[SOLVED] Games are stuttering, factory new cpu problem?

Oct 23, 2019
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Specs.
  • I5-9500F (yes, the 9500, not the 9400)
  • Asrock B365M Phantom Gaming 4
  • EVGA GTX 1060 SC with some manual extra oc on top, the card does go up to 86 °C at rough times, but ive identified that this shouldnt be the cause of the stutters (i can test it more though)
  • GOODRAM CX300 240GB SSD (storage drives shouldnt be a cause of the stutters, because i have tried testing Far Cry 4 on both an ssd and an hdd, both of them do stutter)
  • 2TB HDD
  • 500 HDD
  • RipJaws V 2666mhz DDR4 Ram sticks
  • 650w PSU (have to recheck though)

I experience stutters in some form in almost all of the games i play. Very annoying. Have tried so many "fixes" of which many of them havent worked at all.
Can someone help me on this? Have experienced them for over half a year now.
 
Solution
I dont have a different motherboard witth this socket nor do i want to spend money on a completely new mobo that i may not need. I am really not that rich, and i dont think i have the cheques.
There has to be a way to test this further without brute forcing new parts
The only other things I can suggest are to either borrow a motherboard and other parts to do your own testing or bring your whole system to a shop and have them run extensive tests on it after explaining the issue. If you RMA the board and they find nothing wrong, you will have wasted probably 1/3 the cost of buying a new board just for shipping charges. Bringing the whole system to a shop will probably cost as much or more as buying a new motherboard.

The entire...
Oct 23, 2019
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Rams are in the correct slots to my memory, 16gb (4x4) both working with the right speed. Stuttering occurs more in some certain games but there seems to be a minuscule amount in some of the less intensive ones.
Drives are mostly up to date.
CPU temps are peaceful, GPU can go as hot as 83/93 (dont remember which digit it was).
PSU: iBOX CUBE II 600W
Bios updated about a month ago, so quite recent.

Just lately discovered that Quake Champions can cause an exceeding amount of stutter at certain moments, especially with Gore enabled. This was after my PC was turned on for over 10 hours though.
I really am stumped on this.
My theories on the matter:
  1. Brand new CPU could be a faulty unit
  2. PSU could be creating some sort of mahogany
  3. Motherboard problem?
I dont think that the problem stands within my gpu, even though it is still possible. Last time i tried playing with a gtx 1050 2gb, i still had stutters in some titles, but i am referring to my memory here.

Thanks!
 
Oct 23, 2019
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I do not remember that PSU costing 20-30 bucks the day i had bought it. It was perhaps like 50-60, if my memory is not failing me. That can make the impression that the psu is bad. Is it really bad, or are we judging it by the price?
I still don't know for sure if its a problem directly related to my psu.
How can i make sure that these stutters are directly related to my psu?
if it would be it, id assume all of my games would stutter more or less the same, the more intensive ones stutter more, the other ones to a much lesser degree, hence my skepticism.
 
You get what you play for. PSU's that are cheap might work for a regular home computer, I know I have put plenty of cheap 40-50 dollar Seasonic PSU's in home computer with no problem. I would not put a 50 or 60 dollar PSU in a gaming computer. You need a good quality PSU. Gaming computers with high end hardware needs a PSU that is consistant. When a cheap PSU blows there is a good chance it will take other hardware like the motherboard , RAM or video card with it.
 
Oct 23, 2019
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You get what you play for. PSU's that are cheap might work for a regular home computer, I know I have put plenty of cheap 40-50 dollar Seasonic PSU's in home computer with no problem. I would not put a 50 or 60 dollar PSU in a gaming computer. You need a good quality PSU. Gaming computers with high end hardware needs a PSU that is consistant. When a cheap PSU blows there is a good chance it will take other hardware like the motherboard , RAM or video card with it.

How can i completely make sure its my PSU though?

Minecraft stutters when set to high render distances, i dont know if its a problem with the game, but that game isnt too hard on hardware, it really doesnt use the gpu, which takes the most power out of a system.
 
Oct 23, 2019
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I bought 8gb, and then added 8gb more. So yes, i just added on the same ripjaws models.
I'm thinking that either the CPU or the memory is the cause of the stutters, since they are the prime contenders for most of the stutter-induced incident on the pc platform. Problem is, my cpu is brand new, so i doubt that it is the cause of my stutters.

I honestly think its something to do with ram.
Then again, its just a guess.

Might even be my gpu, since it has seen very heavy usage. Maybe it is the psu, but these stutters seem to be situated within heavier programs, and lighter ones dont stutter.
I suppose a psu would make everything stuttery.

I would love to get more help on this, this is a really tough problem to crack.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I bought two identical 4GBx2 ram modules. So as per the meaning of ram mixing, i didnt.

That's still mixing RAM. No modules are truly identical, which is why they're sold in kits because they're tested together. Now, the same model usually works, but it's no guarantee. Only RAM sold together is guaranteed to work. Which is why you need to test further with single sticks.

The PSU is unlikely to be causing the stuttering, but the PSU is your larger problem. This is frighteningly low quality. There's no such thing as a quality "unknown" power supply; there are only a handful of manufacturers who are responsible for the quality power supplies, so it's the equivalent of finding a new cancer drug that nobody knows about. Without even opening this one -- which would be entertaining -- you can spot all sorts of red flags. The missing certifications, the reporting of "max" wattage rather than sustained (a huge red flag of the junk PSU), the voltage configuration that doesn't add up, the ATX spec that expired in 2007, etc. You have a stuttering problem, but this is a power supply so frightening that if I owned these parts, I wouldn't even be turning it on.

Also missing is the history of this build. You talk about your "old" CPU here. You list a modern platform and what look to be older hard drives (as most builds of this type will at least have an SSD). Was this a fresh install of Windows? Because if you just slapped in your old hard drive, as many people try to do, once you ran into problems, every one of your steps was a waste of time if you didn't first install Windows properly.
 
Oct 23, 2019
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First off, this was a good read, thanks for your input. Now for some answers:
The "old cpu" talk comes from about 5-6months ago, from when i upgraded my pc to where it is today. I upgraded my motherboard, ram modules, and my cpu, so pretty much a platform swap.

One of the hard drives comes from an old compaq elite 8300, so it is rather old, but the 2TB one is quite recent. I do have an ssd, windows is installed on it.
Once i did my platform swap, i reinstalled windows. First i plugged the old drives into my new pc so that it would just boot up, then started the reinstall procedure that made me wipe two drives (the third one contained random data, text and photos so i didnt wipe that).
All should be fine with windows, havent experienced any errors.
Now, if two exact same model ram sets could be my stuttering issue, i shall try removing two sticks so that im kept with only one set, and test stuttering with that.
It's gonna be tough finding an intensive game nowadays which would support 8gb flawlessly, but ill try my best.

As for the psu, it seems like the talk around here is not in its favor, and you might just be right.
Even though it has somehow survived for quite a long period of time with all kinds of overclock on my gpu to exceedingly stress it. Safe to say, i am considering a psu change.
 
Hi a few questions (PSU aside):

  1. What resolution are you playing ?
  2. Have you tried to turn back the OC on the GPU and then test the gameplay?
  3. Did you try to unplug the sata and power cables from that really old HDD and leave it that way for testing?
  4. Do you have atleast 2 fans as intake in the front of the case and 1 or 2 more at the back to remove the hot air to the outide ?

Personal feeling, I trully don't believe the RAM is the issue. If it was a really low end, not known brand memory perhaps, but we are in 2019, Bioses and memory controllers have come a long, long way since the first days of dual channel. I had two Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz sticks (not kit ones) runing stable in dual channel along with my old Core i5 3570 for 5 years without a single issue.

Cheers
 

EndEffeKt_24

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Mar 27, 2019
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I think its the gpu thermal-throtteling. Those temps are quite high. Check with hw-monitor if the clocks go down. And I would set it back to stock to see if the issue persists.
On top check performance with 2 ram modules. I would at least test 3 combinatins.
 

Phaaze88

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I think its the gpu thermal-throtteling. Those temps are quite high. Check with hw-monitor if the clocks go down. And I would set it back to stock to see if the issue persists.
On top check performance with 2 ram modules. I would at least test 3 combinatins.
You may be on to something there: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185975/evga-gtx1060-6144-160714
Some gpu models have lower thermal limits than others - that gpu is set to throttle at 83C...

EVGA GTX 1060 SC with some manual extra oc on top, the card does go up to 86 °C at rough times, but ive identified that this shouldnt be the cause of the stutters (i can test it more though)
Nvidia's 10, 16, and 20 series cards are temperature sensitive; they don't 'boost' as high when running warm. But clock speed plummets when they hit their thermal limits.
 
Oct 23, 2019
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Hi a few questions (PSU aside):

  1. What resolution are you playing ?
  2. Have you tried to turn back the OC on the GPU and then test the gameplay?
  3. Did you try to unplug the sata and power cables from that really old HDD and leave it that way for testing?
  4. Do you have atleast 2 fans as intake in the front of the case and 1 or 2 more at the back to remove the hot air to the outide ?
Personal feeling, I trully don't believe the RAM is the issue. If it was a really low end, not known brand memory perhaps, but we are in 2019, Bioses and memory controllers have come a long, long way since the first days of dual channel. I had two Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz sticks (not kit ones) runing stable in dual channel along with my old Core i5 3570 for 5 years without a single issue.

Cheers
Im playing 1080p@75hz
I'm not gonna quote stuff from my memory as a guarantee, but if i were to, the gpu oc didnt seem to cause problems since i have run numerous tests regarding the oc aswell (doesnt mean that i cant test it again, i can and probably will do that with forza horizon 3).
It is a very hot card, i think 87-88 degrees when maxed out constantly, and can go over.

I have tried unplugging all of my drives except for the ssd and tried running far cry 4 on it, which still stuttered (rarely). Not the best game for benches though.

In my case, no fans. All of the fans come from the components. If my gpu wants cool, the gpu fan provides cool. Same for the cpu and psu, i dont have extra case fans in my pc. Cooled by the components themselves.

I have read all of your guys replies, thanks for the assistance!

EDIT: After trying to reduce the clock speeds, it does seem like the gpu can hold its own in FH3. I reduced the power limit to 94% which provided temps in the 77C region.
Still had the effects of stuttering, although noticeably more frequent after i finished loading into the game world. The fps graph had quite some dips during that period.

After about 4-5 mins of driving around it seemed like the stutters were gone, since the frequency they appeared at were so far and few between.
Driving in the city i managed to capture this though(the fps graph has a roof of 75fps):
4e4NyMy.png

Will try ram later.
 
Last edited:

Gfost73

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my GPU ran hot too, 80°C+ ..at stock... I ended up OC my card , but also undervolted.. now I dont have same GPU but I'm sure theory same. I was able to do mine threw Wattman and I adjusted fan curve a bit , which now lets my card Max temp reach maybe 64° and that's after hours of play and pushing it . so maybe this is something you might wanna check into for yoru GPU? as well I learned that I had to have Enhanced Sync on but NOT limit the FPS in game or threw Wattman as it caused bad tearing and stutter. so now I just leave Enhanced sync on .. and dont touch any FPS limit and you need fans in a case ,.... NEED ... at least 1 intake and 1 exhaust.. the hot air wont get out fast enough without at least that
 
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Phaaze88

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In my case, no fans. All of the fans come from the components. If my gpu wants cool, the gpu fan provides cool. Same for the cpu and psu, i dont have extra case fans in my pc. Cooled by the components themselves.
Your gpu is thermal throttling and you have no case fans...
The gpu is clearly not able to cool enough on it's own. You've created this physical limitation and need to fix it.
 
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Just to be clear, in case you miss the point Gfost73, Phaaze88 and I tried to express, even if temps seems to be fine, you should still use some case fans, is not good for your components to "take care of themselves" like you said.

If you were runing and open bench like this (https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1XtkT...Mod-MATX-M-ATX-Motherboard-Overlock-Water.jpg) in a well ventilated room or with AA ON that may work and be enough.

In a close case, specially with the card you have with only 1 fan you need atleast 2 fans in your case. And don't forget your CPU is also generatin heat and all that heat doesn't have a clear path to move out.
With 1 fan to bring fresh air from outside in the front, and another one to take the hot air out in the back of the case. And you don't need to spend a lot of money on them 2 of this:

PCPartPicker Part List

Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F12 74 CFM 120 mm Fan ($6.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $6.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-29 14:14 EST-0500


Will be way better than your current setup with no fans at all. Keep in mind that the fan I posted have two operative modes, you can run it in the low noise mode and will be good too.

Cheers!
 

Phaaze88

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Even if the temperatures are in the safe range, about 76C? Thermal throttling shall start at about 82C
Yeah, 76C is fine.
I've looked up the vbios for this card, and you've mentioned thermal throttling multiple times:

Post #1
EVGA GTX 1060 SC with some manual extra oc on top, the card does go up to 86 °C at rough times, but ive identified that this shouldnt be the cause of the stutters (i can test it more though)

Post #2
CPU temps are peaceful, GPU can go as hot as 83/93 (dont remember which digit it was).

Post #8
It is a very hot card, i think 87-88 degrees when maxed out constantly, and can go over.


Plus, the 1060 isn't a very power-hungry card; those temps you're seeing make more sense on higher-end gpus like the 2070, 2080, RX 5700XT, etc.
While we know you currently don't have any case fans, we don't know what kind of case you have; that's also going to have an affect on the temps of your hardware.


You know what? Your situation just reminded me of something. Download and run HWINFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/
Check the temps of each of your storage drives when you experience the stuttering.
 
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Gfost73

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the RX 570 I have , at stock non gaming settings (OC mode), while gaming would reach 84-85°C but I later learned with this particular card it was known to run hot , my fix was the under-volting of the card, not only does it run cooler, its overclocked and stable at 1390Mhz, (I can do 1400mhz stable as well) .. with a minor fan curve adjustment but wasn't really needed as the under-volting took temps way down.. now I'm lucky to hit 64°c but I also have 5 140MM fans ( 3 front intake, 2 top exhaust that run at their full speeds (no fan control on them as there cheapo for now) .. and a rear 120mm fan that is controlled by board and will run faster if case gets hot.
 
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Oct 23, 2019
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While we know you currently don't have any case fans, we don't know what kind of case you have; that's also going to have an affect on the temps of your hardware.
The case is an ibox vesta s30. It fits my form factor motherboard nicely, but with all the wiring inside (which probably isnt done too well, none of the wires go through the back plate), its a bit cramped.
Coupled with the no-fan type of build, the temperatures naturally go higher than on most setups.

Ill probably add fans at some point, i had the idea of adding a pci blower cooler to the pc to get some temperatures and preferrably noise reduction. But your comment made me reconsider, i might try standard PC case fans.
Ill try and get some good ones that fit and that blow real good.
With that kind of a gpu its hard to make it quieter, its a factory overclocked card and i added some manual oc on top. This thing howls like crazy when the fan is at 100%, which it is at most of the time.

Audible across the house, easily.
Coupled with my headset, i can comfortably say that certain quieter footsteps in games are a lot tougher to hear.

Ill try hwinfo, thanks for the suggestion!