver software for extra options.

Now, Black Ops 2, I run it maxed out everything on, highest, w/e, I'm getting stuttering issues, freezing issues, lag, everything, but I get 150-200 FPS, never below 85.

Try running on all lowest graphics and see if it persists. If it's not the case, try upping/downing each setting individually to see what causes it.

Maybe my HDD is just clustered, obviously it's not a bottleneck by my CPU, as it wouldn't cause that, would it?

How can a HDD bottleneck a CPU to such extreme extents?

I didn't mean the CPU would bottleneck the HDD, I meant the GPU.

Nope, everything is normal and fine, 35-40c idle temps, 65-70 when playing BF3 and Far Cry 3.

No problem with that, it's only even hardly noticeable in dark areas, in such a bright and vibrant game in BF3, Blops 2 and Far Cry 3, can't see it at all.

Your HDD shouldn't affect your gaming performance at all. Your HDD is really only going to affect loading times based on read/write speeds. 7200 RPM drives are usually fine for the job, SSD's offering about 2-3 performance cutting load times. I use one myself and love the thing.

I'd be checking the voltage that your card is running at since Keplar turbo is usually enabled on the GTX 600 series. If anything is throttling something its either your temperature throttling or voltage throttling i.e. not enough power or too high an overclock on the card. The Keplar series cards start to throttle around the 67-70 range and the reference card designs make it worse as well since they tend to keep "heat pouches" within the design that keep the card hot.

Vsync isn't going to do much, but make the game more stable locking it at 60 FPS, so the card isn't working harder at times. Your card should handle any game you throw at it, so consider the above options.

Yeah, loading times are a pain in the ass, first time playing MOHWF, It took me ATLEAST 2 minutes to load the map. BF3 It only takes 20-30 seconds, which isn't bad considering the huge maps.