[SOLVED] RX 5700 microstutters when something new happens in-game ?

[DimitrusTheNice]

Hello everyone, this is my first forum post. My PC is 4 years old and had been working perfectly until about a month ago. All games I play started micro stuttering occasionally, especially when something new happens.
Meanwhile my average fps seem to be the same as they've always been. That's the gist of the problem.

My specs:

• OS: Windows 10 22H2, OS Build 19045.3930
• CPU: Intel i7-9700KF @ 3.60Hz 8 cores
• GPU: AMD GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5700
• Motherboard: ASRock H370M Pro4 with BIOS American Megatrends Inc. P4.10, 07.05.2019
• RAM: Two 8GB sticks of Patriot Memory VIPER ELITE 8Gb DDR4 2666 MHz DIMM CL16 PVE416G266C6KGY
• Storage: 480GB SATA SSD Kingston A400 SATA SA400S37/480G (~360GB free space left)
• PSU: Thermaltake PSU TT Smart RGB 700W PS-SPR-0700NHSAWE-1
• Display: S24R35x HDMI 23.8" 1080p 75Hz (Has AMD FreeSync support but I keep it off)

Only lead I have is my GPU MEMORY CLOCK fluctuates between 10-100 and 750-800 when I'm gaming, but idk if that's normal or not; core clock is stable

- memory clock graph, abnormal or fine?

Really not sure what's the source of the problem. Any help would be appreciated

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

I've tried these things so far:

1. Reinstalling GPU drivers with AMD Cleanup utility, then with Display Driver Uninstaller (safe mode and all)
2. Installing older GPU drivers
3. Turning Windows Game Mode on/off
4. Cleaning PC with compressed air
5. Reseating GPU
6. Reseating RAM
7. Reinstalling Windows, clean from a USB (which fixed my long booting time of 45s back to ~10s)
8. Monitoring temps and usage with MSI Afterburner, all seems normal: stuttering still happens even while temps are below 70°C
9. Tested SSD in CrystalMarkInfo and CrystalDiskMark. ~550MB/s read speed and ~450MB/s write speed, 84% GOOD health status
10. sfc /scannow
11. Replugging HDMI cable
12. Turning XMP Profile off/on again

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1dmcz56l04
- demonstrating stutters, timecodes included in pinned comment. With VSync on fps drops from 75 to 60, with VSync off it drops from 130 to 90 or smth like that

 

[geofelt]

What might have changed since a month ago when all was well?

Stuttering is caused by a temporary lack of a critical resource. Usually cpu.

Are you multitasking while gaming?
Has a higher priority app intruded?
Chrome and discord might be the first things to eliminate.
Check your startup tasks.

Perhaps a virus or malware has intruded.
Can you use system restore to reset back to when all was well?

Can there be a heat issue and you are throttling?
Run hwmonitor and look for cores that run at 100c.

Look at task manager resource monitor.
select memory tab and look at the hard fault rate when the issue appears. If you see a rate above zero, you are using too much ram.

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

I played Baldur's Gate 3 (a demanding and CPU-intensive game) a lot a month ago and that's when I noticed all my games started stuttering occasionally. I had low fps but the computer itself wasn't lagging or anything out of the ordinary.

• Tried playing without multitasking, same story
• Tried playing without any apps running in the background - nothing changed
• I turn off unnecessary startup tasks
• Definitely no malware or virus, I'm very cautious + I did a clean Windows reinstall
• Can't restore because I did a clean Windows reinstall
• I checked all temps and they seem fine, below 80°C
• Max temps while loading many chunks in Minceraft reached 75°C, still stuttered while doing so. In Deep Rock Galactic barely ever goes above 70°C and the microstutters still happen

No hard faults when the issue appears, RAM isn't close to reaching 100% usage either
I also did the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool test and passed, temps didn't go above 80°C either

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

could also be that storage drive , they are very poor quality.

 

[geofelt]

Are there perhaps some relevant game settings. The game forum would be the place to check.

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

could also be that storage drive , they are very poor quality.

Yeah, I suspect that the SSD might be the issue, since the stutters usually happen when something new is loaded in a game, CrystalMark says it's fine but perhaps there is a deeper problem with it

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

Are there perhaps some relevant game settings. The game forum would be the place to check.

I highly doubt that, since even the most undemanding of games get the micro stutters from time to time. But thank you for the suggestion, I'll check again anyway

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

Yeah, I suspect that the SSD might be the issue, since the stutters usually happen when something new is loaded in a game, CrystalMark says it's fine but perhaps there is a deeper problem with it

it wasn't the drive. Physically disconnected it and tried on a fresh Samsung EVO Plus 2tb NVME and it's the same

 

[DimitrusTheNice]

It was my mobo.
I checked in GPU-Z and CPU-Z, my GPU was working at bus interface PCIe x2 instead of PCIe x16. After I realized that, I payed my friend a visit and plugged my GPU in his PC and it worked fine. Presumably caused by GPU sag damaging the main PCIe slot, which I had neither noticed before nor had known about until the whole problem arose.

In the end, I just built a PC with everything new except the GPU, oh an anti-sag bracket as well, all good now. It was the perfect time to hop on AM5 anyway, so I'm not really upset
(probably could've just bought a riser and use the second PCIe slot tbf, but it was a good excuse to upgrade)