Major stuttering and juddering in games[probably a GPU issue]

[wallflower_1]

So,I had built my gaming rig just at the start of this year,with recommendations from my friends[tech enthusiasts]. These are my current system specs :-

Hardware:-
1)Processor-Intel Core i5 6500 @3.20 Ghz.
2)Ram-8 GB[1 corsair vengeance 2400Mhz stick].
3)Motherboard-Gigabyte H110M s2.
4)GPU-Zotac Geforce 1060 3GB.
5)Power supply-Antec VP550P.
6)HDD's-2 TB[One new Toshiba HDD and a old WD HDD].
7)Case-Corsair 100R.
8)Monitor-Standard samsung 60Hz monitor.

Software:-
OS:- Windows 10 pro[updated to the latest version as I am writing this article].
Antivirus/Antimalware programs installed:- Windows defender.
Nvidia settings:-All are set to default[factory settings].

Note:-I always make sure that I keep my nvidia drivers,OS/antivirus signatures,other programs updated to the latest versions available right now,just something that I felt was needed to be out there before I begin to write my main set of dilemmas.

Problem:-1]Major stuttering in demanding games such as Witcher 3 and slight but noticeable juddering,which happens from time to time in games such as CS:GO,Far Cry 4,GTA 5,etc.

2]I have noticed that when I have a application such as utorrent[which has minimal memory usage],other apps such as Mozilla and Chrome take a noticeable time to start then before,it does not happen all the time,mostly it happens when I turn on the PC for the first time during the start of the day,afterwards I do not see this happen,but it definitely does not feel as fast as it used to before[Maybe the Creators update is to be blamed].


Now,in the first 2-3 months,I do not recall the constant stuttering/juddering,but I just am not sure.This is like my first gaming PC,it was only when I played Witcher 3 at my friends house that I noticed the game never once stuttered[He also has almost the same setup as me,with the difference being he has a 6GB version of the 1060 and an i7]. I didn't tweaked the settings when I first got the games ,so not all of these games were set at ultra quality so to speak.

So,I decided to check my GPU and CPU temps with NZXT CAM and this is what I got:-

CPU Idle temps:-34-37 degree celsius, GPU Idle temps:-37-43 degree celsius.

1]Witcher 3:-Set at ultra settings,the game just stuttered like every 5-10 seconds.Average frame rate was like 38.5 and the highest I got was 54-55,the frame rates never stabilized and constantly changed at an incremental level which was noticeable.Temps reached 82 degree celsius which frightened me,and I think they did not go high just because of the card throttling itself after 82 C.Played at low settings,and there are no stutters at all.
CPU temps were normal,it sat between 47-57 degree celsius.

2]GTA 5:-Again all settings cranked to high,no visible stuttering like seen in Witcher 3,but judders happen after every 30-40 seconds for a fraction of a second but it can be noticed easily,especially when on impact on other vehicles,turning the vehicles,making a sudden movement,etc.NZXT Cam does not seem to activate in this game,so I guess you have to understand the situation by my above statement.

3]Far Cry 4:-In this game,the maximum CPU temps went to 53 degree celsius and the highest it got on the GPU side was 69 degree celsius.Slight judders but the FPS seemed to maintain itself consistently even on the highest preset quality options.

I keep my case in an open space,I just have an exhaust fan on the backside[Arctic F12 PWM],because I do not really think my rig justifies a whole intake-exhaust setup,but I may install 2 intake fans on the front in the upcoming future,cause of the whole positive airflow stuff,but anything more than that just seems overkill to me.


So,here are my questions:-

1]Why are the above problems occuring,is it a GPU issue[most likely],or is it my CPU or maybe even my SMPS[highly unlikely].

2]What should I do to remedy this problem?

Thanking you guys in advance

 

[RememberThe5th]

Did you try to disable Windows update in services?It caused me stuttery experience once, other problem could be Shadowplay (sharing something in settings under general in nvidia experience).

 

[cherry blossoms]

Besides a plethora of software/services that can be tweaked, some limiting factors would be:

Ram-8 GB[1 corsair vengeance 2400Mhz stick]. You are running in single channel mode. Dual channel mode is often beneficial. Some benchmarks will show little difference, others will show a large difference.

GPU-Zotac Geforce 1060 3GB. Alot of benchmark videos I see show above 3GB being used even at 1080P. Anything that doesn't fit in local video memory has to be copied over the bus, a relatively slow process in relation to the speed at which frames are being drawn. Some game engines will ignore the texture and not render it, other game engines will be more affected. Any video recording apps running in the background (xbox recording app or the NVidia one) also takes writes across the bus if they are running/recording.

There are software tweaks to be had, but there are some hardware limitations in place as well.

 

[dontlistentome]

You could use MSI Afterburner to get an onscreen display of many things, including graphics card memory usage in the game. Some games will tell you in the settings how much vram you will use if you increase those settings. It's never a good idea to go over the limit, in your case 3gb.

The other thing I'd do is run a non game benchmark like 3dmark, to see if your score is normal. I don't like testing with games because there are too many variables. Something like 3dmark means everyone is running the exact same thing so the comparisons are more valid.

Check CPU usage when you are just idle on your desktop. It should be very low. You can use Task manager to do this. If you're seeing a large amount of CPU, then you have something running in the background and that could impact game performance.

"Witcher 3:-Set at ultra settings"

That's a very demanding game. You have what I'd consider a good 1080p setup, not a great 1080p setup. "Ultra" settings are really for when you spare no expense in choosing components. Don't forget that the 6gb 1060 is also faster than the 3gb 1060.

Try this. Run The Witcher 3 at medium settings. Did it help smooth things out? If it did then that's a strong suggestion that you're just expecting too much.

 

[wallflower_1]

Did you try to disable Windows update in services?It caused me stuttery experience once, other problem could be Shadowplay (sharing something in settings under general in nvidia experience).

I do not like to disable updates for windows as many of them are crucial and are important for my overall security and user experience on windows 10, my friend too has updated to the latest version like me, but he does not seem to have any problems and just like I said , I think I have experienced this stutters on earlier builds of windows too, so I do not really think they are the root of my problem here, although I would not remove that possibility.

I do not really use Nvidia for streaming and I have disabled optimizations for my games which Nvidia detects automatically, as I have mentioned above I set the values to default[factory] as I do not really feel like tweaking them except for the part where I make sure the scaling is done on GPU and the factory value of quality is changed to perfomance as I mostly play FPS games like CS:GO,although I change it to 'quality' when I play Witcher 3,etc.

 

[wallflower_1]

Besides a plethora of software/services that can be tweaked, some limiting factors would be:

Ram-8 GB[1 corsair vengeance 2400Mhz stick]. You are running in single channel mode. Dual channel mode is often beneficial. Some benchmarks will show little difference, others will show a large difference.

GPU-Zotac Geforce 1060 3GB. Alot of benchmark videos I see show above 3GB being used even at 1080P. Anything that doesn't fit in local video memory has to be copied over the bus, a relatively slow process in relation to the speed at which frames are being drawn. Some game engines will ignore the texture and not render it, other game engines will be more affected. Any video recording apps running in the background (xbox recording app or the NVidia one) also takes writes across the bus if they are running/recording.

There are software tweaks to be had, but there are some hardware limitations in place as well.

I was an idiot to go with the decision of buying just one stick[but RAM prices 🙁,India is affected too], and especially since the arrival of GST[one tax for every state] which is just the worst implementation of one tax for the whole nation here btw,electronic products are costlier than ever .As my motherboard had only two DIMM slots,I wanted a 8*8 dual channel setup[not a 4*4], but I guess I could have bought another 8 gb stick,but I never really felt the need too as I never saw memory usage spike more than 6 Gb even when I played resource heavy games such as witcher 3[even though the dual channel setup would have been advantageous].

 

[wallflower_1]

You could use MSI Afterburner to get an onscreen display of many things, including graphics card memory usage in the game. Some games will tell you in the settings how much vram you will use if you increase those settings. It's never a good idea to go over the limit, in your case 3gb.

The other thing I'd do is run a non game benchmark like 3dmark, to see if your score is normal. I don't like testing with games because there are too many variables. Something like 3dmark means everyone is running the exact same thing so the comparisons are more valid.

Check CPU usage when you are just idle on your desktop. It should be very low. You can use Task manager to do this. If you're seeing a large amount of CPU, then you have something running in the background and that could impact game performance.

"Witcher 3:-Set at ultra settings"

That's a very demanding game. You have what I'd consider a good 1080p setup, not a great 1080p setup. "Ultra" settings are really for when you spare no expense in choosing components. Don't forget that the 6gb 1060 is also faster than the 3gb 1060.

Try this. Run The Witcher 3 at medium settings. Did it help smooth things out? If it did then that's a strong suggestion that you're just expecting too much.

I prefer NZXT Cam to MSI Afterburner, but yeah both do their job very well imo.
I will run a benchmark test on 3dmark and will post the results here.
Just like I posted above, CPU temps always managed to stay below 70[that is degree celsius],considering it has the stock cooler that intel ships it with,I would think that is good enough.
I will try the game in low,medium and high presets[although I have done that already,I did not record the CPU and GPU temps,usage,etc at that time]. Although I can tell you the stuttering definitely did not stop at high preset settings,there was some respite at medium settings[both post-processing and graphical] but still there were noticeable stutters from time to time,although not as frequent during the 'ultra' settings.The lowest settings gave the smoothest gameplay and I think the FPS was stable the entire time,but I think there were some judders even when I played this game at the lowest possible preset settings[Gsync is always on].

That settles it for this game,but what about other titles such as CS:GO and GTA 5.....
FPS gamers like me make sure the resolution and the graphical settings are set to the lowest possible playing conditions as to maximize the frame rate count, but still there are judders which happen from time to time.

 

[wallflower_1]

Hey guys, if anyone is experiencing the same problems as me, I kind of got the solution here, perhaps it might help you too :- https://forums.techguy.org/threads/major-stuttering-and-juddering-in-games-probably-a-gpu-issue.1200269/ .