Bad Stuttering in Modern Warfare 2

[nissanman]

hey guys.

Just recently, i purchased Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Now, because Modern Warfare 2 has pretty much the same requirements (maybe a bit higher) then Call of Duty 4 (which runs average 100 frames and no stuttering maxed out), I figured that Modern Warfare 2 would run very well also. I was wrong.

Whenever i turn the games 3 texture settings up to extra, it stutters very badly (as if its running out of ram, i find that hard to believe, ill get to that shortly) to the point where its pretty much unplayable. Lowering the settings to high makes the game playable but still stutters a bit. Normal works fine but to me looks pretty bad.

Now, the reason i find it hard to believe that its running out of ram is because my friend tried it out on his computer. We both have 2gb ram and the game ran perfectly on his. I just cant seem to figure out why it stutters so badly on my system. I tried updating my chipset drivers, sound drivers and video card drivers all to the latest possible versions but there was still no change.

Maybe you guys can help me out on this one? Anyone else have this annoying issue?

These are my system specs:

AMD Athlon x2 7750 2.7Ghz (3Ghz OC)
2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
Nvidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB
1TB Western Digital hard drive.

These are my friends specs just incase you need to know:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3Ghz (4.4Ghz OC)
2GB Corsair DDR3-1666 Memory
Nvidia GeForce 9800GTX+
1TB Samsung Hard Drive

I know his system is alot better then mine, but mine should still be more then powerful enough to run the game properly. I dont see how it couldnt be.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated

Edit: Me and my friend are also both running Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

 

[nissanman]

anyone?...

 

[klepto12]

the extra setting is a little much for the 9600gt especially if you have AA on at all the 9800 gtx+ is a far better gpu just turn the textures down and make sure you have AA off that card is not meant to run that game on its highest settings. also you may try this first download the latest drivers for the 9600gt and then download driver sweeper and run it and remove all the nvidia display drivers then reboot and then install the new drivers this may alleviate the problem.

 

[nissanman]

its not my 9600GT. Seriously, a 9600GT is more then sufficient for running the game on max settings (remember, i said the game is stuttering, it doesnt have a low framerate). Ive seen the game being played on a 9600GT on youtube. It wasnt stuttering, it was running smooth.

 

[klepto12]

that still doesn't mean the settings were on max ? also did you try the driver sweeper thing i told you to do?

 

[nissanman]

the settings in the video were all on max and i did try driver sweeper. Though i do use Driver Cleaner which i find better.

Im ganna rule out the video card, because its not lagging. Stutter and lag to me are 2 completely different things and as far as im concerned. This stutter is not caused by the video card.

I am actually leaning towards my ram or possibly even my cpu. Im not sure. Its not the video card though. I mean even Crysis with all its settings maxed out doesnt stutter, i just get a low framerate. (around 15 to 20 frames)

 

[klepto12]

well i dont see the ram being the problem since you can play crysis on that system without it doing the same thing. also when you say stutter is it when there is alot of action on the screen or what describe it to me.

 

[dividebyzero]

What resolution are you gaming at ?
This site has run a GPU gameplay analysis on the game
https://www.techspot.com/article/219-cod-modern-warfare-2-gpu-performance/

Would give you an idea if the card is up to the task. Unfortunately the review, like many others concentrates on average framerates and doesn't include minimum fps.

BTW...You have W7 x64 !...Treat youself to another couple of sticks of RAM...seriously, it's the holiday season, you deserve it.

 

[nissanman]

stutter is when say you can be looking in one area and when you look in another area, the game freezes for a few seconds as if its loading something. It just does this all the time.

@dividebyzero. At the moment im running the game at 1280x960 but im getting my new widescreen monitor tomorrow which is 1440x900. Ive ran it on a 1440x900 widescreen before and it ran the same.

 

[dividebyzero]

If your other games work ok without freezing then your video card must be ok.
1280 x 1080 isn't a demanding resolution so you should be able to run all the eye candy ok as well.
I presume you've de-fragged the hdd ?
Has the game been freezing since it was installed ?
You've disabled the Aero desktop I assume ?

Unless you have programs running in the backround I'm not to sure what would cause the freezing if you can rule out the things I've already mentioned.
Hardware failure is unlikely to show up in just one game (unless it's Crysis) unless you have a few bad sectors on your harddrive and it's there that the games is installed, although a corrupt filepath usually mean the game wont run.

 

[klepto12]

i would just uninstall and reinstall and see how that works out for you

 

[nissanman]

I just noticed that in the level "Cliffhanger" with all the settings completely maxed out, it doesnt stutter. Probably because in that level the visibility isnt so good (because of the snow storm) so there isnt as much detail. Im really thinking it might be the ram now.

I know i said that it works fine on my friends computer with 2gb but maybe its because he has ddr3 and a motherboard with an nforce 790i ultra chipset and mine is ddr2 with the nforce 630a? I dont know. But im planning to upgrade to 4gb soon so ill see how it goes.

Also, i forgot to mention that the stuttering is worse if i have my antivirus running in the background. So its more then likely a ram issue. Ill upgrade to the 4gigs and ill post back here and tell you guys how it goes. That may be a couple of months though...

 

[hitech0101]

Nah, the problem does not seem to be your hardware maybe too many programs running behind eating up your RAM. Still try reinstalling both game & drivers.I have 4gb DDR 2 RAM before i had 2gb not a big difference on games only that i am able to put an extra program along with game.Game loading time gameplay still same.

 

[nissanman]

Ok, i found that MW2 isnt the only game doing this. So far, The Sims 3 (when im scrolling around the town) and Crysis Warhead (on the Gamer settings) are stuttering aswell. I find Crysis Warhead stuttering on high graphics strange because the original Crysis like i said is fine maxed out. (apart from the low framerate of course.

For those of you who dont know what i mean by stuttering. Its not the same "lag" you get with just low framerates. Its where everything is all jittery, stoppy and jumpy. As if its paging to the hard drive or something. Any of you who have played Need For Speed Most Wanted for example on say, 512MB ram, will know what i mean.

Edit: Most Wanted is not one of the games that stutters with my 2GB ram. It runs perfectly smooth.