Question Is my GPU causing the stutters that I get while gaming ?

[bakugan834]

Sorry if I worded that wrong. I meant that with the 1070 TI I had no stutters in the Finals, and when I changed back to 3070 TI, I had no stutters anymore.

I also tried Snowrunner with both and I still get those hitches no matter which card I use

So you had stutters in The Finals with the 3070 ti, but when you changed your GPU to your friend's GPU you had no stutters. And when you reintroduced your GPU back the stutters disappeared?? That's weird

You also mentioned you had some dirt on your connector

But if Snowrunner still runs the same, then that means it's not from the GPU.

What's your PSU now? I know you said you changed it. I would also try out the SSD from your friend

 

[Nikzogg]

So you had stutters in The Finals with the 3070 ti, but when you changed your GPU to your friend's GPU you had no stutters. And when you reintroduced your GPU back the stutters disappeared?? That's weird

You also mentioned you had some dirt on your connector

But if Snowrunner still runs the same, then that means it's not from the GPU.

What's your PSU now? I know you said you changed it. I would also try out the SSD from your friend

Currently using the Fractal Design one, though I will change back to the Corsair one later.

 

[Avro Arrow]

@bakugan834 @CelicaGT @Avro Arrow
UPDATE: I tried my friend's GTX 1070 TI, and suprisingly, (at least) The Finals didn't stutter anymore! But I tried switching back to my RTX 3070 TI just to test out if DLSS was causing it, so I tried running the game without DLSS, no stutter. Then I changed DLSS to Performance, no stutter! Not sure what was causing it, but there was a little bit of dirt on the connector, could that be the cause of it?

Also, Snowrunner still seems to have these weird hitches so my GPU is not causing that at least. I also tried Fortnit today, and it had similar hitches, but that might be because I turned DX12 render on.

Well, I'm glad that is not happening any more. Sometimes weird things happen that just fix themselves.

 

[Nikzogg]

@CelicaGT @Avro Arrow I noticed that now when playing non-openworld games, I don't get any stutter.
However, when playing games with big maps (Open world games etc.) I sometimes get frametime spikes/hitches. I also retired my old SSD and now I'm using a different SSD as my system drive. It is not caused by my GPU, memory, PSU or CPU (most likely) since I have tested replacing them. Any idea what could be causing it?

 

[CelicaGT]

@CelicaGT @Avro Arrow I noticed that now when playing non-openworld games, I don't get any stutter.
However, when playing games with big maps (Open world games etc.) I sometimes get frametime spikes/hitches. I also retired my old SSD and now I'm using a different SSD as my system drive. It is not caused by my GPU, memory, PSU or CPU (most likely) since I have tested replacing them. Any idea what could be causing it?

Reading prior comments about the GPU swap. Ultimately it sounds like it may have been a driver issue. DDU is not perfect, and I HAVE had issues persist after using it (rare). In those cases I've had to manually delete leftover registry bits (not recommended unless you know what you're looking for, AND have nothing of real value on that system drive). As for your current issues. This may be completely normal, depending on the game. I can't think of many games that I play that don't suffer the odd hitch or stutter, especially open world ones. There's a lot of data that needs to be thrown around and processed and even the best systems have a choke point somewhere. Ultimately one has to decide if they want to chase zebras or just enjoy the games. You'll find yourself pulling hairs out over something that's a widespread issue with that particular game. If it's bothersome, or you think there IS an issue I encourage you to search out specific game forums (Steam comment sections can be great sources, once you filter out all the whiners) to see if others are having the same issue, and if there is a community fix or if it's on the developer. Unfortunately PC gaming is only as good as the software. We can have the best system, clean of all crapware, the fastest drives, RAM, CPU and GPU and STILL have issues.

 

[Nikzogg]

Reading prior comments about the GPU swap. Ultimately it sounds like it may have been a driver issue. DDU is not perfect, and I HAVE had issues persist after using it (rare). In those cases I've had to manually delete leftover registry bits (not recommended unless you know what you're looking for, AND have nothing of real value on that system drive). As for your current issues. This may be completely normal, depending on the game. I can't think of many games that I play that don't suffer the odd hitch or stutter, especially open world ones. There's a lot of data that needs to be thrown around and processed and even the best systems have a choke point somewhere. Ultimately one has to decide if they want to chase zebras or just enjoy the games. You'll find yourself pulling hairs out over something that's a widespread issue with that particular game. If it's bothersome, or you think there IS an issue I encourage you to search out specific game forums (Steam comment sections can be great sources, once you filter out all the whiners) to see if others are having the same issue, and if there is a community fix or if it's on the developer. Unfortunately PC gaming is only as good as the software. We can have the best system, clean of all crapware, the fastest drives, RAM, CPU and GPU and STILL have issues.

The open world games (Snowrunner, Division 2 etc.) were running smooth before (only rarely getting stutters) but now Snowrunner is almost unplayable and Division 2 is quite hard to enjoy. Makes me sad because I used to love playing those games. My motherboard is basically the only thing I haven't switched yet, would buying a new mobo be a good idea?(Not under warranty, about 4 years old) or should I take my computer to a PC repair shop?

 

[Nikzogg]

Final update!
I changed my motherboard and the stutters are gone! Thank you @Avro Arrow @CelicaGT @bakugan834 for the help!

 

[Avro Arrow]

Wow, that's really weird. I'm glad that your stutters are gone but I'm puzzled as to how the motherboard caused it. Maybe there was a problem with the RAM interface or maybe your video card slot.

In any case, that's great news and I'm glad that you can enjoy your PC again.

 

[Nikzogg]

Wow, that's really weird. I'm glad that your stutters are gone but I'm puzzled as to how the motherboard caused it. Maybe there was a problem with the RAM interface or maybe your video card slot.

In any case, that's great news and I'm glad that you can enjoy your PC again.

@Avro Arrow @CelicaGT
Well, it seems now that the stutters have returned. I'm quite sure that they never actually went away, just got signifcantly better with the MOBO swap.

I noticed that when I was streaming a game to my friend in Discord, my games stuttered much more than when not streaming. So then I decided to update my new motherboard's BIOS version to the current version. BAD MISTAKE. The stutters came back exactly like before the MOBO swap and I am stumped. I switched out the remaining components that I had not yet switched, but no dice. I did a complete clean windows reinstall when I switched my old OS drive to my new m.2 ssd and that helped tremendously.

Now, for example, The Finals doesn't stutter at all. Snowrunner stutters but a bit less. Also tried XDefiant after it launched and that too seems to have small stutters every once in a while. Tried Fallout 76 too, and after playing it I'm quite sure that it has something to do with asset/texture loading or something like that. If I stay still and look around - no stutters. But if I walk/sprint around, I start to get hitches/stutters.

Do you have any idea what it could be if it is not hardware related? My friend suggested that maybe my PSU is faulty and could have damaged my motherboard but I'm not sure how to confirm that. And should I try different BIOS versions? After downloading the latest one I switched to an older BIOS version, but I'm not sure if it helped. Also, when I updated to the latest bios version (3607), after it finished downloading and was supposed to reboot, it never did. I saw the green LED on in the motherboard, but there was no signal to either of my monitors, so I force shutdown, and booted it after. nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just getting frustrated since nothing is fixing it. Sorry to bother again but I really need some help haha.