Question Fortnite is stuttering a lot. Is it due to the single channel?

[XDaVleX]

Hi I have been having this problem since a lot ago in Fortnite. At first I though that it was because of my HDD, so last month I upgrade it to a SSD and installed Windows 10 and Fortnite there. The problem was still there. I have done tons of thing to try to fix it but nothing works: I have donde several clean installs of Windows 10, tried to "optimize the OS by quiting the Game bar and other few things, I have done stress tests to my CPU and GPU to check if everything was okay (and it was), I uninstalled the graphic drivers with DDU and installed them again, I even changed the PSU and the problem STILL there. The in-game usage of the CPU and GPU is like 60% and 75-85%, respectively.
A lot of you probably will recommend me to change graphics settings to lower ones in the game but I have like a 2000$ PC and it is ridiculuos to play this game in Medium-Low (and anyway, in that configuration it still stutters sometimes). I have a theory and it is because only by discarding all the previous things, I think that my problem is a failure of the RAM, maybe because it is Single Channel. Can that happen? I can buy a kit of 2x8 gb right now due to christmas. Should I do it? These are my specs:
-RTX 2070 OC (I also try to quiting the OC and the problem stills there)
-i7 7700k (Non oc)
-Gigabyte Gaming B8 (Motherboard)
-16 GB RAM Ballistix SIngle Channel, it is 2666 mhz but my mobo supports only 2400, so its running at 2400 mhz, I have the X.M.P activated (I dont know a lot about frequencies of RAM and that stuff, but I have read that having the X.M.P its the best option)
PSU 750 watts Plus gold
SSD 240 GB XPG Sx6000 pro
HDD 3 TB
Tell me if you need more information but I seriously would apreciate if you help me
And NO, it dont happens in other games, well just in No mans Sky.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is no such thing as "single channel RAM". There is ONLY ...............RAM. Whether it is IN a single or dual channel configuration depends entirely on how many DIMMs are installed and what slots they are installed in.

Your motherboard model is wrong or incomplete. There is no such model that I'm aware of. What is the ACTUAL, FULL model including the chipset type, so, like H270, B460, obviously it's not a Z board since you said it only supports up to 2400mhz.

How many memory modules do you actually have installed and EXACTLY which DIMM slots are they installed in?

What is the EXACT model of your power supply. "PSU 750 watts Plus Gold" is pretty vague. That could be any of literally thousands of different PSU models.

No mans sky has had a lot of problems with buggy behavior. The first thing I'd do is make sure that you have any and ALL patches installed so that the game is completely up to date.

Then, I'd check all of these.


If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.

First,​

Make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.

Second,​

Go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates. When it comes to the chipset drivers, if your motherboard manufacturer lists a chipset driver that is newer than what the chipset developer (Intel or AMD, for our purposes) lists, then use that one. If Intel (Or AMD) shows a chipset driver version that is newer than what is available from the motherboard product page, then use that one. Always use the newest chipset driver that you can get and always use ONLY the chipset drivers available from either the motherboard manufacturer, AMD or Intel.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.

Third,​

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.

Fourth (And often tied for most important along with an up-to-date motherboard BIOS),​

A clean install of the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Graphics card driver CLEAN install guide using the Wagnard tools DDU
​

And last, but not least, if you have never done a CLEAN install of Windows, or have upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, or have been through several spring or fall major Windows updates, it might be a very good idea to consider doing a clean install of Windows if none of these other solutions has helped. IF you are using a Windows installation from a previous system and you didn't do a clean install of Windows after building the new system, then it's 99.99% likely that you NEED to do a CLEAN install before trying any other solutions.


How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10, the RIGHT way​

 

[XDaVleX]

There is no such thing as "single channel RAM". There is ONLY ...............RAM. Whether it is IN a single or dual channel configuration depends entirely on how many DIMMs are installed and what slots they are installed in.

Your motherboard model is wrong or incomplete. There is no such model that I'm aware of. What is the ACTUAL, FULL model including the chipset type, so, like H270, B460, obviously it's not a Z board since you said it only supports up to 2400mhz.

How many memory modules do you actually have installed and EXACTLY which DIMM slots are they installed in?

What is the EXACT model of your power supply. "PSU 750 watts Plus Gold" is pretty vague. That could be any of literally thousands of different PSU models.

No mans sky has had a lot of problems with buggy behavior. The first thing I'd do is make sure that you have any and ALL patches installed so that the game is completely up to date.

Then, I'd check all of these.


If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.

First,​

Make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.

Second,​

Go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates. When it comes to the chipset drivers, if your motherboard manufacturer lists a chipset driver that is newer than what the chipset developer (Intel or AMD, for our purposes) lists, then use that one. If Intel (Or AMD) shows a chipset driver version that is newer than what is available from the motherboard product page, then use that one. Always use the newest chipset driver that you can get and always use ONLY the chipset drivers available from either the motherboard manufacturer, AMD or Intel.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.

Third,​

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.

Fourth (And often tied for most important along with an up-to-date motherboard BIOS),​

A clean install of the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Graphics card driver CLEAN install guide using the Wagnard tools DDU



And last, but not least, if you have never done a CLEAN install of Windows, or have upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, or have been through several spring or fall major Windows updates, it might be a very good idea to consider doing a clean install of Windows if none of these other solutions has helped. IF you are using a Windows installation from a previous system and you didn't do a clean install of Windows after building the new system, then it's 99.99% likely that you NEED to do a CLEAN install before trying any other solutions.


How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10, the RIGHT way​

1. I have 1 stick of 16 gb running obviously on single channel, it is installed on the DDR4-1 (it appears in that way on my motherboard), my question is Should I buy 2 stick of 8 and have dual channel on my pc? That would fix the stutter?
2.My motherboard is a B250 Gaming B8

1. My PSU is a Aerocool 750GM FULL RANGE MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD RGB READY (RGB CONTROLLER NOT INCLUDED)
2. I have No mans sky on the xbox game pass so yeah, everything is up to date.
3. I have done everyhing what you enlisted.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, it would be pretty rare for "stutters" to happen due to a lack of dual channel, but a lack of dual channel can cause SOME amount of performance diminishment, so it's worth doing something there simply to ensure you aren't leaving performance on the table.

What I'd recommend doing there might not be what you can afford to do there though, so obviously that's up to you. Two options really.

One, get another identical stick to the one you have now, for a total of 32GB and an end result of having dual channel, or, it might be cheaper to simply get a 2x 8GB kit with matched sticks as you suggested, but IF you do that I would recommend that you get a much higher speed kit so that if or when you upgrade the platform down the road, you won't need to buy new memory just to take advantage of it's faster memory capability. You can still use faster memory on your current system and just run it at 2400mhz.

Either way takes care of the dual channel issue and MAAAAAYBE resolves the stuttering or micro stuttering issues, whichever it is you are having, but I wouldn't count 100% on it.

I think it's a lot more likely that a lack of cores and having a slightly older CPU in addition to the game itself having problems, is likely the core of the issue.

You might try the resolution here if you haven't already.

No man's sky stuttering fix

Everybody I've known who has played that game, which I have not, has complained of some kind of issue or other except those with much newer systems that have very fast memory, lots of it, and a CPU with 6 or more cores. But everybody has different expectations too. So, try this and if it doesn't help maybe we can try a few other solutions. It can't hurt to fix the lack of optimal memory performance either, but don't 100% plan on that being the "for sure" fix.

 

[mjggy]

made an account in the hope of helping you with your issue, my friend had the same problem and this had worked. It is due to the driver update. Read OPs comment in this thread

View: https://old.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/jocdh4/how_to_fix_fps_on_high_end_hardware_how_to_in/

 

[XDaVleX]

So, it would be pretty rare for "stutters" to happen due to a lack of dual channel, but a lack of dual channel can cause SOME amount of performance diminishment, so it's worth doing something there simply to ensure you aren't leaving performance on the table.

What I'd recommend doing there might not be what you can afford to do there though, so obviously that's up to you. Two options really.

One, get another identical stick to the one you have now, for a total of 32GB and an end result of having dual channel, or, it might be cheaper to simply get a 2x 8GB kit with matched sticks as you suggested, but IF you do that I would recommend that you get a much higher speed kit so that if or when you upgrade the platform down the road, you won't need to buy new memory just to take advantage of it's faster memory capability. You can still use faster memory on your current system and just run it at 2400mhz.

Either way takes care of the dual channel issue and MAAAAAYBE resolves the stuttering or micro stuttering issues, whichever it is you are having, but I wouldn't count 100% on it.

I think it's a lot more likely that a lack of cores and having a slightly older CPU in addition to the game itself having problems, is likely the core of the issue.

You might try the resolution here if you haven't already.

No man's sky stuttering fix

Everybody I've known who has played that game, which I have not, has complained of some kind of issue or other except those with much newer systems that have very fast memory, lots of it, and a CPU with 6 or more cores. But everybody has different expectations too. So, try this and if it doesn't help maybe we can try a few other solutions. It can't hurt to fix the lack of optimal memory performance either, but don't 100% plan on that being the "for sure" fix.

I already ordered a 3200 mhz 2x8 gb RAM, thanks for your advice. So, dou you think that the problem of the stutter in fortnite is the cpu and there is nothing to do, except buying a new CPU?
I am going to check the no mans sky post. THANK YOU A LOT MY BROTHER

 

[XDaVleX]

made an account in the hope of helping you with your issue, my friend had the same problem and this had worked. It is due to the driver update. Read OPs comment in this thread

View: https://old.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/jocdh4/how_to_fix_fps_on_high_end_hardware_how_to_in/

Thanks for your consideration. I am going to try that but I already did a clean uninstall of grhapic card drivers and the problem stills there. Thanks anyway!!

 

[Darkbreeze]

If other games, ALL other games, have no issues, and it is ONLY this game, then I really doubt it is the CPU, or is in fact anything other than poor optimization and some piece of buggy code. One thing you might try, which will likely suck because you will most probably lose any progress (But maybe not) is to completely remove the game including all patches and add ons, download the most recent full installer that should include any required patches and then reinstall the game. It's a long shot, but something to consider if nothing else works in the end.

Usually when something is only triggered or happens in THAT game or application, it IS that game or application, and not something else. When it's "something else" it usually happens in other place often enough to make it pretty obvious that it's not JUST something to do with any particular piece of software. Not always, but usually.

 

[mxnty]

Just in case you’re still wondering, X.M.P or D.O.C.P is a memory profile which causes the RAM to work at the max speed it can go to (the speed listed when you buy it) vs normal which is at the MOBO default speed. Newer boards would have a higher default speed depending on what they’re for.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Just in case you’re still wondering, X.M.P or D.O.C.P is a memory profile which causes the RAM to work at the max speed it can go to (the speed listed when you buy it) vs normal which is at the MOBO default speed. Newer boards would have a higher default speed depending on what they’re for.

Unfortunately, this is not correct. Well, partially correct anyhow.

XMP and other hard coded profiles do NOT "cause the RAM to work at the max speed it can go to". When enabled, what they DO do, is allow the memory to run at the speed advertised, which is the speed that the manufacturer has determined to be the fastest speed the memory can EASILY run at, AND remain stable, for all of the memory being used to fulfill orders of THAT specific model or part number. It is usually NOT the "maximum speed" the memory can run at and remain stable and certainly not the maximum speed the memory can run at if you remove stability considerations.

It might seem only a small point, but when it comes to PC hardware and memory in particular, small things often translate into much larger problems when not appropriately taken into consideration.

Also, "motherboards" don't have "default speeds". What they do have is the ability to read the also hard coded JEDEC profiles that are onboard the memory module, much like the XMP profile. Usually there are several of them, all with different steps in speed, so that depending on any limitations imposed by the combination of CPU and motherboard model (Think locked vs unlocked configurations and also some CPUs that support different memory speeds even within the same family and generation depending on CPU model) there will be one that is compatible. When it comes to some secondary and most all tertiary timings, THOSE are often a result of the motherboard manufacturers hardware tables and algorithms which generally find and set those timings based on a combination of what the primary and secondary timings are and what it determines to be stable on the fly.

Same board, same CPU and same memory, COULD result in entirely different secondary and tertiary timings from one boot to the next if you haven't enabled the memory fast boot setting in the BIOS after finalizing your memory configuration settings once you know things are fully stable. Not that it really makes much difference, as those timings are moderately less important than the main ones, but important still in some cases when it comes to stability. One timing setting, of which there are dozens and dozens, could cause a configuration to not be stable.

 

[mxnty]

Oops, I was a bit confused for a little, thanks for correcting me.