Odd blips on the PC version of SFIV

I originally posted this on the Capcom-Unity boards. Check it out if you want the full story to this.

Basically, my game will stutter randomly. Whether I’m getting crossed up, messing with my SFIV profile, or waiting at the main menu, the game will suddenly pause for an entire second. Every match I play is guaranteed at least three points where the game comes to a stand-still.

No matter my graphical settings, everything low, everything maxed, full screen or not, v-sync on or off, the stutter remains. I’ve tried reinstalling the game as well as trying out different video drivers (Catalysts 6.5, 6.6, and 6.7). Nothing seems to have an effect. Street Fighter IV is the only game that has a problem on this computer; Ghostbusters, Team Fortress 2, everything else runs perfectly.

So, yeah. Any help?

Here are my computer’s specifications:
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500
Radeon HD 4650
2048MB RAM

Bump.
Please, help me!

the only thing i can think of at the moment is to run game booster or something similar - it will close a lot of background programs and processes that are likely affecting your performance, by clearing RAM and increasing overall CPU performance. sometimes there isn’t much of a difference, but i’d recommend at least trying it out and reporting the results.

here’s the download/info link - http://majorgeeks.com/Game_Booster_d5952.html

Windows 7 drivers still aren’t fully compatible yet since it hasn’t even come out yet. I would venture to say that if you were running on vista or xp, you probably wouldn’t be having that problem.

i definitely agree with the kojiro, but from what i hear windows 7 driver compatibility with this game is already identical to vista. i wouldn’t know myself, as i haven’t tried windows 7, but i wouldn’t run games on it yet, much less SFIV.

Actually, Windows 7 is operating beautifully. Though it’s just a Release Candidate, it feels complete and awesome. My games run as well as they would with XP, only everything starts up faster. Even if something’s not compatible with Vista, you can use the built-in XP Mode to emulate it (which sounds like a big performance hitter, but not at all).

Back on the main topic, though, I think I may have found the problem: alt-tabbing. Hahaha. I need to test it some more, but it seems like the more I alt-tab the worse things get with the game.

Update. This issue persists. Any help?

Unfortunately I have no idea what your problem is, but I can tell you that I’m running Windows 7 RC1 32bit on my 13" macbook pro and I’ve never seen this issue. So at least you can rule out the operating system.

I’ve got to say this does sound like some background process is screwing things up.

Im running 64bit Windows 7 and no problem at all. You should try setting sfIV.exe to higher priority under task manager

I would guess it’s a background process or background processes causing the stutter. Virus scan, some time of optimization or something that polls your network excessively.