Assasin's creed 2 struttering

[Moe Zart]

Frame times:

It's around the crowds that this stuttering generally happens, and it happens once every 2~3 seconds.

Tried all the fixes I found on other places to no avail:
Disable 2 CPU cores: check
Disable Uplay sync: check
Downgrade to 280.26 drivers: check

Anyone heard or came across another fix by any chance?

 

[cbrunny]

The AC games are notorious for running like garbage on PC. Even if you have a very powerful computer, it will still run terribly. Not just AC2, but AC3 and 4. 3 is the worst, 4 got better (the issue you're having - not the game itself).

The fix? Play it on console.

 

[Moe Zart]

The AC games are notorious for running like garbage on PC. Even if you have a very powerful computer, it will still run terribly. Not just AC2, but AC3 and 4. 3 is the worst, 4 got better (the issue you're having - not the game itself).

The fix? Play it on console.

"PC master race" pff

I am happy to be untermenschen from now on.

Christ the constant stutter completely murders any kind of immersion.

 

[Dankk]

Yup. Assassin's Creed - like most Ubisoft games - runs like garbage on PC. The whole series.

Every time I upgrade my computer (or get an entirely new one), I fire up Assassin's Creed 1 to see if it will finally run at a smooth, consistent 60fps. It never does. And that game is from... 2008?

Ubisoft games will always have some hanky-janky performance issues that are inherent to the game engine and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it, other than play with your graphics settings and hope for the best.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I don't know, AC3 ran fine on my PC when I played it at release. I did not try AC4 but I can't imagine it being any different. I'm going to say it's probably just that particular game.

 

[futurefields]

AC2 and AC:Brotherhood both ran butter smooth 60fps for me. Best games in the series as well.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

AC4 runs splendidly on the PC. But the early ports (AC1 and 2 specifically) were terribly optimized and have never really been fixed, so I don't know that you'll have much luck getting AC2 to run smoothly. Which is a shame, as it's still the best game in the series.

 

[mirageracerx]

i've never run into any issues on any of the AC series games, except for 4. occasionally it would stutter. turn down resolution, back to gaming. if you are the type that needs the best of the best and ALWAYS running at 1080p you are going to have a tough time.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

i've never run into any issues on any of the AC series games, except for 4. occasionally it would stutter. turn down resolution, back to gaming. if you are the type that needs the best of the best and ALWAYS running at 1080p you are going to have a tough time.

If you're the type that needs the best of the best and ALWAYS running at 1080P on a 4 year old game, you're a PC gamer and you're perfectly right to complain about poor optimization. We don't dump several thousand dollars into our PCs to run things at PS3 levels.

 

[mirageracerx]

i said you'd have a tough time. didnt say it was without merit. but insinuating you arent a pc gamer unless you game at 1080p is a bit ridic. or with superior than current console graphics. consoles are optimized to run the games they run. taking a PC to run the same games until this latest generation used different instruction sets. so while i can understand the problems from a programmer's perspective, i agree that it is unacceptable to make a port of a game with less quality and speed requiring faster hardware for the same performance.

tldr; pc gaming aint easy brah, and it aint right.

 

[Moe Zart]

i said you'd have a tough time. didnt say it was without merit. but insinuating you arent a pc gamer unless you game at 1080p is a bit ridic. or with superior than current console graphics. consoles are optimized to run the games they run. taking a PC to run the same games until this latest generation used different instruction sets. so while i can understand the problems from a programmer's perspective, i agree that it is unacceptable to make a port of a game with less quality and speed requiring faster hardware for the same performance.

tldr; pc gaming aint easy brah, and it aint right.

The point is you can have the most powerful GPUs on Earth in 4-way Crossfire/SLI and a liquid nitrogen cooled i7 CPU overclocked to 8Ghz and you still will never get the framerate fluidity/consistency of a console.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The point is you can have the most powerful GPUs on Earth in 4-way Crossfire/SLI and a liquid nitrogen cooled i7 CPU overclocked to 8Ghz and you still will never get the framerate fluidity/consistency of a console.

You can, and actually get better consistency. Why? Because you have options to adjust. You can turn shadows down, mess with all the AA options, change resolutions (if you run 1440p you can drop to 1080p) etc

That aside, a good developer will be able to optimize their engine so that the experience is good. It is a combination of your settings and the developer's optimization.

 

[Moe Zart]

You can, and actually get better consistency. Why? Because you have options to adjust. You can turn shadows down, mess with all the AA options, change resolutions (if you run 1440p you can drop to 1080p) etc

That aside, a good developer will be able to optimize their engine so that the experience is good. It is a combination of your settings and the developer's optimization.

Maybe there was some misunderstanding, this isn't about raw framerate, it's about intermittent stuttering which is worse than low framerate. PCs get it, consoles don't.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Maybe there was some misunderstanding, this isn't about raw framerate, it's about intermittent stuttering which is worse than low framerate. PCs get it, consoles don't.

Console games can have framerate judder as well. It is heavily documented on sites like digital foundry.

 

[Moe Zart]

Console games can have framerate judder as well. It is heavily documented on sites like digital foundry.

No, it's very rare. Whether it's judder or intermittent stutter, it's very very rare on a console.

The only case I can think of is Bethesda Game Studios on the PS3 because of the split memory, but that's about it.

Add to that the most important fact: If there is judder (i.e. microstutter not low framerate) or intermittent stutter on a console game, then you can bet your ass there will be judder or intermittent stutter on the PC version 10 times amplified over the console version.

 

[futurefields]

The point is you can have the most powerful GPUs on Earth in 4-way Crossfire/SLI and a liquid nitrogen cooled i7 CPU overclocked to 8Ghz and you still will never get the framerate fluidity/consistency of a console.

Lol what? I have a lot of games on console and pc and they all run much better on PC. In fact the other day I was comparing Borderlands on Xbox 360 vs on my PC. It's 720p with low quality textures and shadows, no ambient occlusion at 30fps. On my pc it's 1080p, all max settings, ambient occlusion, injected anti-aliasing, and it never ever budges from 60fps.

 

[BrightCandle]

Based on the frame rate graph you are running vsync on. That means unless you always maintain 60 fps you are going to have issues of stuttering. You have a few options.
1) Turn off vsync, you will trade the some of the stuttering for tearing (its a different sort of stuttering).
2) Turn down some of the graphical options so that the frames more consistently get delivered at 60 fps.

 

[cmdrdredd]

No, it's very rare. Whether it's judder or intermittent stutter, it's very very rare on a console.

The only case I can think of is Bethesda Game Studios on the PS3 because of the split memory, but that's about it.

Add to that the most important fact: If there is judder (i.e. microstutter not low framerate) or intermittent stutter on a console game, then you can bet your ass there will be judder or intermittent stutter on the PC version 10 times amplified over the console version.

It isn't that rare at all...look at their site and you will see many games that have this. Whether you notice or not, or even care is different

 

[Moe Zart]

Based on the frame rate graph you are running vsync on. That means unless you always maintain 60 fps you are going to have issues of stuttering. You have a few options.
1) Turn off vsync, you will trade the some of the stuttering for tearing (its a different sort of stuttering).
2) Turn down some of the graphical options so that the frames more consistently get delivered at 60 fps.

It stutters without v-sync too and with lowest settings as well.
Look at the graph again, these are intermittent stutters/freezes not low framerate.

I think it's related to the storage drive, every time there's a stutter it coincides with about 50MB of data being read from the drive. And using an SSD makes no difference. I swear the game reads more than 50MB every time you turn the mouse or run 2 meters. There's something broken in the way it streams data from the drive.

 

[futurefields]

how can it be a game problem if it runs fine for others?

 

[Puppies04]

how can it be a game problem if it runs fine for others?

Some people don't notice it or don't care about it.

 

[futurefields]

Some people don't notice it or don't care about it.

I am anal about any kind of microstutter or framerate hitching. AC2 runs butter smooth 60fps for me.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[cbrunny]

Not entirely related but I think it is worth a mention. I have CF 7970s with a FX8350, and I ran AC4 today amazingly well on 1080p. First time in months, due to the shoddy performance, I thought i'd give it a try again. I didn't check framrate, but I turned up everything to max except the HHAO or whatever the Nvidia proprietary is called, and had a nice smooth experience. Impressed with the AMD driver tweaks on that game in particular because it ran like shit last time i tried it.