Question Mystery Stuttering On High End PC. No resolution after 1 year of troubleshooting.

[Dillonr93]

Hello all, I am returning again after prematurely marking my last post as solved. I thought my issue was resolved, but it had only improved slightly but never went away. A little over a year ago I build a high end gaming and workstation pc. Ever since it was built, it has been stuttering both in games and on the desktop. Sometimes even in the bios. The stuttering goes as follows: When in the desktop, while moving windows around, they will sometimes stop in place for a split second before continuing about. In productivity apps its like it freeze frames for a second when I'm trying to use them. When browsing the web the stutter tends to happen while scrolling, briefly stopping the scroll. Every single game I play is affected by the stuttering in some way, even games that are very easy to run. For example, in Cities Skylines, the game will hang for a split second while moving the camera about. The audio cuts out as well when this happens. Same thing in Civilization 6, it just hangs for a second periodically when moving the camera around. Games like overwatch 2 run pretty well but instead of having the typical stuttering, it will completely freeze frame for a few seconds and the screen will cut to black before things return to normal. The stuttering happens consistently every few minutes no matter what I'm doing. I have tried every solution that I could possibly think of and then some. Nothing and I mean absolutely nothing that I have tried has solved this problem, and I have been troubleshooting as often as I can over the course of a year now.

Here are my specs:
OS: Windows 11
Mobo: Asus prime Z690 A
CPU: Intel i9 12900kf
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000mhz
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090Ti
PSU: EVGA Supernova 1000W
Storage: 3 Samsung EVO 980 pros. Two 1TB drives and one 2TB drive.
Asus Thunderbolt 3 Card
Cooling: Noctua air cooler
Monitors: 2 Sceptre 1440P 165hz Freesync
Mouse: Razer Naga
Keyboard: Logitech G910
Headset: Also Logitech but unsure of model.

Here is everything I have tried, in order, as far as I can remember. Get ready, this is a lot.

First attempt of fixing this, I upgraded my PSU from an 850W to my current 1000W. My thought was that I was pushing that PSU to its limit. No change in stuttering.

Next I tried messing with XMP settings, but they just wouldn't work. In my previous post, many people stated this could be a RAM issue or possibly a CPU issue and I was told to update my BIOS.

I updated BIOS and this helped the issue only a little bit. I was now able to properly use XMP profiles. I spent a long time here messing with various XMP profiles and settings and nothing helped at all.

Next I tried messing with various power settings in the BIOS. I tried everything from turning off C states to disabling SpeedStep and SpeedShift. I turned off turbo mode, I even tried underclocking my CPU. Nothing helped.

Disabled E cores. Made issue much worse.

I have messed with every windows setting imaginable to try to fix this. Tried different power plans. disabled all unnecessary startup tasks. Deleted all unnecessary apps. I turned off literally every setting that could be needlessly taking up resources. I even started to mess with REGEDIT to disable all kinds of features that could possibly be deemed problematic, such as MPO.

Messed with all sorts of settings in Nvidia Control Panel. Nothing helped.

Ran all kinds of diagnostic and benchmark tools for every piece of hardware. No problems detected on any of them.

Tried uninstalling/ reinstalling pretty much every driver I could and tested various configurations like this. No fix

I even uninstalled graphics drivers with DDU and that didn't help

At this point I have exhausted most of the software troubleshooting options and I began troubleshooting the hardware side.

I tried all the different possible ram configurations. No fixes there.

I bought a new RAM kit and installed it. Stuttering Persisted. Returned RAM

I bought an ASUS Z790 A to test. Problem persisted. Returned new MOBO

I swapped my GPU with my old 1080ti and still same issue.

Borrowed my brothers i912900k and put it into my PC. unbelievably, stuttering was still there!

Next I started testing my m.2 SSDs. I tried every configuration possible with these, from just 1 drive to all 3, with a fresh install of windows for each configuration. Still the problem persists. It did not matter which SSD was the boot drive.

I removed the thunderbolt card and tested pc without that part. Still stuttering.

I booted the PC without any nonessential peripherals. no fix.

I booted PC with all nonessential internal components such as fans and USB ports disconnected. Problem persisted.

I tried different monitors, different mouse and keyboard and different audio devices. No fix

Turning Freesync off or on did not change anything

Removed ethernet cable/ disabled lan. No fix.

Checked PC case for grounding issues. Did Not see any. Also important to note is that I had 2 different PC cases throughout this ordeal.

PC temperatures stay within acceptable ranges so I know that's not an issue. EG CPU rarely goes over 70C while gaming.

At this point I was really running out of options. Here is where my troubleshooting has led me in the past few days. I decided to revert My OS back to windows 10 and this is where things get interesting. I have discovered that early builds of windows 10 have no stuttering. Once I update to The 22h2 version of windows 10, the stuttering returns. Any version prior to Windows 10 22h2 = no stutter. 22H2 and any version of windows 11 = stutter. I do not mind using an older version of windows 10 but the problem is, this cannot be a permanent solution. Windows will eventually force everyone into 22h2. Then I'll be stuck dealing with the stuttering again. As of tonight, I have installed Ubuntu to test if stuttering occurs there. Sure enough, I am getting the same stuttering issue in Ubuntu.

I really need some help figuring this out. At this point, I feel like I have tried every possible solution, short of just building an entirely new PC. I'm at my wits end, truly. I'm losing sleep and rapidly aging over this issue.

Could it simply just be that my specific combination of parts just don't play well together for some reason? Could it be some sort of conflicting drivers that I have failed to identify?

A PC that I put this much money into just shouldn't be performing poorly like this. I am desperate for any fix that doesn't involve buying a new PC. Any advice and contributions are greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to help.

 

[boju]

Well hopefully it continues to be ok.

I haven't installed 11 but towards the end of 10 installation, i guess it's the same for 11, i refuse every bloatware service offered, every one. Once install is done the next things i do is disable automatic device driver install and user account control before i start installing drivers i downloaded, installed as administrator, so there is no chance security can interfere with software for critical components. I don't disconnect internet.

Have done same way since Vista/Win 7. If there's anything you can take from the way i do things i hope it helps if you need to go through the process again.

 

[borris618]

might seem silly, but have you tried using a different power outlet in the house?
or a different power adapter?
Have had some weired issues being solved like that in the past.

 

[Dillonr93]

Well hopefully it continues to be ok.

I haven't installed 11 but towards the end of 10 installation, i guess it's the same for 11, i refuse every bloatware service offered, every one. Once install is done the next things i do is disable automatic device driver install and user account control before i start installing drivers i downloaded, installed as administrator, so there is no chance security can interfere with software for critical components. I don't disconnect internet.

Have done same way since Vista/Win 7. If there's anything you can take from the way i do things i hope it helps if you need to go through the process again.

And the issue came back. Thats some good info though thanks. I'll have to try a fresh install specifically like that.

 

[beyondlogic]

And the issue came back. Thats some good info though thanks. I'll have to try a fresh install specifically like that.

what is your current bios
does this issue persist when xmp is turned off
temps.

also open task manager see if theres any background processes hogging your cpu

are ram in slots 2 and 4.
4800 is max cpu speed without clocking higher and dont see your particular kit on support list alot of g skill.

 

[Dillonr93]

what is your current bios
does this issue persist when xmp is turned off
temps.

also open task manager see if theres any background processes hogging your cpu

are ram in slots 2 and 4.
4800 is max cpu speed without clocking higher and dont see your particular kit on support list alot of g skill.

Bios is updated to newest revision. Xmp has no effect other than making the problem worse if its on an unstable setting. But base xmp profiles off or on, no difference. Ive disabled/uninstalled a ton of apps and windows features. Temps are well within acceptable ranges. Ive tried all possible RAM troubleshooting. I've stated all of this in the post and nothing had fixed it.

 

[Dillonr93]

So I got to test a good variety of games now, particularly ones that have had the worst issues with stuttering. These games are running pretty smoothly now! If a stutter happens, its very infrequent, and hardly noticeable. I can live with this. Definitely a massive improvement so I think we were on the right track with this driver related stuff.

 

[Dillonr93]

Hello again everyone. I just wanted to provide an update, as I've been using the pc for about a week now in its current state. While the stuttering issue has improved and is much more tolerable now, it still persists, and I'm looking to see if there are any more ideas out there. I'd still like to eliminate this if its even possible. Desktop stuttering isnt really an issue anymore, especially with moving windows around, however stuttering is frequent when scrolling on any application. Stuttering happens when scrolling on chrome and when scrolling through my steam library for example. Gaming performance has overall improved but has slightly decreased for just one game.

Here are some game by game examples:

Civilization 6: No longer stuttering ans runs perfectly now. This was a game that had serious stuttering issues before.

Baldurs gate 3: Slightly improved performance here. This game used to hard stutter frequently, especially when moving the camera around. Lower settings made no difference. Now the game only micro stutters and its less frequent.

Overwatch 2: so this game has slightly worse performance now. This game never stuttered before, and now it does. It now micro stutters when I shoot for the first time, and periodically in game. I also still get the one single hard freeze/screen goes to black for a few seconds every time I play it .

Cities skylines: Still stutters every few seconds but i believe this is just a game issue.

Smite: This is a game that stuttered horribly for me. No more stuttering issues in this game.

Some Important things to note about the stuttering issue: No hardware monitoring/ diagnostic tools are finding any problems. Windows event viewer isnt showing any errors whenever the stutter occurs. It seems that this problem isn't caught by any software at all. I've noticed that the stuttering seems to be related to loading assets for the first time, or the periodic rendering of assets. For example, when scrolling on chrome or on steam, the app will stutter as the stuff that is not in view is about to come into view. Once everything has been loaded, i can then scroll through the web page or steam library without stuttering anymore. In games, its kind of the samething. Stuttering is happening most often when moving cameras around, or when assets are loading as I navigate through a map.

Maybe that will provide some more insight, but I won't get my hopes up. I have tried disabling some more windows features, messing with more Nvidia settings and bios settings, such as disabling aspm power management settings and enabling Rebar support. I've also gone through my device manager and manually updated some drivers and deleted/ disabled some others.

This can't be a windows issue, as this happens in ubuntu as well. Its very unlikely a hardware issue, as every component had been swapped, aside from the ssds. Im really thinking that for whatever reason, my hardware components aren't communicating with eachother correctly. Figuring out how or why seems impossible now, again because every part has been swapped anf thoroughly tested.

As I've researched this issue, I have found that this specific issue I have is incredibly common and most people have never found a fix. I may just have to learn to live with it at this point.

 

[Dillonr93]

might seem silly, but have you tried using a different power outlet in the house?
or a different power adapter?
Have had some weired issues being solved like that in the past.

Sorry I just saw this somehow. Thats certainly not the issue, as Ive had this pc set up in different places and have used different power cables. My previous pc, which was set up in the same spot, didn't have this issue.

 

[geofelt]

How much ram do you have?
Stuttering is caused by a temporary lack of a critical resource.
Usually this might be processor.
But, in the event that you might be using many concurrent apps with large virtual storage like chrome, stuttering could be caused by hard page faults.
To check, run task manager and select resource monitor.
Look at the memory tab and the hard page fault column.
If you see even one instance of a hard page fault, that app stops dead until the missing page can be retrieved from the page file. With a ssd, that is quick but might be noticeable.
Or, if an app has been dormant for a while, and some of it's code has migrated to the page file, then a hard fault can happen.
The normal windows memory management is very good. Do not try to manipulate this other than providing sufficient system managed virtual page space and sufficient ram to back it up.

 

[Dillonr93]

How much ram do you have?
Stuttering is caused by a temporary lack of a critical resource.
Usually this might be processor.
But, in the event that you might be using many concurrent apps with large virtual storage like chrome, stuttering could be caused by hard page faults.
To check, run task manager and select resource monitor.
Look at the memory tab and the hard page fault column.
If you see even one instance of a hard page fault, that app stops dead until the missing page can be retrieved from the page file. With a ssd, that is quick but might be noticeable.
Or, if an app has been dormant for a while, and some of it's code has migrated to the page file, then a hard fault can happen.
The normal windows memory management is very good. Do not try to manipulate this other than providing sufficient system managed virtual page space and sufficient ram to back it up.

32 gb. Task manager and Latencymon show thousands of page faults occuring within a short period of time. I thought that could be an issue but I haven't a clue how I could correct that

 

[Dillonr93]

32 gb. Task manager and Latencymon show thousands of page faults occuring within a short period of time. I thought that vould be an issue but I haven't a clue how I could correct that

There are some latencymon screen shots I posted here that show a lot of hard page faults

 

[geofelt]

I think you are on to something here.
With what you have now, review what is running and see if you can't reduce some apps.
Look for apps that will wake up to see if it needs any maintenance.
Nvidia experience might be one.
Discord has had some issues as I recall.

Of course, brute force by upping ram to 64gb

 

[Dillonr93]

I think you are on to something here.
With what you have now, review what is running and see if you can't reduce some apps.
Look for apps that will wake up to see if it needs any maintenance.
Nvidia experience might be one.
Discord has had some issues as I recall.

Of course, brute force by upping ram to 64gb

It seems the norm on my system is that it gets around 50k hard pagefaults at around 7 minutes in when running latencymon. And this is with very minimal processes running. Literally it would be just Nvidia control panel, windows defender and steam and maybe chrome running and thats it.

 

[geofelt]

Chrome is a notorious user of ram. How many instances are running?
Defender is small and I would not touch that.
What might wake up at the 7 minute mark?

 

[Dillonr93]

Chrome is a notorious user of ram. How many instances are running?
Defender is small and I would not touch that.
What might wake up at the 7 minute mark?

Usually just one instance but I often have a few tabs open. Im not sure what is causing the huge spikes in hard page faults as Im pretty sure it happens even when chrome isn't running. I'm reading up on this and I have a lot of things to try out to troubleshoot the page fault issue. Ill work on it after work today and Ill report my findings.

 

[helper800]

Some things that come to mind to me. If yours stutters are extremely consistently timed it may be a physical short on the motherboard or the graphics card. Since you had no issues in safe mode it makes me think that there is some service running that is causing issues. Try and test with a clean boot. If a clean boot shows no issues, then there is a service causing the issue. You can use a process of elimination to find out which one it is. Since you did an upgrade to the OS in the past i would try and sfc /scannow in an elevated admin CMD to see if there is any lingering corruption, though i doubt it since multiple OS reinstall.

 

[Dillonr93]

Some things that come to mind to me. If yours stutters are extremely consistently timed it may be a physical short on the motherboard or the graphics card. Since you had no issues in safe mode it makes me think that there is some service running that is causing issues. Try and test with a clean boot. If a clean boot shows no issues, then there is a service causing the issue. You can use a process of elimination to find out which one it is. Since you did an upgrade to the OS in the past i would try and sfc /scannow in an elevated admin CMD to see if there is any lingering corruption, though i doubt it since multiple OS reinstall.

The stuttering is fairly consistent. I don't think a short is the cause, as Ive swapped both the mobo and gpu to test and the issue persisted. I can't say for sure if the issue went away in safe mode. My system runs very choppy when the graphics driver isnt installed/running, making it impossible to see if the stuttering is happening. Ive ran the scan now command, and while it found and fixed some corrupted files, it didn't fix the stuttering. I'll try a clean boot and play around with that and report back with what I find

 

[Dillonr93]

Some things that come to mind to me. If yours stutters are extremely consistently timed it may be a physical short on the motherboard or the graphics card. Since you had no issues in safe mode it makes me think that there is some service running that is causing issues. Try and test with a clean boot. If a clean boot shows no issues, then there is a service causing the issue. You can use a process of elimination to find out which one it is. Since you did an upgrade to the OS in the past i would try and sfc /scannow in an elevated admin CMD to see if there is any lingering corruption, though i doubt it since multiple OS reinstall.

I think you are on to something here.
With what you have now, review what is running and see if you can't reduce some apps.
Look for apps that will wake up to see if it needs any maintenance.
Nvidia experience might be one.
Discord has had some issues as I recall.

Of course, brute force by upping ram to 64gb

So I started delving into the hard page fault issue. The resource monitor, as well as latencymon shows a large generation of hard page faults created by any new app or process I start up. Afterwards the only things generating hard page faults are a few critical Windows services.

 

[Dillonr93]

So I started delving into the hard page fault issue. The resource monitor, as well as latencymon shows a large generation of hard page faults created by any new app or process I start up. Afterwards the only things generating hard page faults are a few critical Windows services. Stuttering is not happening in tandem with the hard page faults.

 

[boju]

Would Chrome be one of the very first things you install from a clean install? Yourself being not suspecting it all. It'll have hardware acceleration settings you could try (on or off) in dealing with fluency scrolling webpages but for other stutter related stuff, i 🤔. Maybe try uninstall it and use something else like Firefox.

 

[helper800]

Would Chrome be one of the very first things you install from a clean install? Yourself being not suspecting it all. It'll have hardware acceleration settings you could try (on or off) in dealing with fluency scrolling webpages but for other stutter related stuff, i 🤔. Maybe try uninstall it and use something else like Firefox.

Firefox also uses GPU acceleration though, so wouldn't he be in the same boat either way?

 

[boju]

Firefox also uses GPU acceleration though, so wouldn't he be in the same boat either way?

Depends how the two browsers behave, one could be more intrusive towards system resources. If hardware acceleration is on by default I'd try with it off.

 

[Louie Tomlinson]

What speed is your ram running at? As your cpu only supports ram speed upto 4800mt/s.
Have you tried disabling/enabling intel features in bios like

• Neural Accelerator
• Intel® Thread Director
• Intel® Deep Learning Boost (Intel® DL Boost)
• Intel® Optane™ Memory Supported
• Intel® Speed Shift Technology
• Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
• Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

Etc.

 

[helper800]

What speed is your ram running at? As your cpu only supports ram speed upto 4800mt/s.
Have you tried disabling/enabling intel features in bios like

• Neural Accelerator
• Intel® Thread Director
• Intel® Deep Learning Boost (Intel® DL Boost)
• Intel® Optane™ Memory Supported
• Intel® Speed Shift Technology
• Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
• Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

Etc.

His CPU and motherboard definitely supports the speed of his RAM. 4800 mt/s is the baseline speed for DDR5, above that is not guaranteed to work, but is definitely "supported."

 

[Dillonr93]

Would Chrome be one of the very first things you install from a clean install? Yourself being not suspecting it all. It'll have hardware acceleration settings you could try (on or off) in dealing with fluency scrolling webpages but for other stutter related stuff, i 🤔. Maybe try uninstall it and use something else like Firefox.

Its usually not but I just got chrome working smoothly now! Disabling and then reenabling hardware acceleration fixed that problem.