[SOLVED] Microstuttering Despite High FPS

[Ereus]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to PC building and have never made a forum post before. So bear with me here 😬

So here's what's going on:

During gameplay, my screen will freeze for ~1 second at a time. This is across all games, but it happens more frequently on some titles than others. I've closely watched my FPS reading and it doesn't show a dip before or after the screen locks up. For example, it'll say 144->screen freeze->144. It's a little odd, because it seems to affect games at random. I'll be running WoW at full ultra settings and very rarely get screen locks, but then Terraria is basically unplayable because it happens so often. Very strange.

Also, there is a persistent micro-stuttering on all games. The severity of it seems to be on a game-by-game basis though. On Overwatch it's very noticable but other games will be much smoother (but they still stutter and lock up).

My Specs:

CPU: Intel i7 8700
CPU Cooler: Corsair H150i Pro
Motherboard: Asus Prime Z390-A
Memory: 32gb of Corsair RGB Vengeance Pro 3000MHz (4 sticks of 8)
Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 500gb SSD (x2), Samsung 970 Evo 500gb NVMe
GPU: MSI 2080 Super Ventus oc (8gb gddr6)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000w 80+ gold
Display: Dell S2716DG (connected via display port for Gsync)

What I've Tried:

• At first I suspected it might be a thermal problem. However, I have checked temps of both the CPU and GPU both during gameplay and benchmarking. The CPU hits ~55c max, and the GPU never gets over ~70. Mind you, those are the highest I've seen temps--they're usually 20-30c lower than those caps.

• I did notice something peculiar while benchmarking my GPU with Heaven: When my screen would lock during the benchmark, the minimum FPS would drop to 36.7 every time. Seems oddly specific, but I don't know much about this stuff 🤷‍♂️

• I ran the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to stress test my CPU. It passed both the memory and CPU tests and didn't report any thermal throttling

• I changed motherboards several months back, but I don't remember if I had the same problems on the old board. Either way, my current board is relatively new

• I swapped out my old GPU (2070 Super) for this 2080 a few days ago hoping that it would solve the problem. It made no difference.

• The power supply is only about a week old. I read online that it might be the cause of performance issues and it was time to upgrade anyway.

• Capping framerate and enabling/disabling Vsync had no impact on my performance issues.

• Disabling Windows Defender actually improved all games significantly, but did not fix it entirely.

 

[Phaaze88]

Have you tried enabling MCE(Multi Core Enhancement) in bios?

Also, please don't leave Defender disabled...

 

[Ereus]

Have you tried enabling MCE(Multi Core Enhancement) in bios?

Also, please don't leave Defender disabled...

I didn't know that was a thing! I'll go searching for it in a second.

I went and got a 3rd party antivirus immediately after.

 

[Ereus]

I didn't know that was a thing! I'll go searching for it in a second.

I went and got a 3rd party antivirus immediately after.

Okay, so MCE didn't seem to make a difference at all.

 

[Phaaze88]

Well, shucks, because what I thought was going on was the cpu clocking down due to the Power Limit duration.
MCE would've forced the cpu to run at it's max turbo clock at all times.

Tried reinstalling the games?

I changed motherboards several months back, but I don't remember if I had the same problems on the old board. Either way, my current board is relatively new

Shame on me for overlooking this earlier. You should reinstall the OS whenever you change motherboards.

The other idea I have is regarding how much 3rd party software you have installed, like RGB or fan control. That crap can actually cause hiccups too:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzAeAFudylI

 

[Ereus]

Well, shucks, because what I thought was going on was the cpu clocking down due to the Power Limit duration.
MCE would've forced the cpu to run at it's max turbo clock at all times.

Tried reinstalling the games?


Shame on me for overlooking this earlier. You should reinstall the OS whenever you change motherboards.

The other idea I have is regarding how much 3rd party software you have installed, like RGB or fan control. That crap can actually cause hiccups too:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzAeAFudylI

I did reinstall windows and clean all drives when swapping Motherboards. I read somewhere that a BIOS update might help with stability issues? I haven't tried that.

I have noticed that Corsair's Icue software is often taking up a suspicious amount of the CPU. Like, 20-40% which is insane. Other time when I'm having issues though, it's barely using any of the CPU at all.

 

[Phaaze88]

I did reinstall windows and clean all drives when swapping Motherboards. I read somewhere that a BIOS update might help with stability issues? I haven't tried that.

1)Great!
2)Bios updates can contain system stability improvements or performance optimizations. It's usually stated in the description before downloading.
Check which version of bios the mobo is currently on, go to the product support page for said mobo, and check what the newer versions have to offer. If there aren't any stability/performance updates, then I don't think you need bother with it.

I have noticed that Corsair's Icue software is often taking up a suspicious amount of the CPU. Like, 20-40% which is insane. Other time when I'm having issues though, it's barely using any of the CPU at all.

Yeah, that sucks. Plus you're forced to use it, especially with their liquid coolers...

 

[Ereus]

1)Great!
2)Bios updates can contain system stability improvements or performance optimizations. It's usually stated in the description before downloading.
Check which version of bios the mobo is currently on, go to the product support page for said mobo, and check what the newer versions have to offer. If there aren't any stability/performance updates, then I don't think you need bother with it.


Yeah, that sucks. Plus you're forced to use it, especially with their liquid coolers...

So do you think it's probably a CPU issue at this point? I might try to wipe all drives and start fresh again--maybe it's something odd I picked up along the way. Will definitely look into how to update BIOS too. If these things don't work... how would I proceed?

 

[Phaaze88]

So do you think it's probably a CPU issue at this point?

Nope.

If these things don't work... how would I proceed?

By performing a Clean Boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
With that, you can selectively choose which applications start up, which ones don't, and over time, isolate which applications are causing the issue.
Unfortunately, it's not a quick solution, but that's usually the case with troubleshooting.
The first place I'd suggest starting would be disabling all the 3rd party applications not related to Windows/Microsoft and other crucial drivers(gpu, audio, lan, sata...)
Check in game performance, and then slowly add in the 3rd party stuff until you notice a major discrepancy.

 

[Ereus]

Nope.


By performing a Clean Boot: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
With that, you can selectively choose which applications start up, which ones don't, and over time, isolate which applications are causing the issue.
Unfortunately, it's not a quick solution, but that's usually the case with troubleshooting.
The first place I'd suggest starting would be disabling all the 3rd party applications not related to Windows/Microsoft and other crucial drivers(gpu, audio, lan, sata...)
Check in game performance, and then slowly add in the 3rd party stuff until you notice a major discrepancy.

Maybe I'll fiddle with that instead of just nuking everything with a clean install. I'm glad I probably don't have to replace my CPU. Thank you so much for your time and patience!

 

[Phaaze88]

You're welcome!

I mean, you've already done a clean install with this setup before - that would've eliminated most driver issues. I don't see a need to do it again.
I think it's software causing that.