Why does my fps get these wierd lag spikes?

[blurryshadow1]

I just recently upgraded my graphics card from a ati radeon hd 4200 integrated graphics card to a ati radeon hd 6670 ddr3 1gb and i just cant max out my san andreas for mta completely.

I have to turn off volumetric shadows to get a steady fps, because i get these lag spikes in different areas of the valhalla roleplay map which make me go from 55 to 30 in a second or so when its on and that gets annoying to look at.

although, if i dont move my screen or go anywhere i get the SAME fps as when i have the graphics all low.

i just dont get it... i get 140fps in just the game iteself and 350 in interiors with everything maxed out...

im thinking its my processor which is a amd phenom II dual core 521 3.5ghz processor (found out its a rebranded phenom though, but then i also discovered its like the fastest dual core athlon ever).

I think its my processor because my friend who bought the SAME graphics card (well almost the same, he has the ddr5 version) but with a 3.2 ghz quad core amd phenom II and he gets 76 flat on valhalla which is the fps limit.

i can even run need for speed shift at 60fps all maxed out, dirt 2 maxed out at 55fps, and gta 4 maxed out at 30fps. and dead space maxed out at the fps limit which is 30.

so mta needs a quad core processor to get steady fps or what?..... Can anyone help me out?

Edited January 14, 2012 by Guest

[blurryshadow1]

the thing is, its not just mta. im getting the same issue on other games so what i was thinking is that my cpu is bottlenecking my graphics card... so thats when i decided to ask pc forums. they came up with all sorts of stuff.

and yeah, my pc is all working... that happened a couple days ago but i fixed it with system restore..

[Towncivilian]

Your PC is pretty balanced, I'd say. There are no bottlenecks except the hard drive which is a bottleneck in nearly all PCs.

[blurryshadow1]

that just doesnt make sense though why my friend gets higher fps than me and no stuttering... it cant be because hes got the ddr5 version can it? i thought ddr5 wasnt that much of a difference compared to ddr3 fps wise?

could it be because of his amd phenom ii x4 955 3.2ghz?

and shouldnt i gain more fps when i turn the resolution and graphics settings down? cause i dont... my fps stays the same the whole time no matter what settings..

[Towncivilian]

GDDR5 is considerably faster than GDDR3, but your computer should be capable of running MTA without a problem regardless.

Lower resolutions are more CPU limited; higher resolutions are more GPU limited.

[blurryshadow1]

oh.... i see... so my gpu and cpu must be well balanced to not see a fps difference with resolution then..? (my max resolution is 1600x900)

i also heard the stuttering could be because i dont have dual channel ram... ive just got 1 stick of 4gb ram..

[Towncivilian]

The speed difference between single and dual channel memory isn't terribly significant in video games, in my experience. Bottom line is, your system is sufficient for MTA:SA and thus GTA:SA, and quite a few other recent games especially at your moderate resolution of 1600 x 900. If you could install TeamViewer, I can try to see if there's something wrong with Windows' configuration sometime tomorrow if I've got the time.

[blurryshadow1]

oh okay, thanks.

edit: here town, this is just like whats going on with me but just for mta... heres an example of whats going on,

its not much of a freeze like the guy in the video is getting but the fps is dipping.. you know?

i can have it completely maxed out but for singleplayer gtasa and get no stuttering. but for mta i get a lot of stuttering with shadows on and even with it off i get these little stutters while driving around the map.