Stuttering, Small freezes and framerate Issues

[Jazz]

OK so patch3 made some improvement, but patch4 with the main_settings does not and if you modify it to have StreamBufferSize to 32768 as someone did does not do any good either?

You made sure to start a new game? Using continue or loading a game does not work.

Do the rest also have a Creative X-Fi sound card or similar like Jazz? Have you tried using the integrated sound and if that makes a difference?

Deleted my old profile and created a new one, so there was no other option than starting a new game... Changing 'Streambuffersize' had no effect.

About the onboard soundcard: tested it. No joy. Performance didn't suffer, but didn't benefit from it either.

I would also like to stress that there is a difference between "stutters/freezes" and loss of "FPS". Stutters (slight pauses) don't seem to have an impact on the FPS-counter. The stutters are probably related to the hard drive, and loss in FPS to the GPU. The combination of both kills the game and makes playing it unbearable. The stutters can be reduced by using the other executables, but loss in frames can't.

Detail: when testing performance by using the onboard soundcard I - as I have said - didn't notice any decrease or increase in FPS. When I fiddled with the settings in game (switching 'em to 'high' and turning SSAO all the way up instead of 'medium') without restarting the game, suddenly the FPS went up back to 60 in the large, open room! This lasted, however, for only a very short period. FPS plummeted to 40-30 again. It seems completely random at times, but it always happens in larger areas, like the entry hall, dining room and small courtyard.

I'm feeling quite sorry for Frictional. As an IT specialist I know stuff like this can be pretty frustrating. Good luck figuring things out!