Is my stuttering in Fortnite my GPU or RAM?

[Jason H.]

Okay so Ill leave full system specs at bottom but Im using as GTX 750 1gb.. I get freezing/stutter randomly with all low settings.

I noticed my GPU, because of the low settings is only using 80% utilization while my 6gb of memory (mismatched sticks, both CL 9 but different sticks) goes up above 95%.

Fortnite uses about 3.5 - 3.8 gb of the ram.

So if the GPU is only using 80% of its max utilization, but RAM is using over 95%, plus is mismatched chips, would it be safe to say that the culprit is the RAM before the GPU? I did notice that the recommended GPU is 2gb, however Im only using 80% of my current GPU because of low settings.

Also temps on the CPU and GPU are fine when under the gaming load.

* System Specs *

CPU- AMD A8 5600k
GPU- GTX 750 1gb
RAM- 6gb DDR3 (currently have another identicle 4gb chip coming in so it will be 8gb ddr3 1333)
MOBO- BIOSTAR A55ML2
PSU- Logysis 480w
WIN- Winodws 10 Home

 

[InvalidError]

And would splitting the pagefile give me a boost?

Depends on how often the swapfile gets used at the same time that software is also attempting to access the same HDD. Probably better to leave them on separate drives. The extra 2GB of RAM should reduce swapping by a fair amount.

 

[Jason H.]

And would splitting the pagefile give me a boost?

Depends on how often the swapfile gets used at the same time that software is also attempting to access the same HDD. Probably better to leave them on separate drives. The extra 2GB of RAM should reduce swapping by a fair amount.

Thanks for the info bro!

So heres what I did last nite to the CPU. Also I didnt realize there was a Feature update from windows 10 for 1803 build or w.e its called. but that could have helped but I think what I did to the CPU helped a lot!

I turned off my OC in the BIOS. I booted in windows and opened AMD OD. I went to the "turbo core option" and set it to its max turbo of "3.9mhz". At the bottom was a option called Boost level. It has 2 options, boost level 0, boost level 1. I changed it it the next boost level and it unlocked the TURBO's multiplier allowing me to raise the BOOST clock to 4.1mhz with a 1.45v ..... and I stress tested.

The results was amazing. The clocks did not downclock for each core. There was some downclocking on SINGULAR cores but 2-3 cores at all times would remain at 4.1mhz at 1.45v. The reason this is amazing is because 1, I could not raise the voltage of the CPU over 1.4375v outside of turbo mode without it instantly dropping the clock from whatever I set it to, down to 3.1-3.2mhz the instant I hit apply.

Now with using the turbo boosts options, It says im at 4.1mhz, at 1.45v, I havent gotten 1 restart. Gaming performance is GREATLY increased so much I was able to raise graphics and remain higher fps.I stress tested for 2 hours without any issues, before it would BSOD or fail within 20 minutes.

So heres where Im at, and here are my questions.

1. Why does boosting the turbo core to 4.1mhz at 1.45v allow my CPU to go over 1.437v without Immediately downlocking to 3.1-3.2mhz?

2. Why can I not overlock NOT USING turbo core technology through AMD Overdrive?

3. Is this even considered an overclock? I hit the Turbo Core button in AMD Overdrive, changed the boost mode, and made it higher which automatically changed the voltage up to 1.45, but I cannot get to 1.45 when using the BIOS multipliers, nor turning off turbo boost and setting the voltage manually in AMD OD without the clocks lowering themselves to 3.2mhz for no reason.

+++++ I ALSO DID SOMETHING ELSE TO THE GPU ++++++

I overclocked the GPU by about 130mhz on the core clock and 100mhz on the memory clock.

I went into Nvidia control panel and I changed "maximum pre rendered frames" from Auto , to 1.

I enabled Threaded Optimization (I disabled it previously because fortnite was having the freezing issues while it was enabled/disabled but now its back on)

----------------------------------------------------------------

DOING ALL THIS! Pretty much took away ALL the freezing, and the RAM has not even gotten here yet! Just not sure which process I did that helped the most, probably the Turbo Boosting clocking of the CPU, but idk the freezing was almost gone just by putting it on the new HDD before the Turbo Core thing I did.

Lets not forget though I did put it on a fresh HDD so that is helping too, but all of this together, at least for my setup, seems to have completely fixed the freezing. Ill do some more testing tonight, and wait for the RAM as well before I solidify this fix.

 

[Jason H.]

Hey yall, got the new ram stick today.

I installed it and it works flawlessly

MSI Afterburner still says Im using 6gb of page file though. I thought that would go down with adding more ram?

Anyways I have 0 freezing now and I was able to turn the graphics up a little bit with doing everything I did to fix it

Last question for now: Why didnt the pagefile use go down when adding more ram?

 

[InvalidError]

Last question for now: Why didnt the pagefile use go down when adding more ram?

Likely because the OS is still swapping rarely used stuff out to make room for other more frequently used stuff, such as freeing up RAM for use as a file system cache or just opportunistically dumping stuff in the swapfile so it can immediately free up physical RAM pages when something tries to allocate more RAM. My guess is that if you looked at the memory usage stats in Task Manager's performance tab, you'd see ~2GB more RAM marked as "Cached".

 

[Jason H.]

Last question for now: Why didnt the pagefile use go down when adding more ram?

Likely because the OS is still swapping rarely used stuff out to make room for other more frequently used stuff, such as freeing up RAM for use as a file system cache or just opportunistically dumping stuff in the swapfile so it can immediately free up physical RAM pages when something tries to allocate more RAM. My guess is that if you looked at the memory usage stats in Task Manager's performance tab, you'd see ~2GB more RAM marked as "Cached".

says 3.3gb cached I have no idea what it was before to be honest

 

[InvalidError]

says 3.3gb cached I have no idea what it was before to be honest

On my system, I have 14GB in use (25GB before on-the-fly compression), 17GB cached and 660MB swap.

 

[Jason H.]

says 3.3gb cached I have no idea what it was before to be honest

On my system, I have 14GB in use (25GB before on-the-fly compression), 17GB cached and 660MB swap.

Well whatever the case is, the stuttering is fixed. It was basically fixed before the ram though, but now I get even better performance. I wonder which fix I did actually did the magic, or if it was a combo of everything.

To be honest, I think my main drive is extra fragmented because everything, even chrome, opens so slowly. Im wondering if I shouldnt install windows onto the new HDD along with my main programs.

I have a digital license from upgrading from Win 7, would I be able to install Win 10 on the new drive with the same key and could it make overall performance better? If so, where do I find the key?

And would installing windows on the new drive lose the files on the current main drive and will I have to re-install all my programs and such?

 

[InvalidError]

I have a digital license from upgrading from Win 7, would I be able to install Win 10 on the new drive with the same key and could it make overall performance better? If so, where do I find the key?

If you didn't upgrade your license during the free license upgrade period, then your license is stuck at Windows 7.

As for re-installing Windows on your new HDD, most software puts stuff in the registry and won't work without it so you are typically forced to re-install. With Steam, you may be able to simply move the entire Steam folder and get it to fix your installed games without having to re-download everything. For the rest, you'll have to try your luck on a program by program basis.