In-Game Momentary Freezes

[1366Gamer]

Hi All,

First my system specs:

i7-980X (overclocked to 4.0GHz, stable)
12GB RAM
MSI GTX 1070 GPU (updated to newest driver from MSI site)
Gigabyte UD3R MOBO
HX1000i PSU
Windows 10

The problem that I'm experiencing is that during gaming, the picture on screen will "freeze" though the audio is still playing. My example is with GTA V where I'll walk around, the screen will freeze, FRAPS still shows 60, and then it will "un-freeze" and the fraps will go back up from 0. This happens during cut-scenes as well as in the open world. I noticed that it happens much more when I'm connected to the internet/social club though it still happens when I'm not connected to WiFi.

Just to test it out, I tried Saints Row: The Third and had no such problems. Then tested out The Sims 4 and had similar issues as with GTA V: audio plays fine continuously though the action on the screen will occasionally freeze up, which FRAPs confirms.

I looked it up online and I don't have the RAZR audio, I'm not using the NVidia HD audio, and I've turned off GameDVR. Still having the issues.

Not sure if it matters but the games I have are NOT running off my boot SSD but off of another internal HDD. Just adding it in case that has any impact. GPU temps are low, RAM usage doesn't get very high either during gaming.

Thanks in advance...really could use some insight!

 

[Dragos Manea]

It should not have any impact in gameplay if it runs from hdd or ssd, only if it is a dying hdd. Run some diagnostic software for your hdd, you might have a dying hdd. HDDTUNE, hddsentinel are a few of softwares you can use to see if you have any warnings about the hdd.

 

[1366Gamer]

It should not have any impact in gameplay if it runs from hdd or ssd, only if it is a dying hdd. Run some diagnostic software for your hdd, you might have a dying hdd. HDDTUNE, hddsentinel are a few of softwares you can use to see if you have any warnings about the hdd.

Thanks, I read a post advising others to try HDD Sentinel. Ran that and all drives are at 100% health.

Ran another game on the computer (Starcraft II) and it had the same issues with the FPS drop though to a much lesser extent.

Re-ran Sims 4 with Afterburner, GPU usage maxed out at about 48% so I don't think the GPU is being over-burdened.

 

[Dragos Manea]

Well check if you got v-sync on in the videocard software or in-game.

EDIT: Now i read, dont update the driver from you manufacturer site, go directly to nvidia.com, they are the most recent.

 

[1366Gamer]

Well check if you got v-sync on in the videocard software or in-game.

EDIT: Now i read, dont update the driver from you manufacturer site, go directly to nvidia.com, they are the most recent.

Yup, got it from NVidia...I misspoke, thought it was from MSI (Watch Dogs 2 ad confused me) but installed the driver from NVidia.

Was using V-Sync in-game but tried it out on the NVidia control panel and same results.

 

[Dragos Manea]

It might be because of your overclock did you try a 3.8 with the same voltage as you using now?

 

[Solandri]

Make sure nVidia Shadowplay is turned off, not just GameDVR. I assume the problem happens even when you don't have FRAPS running to measure FPS? Because the main function of FRAPS is the same as GameDVR and Shadowplay.

What make and model HDD do you have? If you have a pagefile on the HDD, get rid of it. Pagefile should go on the SSD unless you have one of those ancient 32GB or 64GB SSDs.

Also check that all your motherboard drivers are up to date, especially chipset. If this is a custom-built system or you upgraded to Win 10, be aware that Win 10 prefers "Windows 10 certified" drivers, meaning it likes to replace functioning Win 7/8 drivers with less capable generic Microsoft drivers. I've seen this cause freezes (both brief and long). When it does this, it seems to stop searching for better manufacturer drivers, so you have no indication that your drivers have been downgraded or that better drivers are available. If you upgraded to Win 10, manually search for Win 10 drivers for all your devices. Don't assume Windows found the best drivers and installed them.

 

[1366Gamer]

Make sure nVidia Shadowplay is turned off, not just GameDVR. I assume the problem happens even when you don't have FRAPS running to measure FPS? Because the main function of FRAPS is the same as GameDVR and Shadowplay.

What make and model HDD do you have? If you have a pagefile on the HDD, get rid of it. Pagefile should go on the SSD unless you have one of those ancient 32GB or 64GB SSDs.

Also check that all your motherboard drivers are up to date, especially chipset. If this is a custom-built system or you upgraded to Win 10, be aware that Win 10 prefers "Windows 10 certified" drivers, meaning it likes to replace functioning Win 7/8 drivers with less capable generic Microsoft drivers. I've seen this cause freezes (both brief and long). When it does this, it seems to stop searching for better manufacturer drivers, so you have no indication that your drivers have been downgraded or that better drivers are available. If you upgraded to Win 10, manually search for Win 10 drivers for all your devices. Don't assume Windows found the best drivers and installed them.

Thanks for the tips. I went through and Shadowplay was off. To be honest, FRAPs has always been on so I'll try it with that off to see if there are any changes.

SSD is a 250GB Samsung SSD , data drivers are Samsung F3 Spinpoints. I somehow had a pagefile on one of the HDDs, which I got rid of. Pagefile is now on the SSD. Looked at HDDs, not fragmented.

I looked at Gigabyte's site and there isn't any Windows 10 support it looks like.

Tried a few games with FRAPs off, no noticable difference. Sims 4 still had some stuttering though GTA V played fine earlier with FRAPs.