stuttering with the new system

[Allnatural]

Have some problems with the new system. As time passes, many applications, games and emulators mostly, will begin to stutter. Half-Life 2 is a good example. The framerate is solid according to FRAPS, but there is a noticeable stutter when moving; a slight pause every second or so. Serious Sam has the same problem. FEAR and Prey on the other hand don't seem to have this problem at all.

MAME is acting weird to. The framerate will fluctuate at regular intervals, usually jumping well above normal, then well below. It's maddening.

All these problems can be fixed (temporarily) with a reboot, then the cycle begins again. I can't for the life of me figure out what may be triggering it. Temperatures seem good and all drivers are up to date (fwiw, I tried older drivers for the video card and chipset...no effect). I did some research to see if there's some known glitch with my particular configuration (a problem specific to dual-core processors maybe?), but I couldn't find anything. Any ideas as to what I should look for?

 

[Toasty]

I had problems with a software MIDI synthesizer when I first built my PC. (It also has an X2.) The dual-core patch from AMD fixed the issue for me, though. Apparently, some of Windows' built-in timing functions don't work correctly on dual-core processors and the patch resolves the issue. It's the first item on this page (AMD Dual-Core Optimizer). I don't know if that's what's causing your problem or not, but it's worth a try.

 

[Allnatural]

I had problems with a software MIDI synthesizer when I first built my PC. (It also has an X2.) The dual-core patch from AMD fixed the issue for me, though. Apparently, some of Windows' built-in timing functions don't work correctly on dual-core processors and the patch resolves the issue. It's the first item on this page (AMD Dual-Core Optimizer). I don't know if that's what's causing your problem or not, but it's worth a try.

Yeah, I had read about that. Unfortunately, the optimizer only works with WinXP (it won't even install on my system). It did find a version on another site that's apparently for Win2k, but I haven't tried it yet. I'm a bit reluctant anyway; I've read that it can break as many programs as it fixes.

On a brighter note, I did read about adjusting the affinity for programs that are problematic with dual-core processors, and found a launcher that can force games to use a single core. I hate letting half my processor go to waste, but at least everything works now.