Vortex III 17.3" w/ 680M Game Issues

[dangro474]

Hi guys and girls,

I received my Vortex III 17.3" with the following specs on Friday, and have been testing several game sextensively since them:

Screen: AUO159D (72% matte)
CPU: i7 3720QM
GPU: Geforce 680M GTX 4GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
HDD: 750GB 7.2k rpm primary, 1TB 5.4k RPM storage
Optical: Blu-Ray R/W

After spending a good 20 hours installing and testing various games, I have come across several issues which I have not experienced on my Vortex II systems or any desktops since I began playing these games... (red text = resolution to problem)

Crysis, Crysis Warhead and Crysis 2:
DX10 and 11 FPS capped at 40 with AUO159D (hard capped). Capped at 60 with external screen. Forcing dx9 with -dx9 command in shortcut allows 60 fps cap on AUO159D.

Dead Island:
Stuttering with and without vsync, reported as issue with game however worked perfectly on other systems..

Deus Ex: HR:
Insane stuttering, FPS fluctuates between 59 and 62, cause unknown (tested external screen same issue). Stutters a little with vsync disabled but not too bad.

F.E.A.R. 1:
Stuttering, FPS fluctuates between 60 and 62, cause unknown (tested external screen same issue). Adaptive Vsync (half refresh rate) does not work - vsync is disabled. Runs fine with vsync disabled.

F.E.A.R. 2 (Steam):
Intermittent stutteirng, FPS fluctuates between 59 and 62, cause unknown (tested external screen same issue). Fine with vsync disabled.

GRID (Steam):
Cannot select 1920x1080 resolution. Possibly screen issue, others have reported.

Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Portal:
Enabling multi-core causes stuttering. Most likely engine issue. Disabling muli-core leaves the game working perfectly.

Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2:
Enabling vsync with Triple Buffer via the game results in stuttering. Double buffer is fine, Enabling triple in nv control panel works.

Slender v0.9:
Stutters at solid 60 fps, vsync enabled by default on this game.

The Witcher 2:
Insane stutter, with and without vsync.

Silent Hill 5: Homecoming:
Heavy stutter even with 30 fps cap

Trine 2:
Most likely driver related. Game still works.

---------------------------
Unhandled exception
---------------------------
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Address: 0x674BB28B in nvd3dum.dll:674BB000
Related modules: ntdll.dll nvd3dum.dll nvumdshim.dll d3d9.dll kernel32.dll
Minidump:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Trine 2\log\trine2_32bit.exe_f0b33515.dmp
Press CTRL+C to copy this message
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

... on the plus side, the following games work without any issues:

Alan Wake, Battlefield 3, Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Bullletstorm, Call of Duty 4-8, Condemned, Dead Space, Dead Space 2, Dialo 3, Doom 3, Duke Nukem Forever, Fallout 3, Metro 2033, Quake 2-4, RAGE, Resient Evil 5, STALKER SHOC CS COP, Silent Hill 2-4, Starcraft 2, Street Fighter 4, The Darkness 2, Skyrim, Transformers WFC, Warhammer Space Marine

Heaven Benchmark 3.0 with default settings 1080p scores 1730, 68.7 FPS average.
3dMark2011 scores with Performance 720p benchmarks only:
P6124 3DMarks
Graphics Score 6027
Physics Score 8269
Combined Score 4830


A few things I have noticed...:

• My vortex II with the same AUO159B screen exhibits NONE of the above issues. Everything works perfectly.
• Games exhibiting stutter issues do so with an external monitor as well.
• Games exhibiting FPS fluctuations between 59 and 62 rapidly and constantly (games run well over 100 fps without vsync) do so with an external monitor as well.
• For some reason the AUO159D is shown as operable at both 40 and 60 hz on the vortex III, but only 60 on the Vortex II. Could be the cause of the FPS cap in DX10/11 with Crysis games?

Steps I have already taken:

• Played with ingame settings, made no difference.
• Tested external monitor, only eliviated the 40 FPS cap in crysis games, the games stated as stuttering still stutter.
• Reinstalled all laptop drivers from the installation CD as half of them weren't installed anyway.
• Confirmed that no 3D Vision drivers were installed.
• Set preferred video controller to Nvidia in the nvidia control panel global settings. Tested with this on and off.
• Edited profiles for all games experiencing issues selecting the Nvidia GPU as the default device. Tested with this on and off.
• Set system power mode to max performance.
• Uninstalled Generic PnP monitor and allowed it to reinstall for the AUO159D (default drivers from 2006).
• Set Nvidia power optimisation to prefer max performance globally.
• Uninstalled the supplied Nvidia 302.71 drivers, cleaned with driver sweeper, installed 302.77 from Clevo site. No difference.
• Tested all games experiencing stutter vsync issues with vsync enabled by the application, force enabled by Nvidia control panel (with and without triple buffering), and force enabled with D3DOverrider.
• Searched for these issues extensively..

Things to note:

• Overall system stability is perfect. No crashes, lock ups, bluescreens, etc etc.
• No games have crashed.
• Fraps was used to track FPS rates.
• No games have experienced issues enabling the Nvidia GPU and loading with the HD4000 instead.

My biggest concern is the stutter experienced in older games which the system sould have NO problem running, namely FEAR 1 and Silent Hill 5. The Witcher 2 and DX@HR are virtually unplayable with the amount of stutter experienced.None of the suttering I am experiencing is down to a performance issue, however I am at a loss to what may be causing it. These issues are present with the games running at minimum settings etc.

I understand that stuttering with vsync is a known issue with the Geforce 600 series (although I ave never experiened any issues with my desktop 680 including those experienced with this laptop) and that they are planning to resolve these issues with driver version 304.42 (currently in beta stage for desktop GPUs), however games such as Dead Island, The Witcher 2 and DX:HR stutter with vsync disabled. It would be very easy to chock this down to sh*tty release drivers, however as I had planned to pass my Vortex II w/ 580M to my cousin which experiences none of these issues, although games such as Metro 2033 and Battlefield 3 run considerably faster on this Vortex III, technically the Vortex II is more useful as none of these games experience these issues... I am now left considering returning the machine unless I can resolve these issues or at least be reassured that others are experiencing them and that they will be solved with newer drivers.

• Could anyone please confirm whether you experience similar issues with the same games / other games?
• Is anyone able to suggest a resolution to the issue with the AUO 159D refresh rates? i.e. remove 40hz from the list to try resolve the problem with Cryengine games in DX10/11?
• If anyone owns a 680M / 660M / desktop 670/680 and has experienced these issues could you please confirm to put my mind at ease?

Overall this system is fantastic; an improvement to the Vortex II, however at the moment it is a pretty slightly faster paperweight compared to my Vortex II due to these issues If they had occured in games like Duke Nukem Forever I wouldn't have cared less.

Thank you very much for your help, I would like to avoid returning this system if possible

- Dan

[keynes]

If anyone owns desktop 670/680 and has experienced these issues could you please confirm to put my mind at ease?

With Crysis 2, Dead Island and Left4Dead 2 I have never experienced stuttering with or without vsync with a GTX 680 with drivers 301.42 and the latest beta drivers. Hope you get it sorted.

[dangro474]

Likewise, though the forums are a buzz with people complaining about it with the 670 and 680 :/

would really love to at least confirm the cause of these problems

[dangro474]

I have found that temperature monitoring software also does not work correctly :/

RealTemp and GPU-Z correctly read the GPU temperature, but cause a stutter in touchpad movement (mouse movement is fine) every 3 seconds or so. hwinfo32 cannot detect the 680M GTX GPU.

Also, Adaptive vsync simply activates normal vsync (does not diable on fly below 60 fps) and Adaptive Vsync (half refresh rate) does not work at ALL, it deactivates vsync completely.

[dangro474]

Anyone else out there with a 680M that can confirm whether or not they are experiencing any issues with the games mentioned above?

[dangro474]

Quick update; I have used a friends W110ER (Inferno 11.6") and can confirm that the stuttering issues are present.

As the systems are both using kepler 600M series GPUs it seems more than likely that it is an issue related to poor drivers, which should be corrected over time..