Question Issue with stutters in games 9900k + 3080

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Monkeh

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PC specs: i9-9900k, 32GB 3600MHz RAM (corsair rgb pro), 3080 STRIX OC, ASUS Essence STX 2 (sound card), ASUS z390-PRIME motherboard, ASUS Ryujin 360 AIO cooler, Corsair TX850m PSU, ASUS ROG Delta S headset, Samsung SSD 970 EVO plus 1TB NVMe, Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB SATA, Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB SATA, Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB SATA, ASUS PG278QR Gsync Monitor, Corsair M55RGB Pro Mouse, Corsair K70R Keyboard.

For the last month or so I've been getting a periodic stutter in games. I also rarely get input lag within windows. The stutter in games coincides with a negative power spike on the 3080 (measured through GPU Tweak, though I've also measured the same with MSI afterburner) - for example 70% down to 30% then immediately back again. The stutter is intermittent and doesn't seem to coincide with any sort of usage, seems entirely arbitrary infact. Most recently in Doom eternal, a game which doesn't push my system at all. Also happens in other games.

Things I've tried: Replaced motherboard (from a z370-f), Replaced RAM (3 different sets) removed SSD's, removed headset, clean reinstalled windows (twice), replaced CPU (from an 8700k), replaced Displayport cable (twice), several sets of drivers for GPU, tried with ReBAR on and off, tried several different BIOS versions on both motherboards, tried several different bios versions for the 3080. Still have the same intermittent issue. The one thing that is consistant is that the power usage hase a negative spike at the same time that the games stutter.

Please help, this has been driving me nuts and has already cost a lot of money in attempting to solve the issue.
 
how is the gpu plugged in?
try two separate PCIE cables rather than one cable with two connections
I see all those replacement parts but no PSU testing, and you are mentioning a negative power spike. It could be a power delivery issue. I would check that out right away, try another psu, or try the gpu in a different working pc, see if the issue is repeated.

It is possible that if two pcie cables are not being used you may not be getting the amount of power required.
 
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Monkeh

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Firstly, thankyou for the reply.
The GPU is plugged in via two PCIE cables; one to the first port, the second connects the second and third ports.
The 3080 is a ASUS Strix 3080 OC, hence the three power connectors.
The power supply is a Corsair TX850m
Sadly, I do not have another PC that has the required power supply.
Closest would be my wifes PC, but that only has a 650w PSU.
I have tested the PSU (the one in my PC) to the best of my ability, I believe the readouts in HWinfo are within specification.. but I don't know much about power supply's.

After a day of use, the 5v fluctuates between 5v and 4.96v, the 12v between 11.884 and 12.076. I've also tested the system using OCCT's power stress test and it passed, if any of that info is useful.

Is it looking like it's a faulty PSU? I might have to save for a new one.. Wife won't be happy lol.
 
Firstly, thankyou for the reply.
The GPU is plugged in via two PCIE cables; one to the first port, the second connects the second and third ports.
The 3080 is a ASUS Strix 3080 OC, hence the three power connectors.
The power supply is a Corsair TX850m
Sadly, I do not have another PC that has the required power supply.
Closest would be my wifes PC, but that only has a 650w PSU.
I have tested the PSU (the one in my PC) to the best of my ability, I believe the readouts in HWinfo are within specification.. but I don't know much about power supply's.

After a day of use, the 5v fluctuates between 5v and 4.96v, the 12v between 11.884 and 12.076. I've also tested the system using OCCT's power stress test and it passed, if any of that info is useful.

Is it looking like it's a faulty PSU? I might have to save for a new one.. Wife won't be happy lol.

It could be a PSU problem. If you're worried about spending the money and not seeing a difference, buy something like a AX850 (own a AX1000 myself, great PSU) on Amazon, and if you still have the same problem, you can return it for a full refund no questions asked. Three years ago a less computer proficient version of myself bought a i5-8400 on Amazon which I ran in my new PC for several weeks unit I returned it in favor of a i7-9700k; Amazon is great for those uncertain about these things.

Corsair generally makes good power supplies, but:

A. The TX series is inferior to the RM series which in turn is inferior to the AX series of PSUs. Running a value-class TX series PSU in a build like yours seems a little mismatched in my opinion.

B. All power supplies degrade with time and eventually need to be replaced. The best models sometimes come with ten year warranties, but cheaper ones can give you problems much earlier than that. How old is your TX850m?
 
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all those replacement parts but no PSU testin
Firstly, thankyou for the reply.
The GPU is plugged in via two PCIE cables; one to the first port, the second connects the second and third ports.
The 3080 is a ASUS Strix 3080 OC, hence the three power connectors.
The power supply is a Corsair TX850m
Sadly, I do not have another PC that has the required power supply.
Closest would be my wifes PC, but that only has a 650w PSU.
I have tested the PSU (the one in my PC) to the best of my ability, I believe the readouts in HWinfo are within specification.. but I don't know much about power supply's.

After a day of use, the 5v fluctuates between 5v and 4.96v, the 12v between 11.884 and 12.076. I've also tested the system using OCCT's power stress test and it passed, if any of that info is useful.

Is it looking like it's a faulty PSU? I might have to save for a new one.. Wife won't be happy lol.

Oh I wasn't suggesting it was the power supply but it couldn't hurt to remove that from the possible causes.

I see your PSU has 4PCIE connectors, do they come 1 cable two plugs? It would be very disappointing if that is the case. I would suggest that maybe it still might be a power delivery issue. Not a faulty PSU but rather a lack of power.
 
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It could be a PSU problem. If you're worried about spending the money and not seeing a difference, buy something like a AX850 (own a AX1000 myself, great PSU) on Amazon, and if you still have the same problem, you can return it for a full refund no questions asked. Three years ago a less computer proficient version of myself bought a i5-8400 on Amazon which I ran in my new PC for several weeks unit I returned it in favor of a i7-9700k; Amazon is great for those uncertain about these things.

Corsair generally makes good power supplies, but:

A. The TX series is inferior to the RM series which in turn is inferior to the AX series of PSUs. Running a value-class TX series PSU in a build like yours seems a little mismatched in my opinion.

B. All power supplies degrade with time and eventually need to be replaced. The best models sometimes come with ten year warranties, but cheaper ones can give you problems much earlier than that. How old is your TX850m?

This is a pretty good idea.
 
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Monkeh

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It could be a PSU problem. If you're worried about spending the money and not seeing a difference, buy something like a AX850 (own a AX1000 myself, great PSU) on Amazon, and if you still have the same problem, you can return it for a full refund no questions asked. Three years ago a less computer proficient version of myself bought a i5-8400 on Amazon which I ran in my new PC for several weeks unit I returned it in favor of a i7-9700k; Amazon is great for those uncertain about these things.

Corsair generally makes good power supplies, but:

A. The TX series is inferior to the RM series which in turn is inferior to the AX series of PSUs. Running a value-class TX series PSU in a build like yours seems a little mismatched in my opinion.

B. All power supplies degrade with time and eventually need to be replaced. The best models sometimes come with ten year warranties, but cheaper ones can give you problems much earlier than that. How old is your TX850m?

The TX850m is a few years old; it powered my old system before hand for two years at least.
I've ordered an RM850m to test it.

As an aside, the RM850m should at least allow me to run three cables instead of two. I kinda feel like I should have started with the PSU, I've contacted ASUS since posting here and it's literally the first thing they suggested. They were also pretty prompt with getting back to me, which I honestly did not expect. Being stuck in RMA limbo is the last place I wanna be right now lol.
 

Monkeh

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Oh I wasn't suggesting it was the power supply but it couldn't hurt to remove that from the possible causes.

I see your PSU has 4PCIE connectors, do they come 1 cable two plugs? It would be very disappointing if that is the case. I would suggest that maybe it still might be a power delivery issue. Not a faulty PSU but rather a lack of power.

Yeah, the tx850m has two PCIe 6+2 ports on the unit, allowing for two cables only. I've ordered a RM850m, which I believe should allow three separate cables. It's fully modular, whereas the PSU I have in there at the moment is a hybrid.
 
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Monkeh

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I kinda had this too, literally almost the same specs except for GPU and CPU, after a while it turned out the SSD was the problem.
I contacted Samsung and told them about that and I RMA'd the SSD. Now I've got XPG s70 and every game work smoothly.
If the PSU I've ordered doesn't resolve the issue, then it can only be one of the terabyte drives, the monitor or the GPU itself. I've taken the other drives out at times through testing. You've given me another avenue to explore, I didn't test those two drives as they're relatively new and the issues have been in nearly all the more demanding games I play (which are stored on multiple drives).
 

Monkeh

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9900K is a high power processor.
As such, the motherboard needs good airflow over the vrm heatsinks.
Try taking the case side cover off and direct a house fan at the innards.
If that helps, look to case cooling solutions.

This was one of my first concerns, the old board didn't let me monitor the VRM temp; this one does. Assuming the sensor is accurate, it's always cooler than the CPU, and the most the CPU has hit is 73°C. Thankyou for the input though, it's something I might need to revisit.
 
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Anonymous_Unknown

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If the PSU I've ordered doesn't resolve the issue, then it can only be one of the terabyte drives, the monitor, or the GPU itself. I've taken the other drives out at times through testing. You've given me another avenue to explore, I didn't test those two drives as they're relatively new and the issues have been in nearly all the more demanding games I play (which are stored on multiple drives).
If you were wondering, I had 970 Evo Plus, like yours that's why I thought it could be the same problem as I had on the SSD. Good luck (y)
 
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TommyTwoTone66

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Its a power delivery issue. The TX850 is discontinued, was released 10 years ago, and even at the time was a "budget" option to reach the headline number of 850W without paying too much attention to the quality of delivery on the 12V rail.

Assuming the PSU has been in constant use for 7 or more years, which seems possible given how old a model it is, then it would be time for a replacement anyway.

I would recommend an RM750, which has a far more stable 12V rail.
 

bignastyid

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Its a power delivery issue. The TX850 is discontinued, was released 10 years ago, and even at the time was a "budget" option to reach the headline number of 850W without paying too much attention to the quality of delivery on the 12V rail.

Assuming the PSU has been in constant use for 7 or more years, which seems possible given how old a model it is, then it would be time for a replacement anyway.

I would recommend an RM750, which has a far more stable 12V rail.
I doubt the OP is running the old Bronze TX series, likely has the new Gold rated TXm series that is still in production and are good units. The RM750 is not a good option for a RTX 3080 given the cards high transient loads.
 

TommyTwoTone66

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I doubt the OP is running the old Bronze TX series, likely has the new Gold rated TXm series that is still in production and are good units. The RM750 is not a good option for a RTX 3080 given the cards high transient loads.

Well he said he already bought an RM850 to test, lets see shall we? My money is on power delivery issue.

RM750 is a perfect option for RTX3080 actually. What makes you say that? Yes it has high transient loads, but so long as you are only running one card you will be significantly below peak threshold for an RM750.
 

bignastyid

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Well he said he already bought an RM850 to test, lets see shall we? My money is on power delivery issue.

RM750 is a perfect option for RTX3080 actually. What makes you say that? Yes it has high transient loads, but so long as you are only running one card you will be significantly below peak threshold for an RM750.

From what I have been seeing many normally good 750w PSUs have issues and even a few good 850w PSUs have been having issues with the 3080's.(mainly shutdowns from hitting OCP not performance) The RM850 should be OK, but I would not recommend any 750w PSU for a 3080.

Never said it couldn't be power delivery but power delivery causing performance issues is fairly rare. Power delivery issues usually manifest as restarts, shutdowns, and/or crashes.


Monkeh, are the games installed on the same drive? Have you tried installing and running one of the games on a different SSD?
 

TommyTwoTone66

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From what I have been seeing many normally good 750w PSUs have issues and even a few good 850w PSUs have been having issues with the 3080's.(mainly shutdowns from hitting OCP not performance) The RM850 should be OK, but I would not recommend any 750w PSU for a 3080.

Never said it couldn't be power delivery but power delivery causing performance issues is fairly rare. Power delivery issues usually manifest as restarts, shutdowns, and/or crashes.


Monkeh, are the games installed on the same drive? Have you tried installing and running one of the games on a different SSD?

Considering he's changed nearly every other component in the PC and is seeing a "negative power spike" on the GPU when the stuttering happens, then really it's the only option left.
 

Monkeh

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From what I have been seeing many normally good 750w PSUs have issues and even a few good 850w PSUs have been having issues with the 3080's.(mainly shutdowns from hitting OCP not performance) The RM850 should be OK, but I would not recommend any 750w PSU for a 3080.

Never said it couldn't be power delivery but power delivery causing performance issues is fairly rare. Power delivery issues usually manifest as restarts, shutdowns, and/or crashes.


Monkeh, are the games installed on the same drive? Have you tried installing and running one of the games on a different SSD?
Hey! So I've got the new PSU and it's made no difference, I rebuilt the PC when I installed the new PSU. Games are on multiple drives. I Don't seem to get any issues in Hitman 3, but that's about it . AC Valhalla is a stuttery mess any time new terrain comes in to view, RDR2 seemingly drops performance whenever it feels like it, Vermintide 2 hitches seemingly randomly, WoW gets the odd hitch here and there, Borderlands 3 stutters regularly (though I think that might just be a BL3 thing) Metro Exodus enhanced gets a rare stutter, Control microstutters whenever I go to a new area, Resident Evil Village seems ok but I haven't played it enough to really say with any certainty and Doom Eternal stutters seemingly randomly (but relatively rarely) I tried my old 1080 again in the same system, fresh install of windows and I'm getting identical issues in Valhalla. At this point I have no idea what the hell is going on.. the only things I haven't swapped out are my AIO (Ryujin 360), my monitor (ASUS PG278QR) and the sata data cables.
 

Monkeh

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Try monitoring cpu and gpu clock speeds and see if they drop when the stuttering occurs. Also is the board the 390-A or the 390-P?
it's the ASUS PRIME z390-A. The GPU clock seems rock solid, at least it is when the stutters occur. The CPU is locked to 4.8GHz, I've also tried without any sort of overclock on the PC and with XMP off.. same issue. **Edit - just had a thought; the Ryujin 360 AIO cooler I have connects to a usb header on the motherboard.. think it's worth trying a different cooler? Also, I replaced all of the SATA data cables today.. still no better.
 
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