I recently realized that my games and even my modeling programs are experiencing video stuttering problems (repeatedly runs for about 5-8 seconds then pauses for a second) I have been searching for a solution to this problem for a while now and have tried the following:

- adjusting video settings and resolutions in the games including Vsync
- tried various nvidia card drivers including the latest one
- exiting all non-essential programs in the background (even cleaned up my startup from msconfig)
- downloaded latest directX
- dusted my pc with the air-dusting thingy
- tried enabling/disabling triple buffering as per a suggestion of some post somewhere
- did a registry, spyware and virus scan/cleanup as well as defragged my HD
- a bunch of other smaller random fixes i can't remember right now

NONE of these made any difference. So far I've only tried Bioshock and Dark Messiah but i'm pretty sure its the same problem. My Zbrush program experiences similar problems when rendering my models real time. I'm not exactly sure when this problem started but it was a few days before i got Bioshock that i noticed this problem in Zbrush. a few weeks before that i had Tomb Raider Anniversary running fine on max settings. Oh and i also tried the beta driver for Bioshock with no results. On a side note, I ran Bioshock windowed alongside the task manager and i'm not 100% sure but it pauses whenever theres a spike in the cpu usage under performance (it spikes all the time, even as i'm typing right now. Useful? Perhaps just normal. I wouldn't know.)

Hopefully i don't have to replace my video card (dont have a lot of cash) because I've had burnt out video cards before and they displayed different problems that what i'm experiencing now.

I don't know whether hard drive space affects this but i have 300 GB of which 130 is free right now. Any help would be appreciated.

Start by telling us what video card you have....

Oh sorry i thought i had. Its a Geforce 7800 GT.

Thank you for responding jam.

I've actually installed two other games (Medieval 2 total war and Unreal 2k4) to see if the problem persists and discovered something interesting. Instead of stuttering/pausing every 5 seconds the program "slides" for both games. I don't know exactly how to explan it but if i take my fingers off the keyboard at exactly the right time my character/camera on screen continues moving as if i hadn't (with no lag whatsoever). Running unreal 2k7 windowed showed me that again it happens when my cpu usage spikes in task manager (which happens every 5 seconds).

This leads me to believe that is not a graphics card problem but processor. I could be wrong. I have already tried setting single cpu affinities as well as downloading a hotfix from microsoft having to do with dual core processors and service pack 2. nothing works for me. PLEASE HELP ME.

If someone finds a solution to this problem, they shall forever be heralded as the true computer genius of all time.

BIOSHOCK needs nvidia's 163.44 enhanced video drivers.

Check to see if your motherboard manufacturer has an updated BIOS and updated chipset drivers for your board.

You may also have power supply issues but you really need to list your entire system specs B4 we can give sound advice.

Have the lambs stopped crying Clarice?

Ok, the only thing worse than spending 2 days trying to fix a computer problem is finding out that it has just fixed itself and i have wasted a small portion of my life. heh. that's right. i woke up today and tried to play a game and it works fine. all of them. I'm only worried that it may return in the future. Heres my system specs in case you can think of anything that may have caused this:

- Intel Viiv dual core 3.00 GHz
- 2GB RAM
- Geforce 7800GT video card
- 300 GB HD with 150 free left

oh and i have already tried the bioshock driver as well as updating bios driver (when i still had the problem of coarse)

I'm back... sigh. Just as i thought, the problem is back. Same pattern. i have no idea what to do.

I'm with those specs:
AMD Opteron 170 (dual core)
2GB Ram DDR2 OCZ
DFI Ultra D Lanparty Mobo
EVGA 7800 GT (with latest beta drivers)
Windows XP 64bit sp1

I'm experiencing stuttering issues in bioshock. Even at 800x600 with low quality settings.. I'm pretty much clueless. Tried almost everything..