[SOLVED] COD MW Refuses to Stop Stuttering

Sep 21, 2022
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Hi- I had been playing MW just fine at a cool 60-80 FPS when I was running on Geforce 1660ti, then upon upgrading a couple of months ago to a 3070ti I ran it even better at about 100-150 FPS! Seemingly overnight one day a month ago I had begun experiencing a mysterious stutter which to no avail have I been able to resolve. Tends to be every few seconds a huge chop in the FPS which gets extremely annoying. I have tried lower settings and even on the lowest settings & resolution it presents the same issues. Initially I thought that the latest MW update had messed it up, but I don't think it did. I have tried all of the following:

  • Clean reset of drivers, using DDU
  • Scanning & Repairing Game
  • Uninstalling/Reinstalling Game
  • Optimizing using control panel
  • Resetting Monitor settings
  • Using msconfig to activate all of my cores
  • Clean reset of PC
  • Installing Windows on SSD
  • Installing Game on SSD
  • Switching position of Ram sticks (a1b1-->a2b2)
  • Updating BIOS
and probably some more but I am so exhausted with this game that I can't remember. I want to say it has something to do with my Windows installs, as I had previously tried to migrate Windows 10 from HDD to SSD and now msconfig shows that I have multiple drives that have Windows 10 on it. Regardless, the game ran fine even when this initially happened. I just wanna play dammit. Here are my specs, please help.

Specs:
Monitor: MSI MAG272CRX 240 hz
GPU: GigaByte 3070ti
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core 3.6 GHz
RAM: 2x8gb DDR4
OS: Windows 11 Home
MB: B450 Aorus Pro Wifi

Any help would be great, or at least some more options to try. Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Lads, I have resolved my problem. Please forgive me for this huge forehead moment. Upon opening up my PC to reapply thermal paste I noticed something odd. It turns out that the previous time that I had applied thermal paste (which correlates to the 2 months I spent in stuttering agony) I had left my fan/heat sink unclipped/secured above the CPU. It was basically wiggling. While placed vertically the heat sink was making no contact with the CPU. This means for the last two months my CPU has been holding on by a thread with no cooling what so ever. I went ahead and scraped the old thermal paste and cleaned both CPU and heat sink with rubbing alcohol. Reapplied thermal paste and lo and behold my game has never run better. I will also...
Hi- I had been playing MW just fine at a cool 60-80 FPS when I was running on Geforce 1660ti, then upon upgrading a couple of months ago to a 3070ti I ran it even better at about 100-150 FPS! Seemingly overnight one day a month ago I had begun experiencing a mysterious stutter which to no avail have I been able to resolve. Tends to be every few seconds a huge chop in the FPS which gets extremely annoying. I have tried lower settings and even on the lowest settings & resolution it presents the same issues. Initially I thought that the latest MW update had messed it up, but I don't think it did. I have tried all of the following:

  • Clean reset of drivers, using DDU
  • Scanning & Repairing Game
  • Uninstalling/Reinstalling Game
  • Optimizing using control panel
  • Resetting Monitor settings
  • Using msconfig to activate all of my cores
  • Clean reset of PC
  • Installing Windows on SSD
  • Installing Game on SSD
  • Switching position of Ram sticks (a1b1-->a2b2)
  • Updating BIOS
and probably some more but I am so exhausted with this game that I can't remember. I want to say it has something to do with my Windows installs, as I had previously tried to migrate Windows 10 from HDD to SSD and now msconfig shows that I have multiple drives that have Windows 10 on it. Regardless, the game ran fine even when this initially happened. I just wanna play dammit. Here are my specs, please help.

Specs:
Monitor: MSI MAG272CRX 240 hz
GPU: GigaByte 3070ti
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core 3.6 GHz
RAM: 2x8gb DDR4
OS: Windows 11 Home
MB: B450 Aorus Pro Wifi

Any help would be great, or at least some more options to try. Thanks in advance!
follow this step by step in order (read till end):
  • Disconnect from internet
  • Uninstall every gpu driver using DDU (clean and do not restart, also tick all option in Nvidia option in the ddu settings).
  • Uninstall all the processors (is a must, should be 16 on yours since it's 16 threads, also when it asks for restart, click on no and keep uninstalling all processors) on device manager like this:
    unknown.png


  • Uninstall AMD Chipset Software in control panel (if there is none, skip it.)

  • reboot the PC to bios, disable AMD fTPM and secure boot (if enabled by default), save and exit, go to bios again, reflash the bios with agesa 1.2.0.7, go to bios after finished updating, then load default or optimized settings, enable fastest xmp profile, then save and exit.

    Optional: disable CSM, enable Above 4G Decoding and Resizable bar option (these 2 options wont be available unless CSM is disabled). If gpu supports, why not XD

  • if successful, boot up to windows and install the latest Chipset driver (should be ver 4.08.xx as the time i write this), then reboot.

  • Install the latest nvidia driver, reboot, and then connect to internet.

    *do this all offline until reboot after installing chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP (and previous settings you did). Download needed files (highlighted word) before doing step 1, do the step by orders.

  • Run cmd as admin, then do chkdsk /x /f /r, after that do sfc /scannow

  • And check windows update if there is any and install them (except optional update).

  • Make sure the psu connected to the gpu is 1 pcie cable per 1 slot (use main cable, not the branches/split) like this:
    unknown.png
 
Sep 21, 2022
17
2
25
follow this step by step in order (read till end):
  • Disconnect from internet
  • Uninstall every gpu driver using DDU (clean and do not restart, also tick all option in Nvidia option in the ddu settings).
  • Uninstall all the processors (is a must, should be 16 on yours since it's 16 threads, also when it asks for restart, click on no and keep uninstalling all processors) on device manager like this:
    unknown.png


  • Uninstall AMD Chipset Software in control panel (if there is none, skip it.)

  • reboot the PC to bios, disable AMD fTPM and secure boot (if enabled by default), save and exit, go to bios again, reflash the bios with agesa 1.2.0.7, go to bios after finished updating, then load default or optimized settings, enable fastest xmp profile, then save and exit.

    Optional: disable CSM, enable Above 4G Decoding and Resizable bar option (these 2 options wont be available unless CSM is disabled). If gpu supports, why not XD

  • if successful, boot up to windows and install the latest Chipset driver (should be ver 4.08.xx as the time i write this), then reboot.

  • Install the latest nvidia driver, reboot, and then connect to internet.

    *do this all offline until reboot after installing chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP (and previous settings you did). Download needed files (highlighted word) before doing step 1, do the step by orders.

  • Run cmd as admin, then do chkdsk /x /f /r, after that do sfc /scannow

  • And check windows update if there is any and install them (except optional update).

  • Make sure the psu connected to the gpu is 1 pcie cable per 1 slot (use main cable, not the branches/split) like this:
    unknown.png
Hi- I did actually have a branched PSU for the gpu power. I will try and correct this and then if that fails I will try your other detailed list.
 
Sep 21, 2022
17
2
25
follow this step by step in order (read till end):
  • Disconnect from internet
  • Uninstall every gpu driver using DDU (clean and do not restart, also tick all option in Nvidia option in the ddu settings).
  • Uninstall all the processors (is a must, should be 16 on yours since it's 16 threads, also when it asks for restart, click on no and keep uninstalling all processors) on device manager like this:
    unknown.png


  • Uninstall AMD Chipset Software in control panel (if there is none, skip it.)

  • reboot the PC to bios, disable AMD fTPM and secure boot (if enabled by default), save and exit, go to bios again, reflash the bios with agesa 1.2.0.7, go to bios after finished updating, then load default or optimized settings, enable fastest xmp profile, then save and exit.

    Optional: disable CSM, enable Above 4G Decoding and Resizable bar option (these 2 options wont be available unless CSM is disabled). If gpu supports, why not XD

  • if successful, boot up to windows and install the latest Chipset driver (should be ver 4.08.xx as the time i write this), then reboot.

  • Install the latest nvidia driver, reboot, and then connect to internet.

    *do this all offline until reboot after installing chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP (and previous settings you did). Download needed files (highlighted word) before doing step 1, do the step by orders.

  • Run cmd as admin, then do chkdsk /x /f /r, after that do sfc /scannow

  • And check windows update if there is any and install them (except optional update).

  • Make sure the psu connected to the gpu is 1 pcie cable per 1 slot (use main cable, not the branches/split) like this:
    unknown.png
Hi- I have connected both PCIe's and still the same problem, I will now do the step by step that you have posted above and get back with hopefully positive results. (also see attached replies for the benchmark results.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Koekieezz
Sep 21, 2022
17
2
25
follow this step by step in order (read till end):
  • Disconnect from internet
  • Uninstall every gpu driver using DDU (clean and do not restart, also tick all option in Nvidia option in the ddu settings).
  • Uninstall all the processors (is a must, should be 16 on yours since it's 16 threads, also when it asks for restart, click on no and keep uninstalling all processors) on device manager like this:
    unknown.png


  • Uninstall AMD Chipset Software in control panel (if there is none, skip it.)

  • reboot the PC to bios, disable AMD fTPM and secure boot (if enabled by default), save and exit, go to bios again, reflash the bios with agesa 1.2.0.7, go to bios after finished updating, then load default or optimized settings, enable fastest xmp profile, then save and exit.

    Optional: disable CSM, enable Above 4G Decoding and Resizable bar option (these 2 options wont be available unless CSM is disabled). If gpu supports, why not XD

  • if successful, boot up to windows and install the latest Chipset driver (should be ver 4.08.xx as the time i write this), then reboot.

  • Install the latest nvidia driver, reboot, and then connect to internet.

    *do this all offline until reboot after installing chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP (and previous settings you did). Download needed files (highlighted word) before doing step 1, do the step by orders.

  • Run cmd as admin, then do chkdsk /x /f /r, after that do sfc /scannow

  • And check windows update if there is any and install them (except optional update).

  • Make sure the psu connected to the gpu is 1 pcie cable per 1 slot (use main cable, not the branches/split) like this:
    unknown.png
Howdy- I have done everything in order as listed above and have ended on this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22000.978]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /x /f /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Y

This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts.

C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

C:\Windows\system32>

for the cmd prompt. Im gonna go ahead and perform one last install to let volume get checked.
 
Sep 21, 2022
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Howdy- I have done everything in order as listed above and have ended on this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22000.978]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /x /f /r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N) Y

This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts.

C:\Windows\system32>sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.


C:\Windows\system32>

for the cmd prompt. Im gonna go ahead and perform one last install to let volume get checked.
Correction. Meant “restart” not install
 
Sep 21, 2022
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What stands out is your RAM is running at 2133mhz instead of 3200mhz. That could have a noticeable impact on fps. You need to go into the BIOS and enable XMP and select a 3200mhz profile.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/55418884 game ran arguably worse than when I applied the remedies that Koekieezz had suggested. I had also turned on xmp @3200mhz and it still runs poopy yet the benchmark gave seemingly better results than the initial lol. I would've never tried these things to begin with but im still stumped as to why this pc is being so difficult.
 
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/55418884 game ran arguably worse than when I applied the remedies that Koekieezz had suggested. I had also turned on xmp @3200mhz and it still runs poopy yet the benchmark gave seemingly better results than the initial lol. I would've never tried these things to begin with but im still stumped as to why this pc is being so difficult.
So my suggestions steps it is a little bit better but still stuttering?

Go to bios and make sure Precision Boost or Precision Boost Overdrive is enabled, then save and exit

Boot to windows, go to power plan, then use AMD Ryzen Balanced Power Plan, edit the settings (change advanced power settings) , find Processor Power Management, then set the Minimum Processor State to 1%, Maximum Power State to 100%, and System cooling Policy to active, then click on OK, and save change

Then open Nvidia Control Panel, set to this:
  • Threaded Optimization = On
  • Quality = Max Performance
  • Power Management = Adaptive (not optimize or other, i always use adaptive)
  • MFAA = Enable
  • OpenGL= My gpu (1070)
  • Low Latency Mode = ON (not ultra, on is better for me on fps games)
Then try this, i've tried this on my friend's R5 3550H and it kinda give a better performance a little bit.
Search Regedit, then go to here: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

find SecondLevelDataCache, and enter 8192 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then right click, make dword 32 bit and name it FirstLevelDataCache, and enter 1024 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then right click again, make dword 32 bit again and name it ThirdLevelDataCache, and enter 65536 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then check again from FirstLevelDataCache to ThirdLevelDataCache and see the digit inside the word cage is the same as the one you enter from first to third. If all good (prolly give screenshot here if you're not sure) then reboot and check regedit again and see if the value is still the same as the one you entered before.

maybe try those settings and see if it resulted anything, run UBM benchmark once again and share the results here.

oh also you did enable Above 4G Decode and Resizable Bar right? if so, could you share a gpuz screenshot here?
 
Last edited:
Sep 21, 2022
17
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So my suggestions steps it is a little bit better but still stuttering?

Go to bios and make sure Precision Boost or Precision Boost Overdrive is enabled, then save and exit

Boot to windows, go to power plan, then use AMD Ryzen Balanced Power Plan, edit the settings (change advanced power settings) , find Processor Power Management, then set the Minimum Processor State to 1%, Maximum Power State to 100%, and System cooling Policy to active, then click on OK, and save change

Then open Nvidia Control Panel, set to this:
  • Threaded Optimization = On
  • Quality = Max Performance
  • Power Management = Adaptive (not optimize or other, i always use adaptive)
  • MFAA = Enable
  • OpenGL= My gpu (1070)
  • Low Latency Mode = ON (not ultra, on is better for me on fps games)
Then try this, i've tried this on my friend's R5 3550H and it kinda give a better performance a little bit.
Search Regedit, then go to here: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

find SecondLevelDataCache, and enter 8192 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then right click, make dword 32 bit and name it FirstLevelDataCache, and enter 1024 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then right click again, make dword 32 bit again and name it ThirdLevelDataCache, and enter 65536 (tick decimal instead of hexadecimal before entering the number)

then check again from FirstLevelDataCache to ThirdLevelDataCache and see the digit inside the word cage is the same as the one you enter from first to third. If all good (prolly give screenshot here if you're not sure) then reboot and check regedit again and see if the value is still the same as the one you entered before.

maybe try those settings and see if it resulted anything, run UBM benchmark once again and share the results here.

oh also you did enable Above 4G Decode and Resizable Bar right? if so, could you share a gpuz screenshot here?
Hi- I will try these things when I get home today from work. And I have enabled 4G decode and resizable bar. Will send those then too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Koekieezz
Don't use adaptive for your power settings. It has been known to cause stuttering when the power draw changes.
This goes for the Windows power settings too. Set it to high performance, instead of adaptive or balanced.
Yeah for power management op could test within adaptive or optimal, for windows power, ryzen 3000 series is better using the amd ryzen balanced power plan, which is there after installing the latest chipset driver.
 
Sep 21, 2022
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The game still runs like dog piss lol it is frustrating to come back on here, but im starting to think this is hardware related unless yall got some more ideas
 
Sep 21, 2022
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Also I wanna mention, if this might have anything to do with it, that when I open my system config>boot I see the following options for my normal startup options:

Windows 10(C:\Windows): CurrentOS; Default OS
Windows 10(\Windows)
Windows 10(D:\Windows)


I believe this appeared when had moved windows 10 initally to my ssd (now my C: drive) and then when I formatted my D: drive (my old C: drive) i feel like thats when things began to be messed up. Initially after this move it was a little iffy with the UI and what not but the games ran fine, now after reset my PC and updating to Windows 11 on C: drive my games run poopy even though these benchmarks are saying I have a decent gaming PC lol just thought i'd throw that in there if it may illuminate any other theories.
 
Sep 21, 2022
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Update: I have discovered that my CPU is running at about 75 C while just idle, not even gaming, quick google search showed that this is probably causing stuttering (which I even noticed in my cursor just on desktop.) will be cleaning case and fans along with reapplying some thermal paste this upcoming weekend to see if there is a change. Wish me luck lads!
 
Update: I have discovered that my CPU is running at about 75 C while just idle, not even gaming, quick google search showed that this is probably causing stuttering (which I even noticed in my cursor just on desktop.) will be cleaning case and fans along with reapplying some thermal paste this upcoming weekend to see if there is a change. Wish me luck lads!
Also check the precision boost or just use precision boost overdrive from what i've seen the cpu ran at 3.4ghz boost except for the first run before all of this, which is 3.8ghz.. maybe you could see the cpu clock behavior? but if 75c on idle that's something for remidial XD, prolly clean all the fans and the cooling and repaste the cpu with a good paste, and see if it helps the idle. it might be when you're running the game it overheats and throttle but usually it's not always the case, some throttle with significant fps drop.

and with precision boost overdrive enabled, it would push the clock far above the limits to the safe level. Your first result here is 3.8ghz, the latest you gave is 3.4ghz, idk if the clock were not adjusted correctly or maybe because you overheat IT throttles the clock real bad.

idk what settings you use on cod mw but my friend told me he upped from 2x4gb to 2x8gb and it fixes the stutter, maybe you could check if your ram is on the edge while playing the game?
 
Last edited:
Sep 21, 2022
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Lads, I have resolved my problem. Please forgive me for this huge forehead moment. Upon opening up my PC to reapply thermal paste I noticed something odd. It turns out that the previous time that I had applied thermal paste (which correlates to the 2 months I spent in stuttering agony) I had left my fan/heat sink unclipped/secured above the CPU. It was basically wiggling. While placed vertically the heat sink was making no contact with the CPU. This means for the last two months my CPU has been holding on by a thread with no cooling what so ever. I went ahead and scraped the old thermal paste and cleaned both CPU and heat sink with rubbing alcohol. Reapplied thermal paste and lo and behold my game has never run better. I will also mention that everyone that has helped managed to boost my PC even further with all their settings that I was never even aware of so I thank you for that. This has been quite the journey.
 
Solution