[SOLVED] RTX 3080 Stuttering/lag

Ozone123

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TL;DR: Upgraded to a prebuild which includes a RTX 3080, experiencing pretty bad stutters to varying degrees in every game I've tried. Tried updating drivers and bios, changing graphics settings up and down, playing games on different drives, on different versions of DirectX, all to no avail.

After transferring over most of my drives I tested pretty much every game I have, and I've found there to be varying degrees of stuttering which occurs at different points in each game. I've tested Escape from Tarkov, which the stuttering happens right away, GTA V, where it's good for 5 or so minutes and then it stutters, Horizon Zero Dawn, where it's good until it needs to load in new areas and then it lags, Fortnite in both DX11 and 12, where the lag will start towards the end of a normal game unless its DX12 then its just all the time. It seems like the less "demanding" a game the less stutters, but even something like Rocket League still stutters after 30 or so minutes of play.

All help is appreciated, I'm at the point where I'm about to spring for a new motherboard and case and migrate everything there and see if anything changes, though I really hope it doesn't come to that.

Unsure how to link to temps and clock but I do have that info if needed
Build:
Windows 10 1903 64-bit
ASRock H410m/ac
i7-10700
MSI RTX 3080 10GB
2x8GB DDR4 RAM 2667MHz
750W Apex Gold 80+ PSU
Ran all my games off of a Samsung 970 EVO NVMe SSD or varying sizes of SATA 500MB/s read and write SSDs
Running games on a AoC 1080p 144hz FreeSync monitor with a 1080p 60hz BenQ monitor for Discord/youtube, etc. which had nothing on it during testing
CPU cooled with a single fan water cooler that wasn't listed in the build specs
 
Solution
thanks for posting the pictures, my advices :

- turn that radiator 180 degrees, so the tubes are down, not up. Helps keeping the little air inside in the radiator and not in tubes or in waterblock. helps with cooling and noise.

if you could install the radiator as exhaust at the top of the case, and install another fan on the back, even better.


- remove the PSU temporarly, check if the opening in the bottom of you case lines up's with the opening of the fan's PSU, no obstruction ?

Ozone123

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Jan 28, 2017
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cpu/gpu temp and usage during the game?
fresh os install?
Unsure how to link on here, won't let me post gyazo links but the temps throughout are 50-60C for the CPU and 60-80C for the GPU. Usage appears normal with the GPU usually above 80% or so and the CPU about the same, maybe a little lower in some games.
 

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
ASRock H410m/ac
+
i7-10700
o_O

i7-10700
+
CPU cooled with a single fan water cooler
O_O

MSI RTX 3080 10GB
+
1080p 144hz FreeSync monitor
+
1080p 60hz BenQ monitor
X_X

I see 3 potential red flags.
1)Probable power throttling on a mobo that doesn't have VRM heatsinks, plus you're using a hybrid cooler instead of air; one of the cons of hybrid coolers is that they don't blow air over the VRMs like air coolers do.
VRM would need more active cooling if overheating.

2)120mm hybrid cooler isn't adequate for a cpu that has a 224w power limit.
Big block air, dual tower air, or 240mm or better hybrid cooler.

3)Frame buffer desync from plugging multiple monitors with different native refresh rates into the gpu.
Main monitor stays in the gpu, the other goes to the motherboard.
 

Ozone123

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Jan 28, 2017
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ASRock H410m/ac
+
i7-10700
o_O

i7-10700
+
CPU cooled with a single fan water cooler
O_O

MSI RTX 3080 10GB
+
1080p 144hz FreeSync monitor
+
1080p 60hz BenQ monitor
X_X

I see 3 potential red flags.
1)Probable power throttling on a mobo that doesn't have VRM heatsinks, plus you're using a hybrid cooler instead of air; one of the cons of hybrid coolers is that they don't blow air over the VRMs like air coolers do.
VRM would need more active cooling if overheating.

2)120mm hybrid cooler isn't adequate for a cpu that has a 224w power limit.
Big block air, dual tower air, or 240mm or better hybrid cooler.

3)Frame buffer desync from plugging multiple monitors with different native refresh rates into the gpu.
Main monitor stays in the gpu, the other goes to the motherboard.
I agree on the whole CPU and MoBo combo choice, not quite sure what Cybertron PC was thinking with that one besides trying to lower the price of the build a little by cheaping out on the motherboard.

From what I can see and what I've researched, the temps I'm getting on my CPU seem to be pretty normal, nothing seems above average at all in fact, so not sure why the cooler that came with wouldn't be sufficient. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough? It's like a radiator block or something that's mounted onthe rear fan slot of the case, and on top of that is a fan. The radiator thing has the two tubes going to a piece that sits on the CPU, one tube for intake and one for outtake I assume.

I also agree on the last thing and normally that's how I'd have it but when I was first setting it up, the motherboard drivers weren't installed so I just plugged it into the GPU and forgot about it until now, so thanks for reminding me.

I wish I could send pictures of my setup so you can see what it looks like but apparently you can't drag and drop photos directly on here and gyazo links get filtered as spam so you can't post them.
 

Phaaze88

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Ambassador
I know what kind of cooler you're talking about.
You likely haven't encountered anything particularly hard on that cpu yet. When you do though, the cooler won't be able to keep up, and 85C+ will be a thing.

Postimages.org and imgur.com are recommended here.
 

Ozone123

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I know what kind of cooler you're talking about.
You likely haven't encountered anything particularly hard on that cpu yet. When you do though, the cooler won't be able to keep up, and 85C+ will be a thing.

Postimages.org and imgur.com are recommended here.
View: https://imgur.com/a/vW6x98c

There's link to a 10 minute or so session of GTA V, everything maxed 1080p, and the stuttering still occurred with the latest drivers. I updated my intel graphics drivers this morning and switched my second monitor to the motherboard HDMI and I'll test again and share it. Maybe that'll make a difference, can't say for certain one way or another though so I'll just have to test more.
 

Ozone123

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Jan 28, 2017
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View: https://imgur.com/a/vW6x98c

There's link to a 10 minute or so session of GTA V, everything maxed 1080p, and the stuttering still occurred with the latest drivers. I updated my intel graphics drivers this morning and switched my second monitor to the motherboard HDMI and I'll test again and share it. Maybe that'll make a difference, can't say for certain one way or another though so I'll just have to test more.
Here's another link after a 10 minute session I did just now: View: https://imgur.com/a/cijkab5


For the first about 6 minutes the game was fine until it started to lag. Note, I chose to monitor whether CPU thermal throttling was occurring, if the CPU was exceeding it's power limit, and if the CPU was hitting critical temperature, of which only exceeding power limit was marked "yes" and it was for all cores. Though, to exceed the power limit would surely mean that its getting enough power, right? Even if it has to exceed the limit to get there it's still getting it. Could this be a potential cause of the stuttering?

I also chose to monitor the power the PCI-e rail was getting, as well as the two 8 pin plugs and the GPU as a whole to try and rule out insufficient power on that front, as some people have said that it's better to have two separate 8 pins instead of one cable split into two 8 pins as that might limit the power the GPU is getting. Though, looking at the numbers I'm not sure if those are abnormal or if that's regular power distribution during gaming but might be something there.
 

neojack

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Apr 4, 2019
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can you post a picture of your opened case ? just to verify how things are organized.
is the radiator on higher level than the waterblock ? fans at intake and exhaust of the case ? PSU in the botom with it's own air supply ?
 

Ozone123

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can you post a picture of your opened case ? just to verify how things are organized.
is the radiator on higher level than the waterblock ? fans at intake and exhaust of the case ? PSU in the botom with it's own air supply ?
Here's a link to a few photos I just took. For the record, the cables all over the place were me when I was adding all my SSDs in, not the seller.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...760594619431649290/IMG_20200929_155756347.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...760594658391883806/IMG_20200929_155835274.jpg
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...760595366474809394/IMG_20200929_161239387.jpg
 

neojack

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Apr 4, 2019
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thanks for posting the pictures, my advices :

- turn that radiator 180 degrees, so the tubes are down, not up. Helps keeping the little air inside in the radiator and not in tubes or in waterblock. helps with cooling and noise.

if you could install the radiator as exhaust at the top of the case, and install another fan on the back, even better.


- remove the PSU temporarly, check if the opening in the bottom of you case lines up's with the opening of the fan's PSU, no obstruction ?
 
Solution