Windows 7: FPS Spiking and Low FPS While Playing Online Games

I play alot of MMO's and I notice that during my play sessions I get low FPS in populated areas and sometimes even when in not so populated areas. I also get FPS spikes that dip into the teens and sometimes even single digits for about 1-2 secs. It's very annoying because my PC specs aren't terrible.
I never notice low FPS or these FPS spikes while playing single player offline games so I am convinced that it has something to do with my internet connection. Streaming movies or shows from NetFlicks/hulu for example works fine. Is my 2Mbps upload speed just to slow for online gaming (particularly MMO's)?
I use a Linksys e2500 router at the moment and I'm hoping that there is a router out there that is built with gaming in mind that would eliminate these issue that I'm having.
My internet connection isn't super slow so this is a frustrating issue to say the least.
Anyone who may be able to shed some light on my problem will be forever appreciated.
Please keep in mind that when I play any game (including online) that I always turn the graphical settings all the way up and I run at a 1920 x 1080 resolution.




CASE: NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT Red Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo Socket AM3
CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS11X Extreme V-Shaped Dual Heatpipe Design w/120mm Long Life Bearing
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 2048 MB GDDR5 x2
PSU: Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-900 900W
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD
MEMORY: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 186
OPTICAL DRIVE: SONY Black Blu-ray Burner 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 8X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM
SSD: Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA
HDD 1: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 2TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
HDD 2: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
HDD 3: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
WIRELESS ADAPTER: ASUS PCE-N13 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n
FANS: 140MM (x1), 120MM (x3), 200MM (x2)
KEYBOARD: Logitech G13 & Steelseries Merc Stealth
MOUSE: Logitech G700 & Steelseries WoW MMO Gaming Mouse
HEADSET: Logitech G930
DISPLAY: HANNSpree 42" Class LCD 1080p 120Hz HDTV

Those issues you mention are strongly related to your Internet/Network Connectivity,

Please try the following steps.

Have you tried optimizing your network stack for lower latency gaming using this
Tcp/ip batch file from speed guides?

SG TCP/IP Batch File


SG_Vista_TcpIp_patch.zip


Description:-

The SG Vista/7 TCP/IP patch us a quick way to optimize Vista TCP/IP settings for broadband internet connections.

It sets both netsh auto tunning levels and modifies the Windows Registry as recommended by our Vista Tweaks article.

It is recommended to run the patch when logged in with administrative priviledges.

The patch allows for reverting all settings to their respective Windows default values as well. Note you may have to right-click the link above and choose "Save Target As..." to save to your computer.

To apply, save to your desktop and run as administrator (right-click -> run as administrator). Type Y when prompted to optimize parameters.

This batch file works for Windows 7 perfectly as well.


Leatrix Latency Fix


Next, try this Leatrix Latency Fix that has been successfully used to lower latency in MMOs like WoW and Everquest:-


Leatrix_Latency_Fix_3.00 (use to reduce lag).zip


Network Throttling Fix


Also, just to be sure, try this registry fix to prevent Windows from fudging up your network utilization if you're running movies/music in the background:-

http://www.daveherbert.info/network-...g-in-windows-7

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussi...7/1833290.aspx
(explains the phenomenon very well, this still exists in Windows 7 as a problem)


boost network game priority.zip


Unzip and run the reg file. Double click and press Yes to accept changes.

Hope that helps!

Should I do this for every PC that's on my network?
I tried it on my main gaming PC and 1080p video seems to buffer a bit faster.
As far as gaming, its still FPS spiking down into at least the low 20's. There does seem to be slight improvement though. So far I haven't noticed any single digit FPS spikes. Let me test for few days though.
Thanks for all the info you provided.

Pretty much... i've done it on my own laptop and PC... never failed to improve my network performance...

I just picked up another GeForce GTX 550 Ti and now I am FPS spiking even on offline single player games now. This is really frustrating. I know that some single player offline games do in fact stay connected to internet while you play them. For example, I have Batman Arkum City and that game stays connected to Windows Live and the FPS spikes are terrible. They happen about every 30-45 seconds which makes the game not very fun to play. I also have Alice Madness Returns and it happens in that game as well, just not as often as Batman does so.
Maybe I need to forward some ports? Or maye it's my CPU? I purchased another GeForce GTX 550 Ti so that I could SLI and I was hoping that my gameplay experience would at least improve but thats not the case. I hope that the SLI hasn't anything to do with it.

Will this work on Windows 8 as well?

Do you check your ping in Online games ?

If your ping is fine it may not be the Internet sometimes other players with high ping could be the issue also

If your video card has wobbly drivers you will get Micro stutter that is lag performance because the drivers suck

Before you try to recure the Internet connection try newer drivers I keep hearing on here Nvidia has a new beta driver that fixes things like that so check out your options

Most of the time i wouldn't do a registry fix to speed up a connection rule out all potential issues first

I downloaded the new Nvidia driver yesterday and I'm running 2 GTX 550ti's in SLI and not only am I still receiving FPS spiking but also when I have SLI activated I get massive flickering. This is VERY frustrating.
I'm not sure how to check my ping.

on steam if you play certain games you hit the TAB key in game and it gives you ping you can also read on your online games how to check it too

also some games don't like 2 card set ups

Yes but those games that I mentioned really do take advantage of PhysX and should (at least in my opinion) benefit from SLI.
I have only one game thus far that doesn't produce extreme flickering when SLI is activated and that's Tera Online. Every other game does and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Thank you for the tip on determining the games ping.