ShwaBdudle

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so most of the games that I play lag (stutter/micro stutter) some games like Genshin Impact micro stutter from 60 fps to 57 fps but it stutters on the way. some games like Apex Legends have stutters that go from 144 fps to 120 fps, the game lags in the meantime. Far Cry 5 Stutters when I pick up items. if these issues are hardware related then the only limitation that I can think of that I have is the fact that my games are installed on a 1TB HDD and not an SSD. although I have to note that I did install CS:GO on my 120GB SSD (that I have Windows installed on) but that didn't seem to have fixed the issue. So before I jump to any conclusion and go buying an SSD, is it going to fix my issue?

also, I have played Apex, CS:GO and Genshin Impact on the lowest possible settings but that barely if at all helped.

Specs: RTX 2060, I7-10700k, 32 GB ram, 144hz 1080p. Windows 10

Temps: CPU: 60-85. GPU: 71 although for some reason on HWINFO64 it shows that my GPU has exceeded its thermal limit, therefore, lowered its performance, lag still happens when it doesn't show that. Please Help!
EDIT: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G5, 80 Plus Gold 650W, Fully Modular, Eco Mode with FDB Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Includes Power ON Self Tester, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-G5-0650-X1. Condition is good and I got the PSU in 2020.
 
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The PSU is a critical pc component and I would not find it weird in these times that even a new PSU faltered right out of the box.....

PSU's, like many other things, degrade with use - not time. So if the PSU has been heavily used for gaming, video editing, and bit-mining then the PSU is all the more likely to begin having problems. Especially at times of peak power demand that occur during game play.

Especially with the games being hosted on the 1 TB HDD. You probably will not see much of a change in the graphs when the spikes occur. And very likely that capturing a spike per se will not be very revealing. However, remember that all that occurs is in milliseconds or less and/or bits. Does not take much at all to invoke...

Ralston18

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Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?

= = = =

120 GB SSD is too small overall.

How full is that SSD?

One thing you can do is to open Resource Monitor and observe system performance.

Just leave the Resource Monitor window open and drag to one side while, you game, work, browse, etc..

Determine what resources are being used, to what extent (%), and what is using any given resource. Especially if the stuttering is occurring.

Task Manager may likewise prove helpful as well.

Run both Task Manager and Resource Monitor -just one at a time.
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?

= = = =

120 GB SSD is too small overall.

How full is that SSD?

One thing you can do is to open Resource Monitor and observe system performance.

Just leave the Resource Monitor window open and drag to one side while, you game, work, browse, etc..

Determine what resources are being used, to what extent (%), and what is using any given resource. Especially if the stuttering is occurring.

Task Manager may likewise prove helpful as well.

Run both Task Manager and Resource Monitor -just one at a time.
SSD has 20 GB remaining. about the resource monitor, I left it open but honestly I couldn't really understand what to specifically look at while gaming and when the stuttering occurs. BTW I put in the PSU info
 

Ralston18

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My preference is to limit any given drive to about 70-80 % capacity. That is just me and there may well be other thoughts on the matter.

As for Resource Monitor (and Task Manager) the purpose is to discover what is using up or otherwise consuming any given system resource and slowing the system.

For example, to stay in context, if the disk drive is getting full then Windows may be spending time trying to read/write data to the drive in support of whatever applications, games, utilities etc. are being run.

Use the graphs to watch for times of peak usage and then determine what is using some particular resource.

The installed PSU could be anywhere from 20 months old to 9 months old. If used for heavy gaming use then the PSU may well be starting to falter and briefly fail at times of peak power demand.

Take a look at the Performance graphs in Task Manager. What drops (if anything) when the system stutters?
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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My preference is to limit any given drive to about 70-80 % capacity. That is just me and there may well be other thoughts on the matter.

As for Resource Monitor (and Task Manager) the purpose is to discover what is using up or otherwise consuming any given system resource and slowing the system.

For example, to stay in context, if the disk drive is getting full then Windows may be spending time trying to read/write data to the drive in support of whatever applications, games, utilities etc. are being run.

Use the graphs to watch for times of peak usage and then determine what is using some particular resource.

The installed PSU could be anywhere from 20 months old to 9 months old. If used for heavy gaming use then the PSU may well be starting to falter and briefly fail at times of peak power demand.

Take a look at the Performance graphs in Task Manager. What drops (if anything) when the system stutters?
ok, so I got the PSU in June/July 2020, and honestly Its a bit weird that only after a year of usage the PSU is faltering :/
I watched over task manager and I didn't see anything spike drop significantly when the lag happened. The graphs were going up and down but if I show the graphs to you, you won't be able to tell where the lag happened. I also increased my GPU Fan Curve to 100% VIA MSI afterburner but the only thing that came out of this was the fact that my GPU got 2 times louder and 5-10 cooler but the lag spikes continue.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
The PSU is a critical pc component and I would not find it weird in these times that even a new PSU faltered right out of the box.....

PSU's, like many other things, degrade with use - not time. So if the PSU has been heavily used for gaming, video editing, and bit-mining then the PSU is all the more likely to begin having problems. Especially at times of peak power demand that occur during game play.

Especially with the games being hosted on the 1 TB HDD. You probably will not see much of a change in the graphs when the spikes occur. And very likely that capturing a spike per se will not be very revealing. However, remember that all that occurs is in milliseconds or less and/or bits. Does not take much at all to invoke a lag or stutter.

Are you able to obtain another known working PSU that you can install for test purposes?

Another thing you can try is a roomier SSD for the boot drive.
 
Solution

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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The PSU is a critical pc component and I would not find it weird in these times that even a new PSU faltered right out of the box.....

PSU's, like many other things, degrade with use - not time. So if the PSU has been heavily used for gaming, video editing, and bit-mining then the PSU is all the more likely to begin having problems. Especially at times of peak power demand that occur during game play.

Especially with the games being hosted on the 1 TB HDD. You probably will not see much of a change in the graphs when the spikes occur. And very likely that capturing a spike per se will not be very revealing. However, remember that all that occurs is in milliseconds or less and/or bits. Does not take much at all to invoke a lag or stutter.

Are you able to obtain another known working PSU that you can install for test purposes?

Another thing you can try is a roomier SSD for the boot drive.
sadly I'm unable to obtain another PSU. is there anything else that I can do?
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
If you have a multi-meter and know how to use it (or know someone who does) you can do some testing on the PSU.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Not a full test because the PSU is not under load. However, any voltages out of tolerance would make the PSU suspect.

Otherwise try reducing the load on the system - hopefully to a level where the stuttering stops. Then add back devices one by one in different mixes to determine if one particular device causes the stuttering to begin again.

Also:

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Ensure by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.

Look for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melted insulation, browned or blackened areas, swollen components, kinked or pinched wires.

The objective is to discover some set of conditions/configurations where you can cause the stuttering to occur and thus identify the culprit.
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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If you have a multi-meter and know how to use it (or know someone who does) you can do some testing on the PSU.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

Not a full test because the PSU is not under load. However, any voltages out of tolerance would make the PSU suspect.

Otherwise try reducing the load on the system - hopefully to a level where the stuttering stops. Then add back devices one by one in different mixes to determine if one particular device causes the stuttering to begin again.

Also:

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Ensure by sight and feel that all connectors, cards, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.

Look for signs of damage: bare conductor showing, melted insulation, browned or blackened areas, swollen components, kinked or pinched wires.

The objective is to discover some set of conditions/configurations where you can cause the stuttering to occur and thus identify the culprit.
about the whole load thing, I played Minecraft (albeit with AA enabled on Maximum through Optifine) and Genshin Impact on low settings but the lag was still there, how much lower than that can I go? I'm even playing CS:GO on low with VSYNC enabled! there isn't much more reducing to do. Although I have to mention that after taking a deeper look at my MSI Afterburner graph I can see that sometimes when stutters occur GPU Usage can drop a bit. sometimes other graphs also drop a bit, sometimes none drop at all.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Reading back I still wonder about the SSD being only 120 GB and full to 100 GB.

Perhaps Disk Cleanup can free up more space. Be sure to back up all important data beforehand.

Overall the stutters may simply be occurring with some "perfect storm" of conditions that create a threshold. All is okay then one more byte somewhere and a stutter occurs.

Close out background apps. Deleted unused software, temp files, etc.. from the SSD.

Key is to find or identify some pattern or common set of circumstances where stutters begin to occur.

Not sure what else to suggest. There may be other ideas and suggestions - I have no problem with that.
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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Reading back I still wonder about the SSD being only 120 GB and full to 100 GB.

Perhaps Disk Cleanup can free up more space. Be sure to back up all important data beforehand.

Overall the stutters may simply be occurring with some "perfect storm" of conditions that create a threshold. All is okay then one more byte somewhere and a stutter occurs.

Close out background apps. Deleted unused software, temp files, etc.. from the SSD.

Key is to find or identify some pattern or common set of circumstances where stutters begin to occur.

Not sure what else to suggest. There may be other ideas and suggestions - I have no problem with that.
ok but I do still have an HDD that I use for games. the only game that I have installed on the SSD is cs go (Stutters) and on my HDD I have Apex Installed (Stutters).
 

Ralston18

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Trying to keep everything else as consistent as possible observe system performance first while playing games that do not stutter.

Then play cs go and Apex. Objective being to identify what is different or changes between no stuttering performance and stuttering performance.
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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Trying to keep everything else as consistent as possible observe system performance first while playing games that do not stutter.

Then play cs go and Apex. Objective being to identify what is different or changes between no stuttering performance and stuttering performance.
after taking another look I can tell the GPU usage does spike down by around 20% (plus or minus) most of the times that the lag occurs.
 

Ralston18

Titan
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GPU down 20% (+ or - ).

Focus on what all the GPU is doing at those times.

Also look at other resources as well. Disk activity and RAM usage. Virtual Memory use.

Process Explorer (free from Microsoft) may prove helpful.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

32 GB RAM should be more than enough for most games and I would not be surprised if there is quite a bit of that unused when game playing.

Did you configure virtual memory or are you letting Windows manage it?
 

ShwaBdudle

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Aug 10, 2019
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GPU down 20% (+ or - ).

Focus on what all the GPU is doing at those times.

Also look at other resources as well. Disk activity and RAM usage. Virtual Memory use.

Process Explorer (free from Microsoft) may prove helpful.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

32 GB RAM should be more than enough for most games and I would not be surprised if there is quite a bit of that unused when game playing.

Did you configure virtual memory or are you letting Windows manage it?
I let windows manage it. also in these 10+ days, I opened up my pc, cleaned it (as much as I could without compressed air), unplugged my PSU, and redid some cable management where the PSU is. still didn't help.
 
Oct 1, 2021
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I let windows manage it. also in these 10+ days, I opened up my pc, cleaned it (as much as I could without compressed air), unplugged my PSU, and redid some cable management where the PSU is. still didn't help.

Go check for the viruses, unhide the extension files and hidden files, then go to Windows folder in your C Drive, find "rss" folder, and check if there is a folder named "csrss.exe" or not, because you cant scan that virus with antivirus/windows defender