Background Programs Framerate

[beauganster]

I wasn't really sure how to word the title. This issue is just a couple of weeks old, but the PC is a couple of months old at this point. Issue wasn't present at the beginning.

I run two instances of World of Warcraft simultaneously, on a dual monitor set up. Recently I notice I will have huge frame drops on which ever instance isn't in the foreground. Also If I'm running VLC watching a TV show while I play, it will stutter a bit. As soon as I click on VLC and bring it to the foreground, it runs fine.

A bit of background info:
Drivers up to date, hmmm now that i'm thinking of it, perhaps this could be a drive issue? Might need to roll back.

I know it is not WoW settings such as limiting the background framerate, I know that seems obvious, but I've ensured this is not the case.

On my previous much weaker PC I was able to achieve these three simultaneous programs successfully, also the first month or two of this new build it worked no problem.

I've checked to see if I was bottle necking somewhere, and the GPU/CPU/Ram are never at more than 60-80% when I'm running all three, sometimes the stutter/frame drops will happen and the utilization percentages are under 50.

All settings that I am aware of are set to maximum performance (admittedly I am relatively ignorant to Nvidia software, first Nvidia card.)

Build:
Fractal Design Define R5 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case
Corsair RMx Series, RM850x, 850W, Fully Modular Power Supply
ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO LGA1151
Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz
Noctua NH-D15S 140mm SSO2 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 PWM Fans
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000)
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 DirectX 12 GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5
Samsung 850 EVO - 500GB (Games)
Samsung 850 EVO - 120GB (OS)
2 x Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Monitors
2 x Acer G6 Series G276HLGbd Black 27" 6ms Widescreen LED (1920 x 1080)
1 x Samsung 42" 720p Plasma

 

[Switch87]

Are now running something else that you didn't use to be using before?
It prioritizes the fps of the 'current' app, and allocates more resources to it. Maybe the reason you are having issues now is because you are now using more resources and in order to keep your main app running well it slacks on the others.

 

[beauganster]

Are now running something else that you didn't use to be using before?
It prioritizes the fps of the 'current' app, and allocates more resources to it. Maybe the reason you are having issues now is because you are now using more resources and in order to keep your main app running well it slacks on the others.

Nothing new that I am aware of, and nothing on any resource monitor I have that is throwing any red flags. Currently running both instances of WoW, a video playing on VLC plus various other applications open, CPU 30-40%, memory 60%, gpu 65%.

 

[Switch87]

Are now running something else that you didn't use to be using before?
It prioritizes the fps of the 'current' app, and allocates more resources to it. Maybe the reason you are having issues now is because you are now using more resources and in order to keep your main app running well it slacks on the others.

Nothing new that I am aware of, and nothing on any resource monitor I have that is throwing any red flags. Currently running both instances of WoW, a video playing on VLC plus various other applications open, CPU 30-40%, memory 60%, gpu 65%.

Not sure then, try to think of something than you either installed (software or hardware) or started using since the problems appeared. Check your opened processes when your pc starts doing that

Other than that I'm sure someone else more knowledgeable could try to help out

 

[beauganster]

Just as an update, I used DDU to completely clear my display drivers and started fresh. Issue still persists (appears I may have gained a few FPS in WoW, but that hasn't been fully tested). The background process still drops down, whether that is WoW or VLC. I found an option in Windows for the processor to put the priority on foreground or background, it was set to foreground. I switched it to background, no change.

I also tried rolling back to a previous driver, no change. Also tried changing the priority in the task manager, no help.

 

[James Mason]

Why does the FPS of the window you have no control over matter?

 

[beauganster]

Why does the FPS of the window you have no control over matter?

Because when it VLC I'm watching a video. So that seems pretty obvious. With wow it is way less important but I think it's the same issue. That's why I brought it up.

 

[James Mason]

VLC may just need a higher priority than.

I typically use VLC to watch a movie while running a fullscreen game and I don't notice any lag.

It's possible you may need to update (uninstall, restart, download latest version, install) VLC.

Is it only lag when you have 2 WoWs running?

 

[beauganster]

VLC may just need a higher priority than.

I typically use VLC to watch a movie while running a fullscreen game and I don't notice any lag.

It's possible you may need to update (uninstall, restart, download latest version, install) VLC.

Is it only lag when you have 2 WoWs running?

I tried rearranging the priorities. Giving VLC the highest, no help. I haven't tried reinstalling VLC because it isn't tied to VLC directly. I opened a video in one of the standard Windows 10 players and the same issue was there.

I spent hours last night reinstalling video card drivers, rolling back to old one, nothing seemed to help.

But like I said, this was not previously an issue doing the same amount of work. I can't figure out what is causing it.

edit:

Yes it appears to only be when i'm running two instances of WoW.

 

[James Mason]

So... You need Process Lasso.
www.bitsum.com

Use it, and then permanently assign VLC to use 1 core and 1 thread (i.e. 0 and 4) and manually assign WoW 1 core and 1 thread for each instance (1 and 5, 2 and 6).

Your CPU is powerful, but the programs are all defaulting to run off Core 0 first, and they're not multicore programs so they don't divide the load well, and then core 0 gets kinda overburdened and that's why VLC is lagging.

 

[beauganster]

So... You need Process Lasso.
www.bitsum.com

Use it, and then permanently assign VLC to use 1 core and 1 thread (i.e. 0 and 4) and manually assign WoW 1 core and 1 thread for each instance (1 and 5, 2 and 6).

Your CPU is powerful, but the programs are all defaulting to run off Core 0 first, and they're not multicore programs so they don't divide the load well, and then core 0 gets kinda overburdened and that's why VLC is lagging.

That is a very interesting thought process. I'll have to give this a try. Is there any downside to doing this?

 

[James Mason]

So... You need Process Lasso.
www.bitsum.com

Use it, and then permanently assign VLC to use 1 core and 1 thread (i.e. 0 and 4) and manually assign WoW 1 core and 1 thread for each instance (1 and 5, 2 and 6).

Your CPU is powerful, but the programs are all defaulting to run off Core 0 first, and they're not multicore programs so they don't divide the load well, and then core 0 gets kinda overburdened and that's why VLC is lagging.

That is a very interesting thought process. I'll have to give this a try. Is there any downside to doing this?

Not really, only that the free version of Process Lasso has a little "please buy me" window that comes up when you start the program/the computer restarts that you can't close for 10 seconds.