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.
 

Monkeh

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So, I thought the polite thing to do would be to provide an update. Sorry it's been a while.

I've now tried 3 different GPU's, Ive tried a Noctua Dh15 cooler, I've tried a fourth set of RAM, a different monitor. I've also removed the NZXT 'Smart device' and the rgb strips it controlled.

I've reinstalled windows each time, I've tried Windows 11. Still have the stutter.

On top of this, one of my SSD's failed; so I'm now down 1TB of storage.

My PC might be cursed.
 
Oct 31, 2021
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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.

You r not alone i have the same problem like yours.When i got this system 2 yeas ago i am runed the system with 1080ti than i got 3080 first weeks everythnk is runing smoothafter that ina sudden moment it starts stuttering lagging in games.İ tried everythnk but no better the onlt thnk i have not tried is changing motherboard.İf u have the solution pls share with us.
i have z390aorus master asus 3080 strix 16 gb 4000 mhz ram
 

Monkeh

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You r not alone i have the same problem like yours.When i got this system 2 yeas ago i am runed the system with 1080ti than i got 3080 first weeks everythnk is runing smoothafter that ina sudden moment it starts stuttering lagging in games.İ tried everythnk but no better the onlt thnk i have not tried is changing motherboard.İf u have the solution pls share with us.
i have z390aorus master asus 3080 strix 16 gb 4000 mhz ram
I'm still experiencing the issue, and it's really hard to pin down. At this point I've swapped out everything except the case. Bizarrely; games you would think would cause issues, like Cyberpunk, run fine for the most part - other games like Guild Wars 2 have regular hard stutters - it's not constantly stuttering, you can go several minutes without one.. and it doesn't stutter under any particular usage scenario.. it's very strange.
 
Nov 7, 2021
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Are you by any chance using Asus's rgb control software? Aura or the aurmory?
If yes, try turning any lights off. Or better, kill the Lightservice in TaskManager and see, if the stutters persist. For better measure, kill everything asus related there.
 
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Monkeh

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Are you by any chance using Asus's rgb control software? Aura or the aurmory?
If yes, try turning any lights off. Or better, kill the Lightservice in TaskManager and see, if the stutters persist. For better measure, kill everything asus related there.

I have done this already, good shout though.

Armoury crate was causing issues with some games - in particular WoW.

System feels better without any of the Asus software, but stutters remain in most games I play. I've been swapping components around again recently, I get the same frame spikes and hard stutter/hitching with my old 2080 (which it definitely didn't used to do) and my even older 1080.

Some games are definitely worse than others, Guild Wars 2 is terrible - it runs fine for half an hour or so, then I start to get hard stutters - particularly when new assets are loaded, or I open my inventory / map.

Cyberpunk runs great on the 3080, which seems like a paradox unto itself - except when it autosaved - it would stutter then, so I disabled autosaves.

Most recently Back 4 Blood has had issues with stutters. infrequent, perhaps a couple of times per level.. but they are jarring when they happen - Afterburner shows frametime spikes well over 100ms.

To summarise: Ive tried two different CPU's, both on two different motherboards, 4 sets of RAM, three different GPU's, 3 different mice, three keyboards, two gamepads, had the headset plugged in / disconnected, two 850w Corsair PSU's, I've replaced all the power cables, I've replaced all the sata cables, I've tried two different 1440p monitors (displayport) and several DP cables. I've reinstalled windows several times, wiping the drives and starting from scratch.

All temperatures are well within spec, no clocks are throttling down at any point.

Perhaps one of the most infuriating aspects of this is that the system flies through 3dmarks Timespy benchmark without breaking a sweat: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 video card benchmark result - Intel Core i9-9900K Processor,ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING (3dmark.com)

Ive built my own PC's for twenty years and I've never experienced anything like this - everything I know about PC's tells me that at least one of the things I've done should have fixed the problem.
 

boju

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Skimmed over the thread, apologies if these have been tried.

Have you returned to Win10 btw?

Not sure if Win11 has gpu scheduling feature, it should have since Win10 introduced it recently. If you haven't tried it, in task bar search type graphics and click settings. There, can enable feature. Suppose to improve latency.

Have you tried overclocking, or rather underclock (respecting thermals), forcing all core to 4.5~ 4.6 or 4.7. Nothing drastic, just to see if avoiding any instance of core worker/ frequency/ voltage fluctuation that might cause games to stutter at certain points, maybe during drive i/o use (and other areas, possibly like peripheral m/k use) where cpu may be drooping the eyes/ nod off to sleep for a tiny bit depending what's going on. Im probably over thinking it but maybe it's something to try, depriving cpu any chance of slacking off at all.
 

TommyTwoTone66

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It could be related to Hyper-Threading. Try disabling it in BIOS?

One other option, the issue might be psychosomatic.

Games do stutter from time to time. Most of the time its imperceptible, very occasionally you will notice it. Maybe, after all this time of trying to fix this issue (and of course after spending over $3000 trying to "fix" the "issue"), you have become hyper-aware of any performance drop whatsoever, and are looking for it so hard that you notice just run-of-the-mill frame drops that every system encounters?
 

boju

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Games do stutter from time to time. Most of the time its imperceptible, very occasionally you will notice it. Maybe, after all this time of trying to fix this issue (and of course after spending over $3000 trying to "fix" the "issue"), you have become hyper-aware of any performance drop whatsoever, and are looking for it so hard that you notice just run-of-the-mill frame drops that every system encounters?

Have to agree with this. Not sure how severe or frequent stutters happen for the op but i too expect games not to be perfect. Especially open world. There's a point after gaming for so many years you just know.

Man Far cry 5, picking up those perk magazines chugged like hell. I knew it was the game and not the computer.
 

TommyTwoTone66

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Have to agree with this. Not sure how severe or frequent stutters happen for the op but i too expect games not to be perfect. Especially open world. There's a point after gaming for so many years you just know.

Man Far cry 5, picking up those perk magazines chugged like hell. I knew it was the game and not the computer.

They do not make them like they used to. With all the 3rd-party libraries used in games these days, everything from smoke effects to shadows to reflections is likely just a 3rd-party plug-in for whichever off-the-shelf rendering engine that the developer happens to be using. Half the time they can't optimise the engine or fix frame drops, because they have no idea what's even causing them, and even if they did it's likely some 3rd party code that they aren't allowed to modify.
 
Nov 7, 2021
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As others mentioned, most of the games have periodic stutters, because of their engine. Especially open world games, that stream in /constantly save assets (Far Cry games) and no HW in the world could avoid this, as the time to access and move those is always percievable. And this is quantified by higher FPS you are getting (Not so disturbing on console 30fps, but very noticable on 100+).
Online games can have issues with the netcode as well as memory leaking issues.
I wouldnt fret about it, if the stutters are occasional here and there.

When I was trying to figure out and decrease the amount of stuttering I was experiencing, because it was throwing off the FreeSync and causing flickers and very disturbing hitching, in addition to not smooth and fluid motion on my monitor - which I later found out was mostly because of the stupid Asus Aura software hogging DPC - I also noticed that the nVidia Boost on my 1080ti (gigabyte OC) was working a bit too aggressive and hitting the power limits or thermal limits caused percievable spikes in GPU clocks and therefore stutters.
I managed to solve it by adjusting the custom curve via MSI afterburner, so the card does not boost over 1670Mhz (I lost maybe 2-3 fps in games by that) and eliminated stutters caused by this in addition to lower thermals and fan noise.
Try tinker around that.

Also try setting the power managment in Windows to High Performance - to keep the CPU clocks always on Turbo before gaming. Balanced can sometimes think, the CPU can park and downclock during a game and then it takes time (microseconds, but can be percieved as a stutter) to Turbo again.
Turn on the low latency GPU support in Windows 10 and also play around with the low latency ON/Ultra in NVCP. Set frame limits via RTSS or in NVCP or in game if possible (but be careful, some frame limiters like RTSS can cause stuttering in some games).
Turn off any HW monitoring software - even simple HWMonitor can cause stuttering due to its constant CPU polls. Long time ago, Ive found out, that using the Gigabytes GPU software to change clocks on the fly, was running some monitoring in the background, that was causing stutters on some Windows builds.

Also, unless you have Alder Lake intel, I would stick to Win10 for gaming and switch only in 1-2 years :D
 
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Monkeh

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Skimmed over the thread, apologies if these have been tried.

Have you returned to Win10 btw?

Not sure if Win11 has gpu scheduling feature, it should have since Win10 introduced it recently. If you haven't tried it, in task bar search type graphics and click settings. There, can enable feature. Suppose to improve latency.

Have you tried overclocking, or rather underclock (respecting thermals), forcing all core to 4.5~ 4.6 or 4.7. Nothing drastic, just to see if avoiding any instance of core worker/ frequency/ voltage fluctuation that might cause games to stutter at certain points, maybe during drive i/o use (and other areas, possibly like peripheral m/k use) where cpu may be drooping the eyes/ nod off to sleep for a tiny bit depending what's going on. Im probably over thinking it but maybe it's something to try, depriving cpu any chance of slacking off at all.

I've switched between the two operating systems whilst trying to resolve this - I'm on 11 at the moment but I'm probably going to go back to 10 whilst MS iron out some of the inconsistancies in the new OS (I really don't like the new right click desktop menu lol)

I've tried lower overclocks, I'm running 4.8GHz at the moment - I've also tried the system at base clocks and with turbo boost disabled; same issue unfortunately. I had thought to myself that maybe it was a vdroop issue - I'm running LLC 5 at the moment - I've tried LLC 3 / 4 / 6 too, doesn't seem to alter the symptoms I'm seeing.

I've tried setting the RAM to base speeds and also at lower overclocks (3400 / 3200)

I'm currently using process lasso and bitsums high performance profile, though I'm not convinced this has made any difference to how the PC normally runs.
 

Monkeh

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It could be related to Hyper-Threading. Try disabling it in BIOS?

One other option, the issue might be psychosomatic.

Games do stutter from time to time. Most of the time its imperceptible, very occasionally you will notice it. Maybe, after all this time of trying to fix this issue (and of course after spending over $3000 trying to "fix" the "issue"), you have become hyper-aware of any performance drop whatsoever, and are looking for it so hard that you notice just run-of-the-mill frame drops that every system encounters?

I'm testing with hyperthreading disabled today.

I think I'm prone to seeing all stutter as part of the problem, trying to make the distinction between issue and expected behaviour is hard sometimes, particularly as -like you've said- I've spent a lot trying to fix this.

Some of the stutter is definitely not normal though, we have two other gaming PC's in the house, neither exhibit the stutters that are causing me concern.
 
Nov 30, 2021
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Hey, how's is going? Did you manage to fix your issue?

Trying to fix mine right now, already spent a fortune. Ordered the new 12th gen, maybe that won't bottleneck as much as the 9900.

While running the forza 5 benchmark (+50 stutters btw) I've noticed that gpu voltage goes down as the cpu goes up! I wonder if my 750w PSU might not be enough.. even tho you have an 850w one and still face the issue.
 

Monkeh

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Hey, how's is going? Did you manage to fix your issue?

Trying to fix mine right now, already spent a fortune. Ordered the new 12th gen, maybe that won't bottleneck as much as the 9900.

While running the forza 5 benchmark (+50 stutters btw) I've noticed that gpu voltage goes down as the cpu goes up! I wonder if my 750w PSU might not be enough.. even tho you have an 850w one and still face the issue.

Hey! No, haven't fixed the issue. I'm fairly certain the issues I'm having are in some way related to asset loading. Not sure how to fix it :/ Good luck with the new CPU; hope it works for you, let me know if possible!
 
Nov 30, 2021
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Yup nope, still there! Happening when loading new assets for sure. Wonder if its the PSU, as I am using the seasonic gx 750.

Might try installing windows on an older ssd , see if that makes any difference.
 
Jan 23, 2022
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Hi! I've had the same issue as you my man.
9900k and Asus z390 Prime A.
I fixed the stuttering by changing the power management in Windows to high performance plan and then capping fps in games to 60-80fps. For example Horizon 5 i had 60+ stutters, and now it sits at 3-5 stutters each time i run benchmark. Not noticebale.

Cheers and good luck!

Edit: 750 watt PSU, 3070, M2 drive if that helps.
 
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Jan 25, 2022
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Hi i may have a solution as iv had this problem for years now and has plagued my equitment and doesnt matter how much money u throw at it it doesnt budge
I have a 9900k and a 3070

Have u tried to make a offling acount linked to ur existing account as it sounds like an account problem it worked for me
 
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Monkeh

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Hi i may have a solution as iv had this problem for years now and has plagued my equitment and doesnt matter how much money u throw at it it doesnt budge
I have a 9900k and a 3070

Have u tried to make a offling acount linked to ur existing account as it sounds like an account problem it worked for me
Hey, thanks for the tip, I tried this yesterday; unfortunately hasn't made any difference for me :/
I've noticed that XMP 2 seems to introduce more stutters than XMP 1.. I've tried 4 different sets of RAM now though and still have the same problem.
I'm definitely experiencing abnormal frame spikes, my PC was smooth as silk for years but now it's just a show in most games.
Some games work more or less flawlessly, but other games run like ass - Pretty much any Ubisoft game is problematic, Back 4 Blood is awful, Cyberpunk is fine, Horizon Zero Dawn is fine, the recently released God of War is fine, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is fine, Baldurs Gate 3 stutters a lot, Hitman 3 gets the odd frame spike, Doom Eternal has a frame spike at what I presume are checkpoints - the built in statistics show a red frame spike on the CPU, but I've tried two CPUs and two motherboards and they exhibit the exact same problem in the same places in the same games.

Was worth a shot though, thanks for taking the time to respond to this thread :)
 
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Monkeh

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Yup nope, still there! Happening when loading new assets for sure. Wonder if its the PSU, as I am using the seasonic gx 750.

Might try installing windows on an older ssd , see if that makes any difference.
Sucks that it didn't fix your problem :/ I tried replacing my PSU with a different 850w PSU but, alas, same issue.
 

Monkeh

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Ok, so.. an update:

I get the stutters in games I didn't think were having them.

Horizon Zero Dawn stutters under certain conditions - happened when I arrived at a new bonfire yesterday, as the notification appears on screen, also get a slight stutter with what I assume are area transitions (not consistent though). God of War has frame spikes (when I say framespike, it's enough for it to cause a hard stutter; 80 - 130ms spikes) during area transitions. Cyberpunk is mostly stable but I've been running capframex in the background lately at the same time and that shows some stutter in its summary.

I wish there was some software that just pointed at components that are acting abnormally, this is so frustrating, to the point that I basically don't play anything any more, I'm just running things to troubleshoot.

I've given OCCT a go again, ran all the stress tests, none exhibit any kind of issue.

Frame time is 100% stable in Timespy too.

Is it possible the case (NZXT 710) could be causing some kind of issue? Everything else has been replaced or removed at some point. I've tried the system without any of the case cables connected - still get the stutter.

It seems like the stutters are random at times, other times it seems like they occur when new assets are being streamed in. I'm fairly sure it's not the 3080 for two reasons; 1: I get the same issues with a 2080 and with a 1080 and 2: the stuttering isn't happening in scenarios where the GPU is being pushed, nor are the stutters more common under high GPU load.

I'm suspicious of my storage, and the CPU (perhaps the memory controller??) neither seem like reasonable assumptions though as the storage has all been removed at different times for testing, and I have the exact same issue with my old 8700k. Maybe the motherboard, but what are the chances that two motherboards exhibit the exact same issue?

This leaves me realistically questioning the power (problem has persisted across two PSU's though, and the old one is working fine in my sons PC)

So maybe the power from the house itself? At this point I feel like I'm going nuts trying to solve this, I just can't fathom what caused my PC to start doing this; like I have said before (or, I think I've said this before) it all started after reinstalling Windows 10 back in April.. nothing's got tangibly worse or better regardless of what I've tried, multiple reinstalls of the OS combined with full system wipes, just base drivers and a single game installed: same problem, all bios defaults: same problem, multiple parts replaced: same problem. I've tried ISLC, Process Lasso, Rivatuner - nothing makes a difference.
 

boju

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Is there a setting im bios for Armoury Crate? Could try disable it before reinstalling Windows so there's no possibility of it injecting any driver or software. Shouldn't be the cause of anything but have recently read something about what it can do if it's a feature included in your bios.

If this is a thing for you and willing to go ahead with it might as well suggest other things to try while system is being configured.

At later stages of Win10 install, you're greeted with several services to enable. Disable all.

After install finishes disable automatic device driver/software installation.

Disable user account control.

Visit here for onboard audio driver, see instructions for audio driver for your board. Think it's the first with sonic studio 3. (Remove sound card for now)


Disable Cortana

Power plans. Windows set to balanced with minimum processor state 10%. Advanced options in plan, never turn off storage, never sleep/hibernate.

Install chipset, gpu driver as administrator. Manual search gpu driver and install only driver skipping Geforce Experience.

Type graphics in taskbar search. Enable scheduling in graphics settings.

NvidiaCP, max performance.

Don't install any mouse or keyboard software.

Install Steam and most troublesome game on os drive.

---

I configure my systems in the same manner over the years in Win 7 and 10, especially disabling both auto device driver installations and uac.

See how you go with my magical steps lol.

---

Since Time Spy runs without issues, im wondering if that is because there's no user input? Maybe higher degree of optimisation, and everything is already loaded in to cache and no assets being streamed in.
 

Monkeh

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Stutters, I think, come from momentary lack of cpu resource.
Single thread performance of the master threads will control things.
Run the cpu-Z bench, and look at the single thread score.
It should be on the order of 630.
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/zc5ym6/1

That is good, but current gen performance of the 12900K is more like 981.
My 9900k got 565.2 single thread, and 5822.4 multi thread. It's locked to 4.8Ghz atm, I don't know how much that would impact the score though.
 

Monkeh

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Jun 13, 2021
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Is there a setting im bios for Armoury Crate? Could try disable it before reinstalling Windows so there's no possibility of it injecting any driver or software. Shouldn't be the cause of anything but have recently read something about what it can do if it's a feature included in your bios.

If this is a thing for you and willing to go ahead with it might as well suggest other things to try while system is being configured.

At later stages of Win10 install, you're greeted with several services to enable. Disable all.

After install finishes disable automatic device driver/software installation.

Disable user account control.

Visit here for onboard audio driver, see instructions for audio driver for your board. Think it's the first with sonic studio 3. (Remove sound card for now)


Disable Cortana

Power plans. Windows set to balanced with minimum processor state 10%. Advanced options in plan, never turn off storage, never sleep/hibernate.

Install chipset, gpu driver as administrator. Manual search gpu driver and install only driver skipping Geforce Experience.

Type graphics in taskbar search. Enable scheduling in graphics settings.

NvidiaCP, max performance.

Don't install any mouse or keyboard software.

Install Steam and most troublesome game on os drive.

---

I configure my systems in the same manner over the years in Win 7 and 10, especially disabling both auto device driver installations and uac.

See how you go with my magical steps lol.

---

Since Time Spy runs without issues, im wondering if that is because there's no user input? Maybe higher degree of optimisation, and everything is already loaded in to cache and no assets being streamed in.
I'm going to try this tomorrow and I'll report back once I'm done. There is a armoury crate option in bios, I have it disabled but I'm not certain if I had it disabled when I installed windows. Regardless, this time it will be disabled.

Thankyou for taking the time to respond. Means a lot that people like you guys make the effort to help! :)
 
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