[SOLVED] Heavy stuttering on non-x Ryzen 7 2700 at very specific times...

[andreas.scott]

I bought my Ryzen 7 2700 thinking it'd be a considerable upgrade from my often 100% maxed out i5-4690k, and seeing this bad boy sitting at a 40% peak during stuff that'd max out my old CPU was really satisfying....

Here's the deal though. When I'm running as little as a Discord session and Firefox, skipping ahead in a video on Youtube sometimes causes my whole system to slow down - all sound gets distorted and the mouse moves slowly like if you've ever tried navigating the menus of a AAA game run on a very bad laptop.

I tried to open up Afterburner, which monitors every CPU thread. It seems that CPU9 and CPU10 gets maxed to close to 100% - which obviously would be the 5th core.

Is this bad utilization or perhaps a bad core, if that's even a thing? Why would firefox put all the load on Core 5 and not Core 1.

TL;DR:
Sometimes skipping ahead on a Youtube vid almost maxes out Core 5 (thread 9+10) on my Ryzen 7 2700. This also happens sometimes when tabbing out of a fullscreen game.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, at least PART of what this is, is that Ryzen has worse single core performance than your old 4690k. The ONLY things Ryzen has going for it is better multithreaded support for games and applications that can lean heavily on multiple threads, and cost.

Even a very old 3rd Gen 3770k has slightly better single core performance than your Ryzen CPU.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-7-2700-vs-Intel-i7-3770K/3240vs2

And your 4690k had moderately better single core performance.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-7-2700-vs-Intel-i5-4690K/3240vs2284


So anything that requires strong single core performance, is going to stumble a bit.

Probably that's not the exact problem you are having though. I think this might be more related to a driver or bios issue.

I'd do all of the following, first, and then we can go from there if there is no improvement, which I think there will be especially if you are on an older BIOS version.

It would also be VERY helpful to know your memory configuration because Ryzen is VERY sensitive to changes in the memory configuration, so if you are running slow memory or memory that is running slow because it is not configured correctly to enable it's advertised speed, then your CPU performance is likely going to be pretty terrible.

Here are the first steps to take when trying to solve these kinds of hardware problems. If you have already tried these steps, all of them, exactly as outlined, we can move along to more advanced solutions.

If there are any you have NOT 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.

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.

The last thing we want to look at, for now anyhow, is 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.

Here are the full instructions on running the Display driver uninstaller and CLEAN installing new drivers.

*Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU*

 

[drivinfast247]

Gotta ask the easy questions first:
1. Did you perform a fresh install of Windows after upgrade?

2. Are you running the most current drivers?

3. Is your BIOS on latest version.

4. Are you using 2 sticks of RAM?

Also, please list all components of your build.

 

[TerryLaze]

Why would firefox put all the load on Core 5 and not Core 1.

Because core 5 is core 1 of the second CCX,ryzen has two CPUs in it that's why the infinity fabric,that is based on the ram performance, plays a big role in performance.

 

[andreas.scott]

Actually, at least PART of what this is, is that Ryzen has worse single core performance than your old 4690k. The ONLY things Ryzen has going for it is better multithreaded support for games and applications that can lean heavily on multiple threads, and cost.

Even a very old 3rd Gen 3770k has slightly better single core performance than your Ryzen CPU.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-7-2700-vs-Intel-i7-3770K/3240vs2

And your 4690k had moderately better single core performance.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-7-2700-vs-Intel-i5-4690K/3240vs2284


So anything that requires strong single core performance, is going to stumble a bit.

Probably that's not the exact problem you are having though. I think this might be more related to a driver or bios issue.

I'd do all of the following, first, and then we can go from there if there is no improvement, which I think there will be especially if you are on an older BIOS version.

It would also be VERY helpful to know your memory configuration because Ryzen is VERY sensitive to changes in the memory configuration, so if you are running slow memory or memory that is running slow because it is not configured correctly to enable it's advertised speed, then your CPU performance is likely going to be pretty terrible.

Here are the first steps to take when trying to solve these kinds of hardware problems. If you have already tried these steps, all of them, exactly as outlined, we can move along to more advanced solutions.

If there are any you have NOT 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.

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.

The last thing we want to look at, for now anyhow, is 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.

Here are the full instructions on running the Display driver uninstaller and CLEAN installing new drivers.

*Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU*

Haha hi again Darkbreeze. One of the things you listed sounds familiar: My RAM is running at 2133MHz instead of the advertised 3000MHz. The guy I bought the parts through couldn't get them up to 3000 and suggested I waited for a later BIOS update. He couldnt get it to work with XMP or manual OC of the RAM... Maybe I should try and fiddle with it myself and check for an update then. And then update the other stuff from the product page...

MOBO is ROG B450-f
RAM: G.Skill AEGIS DDR4 F4-3000C16S-8GISB - obviously 2 of those
GPU for the record: GTX 1070 ARMOR

 

[andreas.scott]

Gotta ask the easy questions first:
1. Did you perform a fresh install of Windows after upgrade?

2. Are you running the most current drivers?

3. Is your BIOS on latest version.

4. Are you using 2 sticks of RAM?

Also, please list all components of your build.

1. Yes
2. Which drivers should I ensure are up to date? My GPU is up to date and my BIOS was updated a month ago or 2
3. Checking in a bit but it should be (if I dont update this, it is)
4. yes

MOBO: ROG B450-f
RAM: G.Skill AEGIS DDR4 F4-3000C16S-8GISB - obviously 2 of those
GPU: GTX 1070 ARMOR
CPU: Ryzen 7 2700 (non-x)
650W PSU from coolermaster (can't remember the name, but is this important?)

 

[PdxPetmonster]

Personally this doesn't sound like anything having to do with the CPU itself, but more along the lines of a driver issue. Have you installed the latest and greatest motherboard drivers from the manufacturer? I know you mentioned that you were sure the video card and bios were the latest, but all the motherboard drivers need to be as well.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You need to get the memory running at it's rated speed.

If you are not on motherboard bios version 1103, you need to update.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-B450-F-GAMING/HelpDesk_BIOS/


Don't just download the BIOS update and then try to click on it to install in Windows. There is a process. I suggest that you watch some video tutorials on updating ASUS B450 motherboards. Put the files on a USB drive and then run the bios update utility in the BIOS. They will need to be unzipped/unpacked if you downloaded them in a zipped format.

After updating, try setting the DOCP/XMP profile in the bios. If you can't get them to work with the profile, we'll need to work on doing that. I'm pretty sure this is a big part of your problem.