Annoying Stuttering..

[Trackr]

So, on my GTX 280 SLi rig, I am having this strange issue..

Games don't lag, but they stutter. Like in Unigine Heaven.. I get 40 FPS, but every second or so, there will be a small stutter, so it's never smooth.

Comparatively, my single GTX 480 only gets 25 FPS @ 2560x1600, but it's entirely smooth.

This is what I know:

The GPUs are stable. I've run FurMark for 30+ minutes and have underclocked them.
The CPU (Q8400) is stable. It happens when at stock as well.
The RAM is likewise.
The Motherboard seems to be fine, by whatever means I have of checking. POST toggle runs fast, Windows installs fast (if not, it's usually a sign of a motherboard defect).

Now, the HDD has had issues in the past. It was part of a RAID 0 array that failed, and the other drive died. It somehow affected it, for some reason. It sometimes clicks and makes a high-pitched sound.
However, it passes every single HDD test I've run, and there is literally no other issue with the computer.

So, does anyone have an idea here?

 

[Phuey]

Certain games don't run very well with dual graphics card setups.

Have you tried updating the drivers? Try running just one 280 GTX and see if you get the same stuttering effect, if you don't then its your dual graphics card setup.

 

[Trackr]

Certain games don't run very well with dual graphics card setups.

Have you tried updating the drivers? Try running just one 280 GTX and see if you get the same stuttering effect, if you don't then its your dual graphics card setup.

But I can run it just fine with my GTX 480 SLi setup..

It's also in EVERY game that I've run so far..

 

[toast0]

I have no SLI experience, but this sounds like the VSync stuttering they were talking about in april?

 

[Trackr]

I have no SLI experience, but this sounds like the VSync stuttering they were talking about in april?

It sort of depends on the game.

In Heaven, it seems like skipping, where as in The Sims 3, it seems like tearing or serious lagging (which it isn't).

I'm going to change the HDD to see if that fixes it.

Also, I'm running this on a P45 board, so I'm using HyperSLi and whenever I try to disable SLi in the nVidia control panel, the screen goes to black, then I see the cursor and it freezes.