Question Help - noticeable screen stuttering despite all hardware and software exhibiting no problems

[dingley]

You know when you're used to a higher refresh rate and you can immediately notice poor visual feedback ie. FPS

Currently whether it be browsing or playing games (R6, VAL) I'm having an strange lag and stutter issue, feels like I'm playing a slower version at times.

Sometimes the performance is flawless but for the most part when I move my mouse or perform actions in game it is the opposite of the buttery smoothness I'm used too, this has all happened suddenly and I've never tinkered with any PC setting. I've literally tried every possible solution see below.

- fresh windows, updated bios
-all high performance + nvidia control panel settings changed to gold standard
-no problems from benchmarks GPU and CPU record very normal results
-no input lag or latency issues
-no usb or audio hardware causing problems
-experimented with g-sync and v-sync on and off configurations, makes zero difference (monitor settings already gold standard)
-No outdated hardware new computer which has been working flawlessly for 3 years.
-No bottlenecks, in valorant my gpu fans don't even turn on (60c temp)

Specs:
RTX 2070 duke
I7 9700
16gb ram
nvme ssd
800w psu gold

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model of that 3 year old 800 Watt PSU?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for any error codes, warnings, or even informational events being captured just before or at the times of the stutters.

 

[dingley]

Make and model of that 3 year old 800 Watt PSU?

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for any error codes, warnings, or even informational events being captured just before or at the times of the stutters.

Thanks for the fast reply,

Its actually and EVGA 600W 80+ PSU. It's new and has been in my pc for little over a year.
In fact it started to exhibit some coil whines yesterday, this wasn't impacted by my GPU as it was still 60c with fan off while gaming.

Never looked at RH and EV, will do. But I've used latencymon and other niche tools and they've reported my system is running fine.

Could a poor performing PSU be the cause of this? As every other component isn't exhibiting problems

 

[Ralston18]

Yes. Check RH and EV.

Reliability History is much more user friendly and the timeline format can reveal patterns and trends.

Event Viewer requires more time and effort to navigate and understand.

To help:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Increasing numbers of errors and varying errors are, to me anyway, an indication of a faltering or failing PSU.

Especially if the PSU has been heavily used for gaming, video editing, and even bit mining.

Another thing you can do is to power down the PC, unplug, and open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumper, and case connections are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to carefully inspect for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melted insulation, pinched or kinked wires, corrosion, missing or loose screws, browned or blackened areas, swollen components, cracks, etc..

Failing that, you can use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance and look for what changes whenever the lag and stutter occurs.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Begin by running apps and doing things that do not cause lagging and stuttering. Then, while continuing to observe via the tool, run an app where lagging and stuttering has been occuring.

May take some time and effort along with some experimenting to get a sense of it all.

Just be methodical and watch carefully.

 

[dingley]

Yes. Check RH and EV.

Reliability History is much more user friendly and the timeline format can reveal patterns and trends.

Event Viewer requires more time and effort to navigate and understand.

To help:

How To - How to use Windows 10 Event Viewer | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

Increasing numbers of errors and varying errors are, to me anyway, an indication of a faltering or failing PSU.

Especially if the PSU has been heavily used for gaming, video editing, and even bit mining.

Another thing you can do is to power down the PC, unplug, and open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, jumper, and case connections are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to carefully inspect for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melted insulation, pinched or kinked wires, corrosion, missing or loose screws, browned or blackened areas, swollen components, cracks, etc..

Failing that, you can use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance and look for what changes whenever the lag and stutter occurs.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Begin by running apps and doing things that do not cause lagging and stuttering. Then, while continuing to observe via the tool, run an app where lagging and stuttering has been occuring.

May take some time and effort along with some experimenting to get a sense of it all.

Just be methodical and watch carefully.

Something interesting happened, close to a solution.

I turned on my pc like usual opened all my apps (discord, spotify) browsed for a while then launched a game (valorant) surprisingly the game was like normal very smooth 144hz gameplay.

But after around 15 minutes the performance slowly deteriorated into a laggy and choppy one - it looked like a filter had been applied on my screen that made the fps and screen go slow-mo (despite stats like fps and latency being excellent).
________________________________________________________________
The only thing I'd done during playing is simply ALT+TABing' to spotify or to open discord.

So its something to do with alt+tabbing while playing suddenly deterioates performance

Here are my display settings:
Monitor is a 144hz ASUS with Gsync compatible - monitor settings copied from reputable yt video (adaptive sync is on)

Nvidia Control Panel
PC: 1920x1080 @144hz
Scaling: Full Screen
Perform Scaling on: GPU (Override mode set by games on)
V-Sync off in 3D settings but G-Sync is ticked on

Disable full screen optimizations is on in the properties of all the games I play too.
Vsync is turned off in my games settings (Valorant, R6)

The problem has been narrowed down significantly I hope we can get a solution!

 

[Ralston18]

Okay.

Use the tools.

Do as you normally with the exception that one of the tools is immediately run after boot up.

Look for what changes around the 15 minute mark.

Check Task Scheduler - could some trigger kicking in.

 

[dingley]

Okay.

Use the tools.

Do as you normally with the exception that one of the tools is immediately run after boot up.

Look for what changes around the 15 minute mark.

Check Task Scheduler - could some trigger kicking in.

I checked my device manager and Base System Device has a warning sign

The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)

There are no compatible drivers for this device.

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1911&SUBSYS_7C001462&REV_00\3&11583659&0&40 requires further installation.

I'm trying to figure out what piece of hardware is causing this hopefully the string of letters above help.

In event viewer 2 events arised Event 400, Kernel PNP which logs the same string of letters above.

My gpu drivers are up to date so is my bios, maybe its a out of date motherboard or cpu driver?

 

[geofelt]

I suspect that you are getting interference from one of your concurrent apps.
See what happens if you do not any other apps except for the game.
Then start discord or spotify and see if there is an impact.
I seem to recall posts indicating issues from them.