Gears of War (PC) - Is there a fix for the stuttering?

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Circuitbreaker8

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
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Ok, so I took a little break for this game because it stutters pretty bad on my rig. I was hoping there would be a new(er) patch by now, but it seems there has only been one. Are there any configs/tweeks to get this working stutter-free?

My specs are...

Windows XP pro w/SP2
Opteron 170 @ 2.5Ghz
2GB g.skill
512MB X1900XTX (stock)
DFI lanparty nf4-ultra
 
No solution yet, as far as I know.

The patch improved performance for me a little bit, but Act 5 is still unplayable for me.
 
This game looked so amazing and smooth on the 360. Too bad my PC's superior performance doesn't translate to looking better and running smoother. I had high hopes for this game. The PC version certainly isn't worth running through the game again if you've already played it on 360.

If I could do DX10/4xAA with a solid framerate it would be worth playing again.

Sorry, didn't mean to go OT. I haven't found a fix for the stuttering either.
 
I haven't played the 360 version though, and the game seems pretty cool but I cant stand the stuttering...
 
My rig wipes the floor with the 360 and i still get stuttering thats whats been holding me back on this game also its stinks to high heaven as a shitty port. The menu still has 360 prompts! I wasnt aware that there was a patch ill have to check it out. Anyone know if there is a console command or something to display FPS?
 
ThunderGod66 said:
I'm glad I'm not the only one with weird stuttering in this game.
Click to expand...

You are definitely not alone, both GOW and UT3 stutter on my PC. :mad:

The stuttering for me seems to be caused by a fluctuation in FPS.
My frames go between 40-60 FPS back and forth while running thru maps.

Pretty frustrating to say the least. :(
 
SNIP3R said:
You are definitely not alone, both GOW and UT3 stutter on my PC. :mad:

The stuttering for me seems to be caused by a fluctuation in FPS.
My frames go between 40-60 FPS back and forth while running thru maps.

Pretty frustrating to say the least. :(
Click to expand...
I haven't noticed any stuttering running under Vista 64. I'm running 1920x1200 with everything to the max and DX10AA. Maybe it likes more memory? I recall stuttering when I ran it under Vista 32bit and 2gigs of memory. I don't know if Vista 64bit made the difference, the 4GB of memory or a combination of the two. Maybe moving the page to a different drive helped also? In any case, it's running really smoothly for me and I'm really surprised.

I also have my drives arranged in the following manner:
150GB Raptor - OS and Programs
74GB Raptor - Fixed size swap file and misc storage for music/video conversion etc.
74GB Raptor - Temp directories have been rerouted here. Each user account has a subfolder where their %temp% and %tmp% are pointed to. System %temp% is sent to a temp folder off the root of this drive.
1TB - Storage.

I just played a section of the game to make sure I wasn't imagining things and yup, it's smooth.
 
GoW for PC is a pathetic port from Epic. Shitload of technical problems that are still not fixed, a lot of people I know who has the game can't even play it due to constant crash - not to mention it often randomly deletes your progress.
 
aznpxdd said:
GoW for PC is a pathetic port from Epic. Shitload of technical problems that are still not fixed, a lot of people I know who has the game can't even play it due to constant crash - not to mention it often randomly deletes your progress.
Click to expand...

Yea, it shows that Epic rushed the game out to have it out before Christmas and before UT 3.

On top of all the problems, there isn't even support for dedicated servers!

Mark Rein keeps calling the PC Epic's "bread and butter" but with a shitty GoW port and UT 3 failing to take off and being dumbed down for the PC, Epic really treats it's bread and butter and it's community like dogshit.

To the OP - the stuttering affects like 95% of the people playing the game, and what was weird for me, was it ONLY happened when traversing one area to the other... NEVER during the intense firefights. It's almost like the game is loading in new areas while you're walking, but does a very shitty job of it.
 
Game works flawlessly here on vista64 except the live panel will lag when opening it every once and a while.
 
Try this:

Open My Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\Config\WarEngineUserSettings.ini

Change OnlyStreamInTextures=FALSE to OnlyStreamInTextures=TRUE
 
Marcdaddy said:
Never had 1 problem with gears, i have it installed on 2 computers.
Click to expand...

You're lucky. What's your trick?

I can't get the game to actually start up. I've tried everything conceivable, including a complete uninstall and resinstall, run startup.exe as admin, you name it.

I get to that initial splash screen and then that's it. I never even get into the actual game, or menus or anything. The game times out on me, I get the "program not responding" message and that's all she wrote.

I guess I'll just uinstall it and say the hell with it unless some folks here have some ideas.

Hardware:
Intel q9650
Asus Maximus Formula motherboard
8800gt
4 gig Corsair XMS 8500
Vista Home Premium 64

All latest drivers and everything. I'm stumped.
 
I installed it about a week ago and so far it runs fine on my rig.

I have a 19" widescreen. So I am running with full graphics on @ 1440X900...looks sweet.

So far no issues...I hate the way Grenades are thrown...but popping a cap in someones ass from the hip or over your head without leaving cover is pretty cool.

I also have a programable mouse (logitech MX518) so I don't have to hit the space bar when moving from cover. I just click one of the side thumb buttons programmed as "SPACEBAR". Makes playing smooth...the other thumb button is E so I pick up stuff or activate things on the fly.

Check SIG for rest of rig components

Brass
 
I experienced quite a bit of stuttering, not enough to make it unplayable. I think it has something to do with how the original xbox360 streamed the levels. Good game, terrible port.
 
archevilangel said:
I experienced quite a bit of stuttering, not enough to make it unplayable. I think it has something to do with how the original xbox360 streamed the levels. Good game, terrible port.
Click to expand...
It is. It's entirely thanks to the on-the-fly loading, and you can turn it off with this:
LuminaryJanitor said:
Open My Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\Config\WarEngineUserSettings.ini

Change OnlyStreamInTextures=FALSE to OnlyStreamInTextures=TRUE
Click to expand...
Now runs as well as Bioshock for me.

(An aside: Bioshock seems to have a similar problem with on-the-fly loading. The difference is that rather than stopping to wait for something to load, it just plows ahead with a bunch of textures missing.)
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
Try this:

Open My Documents\My Games\Gears of War for Windows\WarGame\Config\WarEngineUserSettings.ini

Change OnlyStreamInTextures=FALSE to OnlyStreamInTextures=TRUE
Click to expand...

OMG thank you

that worked for me i had given up on finishing GOW because no matter what settings i used i couldn't get rid of the stuttering but changing that has taken away 99% of the stuttering for me.

thnx again

i am going to go finish it now.
 
I am guessing it is a memory thing then..I've got 4 Gigs and no problems.
 
I have a pretty strong computer, Vista 64 bit and 4 GB memory and the game stutters like a bitch.
I played through the initial Beserker deal and there were also large pieces of pillars just hanging in mid air......
errrrrrgh.
I guess I'll try that edit and see what happens, thanks for the information.:D
 
dnottis said:
I am guessing it is a memory thing then..I've got 4 Gigs and no problems.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that explains why you rig works, while others experience issues (unless stream textures is turned on). Maybe on your rig, since you have 4 gigs, it loads more textures at the start where as other systems have to swap textures out during gameplay. dnottis are you running Vista or XP?

Thanks for the tip Janitor!
 
Its wierd....not when I exit GoW, I have like 500mb PF usage...usually its at like 190-200. Doesn't look like anythings running in the task manager either.
 
Meh....just beat it. Pretty good game...really picked up later on but overall it was the same thing over and over again.

Go into an area, see a lot of barriers, take cover...shoot enemies...patch up the spawn holes...move to next area...try to open a door...which gets stuck...then jack has to rip the door...then you defend jack until hes done...lol could've been a lot better.
 
Sry for reviving this thread, but I love this game and want to help out others with their lag.

I had sever studdering and made this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1269402

I updated my drivers and made it run like butter. It is one of my favorite games now.

If you still experience studdering I suggest uninstalling your drivers and running driver cleaner. then reinstall your video drivers.

It worked great for me. with vsync on it caps my fps at 60 and it is so smooth. no tearing no studders. One of my best performing games.

Lastly I would try a re-install of the game.
Good Luck.

My gamer tag is the same as my name on here. So add me if you want to play. I play daily. :)
 
Zero stuttering with Vista 64. It's unplayable though, without the KB936710 hotfix
 
wow I don't feel lonely anymore

i have a 4600+ w/ 8800GT and 4 gigs of RAM and get a crapload of stutter. it's the worst kind, too... the game keeps running but the frames drop to 1fps, so basically I keep getting shot in the background and the image is stuck for one second.

horrible. will try that one ini file tweak

thanks
 
UT3 had the same problem, I am guessing it's something to do with the Unreal3 engine. Try using the latest Nvidia beta drivers. It fixed stuttering for me in UT3.
 
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