[SOLVED] 6800 XT cyclical random stutters in every game

[PauloSilva93]

HI, this is going to be kind of a long post, but i am absolutely stomped and don't know where to turn to, so please bear with me. This is my first ever custom pc build btw, i only picked the parts, i didn´t assemble them. It's almost an year old no for as long as i remember i have been having a stutter like phenomenon, where the image freezes for an instant and then resumes normally, happening cyclically or sometimes not even happening at all, this accompanied by frametime spikes as riva tuner shows , i will link a video showcasing the problem as well as a msi afterburner log.

Things i have tried:

Reinstalling windows 11
updating to the most recent drivers using DDU in safe mode
updating motherboard BIOS
i have xmp activated
i have SAM activated
tried the games in clean boot, had mixed results, sometimes it happened sometimes it didn´t
My Specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($139.79 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB 68.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($124.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MPG B550 GAMING EDGE WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
Storage: KIOXIA EXCERIA G2 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: XFX Speedster MERC 319 CORE Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card ($579.99 @ Newegg Sellers)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P500A D-RGB ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: LG 27GN800-B 27.0" 2560 x 1440 144 Hz Monitor ($296.99 @ B&H)

The games i play where this issue exists:
Jump Force
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
One piece pirate warrios 4
Borderlands 3
the witcher 3 new gen
dragonball fighterz
dragonball xenoverse 2


here is an example in witcher 3, it happens around 10 second mark:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbSuFmXO1HI


here is also a log for better understanding:

https://imgur.com/fkSzENJ

View: https://imgur.com/fkSzENJ


There is also something i should mention, recently i found out i have daisy chain connection to the gpu, i have read mixed opinions on this topic, i even found out a post where he was experiencing similar symptoms and when he undid the daisy chain the problems went away, so i decided to that, but i have no experience, but despite that i tried. here is what i did:

unscrewed the thumbscrews of the bracket corresponding to the psu in the back, and then slightly pulled it towards me, but i felt a resistance, so scared i push it back in and tied the screws again

then i opened the side panels of the case, and tried to pull the pcie cable from the gpu, to no avail, i used a little strength and felt the gpu moving slightly, so in caution i backed down and returned to the status quo, put the pc tower in the same place as always, and decided to wait for more input, thus writing this thread

in doing this i am scared i may have done something wrong that might have worsened things, hope not

i will also link a few of my reddit posts, if you guys need more information

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/11g0zoq/is_this_a_daisy_chain_configuration_what_should_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3


View: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/11h6n6f/micro_freezes_in_every_game_it_happens_cyclically/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3



If you stuck around this long, thank you so much for your time, i am going to be honest this has kept me from fully enjoying my rig ever since i bought it, so if you could help me out i would greatly appreciate it. Thank you

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I'd first try and locate the cables for the PSU and see if you can get a seperate lead running from the PSU to the GPU as opposed to a daisychain, as illustrated here;

If the system was built by a store or an individual, might want to contact them and see if they can be of assistance. Some builders like to go crazy with cable ties and fasten cables to anything as an anchor which is what you might be experiencing. You should also know that you disconnect from the GPU first and the try and find where it terminates on the PSU, to avoid the cable from tugging at the PCIe connectors on the GPU.

 

[PauloSilva93]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I'd first try and locate the cables for the PSU and see if you can get a seperate lead running from the PSU to the GPU as opposed to a daisychain, as illustrated here;

If the system was built by a store or an individual, might want to contact them and see if they can be of assistance. Some builders like to go crazy with cable ties and fasten cables to anything as an anchor which is what you might be experiencing. You should also know that you disconnect from the GPU first and the try and find where it terminates on the PSU, to avoid the cable from tugging at the PCIe connectors on the GPU.

Hi,thanks for the input, do you think its possible i have damaged something according to the actions i described? Also the pcie cable was plugged to the gpu really hard, i tried removing it, and like i said the gpu kinda twitched even

 

[Lutfij]

Define what you mean by twitched.
I doubt you've damaged anything...though that's basing off the limited info you've mentioned. You couldn't damage the card unless you tried yanking the card out of the slot without disengaging the PCIe (hold down)latch.

 

[PauloSilva93]

It budged slightly. Is it possible that the daisy chain harmed my components? since its been almost a year now , continuously plugged like that.

 

[PauloSilva93]

Define what you mean by twitched.
I doubt you've damaged anything...though that's basing off the limited info you've mentioned. You couldn't damage the card unless you tried yanking the card out of the slot without disengaging the PCIe (hold down)latch.

i got 2 individual pcie cables connected finally . Witcher 3 new gen with fsr 2.0, i only noticed one frame time spike with a subsequent instant freeze. But unfortunately i still had stutters in naruto and jump force, these 2 are locked at 60 fps and whenever the stutter happens, it always dips to 59 or 58 fps, dont know if that is relevant or not, but the stutter is noticeable even if its only 1 or 2 fps drop. What do you think?

 

[Fathersun1]

Curious to follow this. I'm having the same issue. Though I got a new GPU to replace it and the freezing still happens > As well as if I have an explorer window open and it's scrolled down, it will bring it back up to the top. The freeze goes across the whole system not just the game.'

_further- this problem is now being accompanied by small freezes within games and frame rate drops of sometimes 100 frames

Gpu meter seemingly reflects this 'stair stepping' as the game goes from normal frame rate to dropping by 100 or so and back up

https://imgur.com/NwlbDp3

View: https://imgur.com/NwlbDp3

 

[Avro Arrow]

There might be something wrong with your specific card. I have an RX 6800 XT and I've encountered ZERO problems with it whatsoever. I can't see anything wrong with your setup that could cause this although I must confess that I've never used Windows 11 so I don't know if that's the problem. It probably isn't though because I'm sure that some tech site would've picked up on something like this.

If I were you, I'd contact XFX about a possible RMA because based on what you've already tried, it's clear that you know what you're doing. I think that you've successfully eliminated a software issue and so I think that it must be a hardware issue. Unfortunately, these things happen. Ironically, I had a hardware issue with my XFX RX 5700 XT and I had to send it in for RMA. Now, I'm not going to say that XFX is bad because I've owned 6 cards of theirs over the years all the way back to a GeForce 6200 and the RX 5700 XT was the first card to ever give me problems.

Sometimes, it's just plain bad luck.

 

[PauloSilva93]

There might be something wrong with your specific card. I have an RX 6800 XT and I've encountered ZERO problems with it whatsoever. I can't see anything wrong with your setup that could cause this although I must confess that I've never used Windows 11 so I don't know if that's the problem. It probably isn't though because I'm sure that some tech site would've picked up on something like this.

If I were you, I'd contact XFX about a possible RMA because based on what you've already tried, it's clear that you know what you're doing. I think that you've successfully eliminated a software issue and so I think that it must be a hardware issue. Unfortunately, these things happen. Ironically, I had a hardware issue with my XFX RX 5700 XT and I had to send it in for RMA. Now, I'm not going to say that XFX is bad because I've owned 6 cards of theirs over the years all the way back to a GeForce 6200 and the RX 5700 XT was the first card to ever give me problems.

Sometimes, it's just plain bad luck.

I really hope its not, i already got the 2 individual cables setup and have seen great improvements, for instance witcher 3 now,i only noticed 1 freeze\stutter in the 30 min i played. Still testing other games, but its a good sign. Will keep updating as soon as possible

 

[PauloSilva93]

Curious to follow this. I'm having the same issue. Though I got a new GPU to replace it and the freezing still happens > As well as if I have an explorer window open and it's scrolled down, it will bring it back up to the top. The freeze goes across the whole system not just the game.'

_further- this problem is now being accompanied by small freezes within games and frame rate drops of sometimes 100 frames

Gpu meter seemingly reflects this 'stair stepping' as the game goes from normal frame rate to dropping by 100 or so and back up

https://imgur.com/NwlbDp3

View: https://imgur.com/NwlbDp3

Damn man that sucks, i suggest searching the reddit of pcmasterrace or the discord of techsupport, or even here. I would like to help but i am no way in hell qualified for it, i am still a novice at this

 

[Avro Arrow]

I really hope its not, i already got the 2 individual cables setup and have seen great improvements, for instance witcher 3 now,i only noticed 1 freeze\stutter in the 30 min i played. Still testing other games, but its a good sign. Will keep updating as soon as possible

I hope it works out for you. I know that things like this can be maddening. The worst that I've ever seen was my PC taking over 2 minutes to boot to Windows and I had no idea what the problem was, I just assumed that ASRock boards took a lot of time. It turned out to be a faulty SATA cable. Now, who the hell would think of something like that as the problem?

 

[PauloSilva93]

I hope it works out for you. I know that things like this can be maddening. The worst that I've ever seen was my PC taking over 2 minutes to boot to Windows and I had no idea what the problem was, I just assumed that ASRock boards took a lot of time. It turned out to be a faulty SATA cable. Now, who the hell would think of something like that as the problem?

Yea pc gaming comes with its gripes😆

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yea pc gaming comes with its gripes😆

It sure does. It's kind of a shame that it's so worth it, eh?

 

[PauloSilva93]

FIXED THE ISSUE!!!! by disabling smart access memory in adrenaline software, once i did that the stutters went away for good, had a frametime flat line, working flawlessly, the only game that had stutters was borderlands 3, but i have been told that game is really poorly optimized. anyway thank you for all your help, really appreciate it

 

[Fathersun1]

I somewhat fixed my issue by getting a new CPU. The stuttering stopped happening in games, I still get a few drastic drops here and there but not a full on mini freeze like before. thinking its bc the mobo needs to be replaced or bc one of the RAM sticks has a clock speed slightly higher than the other two sticks that are installed

 

[PauloSilva93]

Hi, sorry for the late reply, but i finally fixed the issue. I used blurbusters guide for smooth gameplay, i disabled vysnc in game, and left freesync on, while capping the frame rate in riva tuner, 3 fps below my refresh rate's monitor, and the stuttering alonf with fps drops, stopped altogether. this video also explains in more detail the process behind.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsXFUVYPIx4

thank you all so much for your helpful input, it took a while, but it seems i have figured the problem out