Game's acting up / Not running properly

We’re talking about Super Mario Galaxy here. It ran perfectly fine back when I was using Windows 8, and even after a clean install of Windows 10, the same nightmare persists—it’s practically unplayable. For about 80% of the time, the frame rate just tanks; it feels like I'm stuck in slow motion. You jump, and everything drags, then it snaps back to a normal speed for a second before crawling again. It’s this constant, frustrating stuttering.

I honestly can't wrap my head around what's going wrong—everything worked flawlessly on Windows 8. My specs aren't exactly cutting-edge, but they should be enough: an i3 processor, an Nvidia card, and 6 GB of RAM. I even tried messing with the Task Manager to set the application priority to "High," but that didn't do a damn thing. 🙄

Thomas Sanchez30 said:It’s about Super Mario Galaxy. It worked totally fine back on Windows 8, and I even did a clean install of Windows 10, so it should be running okay, but man, it is basically unplayable right now. Like, 80% of the time the FPS just tanks—it feels like everything is moving in slow motion. I'll jump and it's just like, slow mo, constant stuttering, then maybe it hits a normal speed for a second before dragging again, and it just keeps looping like that.

I honestly don't get what's going on because everything was smooth sailing on Windows 8, and I've got an i3, Nvidia graphics, and 6 GB of RAM. I even tried messing with Task Manager to set the application priority to high, but I guess that didn't really do anything at all. 🙄

Try clicking the search bar next to the Start menu and type in dxdiag then hit enter... see if there are any errors popping up in that window, whether it's for the GPU or the audio drivers...

If everything looks fine in there, maybe try right-clicking the Super Mario Galaxy icon, go to Properties, hit the Compatibility tab, select Windows 8, click OK, and then give the game another shot...

Thomas Sanchez30 said:It’s about Super Mario Galaxy. It ran perfectly fine back on Windows 8, and even after I did a clean install of Windows 10, it should be working—but it’s basically unplayable. For about 80% of the time, the FPS just tanks; for example, I'll jump and it feels like everything is in slow motion. It constantly stutters, speeds up for a second, then slows right back down... it's just constant.

I honestly don't get what's going on since everything was smooth on Windows 8. My setup is an i3 with Nvidia graphics and 6 GB of RAM. I even tried setting the application priority to "High" in Task Manager, but that didn't do a thing. 🙄

Have you installed your graphics drivers yet? What about the chipset and all those other necessary little things?

Ran Dxdiag—no errors found.
Regarding compatibility modes—I’ve already cycled through Windows 8, Windows 7, and even Windows XP, but nothing sticks.
"Run as administrator"—tried it, didn't change a thing.
Updated the Nvidia drivers to the latest version, yet the result remains exactly the same.
All other drivers are fully installed and up to date.

On a side note—and I'm not sure if this is even relevant to my current headache—but back when I was playing Bejeweled 3, it wouldn't let me select the maximum resolution until I used the "Run as administrator" option.🤔 Just thought I'd mention it, just in case there's some weird permission issue at play here.

Thomas Sanchez30 said:Dxdiag shows zero errors.
Compatibility mode—tried Windows 8, 7, even XP—nothing works.
Run as administrator? Tried it. Still nothing.
Updated my Nvidia drivers, but who cares, it still won't budge.
All other drivers are good to go.

In this other game (Bejeweled 3), it wouldn't even let me pick max resolution until I hit 'Run as administrator'🤔—not sure if that’s even relevant here, but just thought I'd mention it.

Man, just tell us exactly what GPU you're running. I dealt with the same headache on a rig I was building—every single time I rebooted, it would nag me for a driver update because apparently Windows 10 isn't even fully stable yet.

My Nvidia GeForce gt 520 MX. I went ahead and ran the driver update through Device Manager.

Thomas Sanchez30 said:I've got an Nvidia GeForce gt 520 MX. I just updated the driver through the Device Manager.

You might want to try installing the driver via GeForce Experience instead...

I went ahead and installed the software (GeForce Experience), and it flagged a recent Fermi Ready driver—it’s sitting at nearly 400 MB (😲!!), which seems a bit hefty—so I’m going to give that a shot. Anyway, thanks to everyone for the assist; I'll let you know how it pans out 😉

It won't even budge, even with a 400 MB driver 😁

And yes—of course I restarted the machine.

I honestly have no clue what the issue is anymore. 🤔

Are you running this in true full screen or just some borderless windowed mode? You might want to try dropping both the resolution and the overall graphical settings just to see if that actually improves performance. If you haven't already, I'd suggest installing MSI Afterburner + RivaTuner so you can pull up an on-screen display while you play; that way, you can monitor your CPU and GPU load, your framerate, and your temperatures to figure out exactly which component is struggling under the pressure.

I’ve actually tried all of that—toggling full screen on and off, gradually dropping the resolution—but I kept hitting the same wall every single time. It was only when I tanked it down to the absolute minimum, 800x600, that things felt relatively usable (though even then, it wasn't exactly buttery smooth)... I suppose I'll give that miracle fix a shot and see if it actually works.