Need some help diagnosing software related fps microstutter/freezes

[jb1232]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make sure I did as much testing as possible before posting another fps question, but I haven't been able to fix the issue fully. My issue is that when I first boot up my pc, games run perfectly for as long as I want. I can open BF1 and play for hours without stuttering. As soon as I close the game and start doing web browsing, let the computer sit, play another game etc my games begin to stutter. This happens in pretty much all games.

I've tried a lot of hardware testing so i'm assuming it is software related at this point. I have tried memtest in all kinds of configurations for long periods of time, all the recent(and older 388.) nvidia drivers making sure to uninstall the last with DDU, monitored the clocks and power usage of all components (all steady), the sound does not glitch when the stutters occur, temperatures on the cpu and gpu never exceed 65 and 68 respectively, i've tried with all overclock settings disabled, set power management to max performance in drivers, wifi turned off, scanned the computer for virus', checked vrm temperatures the list goes on. I also disabled windows DVR and alot of the services not needed in windows like superfetch, as my operating system is on an nvme m.2 drive. None of this made a difference.

The only things that have helped slightly were disabling HPET (made fps smooth but didnt get rid of random spikes) and the shaderchache (seemed to lower the frequency of the hitches but only slightly).

I currently have the pagefile disabled but it didn't really make a difference having it on, off, automated or just setting it to a huge value.

At this point i'm wondering if anyone knows any good software error finding techniques or past experiences.

PC Specs:

--> 8700k (for the moment at 4.4ghz)
--> MSI 1080ti gaming x (stock with msi afterburner custom fan curve)
--> 16gb of 3000mhz T-force Dark Ram (xmp is enabled but disabling it didnt make a difference)
--> MSI z370 pc pro (Not the best for the 8700k i know but my overclocks aren't drastic)
--> Corsair RM750X
--> Corsair h110i v2
--> NZXT s340 elite
--> and some tp-link archer pci wireless adapter (no difference connecting via ethernet)

My games are installed on a WD Blue HDD but the brief test i did with the game on my m.2 drive didn't yield results that were any better.

Thank you for taking the time to read that, any help would be appreciated.

 

[bigsmilingbear]

1st thing first, let windows manage page file and put it on SSD drive. windows 10 are perfectly able to manage and disabling page file brings more trouble than benefit nowadays.

use nvidia driver 390.77 as of now and install without nvidia experience.

have you set maximum performance on nvidia control panel - power management setting?

and have you set the windows power profile to high performance?

 

[jb1232]

1st thing first, let windows manage page file and put it on SSD drive. windows 10 are perfectly able to manage and disabling page file brings more trouble than benefit nowadays.

use nvidia driver 390.77 as of now and install without nvidia experience.

have you set maximum performance on nvidia control panel - power management setting?

Hi Bigsmilingbear thanks for the responce. Yes I have set maximum performance on nvidia control panel. I have also tried 390.77, it was the first driver I tried when the system was built so i'll give it another go. I'll also change the pagefile settings although doing so in the past has not resulted in any better performance or lack there of in the past. Windows is also set to high performance. Thanks again

 

[bigsmilingbear]

the thing with page file is that in this day and age, the performance gained by disabling or enabling page file is so insignificant compared to the trouble it brings if you don't let windows 10 manage properly. you can read here: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3678889/stutter-games-feel.html
just my 2 cents.
have you checked if your RAM is indeed running in dual channel mode?

 

[jb1232]

That's a fair 2 cents im open to advice as i haven't been able to fix it myself
A note on that though i did notice when i had the pagefile managed by windows (i only started to play around with it during testing) that during gameplay hwmonitor was reporting 10gb of virtual memory being used and 1.5% pagefile usage even though I have 11gb of vram and 16gb of system ram which was only at 40% usage.

I used cpu-z to check memory and it is reporting Channel #: 2 which i assume means dual channel? Might be wrong im doing alot of research as i test lol.

Cheers

 

[bigsmilingbear]

it should be like this:

 

[jb1232]

Yep that's the one looks like that

 

[bigsmilingbear]

ok so get back to us with updates.

 

[jb1232]

ok so get back to us with updates.

Will do ill make the suggested changes and see how it goes

 

[jb1232]

Hi so I made the changes and played for a bit. There were no adverse effects by the looks it plays as before when the system boots up so thats good.
Ill do some work then play again in a bit to see if the issue starts as expected.

 

[bigsmilingbear]

ok crossing fingers

 

[jb1232]

So after a while the stuttering appears to be back as normal. Goes away after a reboot. It's sort of random in the sense that it took a longer period of time to display signs of stuttering. I used hwmonitor to have a look at what's different each time i play.

There were no differences in temperatures, clock speeds, usage or power dips, the only difference being the pagefile usgae. Below i show two screenshots of this.

--> Fresh boot/ soon after

https://pasteboard.co/HflIgiF.png

--> Just recently when stuttering is prevalent)

https://pasteboard.co/HflJH81.png

Do you think the increase in pagefile usage is a clue to the issue?
Thanks again!

 

[bigsmilingbear]

do you feel any improvement at all after turning on page file?

this may turn out to be memory leak problem... *edit* nope not memory leak.
but just in case, could you add a little bit more voltage to your overclock?

 

[jb1232]

I added a little more voltage to no end, didn't really help. In terms of far cry 5 issues i have read that issues can arise from using a HDD for the game installation. This would make sense as stuttering in that game only really occurs when flying and hence loading new areas. Other games such as BF1 and Killing Floor 2 (should be easy for my computer) however I still cannot explain why fps stays the same but stutters begin to worsen over time and pc use. In these cases HDD usage is zero during the stutters making me think that what the game is installed on is not the issue in these cases. Any other ideas?

Normally i'd just accept it but the fact it's perfect for a period of time after boot makes me wonder if there is an issue worth fixing.

*Edit*
If anyone is reading this and having issues with Far Cry 5 specifically check this link out it helped me in that particular game only:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3677111/cry-game-freezes-fps-drop.html

 

[jb1232]

When in doubt just reinstall everything by the looks. I backed up my data and used a bootable drive to delete all the old partitions and wipe the drives to install a fresh copy of windows. A couple days in and no issues any more.

EDIT
Download RAMmap from Microsoft and run it. Once your in go to the "empty" tab up and top and press "empty standby list" only solution which actually solved my stuttering and fps issues in all games consistently. Helped me!