Question PC micro-stutters for 2 years now. Tried all different parts except CPU and Motherboard. Thoughts?

[TripleYoThreat]

Hi all! Hope all are well!

I'm a really experienced PC builder, in fact i have my own business in computers.
That's what makes this one all the more baffling and, surprising that it's happening to my very own PC lol. But better mine than a client's

So ever since I built this PC, I've had micro stutters, where, the OS will freeze, and the mouse will continue to move, but everything will pause for a few seconds. Music will continue playing smoothly, but video would pause. The coil whine on the graphics card even stops.

Now, over time, this PC has actually been through

the 2080 super
3 models of the 5700 XT
an RX 570
a Vega 56 (strictly to test this feature)
and now a 6900 XT

which have all shown this.

There are different OSes across 2 different NVMes, all exhibit this behavior, Windows, Mac, and Linux
(I'm telling you, I've spent a lot of time on this issue )

It has had 2 different PSUs, and another was tested, didn't solve it (650w then 1000w)

RAM has been changed, 32GB 3200mhz Trident RGB to 32GB 3600MHZ Patriot Viper no RGB, still the same.
(Now that I'm writing this, I suppose I could try the other 2 RAM slots because I used the new sticks in the same slots.)

Lastly, in the way of peripherals, the only demanding thing or odd thing I have besides a mouse / keyboard & a USB webcam, would be my Clarett + 2Pre, however, this stuttering happened before that was purchased as well.

The only thing it seems (correct me if I'm wrong) I haven't changed or ruled out would be the CPU & Motherboard.

How does one even maneuver this properly..? such an odd issue

I suppose I could RMA the CPU first since it would be less work to swap
And if it still doesn't solve it, go for the motherboard

What do you all think?

Thanks!
Trip

 

[Colif]

What motherboard/CPU are you using?

are you on windows 11?

 

[TripleYoThreat]

ROG Strix z590 A Gaming Wi-Fi
Updated the BIOS
11700K
AMD Reference 6900 XT
1000W Gold PSU
1 TeamGroup SSD - macOS 11, 12, 13, and 14 have all shown this, so it's surely not software side
1 Sabrent Rocket 4.0 SSD - Windows 10 & Linux

I've also tried Windows 11 off an external NVMe enclosure, same deal

 

[geofelt]

Stuttering is the temporary lack of a critical resource.
Commonly, that is the CPU, but it could be ram or something else.

Looking at the cpu, is there any chance that it is throttling under load temporarily?
Run HWmonitor. It will show you the current, minimum and maximum cpu temperatures by core.
Then run the games where stuttering happens.
Look at hwmonitor and see if any core shows up in red, indicating that it throttled.
During that time, your game might have throttled.

How much ram do you have?
Do you multitask while gaming?
Is there any indication that the amount of ram may not be sufficient?
If you should encounter a hard page fault, the cpu stops dead while it is resolved.
A process that takes 40x longer on a hdd than a ssd.
To check, go to task manager/resource monitor. select the memory tab and look at the hard page fault column.
It should be zero or close to it.

If you want a stronger cpu, look first to the single thread performance.
The single thread performance rating for a 11700K is around 3460 which is very good.
Unfortunately, the cpu upgrades available to you on your motherboard will gain you processing threads, but no significant improvement in single thread performance.
That would require a lga1700 based motherboard.

 

[TripleYoThreat]

It was a brand new CPU, but it could very well be the problem
Temps all look good, and this seems to happen without load as well
I don't game anymore, it happens in just general office work - Vectors, Photoshop, emails, etc.
I'd consider myself a power user, but at the same time, my taskload is rather light. I might have Chrome, Safari, Zoho Mail, Spotify, Illustrator and Photoshop open - but from my understanding, this is nothing compared to video editors or gamers

but to be fair, this will even happen if one thing is open. So it shouldn't relate to load

32GB 3600MHz Patriot Viper

RAM should be plenty, I check the usage amount, age file / cache / swap (macOS) and there's almost never any used

I don't use Windows as often anymore, but it happens there too. In windows the mouse will freeze up too

Yea no CPU upgrades available nor really needed here.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the CPU. I'm going to try the opposite 2 RAM slots and note the results. If it still happens, I'm going to jump for that CPU replacement.
No one should have to deal with this, let alone a PC builder

 

[boju]

You've tried multiple kits of ram correct, always a pair in testing? Try one, im sure you know which slot, see if anything changes.

With two sticks in anyway, what does cpuz read for channels?

 

[TripleYoThreat]

Yup, always a pair! and as I was mentioning, never tried A1 B1 (the non recommended combo)

just moved them over to A1 B1. as expected, XMP didn't work, had to go down from 3600mhz to 3066mhz where it finally reached stability.

noticing some positive changes so far. UI feels smoother. less coil whine, for some odd reason - though that was almost surely coming from the graphics card before

fingers crossed! it feels smoother, that may be more important than fast right now!

unfortunately, missed catching the CPU Z before this change. on the bright side, some positive changes!

if the stutters stop like this, I'm totally fine leaving it this way

 

[TripleYoThreat]

okay -- it just stuttered.
what's weird is, the mouse can still move. but even my rotating wallpaper will freeze. clicks will freeze. but the mouse still moves. which is the weirdest thing.
anyway, I suppose I'll try for a CPU RMA. It'll be real funny if that doesn't solve it -- but even funnier if the motherboard RMA doesn't solve it because at that point everything has been tried. then it would have to be some peripheral?

all I have is:
Razer Basilisk X Hyperspeed
a wireless keyboard, generic from amazon
a wired mouse, which I switch between the Razer Basilisk
Clarett +2Pre, over USB C. I'll try without this for a day or so and see if it happens - although I do believe I remember it happening prior to the purchase of this

Let's see! I also just unplugged a silly KVM I wasn't using anymore

Edit: just happened with the Clarett & KVM unplugged. Seriously time for that RMA. and it's gonna be hilarious if it doesn't solve it. I was honestly a hair away from building a sleek DDR5 build..but either way this should be sorted out.
I also have a 6600 XT arriving Thursday just to get to the bottom of this. I can use it in a build later either way

 

[boju]

I meant try one stick of ram, A2. Just seeing if cpu or mobo is unstable with dual channel.

 

[geofelt]

I seriously doubt that stuttering is caused by a defective intel processor.

More likely, the stuttering is caused by software, particularly the operating system.
Possibly the graphics driver.

The most likely hardware related component likely to cause stuttering would be the motherboard.
I can see the gpu as also being a possible hardware related cause.

 

[TripleYoThreat]

I seriously doubt that stuttering is caused by a defective intel processor.

More likely, the stuttering is caused by software, particularly the operating system.
Possibly the graphics driver.

The most likely hardware related component likely to cause stuttering would be the motherboard.
I can see the gpu as also being a possible hardware related cause.

But that's the problem my friend, I've tried 4 different operating systems across 3 different drives. So software is almost surely out of the question.

Motherboard could be it.

GPU it's also been thru 3 or 4 and it's occurred on all of them

I doubt the cpu too, but there's no way to rule it out AFAIK, except to just change it

 

[geofelt]

Stuttering is a temporary lack of a critical resource.
Most of the time it is the cpu.
11700K was a nice processor a few years ago.
If you are inclined to change out cpu and motherboard, look to 13th gen processor and motherboard.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

 

[TripleYoThreat]

Definitely not doing a new build, as tempted as I am

yeah, it was poor timing. I bought the odd one out. But I needed a computer at that time. Although in hindsight, I probably could've waited for 12th gen if I knew it would be such a generational leap.

anywho, it's still not bad by any means. and definitely not underpowered because I don't see this stutter on a 4690k with similar workloads. if it's the CPU it would be a faulty CPU. even an i3 would handle the type of loads I am putting - a few chrome tabs, Illustrator, Photoshop. even my MacBook handles them with no problem

 

[TripleYoThreat]

I meant try one stick of ram, A2. Just seeing if cpu or mobo is unstable with dual channel.

darn, had it on single channel with just one 16gb stick since last night and it just happened. It's like a once a day occurrence but enough to throw off your flow. especially as a creative

Guess I'm going for that CPU RMA, although, I would assume it's the board too. But I'll keep that as the last resort considering the lengthier process in replacing the mobo.

man it sucks, but at the same time, I'm glad it's finally being resolved

 

[TripleYoThreat]

I almost solved it!
I ran into some issues with the ALC4080 on a client's build, and I realized my board had the same sound card. Disabled it in BIOS and I thought it was solved! Then it happened again after 36 hours.

I did the latest bios update, still happened, and my audio interface stopped working after sleep. Quickly returned to one bios prior to that, and it worked again.
Obviously in this process, the BIOS was reset, which still didn't solve it.

Time to proceed with the CPU RMA, and if it still doesn't work, I'll try RMAing the board, but I might just buy an MSI Z590 Pro Wi-Fi. It's a bit weird to pay almost as much as a Z790 board, but it is what it is! I'm ready to resolve it