Absolutly massive frame skipping!

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Absolutly massive frame skipping!

Hi!

I´ve owned this game since release day, and since then i have played this game with absolutly record-breaking amounts of frame skipping.

First, my system:
AMD Phenom II 965 @ 4.0GHz 2.76GHz CPU-NB (I have of course tried playing it with no overclock aswell)
OCZ Black Edition RAM DDR3-1840 8-8-8-24 (its overclocked spec, i have tried playing with standard 1600 7-7-7-24)
AMD HD 4890 1GB (no overclocking, using latest 11.8 drivers but have been the same with every driver since release)
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
Samsung F3 500GB Harddrive.

I get frameskipping no matter what settings i use. Even on absolute minimal settings (low spec, low resolution etc etc) i get loads of frameskipping when running around (not as noticable when walking) everywhere really but absolutly record-breaking in flotsam forrest.

Its just not fun watching the game play like this. And there is nothing i can do about it on my end unless getting a GTX 580 fixes this. I have tried all options, all tweaks etc.

IMO the ONLY way to fix this issue, is for the developers to include a "max frames to render ahead" option in the configurator. Nvidia users have this setting in driver-level (not sure if it helps them).

Games like ArmA II/Operation arrowhead aswell as Bad Company 2 and Medal of Honor (2010 game) have this option in their .ini files for the same reason - frame skipping and mouselag

Lowering this to "1 frame" or even "0 frames" (ie, CPU cannot render ahead of the GPU) totally fixes frameskipping in said games.

Please fix this issue, it is really driving me mad. The game CONSTANTLY jumps back and forth because of skipped frames. I am not sure if this is an AMD bug or game bug, either way if CDP finds its AMD related, they should tell them about it as AMD will never fix this one themselves. Please help a frustrated witcher 2 fan.
 
Before the game was out, CDP stated that even though this is an Nvidia its meant to be played game, AMD users would not suffer. If what you say is true, that most ATI users do have problems, then i am truly sad.

I have the retail version of the game, if it makes any diffrence (nordic edition). 1.35 Autopatched from fresh install yesterday (reinstalled to see if that would fix it).
 
Yeah i know, i was having the same problems with my nvidia card when the game was released, stutterings, frame skipping,lag,freezes. Now they released patches and even in the patches changelog doesn't say anything about performance, my game runs better, maybe with a little help of the nvidia drivers, just a little, cuz the nvidia drivers specially for this game they haven't made any progress in achieving performance, stability.
 
Since many players with comparable rigs (including players on ATI cards) have not observed similar problems, I do not believe there is a fault in the game. You would do well to check that there are not competing applications (some antivirus are deadly to this game) running when you are playing.
 
Well google The Witcher 2 frame skipping and you will see that theres quite a few reporting this issue.

I do not have any antivirus installed, nor any other applications running that are not windows ones. Windows is Win7 SP1 X64 with all updates installed.

I dont have performance issues in any other games (such as Bad Company 2, Crysis 2, AssassinsCreed Brotherhood and so on). FPS on lowest settings is ~40-60fps but there is still some frameskipping every now and then (tried vsync on and off). It just happens way more often with higher settings and ~30fps. Running around in flotsam forrest is like SLOWMO, FASTFORWARD, SLOWMO, FASTFORWARD etc etc etc.

Drives me insane. :(
 
I get the same issue Danny. I have a similar machine to you. Same processer only 3.4ghz Black Edition Phenom II. My GFX is HD 4750, marginally slower than your card. I have 4gb 800mhz DDR2 ram.

I get a smooth 30FPS on Med - High settings on 1900 x 1080 res, however I do suffer from the frame skip problem. It mainly happens when I turn the camera. The camera NEVER turns smoothly except for when indoors.

There won't be a simple fix for this, it's the game engine and how it works with our hardware. We'll be told to lower settings, but like you said, the FPS will increase but the skipping will still be there.
 
do you think microsoft security essentials could cause an occasional frame skipping. i have overclocked sli gtx 465s however i notice randomly while getting 80 fps the game will stutter slightly on occasion.

overall even with the current patch i still think just having 3d vision installed on your pc, even if it is disabled, causes stuttering issues with the game. however i keep my 3d vision installed because i use it.

in general ati users seem to have the most problems.
 
Probably yeah, but i dont have microsoft security essentials installed.

Thank you for reporting here Lozzo, i know there are many others with the same annoying frame skipping. :(

It really runs well FPS wise, and looks awesome graphically. Its just this constant slowmo/fastforward jerkyness ruining it. :(
 
Just to confirm, I just ran the game in minimal settings, and the frameskip is EXACTLY the same as in high settings. This strikes me as confusing, and maybe suggests it's some kind of background process/ bug.

How do I go about uninstalling 3d vision?
 
And also just to add, this is a CLEAN install of windows. I had to clean install to get the game to work. Only other things I have installed are now Section 8, Games for windows live, AVG antivirus and utorrent. Utorrent is currently disabled.

I had this issue before this clean install however, and my AV at this time was Norton. So I don't think anti viri is causing the issue.

The fact this is a clean install with minimal programs suggests it's not a conflicting application, but simply the game itself.
 
CalinRO said:
From what i know, i saw here that almost the ATi users have problems with Witcher 2.


CalinRO said:
. If what you say is true, that most ATI users do have problems, then i am truly sad.

I am an AMD user and can say that I don't have these problems. Those that seek help, or come to complain are those that post about the AMD prob. But to say "MOST" ati users have problems with the game is your opinion only,not based on facts and only adds to the false perception the you are promoting.
 
I didnt mean to say all AMD users have this problem, in fact, i dont think it has to do with AMD/nvidia at all, but rather, a game bug.

@Lozzo, 3D vision is only for nvidia cards, you do not have that.

I still think the developers simply need to sync CPU and GPU, frame skipping usually happens when there is more than 1 frame thread lag.

And as Lozzo said, playing on very low or high does not matter, the frame skipping is the very same. It is NOT a performance issue.
 
So, this thread has been open and near top of this board for quite some time now, and we still havn't been given any advice? There's gotta be something we can do, or maybe someon from CD Projekt could acknowledge the issue. Maybe advise us there may be some improvements in Patch 2.0...
 
Perhaps i should make a video showing this problem, because its pretty damn annoying. I have never done this before though, hope its easy enough lol.
 
Dannyns said:
Hi!

I´ve owned this game since release day, and since then i have played this game with absolutly record-breaking amounts of frame skipping.

First, my system:
AMD Phenom II 965 @ 4.0GHz 2.76GHz CPU-NB (I have of course tried playing it with no overclock aswell)
OCZ Black Edition RAM DDR3-1840 8-8-8-24 (its overclocked spec, i have tried playing with standard 1600 7-7-7-24)
AMD HD 4890 1GB (no overclocking, using latest 11.8 drivers but have been the same with every driver since release)
ASUS Crosshair III Formula
Samsung F3 500GB Harddrive.

I get frameskipping no matter what settings i use. Even on absolute minimal settings (low spec, low resolution etc etc) i get loads of frameskipping when running around (not as noticable when walking) everywhere really but absolutly record-breaking in flotsam forrest.

Game runs very nicely for me--no frame skipping that I can see, and I'm running at 1920x1080, max IQ settings all around except, of course, for Ubersampling, which is turned off. The game runs at an average of 25-35 fps, with occasional dips and spikes, as noted when I ran Fraps. My hardware specs are lower than yours:

Athlon X2 265 @ 2.9GHz
4GB DDR 2 @800MHz
ATi 5770 1GB running at slightly overclocked frequency of 900MHz/1300MHz (gpu/onboard ram), running 11.8 CATs
Win7 x64

--Oh, yes, let me also mention I'm also running MSE without a problem.

So...now that we have firmly established that the problem you are having is not related to your hardware, all that remains is software (assuming you do not have some kind of a hardware problem, which isn't likely, since your other games are running fine.)

The only thing I know of for a fact that will absolutely cause the frame-skipping you allude to is the Ubersampling setting in the advanced options. Turn that on and you are guaranteed a frame-skipping experience/extravaganza...;) Have you manipulated your Witcher 2 user.ini file, I wonder? Because if you have, the only way to keep that from resetting every time you start the game is to write protect the file--which would mean, if that file is still write protected, that even when you try and turn off Ubersampling from the advanced options screen it won't actually ever turn off, if you have enabled it in the user.ini file. So make sure that your user.ini file is not write protected, and then turn off Ubersampling from advanced options.

If that isn't it, then *something* you are running is, for some reason, massively conflicting with this game. Run MSConfig and check your start-up programs and uncheck (disable) all of them that you don't recognize or that you know you don't need, and then reboot (changing these settings does nothing without a reboot, as you likely know.)

Also, you might want to temporarily disable your network/internet connection to make sure that your network controller is not polling every few seconds and interfering with the game--but I doubt this is the case because you claim to have this problem only when running this game.

What you describe, though, really does sound exactly what happens in my system when I enable Ubersampling. If none of the above is of any use to you, then my last suggestion is for you to first of all set all of your system clocks back to default and reinstall the game (keeping your saves, of course, so you won't lose any forward progress.) Sometimes when software is installed via an overclocked cpu it may *seem* to properly install, but there were actually errors in the installation which crop up later when you try and run the software. I cannot emphasize this enough. People should realize that their cpus are not *validated* by either AMD or Intel to run 100% consistently at overclocked speeds. The manufacturer validates them *only* at their advertised MHz frequencies. Any higher than that, and all sorts of weird things can happen that don't seem to make sense. I know because it's happened to me--these days I do very little overclocking, if any.

Good luck!
 
Thank you for your response WaltC.

I will try to answer on most of your ideas.

About Ubersampling: yes this causes even more frameskipping, but as i have stated, i get frameskipping on absolute minimum settings (thats all off low etc).

As for .ini files, as i have mentioned, i have done full reinstall of the game, deleting the witcher 2 folder compleatly before reinstalling. Also simply deleating the files will reset them to default values (game will copy them from install folder).

My windows install is really clean, i dont have ANY programs running with the PC other than mouse driver (razer), amd catalyst (graphics) and my soundcard driver. I dont have any messaging programs or steam (i have the retail nordic version, doesnt need steam or anything running). In MSConfig there are NO programs other than the three (3) drivers i said (their control panels).

I have played this game without any overclocking done at all (all stock settings) and the frameskipping is exactly the same. It is really horrible and there is LOADS of it. Geralt doesnt run naturally at any point when i play this game. And i play lots of other demanding games (crysis2, bad company2, Battlefield 3 alpha) none of wich has this amount of frameskipping.

I think i have to make a video of this problem to show you guys how annoying it is to play this otherwise fantastic game on my PC.
 
The problem is that the game simply runs better on some pc configurations, and on other types the game doesn't run that better. You should tell CDP about this issue, it could affect on the future more persons, including me, or other guys that their game run smooth.
 
Hi,I have the same problem too. Let me state my system and thoughts.
INTEL core2 quad 9300 2.5GHz
ATI HD radeon 4870 900MB*2
ddr3 800MHZ 4GB*1
Vista Ultimate 32bit

OK.I have this frame skipping problem after 1.35 hotfix. NEVER happened before 1.35(I play through 4 times before1.35)
Just as he said, every like 3 min there is a frame skipping period like 15 sec as FPS drops to 1.
It does NOT matter my setting is low or medium or high, it happens about every 3 min.
I run Ctrl+Alt+Del and monitor my CPU,GPU,memory,hard disk activity with resource monitor.
I noticed that when Frame skipping happens, the hard disk activity go weird.
So I decided to clear up more space(before 35G free out of 300G.after 100G free)and run a hard disk defragmentation.
It helps.
But the frame skipping thing still might happen if somehow I am unlucky. Sometimes I play 30min and no frame skipping.
I suspect that it is due to 1.35 patch somehow demands more hard disk resources. But not sure.
P.S. I play other games at the same time and no frame skipping e.x. Oblivion with ultra setting
 
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