4K Gaming stuttering

[Tim Downey]

Hi there,
I've started to play a few games in 4k resolution, I get decent enough frame rate (~ 40's) on high settings but occasionally it will drop right down then pick up again. Is this due to CPU lag or whatever? Having a look at the usage during gaming it doesn't seem to be up towards 100% on any of the cores. Any advice to what causes the temporary drop in frame rate would be good.

I have fairly 'old' CPU and motherboard (Intel i7 2600 and Motherboard Asus P8Z68 PROGEN3).
16GB RAM / 2 x R9 290 4gb crossfired. (My setup only supports PCIe2.0 at 8x when using two, would it be any better to upgrade at PCIe 3.0 16x ?)

 

[K-Hype]

It could be your HDD is trying to load the next game level but it isn't fast enough so it might cause a stutter during that time.

 

[-Lone-]

4k is very demanding in some games, so it is not uncommon to have lag/stutter in some instances. Such as if there's too many explosions on your screen, too much shooting, or when you make a really fast turn, basically when there is too much graphical details, your system will suffer a bit during that time.

 

[Barthgar]

How do you check for free for frame skipping and stutter?

 

[getdamafiaonyou]

At the end of the day 2 290's just arent going to provide you the best 4k experience, so that's why youre having these frame rate dips and stutters. In bf4 they're getting a average of 48fps, which isn't that smooth to begin with, and since that's the average it dipping below 30fps and giving you those skips is no surprise. What game/s specifically?

 

[Tim Downey]

Far cry 4, was getting it in Shadow of Mordor but since turning off motion blur that has mostly fixed in that game (still the odd dip when surrounded my enemies) . BF4 I had no lag with.

 

[getdamafiaonyou]

Yeah, bf4 utilized mantle, which will give you better fps, but FC4 is a Nvidia game, so it's not as well optimized for AMD cards. Idk about Shadow of Mordor but still, the newer games will start to struggle at 4k, especially since youve listed some of the most demanding new games.

 

[Tim Downey]

How do you check for free for frame skipping and stutter?

You can download MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner (http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm)
Or if you are using steam that has a FPS counter now too, see if the frame rate drops suddenly that's how I check.

 

[Barthgar]

How do you check for free for frame skipping and stutter?

You can download MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner (http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm)
Or if you are using steam that has a FPS counter now too, see if the frame rate drops suddenly that's how I check.

 

[Barthgar]

Thks... however, I was more wondering how to check a Qnix monitor for frame skipping after I OC it . I have 2 780's in sli so they should not hold me back - I also plan to use DVI-D dual-link @ 1440p . My monitor will have only a extra HDMI input , can I bypass that?

 

[nikoli707]

turn off AA, you shouldn't need any AA at such a high resolution. at best use smaa or fxaa.

your i7-2600 is still a very powerful and capable cpu, that isn't your problem.

pcie 2.0 x8 is not holding you back either so dont worry about that.

4k is demanding and is punishing your gpu setup. drop back a few settings until its smooth. most would be hard pressed to see the little differences unless you show side by side screen stills.

you should be able to get 4 bins higher on your locked 2600. go into your bios and lock in 4.1ghz on all 4 cores with your z68 board. if its not available, update the bios. test with prime95/intel burn test. 99% chance you will be stable, but watch your core temps, you might need a simple aftermarket cooler if your running the stock intel cooler.