I'm using ioquake3 with the latest patch. I'm wanting to review some maps, but unfortunately FPS stuttering prevents me from doing so on certain maps. I know it's not my hardware, as I have some very up-to-date system specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K CPU @3.30 GHz 3.60 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• GFX Card: AMD Radeon HD 6670
• Intel Solid State Drive
• ThermalTake Liquid Cooler

On the latest map I've reviewed, jasdm4 (Lo Tek) the map ran mostly fine, but I stuttered in a few spots despite the map being very low-detail. The FPS stays above 70, but it changes so much with the "spikes" that it feels laggy regardless. This mainly happens in FFA or any game with multiple players involved.
I plan on reviewing sst13's Dark Void Extended, but that map is nigh unplayable due to FPS drops. While mostly stable, it gets to around 10 FPS in some places. And if I try to pause and enter a few console commands, I even get "Connection Interrupted" messages even though I'm just playing against bots. And they persist even if I try to get back in after quitting to the menu, I have to exit the entire game before being able to play again.

I know that due to it being over a decade old, it's not going to be expected to run perfectly even if you have top-of-the-line hardware due to internal software limits, but I'm sure that having such huge FPS drops is a strange issue that has some sort of solution. After all, other people can play intensive maps on the same or even lower specs than mine, yet run perfectly fine.

Thanks in advance.
Edited 2.32 hours after the original posting.

I'm assuming you are running a version of Windows of some kind. Sounds like CPU lock-up or out of memory.

Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and have a look at what is chocking your CPU, if anything at all.

If your CPU has no run-away processes, what is your "com_hunkMegs" set to? Is it too high? Personally, it should not be more than 128. Setting it too high will cause a memory issue.

If you still have the issue, it could be a damaged shader in a PK3. Remove a few PK3 files at a time, start up ioquake3 and repeat until the issue goes (hopefully) :]

PS. Thanks for the bug report! The error has been fixed. It was related to a code update. Do you mind editing your post to remove the file path details please.

I changed my com_hunkmegs to 64. It still gets huge lag spikes though, unfortunately. I don't know if it's just the map itself though, as Dark Void is covered by a gigantic black fog which probably puts a lot of stress on rendering objects. If it's not, though, then it may be my system memory. The only thing I have open when I play the game is the folder that I use to access the game. According to the performance information, I have 2.13 GB of memory, 53% of it physical memory.

And you're welcome. :) (Regarding the bug reported, and edited as stated)

I just tested map-13void_xt with 7 bots and had no problems at all. I even have some resource heavy applications running in the background.

I had a constant FPS of 125 (running "com_maxfps 125") and no lag spikes. The issue appears to be at your end.

Did you try removing extra PK3 files? Strip your baseq3 folder back to basics (just pak*.pk3) and map-13void_xt.pk3 and see what happens. I find making a "tmp" folder and placing everything else into it is the quickest. It is also very quick to restore if that is not the problem.

System memory can die and can be tricky to debug. Have a look at www.memtest.org/ if you think system memory may be the issue.

Try r_primitives 2

How's the performance in QL?

Have you got r_flares disabled and v-sync off? Updated your gfx card drivers to the latest? Made sure you don't have anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and v-sync forced on in your gfx card settings?

Did you work out what the problem was or do you still have the issue?

Well, for some reason I can't seem to locate my graphic's card settings menu. I would think it would be in the control panel, but it doesn't hover around in there. I tried going to Device Manager, display settings, etc. but for some reason I can't find the settings, and I know I have the drivers installed. (Again, using an AMD Radeon HD 6670) Usually the ATI GFX cards have their own little control panel to tweak the settings, but I don't seem to have one in immediate sight, which is very strange. As for inside Quake 3, I checked r_displayrefresh, r_swapintervals and they're both set to 0 (they're related to vsync, but Q3 doesn't seem to have the actual cmd) and r_flares is also set to 0. Performance on QL seems to be fine, even on the more CPU-intensive maps like Overlord and Distant Screams.
Edited 22 seconds after the original posting.

Normally you should be able to access the Catalyst Control Center (or rather, AMD VISION Engine Control Center as it's called now) just by right clicking your desktop.

I significantly reduced the anti-aliasing and other graphical settings in the Catalyst, though I still run into issues with the FPS. My control center doesn't seem to have anything regarding vsync, despite Google searches on it. If it helps, my monitor refresh rate is set to 60 Hz on the control center.

So you did check for driver updates? I'm out of ideas... maybe try ask over at q3w or ioquake3's forums? www.ioquake.org/forums/