Buzzing and micro stutter when GPU/cpu under load

[adamr25]

I get a buzzing from possibly GPU, or heatsink on cpu? I don't think it is the fan, I have gently put my finger in the center to slow it down, no change in sound. Maybe some other part of the mobo, I am unsure, having my head inside the case it was still pretty hard to isolate the sound.

In game (pubg) temps on GPU reach maybe 67c, CPU reaches around 50.

If it was just a sound I wouldn't care - but it seems to cause some stutter (mostly micro stutter) when card is under load(both gaming and furmark stress test). Changing settings don't matter, all settings on very low and it still happens.

I did just put in a new to me video card, could it be that the buzzing is coil whine, and micro stutter is from cpu bottlenecking or something?

Specs:
Amd fx-6300
HIS R9 290x
16 GB RAM
Asus m5A97 r2.0 mobo

I tried to take a video... If the video sucks, I can take another at some point.

https://youtu.be/7qtxJrv1vow

 

[gussrtk]

first off, don't use furmark, it's much too intense to use, especially on older cards. I've seen cards fail after furmark tests. Use unigine valley or heaven.

video does not show anything/or noise.

but it would be most likely your video card, as you mentioned, coil noise is somewhat of a common problem for these components when under heavy load. At the same time, it's more likely that your card is just lower standard quality compared to others of it's line (just bad luck). You could return it for exchange (you said it's recent).

Have you checked your power supply? they can make the buzzing noise too, if you upgraded to the 290x did you check that your PSU is up to the task? maybe you just pinned your PSUs output to max because of that R9?

microstutter has nothing to do with bottleneck. It could be because your graphics card is not set in slot properly or there was some dust that fell into motherboard slot when you changed out the videocard. There are many different reasons for microstutter, but I'm going with the most recent change to your system that couldve caused it. Other things like ram can cause it too.

 

[adamr25]

first off, don't use furmark, it's much too intense to use, especially on older cards. I've seen cards fail after furmark tests. Use unigine valley or heaven.

video does not show anything/or noise.

but it would be most likely your video card, as you mentioned, coil noise is somewhat of a common problem for these components when under heavy load. At the same time, it's more likely that your card is just lower standard quality compared to others of it's line (just bad luck). You could return it for exchange (you said it's recent).

Have you checked your power supply? they can make the buzzing noise too, if you upgraded to the 290x did you check that your PSU is up to the task? maybe you just pinned your PSUs output to max because of that R9?

microstutter has nothing to do with bottleneck. It could be because your graphics card is not set in slot properly or there was some dust that fell into motherboard slot when you changed out the videocard. There are many different reasons for microstutter, but I'm going with the most recent change to your system that couldve caused it. Other things like ram can cause it too.

Thanks for your reply.
By new, I mean I have a friend who gave it to me hand me down
The buzzing is definitely not coming from the PSU, it is 100% on the side of the GPU opposite of the PSU. It is 750W, so I don't think it is maxing out. I can try tossing in a 650 I have laying around, should handle it just fine too, if you think the PSU could potentially be bad?

I think the card is set properly... but I did notice that if I pull even rather lightly on the back of the card (closest to where the little part of the connector is - 11 pin notch I gues?), that part of the connector pops out. Is that supposed to lock in? Maybe my PCIE port has worn out? The larger part of the connector definitely locks in.

EDIT** - I should clarify, that it only pops out when initially installing, it is secure after screwing it into the case.

I did blow some compressed air into the slot to see if there was some dust settled in there, nothing seemed to come out.
I could try swapping the ram out - I have been using 16 GB of DDR3 1600 that I salvaged from another friends' old computer, I could pop in my 8 GB of 1866...
Now, the stutter does SOMETIMES become more than a microstutter - usually if I am nearby/engage in a heavy gunfight in pubg (I guess I should be testing with some other games too... pubg is pretty taxing).

I wonder if maybe I am just confusing stutter with microstutter?

 

[gussrtk]

i'm not too sure of what you mean by the connector comes out from video card (i do understand which part you're talking about). But if it works and it's secure after you put the screw in, then I dont think there's much of a problem.

I was more focusing on your buzzing issue than the lag. PUBG is as you said, a heavy game. You could use a hardware monitor (or variant) and check your system resource usage during the game. I'm sure your CPU is gonna be at 100% or near there, I looked it up, and if this stutter that you are talking about comes while playing this game only. then you should have a google look at AMD PUGB stutter fixes, this basically runs you through disabling the Turbo mode of the CPU which seems to be a common problem for most people. If that would fix it, then I would suggest that you should run a custom set CPU overclock to compensate for disabling the turbo mode (which is not that much, but it would help)

Lastly, if all of your cables and connectors inside are plugged in properly (did you unplug and replug all?) Then I wouldn't worry about the buzzing as the system seems to work normally, but need to find what's causing this. You said you upgraded from gtx650 to 290x? you did run the DDU for a clean videocard driver install?

stutter got less after you changed ram or after you reset the videocard?

 

[adamr25]

i'm not too sure of what you mean by the connector comes out from video card (i do understand which part you're talking about). But if it works and it's secure after you put the screw in, then I dont think there's much of a problem.

I was more focusing on your buzzing issue than the lag. PUBG is as you said, a heavy game. You could use a hardware monitor (or variant) and check your system resource usage during the game. I'm sure your CPU is gonna be at 100% or near there, I looked it up, and if this stutter that you are talking about comes while playing this game only. then you should have a google look at AMD PUGB stutter fixes, this basically runs you through disabling the Turbo mode of the CPU which seems to be a common problem for most people. If that would fix it, then I would suggest that you should run a custom set CPU overclock to compensate for disabling the turbo mode (which is not that much, but it would help)

Lastly, if all of your cables and connectors inside are plugged in properly (did you unplug and replug all?) Then I wouldn't worry about the buzzing as the system seems to work normally, but need to find what's causing this. You said you upgraded from gtx650 to 290x? you did run the DDU for a clean videocard driver install?

stutter got less after you changed ram or after you reset the videocard?

Geez I never got any email saying this was replied to so I thought my thread died.
So it isn't just in PUBG, it happens in Unigine Heaven too (see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d53Z7URuUk). This is just an example of what is happening - but showing that I can consistently make it happen from the same spot over and over. The FPS drops from ~116 to 25 at that spot. I also notice a bit of stutter when scrolling websites, and the start menu occasionally.
List of things I have tried over the last couple of weeks:
Tried on both SSD and HDD - both cause the same stuttering.
Tried taking out all RAM and blowing out the slots.
Tried swapping RAM for different RAM.
I took apart the GPU, and cleared out all the dust accumulated on the heatsink.
I re-imaged both the SSD and the HDD.
I updated the BIOS, chipset drivers, everything.
I tried the old video card - it is also experiencing the stutter now.
I have tried overclocking (with the AMD software) the video card, and my CPU.
I have tried swapping my PSU, to make sure it wasn't a power issue.

At this point, I feel like it is either the MOBO or the CPU?

 

[gussrtk]

couple of things to try here, Run a hardware monitor to see CPU/GPU/HDD usage, look if you can see a spike in usage in one of those components while this happens.

#1 run virus/malaware scan

#2 do a mild overclock on your CPU and TURN OFF TURBO BOOST on cpu (generally in overclocking guide it will make you turn it off , so just find one follow it). the overclock could be just a simple 3.6 or lower, it's just to see if the turbo boost is what's causing the lag

#3 see that you don't have some program hogging your resources

 

[adamr25]

couple of things to try here, Run a hardware monitor to see CPU/GPU/HDD usage, look if you can see a spike in usage in one of those components while this happens.

#1 run virus/malaware scan

#2 do a mild overclock on your CPU and TURN OFF TURBO BOOST on cpu (generally in overclocking guide it will make you turn it off , so just find one follow it). the overclock could be just a simple 3.6 or lower, it's just to see if the turbo boost is what's causing the lag

#3 see that you don't have some program hogging your resources

#1 nothing comes up
#3 nothing hogging resources
#2 interestingly, I turned off turbo boost, and it helped that stutter a bit (still there though). But, some textures started to process some fuzzy lines, almost like tearing.

 

[gussrtk]

couple of things to try here, Run a hardware monitor to see CPU/GPU/HDD usage, look if you can see a spike in usage in one of those components while this happens.

#1 run virus/malaware scan

#2 do a mild overclock on your CPU and TURN OFF TURBO BOOST on cpu (generally in overclocking guide it will make you turn it off , so just find one follow it). the overclock could be just a simple 3.6 or lower, it's just to see if the turbo boost is what's causing the lag

#3 see that you don't have some program hogging your resources

#1 nothing comes up
#3 nothing hogging resources
#2 interestingly, I turned off turbo boost, and it helped that stutter a bit (still there though). But, some textures started to process some fuzzy lines, almost like tearing.

tearing is bad news for the GPU. Go to your nVidia driver control panel, look for Antialiasing - Mode, turn off antialiasing. see how the game goes

 

[adamr25]

couple of things to try here, Run a hardware monitor to see CPU/GPU/HDD usage, look if you can see a spike in usage in one of those components while this happens.

#1 run virus/malaware scan

#2 do a mild overclock on your CPU and TURN OFF TURBO BOOST on cpu (generally in overclocking guide it will make you turn it off , so just find one follow it). the overclock could be just a simple 3.6 or lower, it's just to see if the turbo boost is what's causing the lag

#3 see that you don't have some program hogging your resources

#1 nothing comes up
#3 nothing hogging resources
#2 interestingly, I turned off turbo boost, and it helped that stutter a bit (still there though). But, some textures started to process some fuzzy lines, almost like tearing.

tearing is bad news for the GPU. Go to your nVidia driver control panel, look for Antialiasing - Mode, turn off antialiasing. see how the game goes

You know, it isn't really screen tearing (at least from how it looks in everything I look at for screen tearing online).
There is this blurry line that goes across the screen, but it moves up - and keeps moving up - as I move around (at certain spots). Almost like old VHS tracking (but not nearly as bad as that - this line is maybe 3 mm thick).
re-enabling the turbo core, or using AMD overdrive to overclock it back to where turbo core had it (3.8), solves that blurry line, still stuttery.
Capping the FPS at 60, while still stutters, doesn't hinder my gameplay so much that I can't play.
The difference in the drop of FPS doesn't seem so drastic - so maybe this is the solution I have to live with.