Question Stuttering across entire desktop ?

[bentheblobfish]

My PC has been experiencing worsening stuttering over the last 6 months or so. at first it was barely any microstuttering, but now it will just freeze my PC when im even just launching a game, and randomly stutters in all games and even just in web browser or on desktop. IE: in rainbow six siege, a game i consistently get 200+ FPS in, even when i lock framerate at 144 FPS will randomly drop to 100 for a second because of a stutter (as in the stutter brings the average down from 144 to 100). Same thing happens in valorant, although less severe. Reducing settings can sometimes help issue, but not always (Makes me think its not GPU but not sure. going to try GPU in a friends system in a week or two). Some games that should run fine also STRUGGLE to run such as fortnite, which is almost exclusively stutters.

Specs:
RTX 2070S
Ryzen 5 3600X w/ stock cooler.
Teamgroup DDR4 3200Mhz
Corsair CX650 (80+ bronze)
MSI PRO-VDH WiFi
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1tb
Seagate Barracuda 2tb
1080p 144hz monitor
Windows 10 Home

Tried Solutions:

• Replacing CPU (Returned new CPU)
• Replacing Motherboard (returned new mobo)
• Replacing SSD (before was some MP33 256gb Teamgroup SSD)
• Unplugging HDD
• Fresh windows install on new SSD.
• Running game on said new SSD with no external programs outside of the game.
• Taking the PC to microcenter - “we cant find anything wrong with the system”. maybe PSU or power delivery if they used a test bench?

Countless software things, such as:

• Pretty much everything imaginable with drivers (DDU, old drivers, etc)
• Defragging and optimizing drives
• Disabling antivirus, disabling game bar, HPET, and so many more i cant even remember

Notes:
Thermals shouldnt be an issue - consistently below 75
Happens pretty much the same with stock settings, overclock, and underclock on both GPU and CPU. Maybe a little worse with OC as expected but not a lot.
Happens in all games pretty much the same. minor differences in severity.
Have yet to replace ram because of Memtest86 w no fails and testing each RAM stick individually w same issue.
Pretty sure its PC side and not the displayport cable or monitor as the framerate counter drops after a stutter in game.

No clue what this could be. Looking for guidance.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

So please post a pic of your Nvidia 3d settings. What power setting are you using in Windows? When gaming are you using wifi or Ethernet? Does your monitor have Freesync, and if so is it enabled?

 

[bentheblobfish]

So please post a pic of your Nvidia 3d settings. What power setting are you using in Windows? When gaming are you using wifi or Ethernet? Does your monitor have Freesync, and if so is it enabled?

Sorry for the late reply, was out of town for a little.
Power Plan - High Performance
I use wifi, but even when I play games offline the issue is the same. I get 200Mbps down and 100Mbps up. Don't think it's related to wifi.
Freesync is enabled in monitor, GSync compatible in Nvidia settings.

Nvidia 3D settings:

https://imgur.com/a/WvOcQxj

View: https://imgur.com/a/WvOcQxj

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

OK, so under preferred refresh rate change that to maximum preferred. Under vertical sync turn that to off: You already have freesync/gsync enabled not needed. Make sure under change resolution that it is set at native resolution and running at 144hz. Then make sure Nvidia colors is checked off and that depth of color is 32 bit, output depth is 8bit, format is rgb, and output dynamic range is set at full. SEE if these settings smooths anything out.

 

[bentheblobfish]

OK, so under preferred refresh rate change that to maximum preferred. Under vertical sync turn that to off: You already have freesync/gsync enabled not needed. Make sure under change resolution that it is set at native resolution and running at 144hz. Then make sure Nvidia colors is checked off and that depth of color is 32 bit, output depth is 8bit, format is rgb, and output dynamic range is set at full. SEE if these settings smooths anything out.

Done, no visible change. I dont think its just related to 3D settings; my whole desktop will sometimes freeze for 3 seconds when im booting up a game such as Rainbow Six Siege where i cant even move the mouse. completely frozen. Maybe it has to do with fetching the information for game? Stuttering is most severe in game right after killing an enemy or new information comes into view (new room, new enemy in sight, etc.) Again, maybe power delivery?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Done, no visible change. I dont think its just related to 3D settings; my whole desktop will sometimes freeze for 3 seconds when im booting up a game such as Rainbow Six Siege where i cant even move the mouse. completely frozen. Maybe it has to do with fetching the information for game? Stuttering is most severe in game right after killing an enemy or new information comes into view (new room, new enemy in sight, etc.) Again, maybe power delivery?

Have you tried using an Ethernet cable. I am curious to see if your wifi is the problem?

 

[bentheblobfish]

Have you tried using an Ethernet cable. I am curious to see if your wifi is the problem?

No, but stutter occurs even with wifi disabled and in offline gamemode.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Try this program, Latency monitor, Resplendence Software - Free Downloads install the program and let it run in the background while using your computer and gaming. Wait until you experience the problems described. Then check its report generated to see if it finds any driver problems etc.

 

[drivinfast247]

Go to userbenchmark.com and run the test. Once completed, link results here.

 

[geofelt]

What might have changed in the past 6 months when all was well?

Stuttering happens when there is a temporary delay because of a critical resource.
Usually this is the cpu. But, a hard page fault will look similar. Possibly a game will hesitate if it needs something in vram and needs to load it from a drive.

Start hwmonitor or such and monitor temperatures.
After a stutter, look at the maximum temperature for a core.
If you see 95c. It is likely that that core throttled a bit.

Look at task manager/resource monitor/memory.
Look at the hard fault page rate.
If you see anything more than zero, there may be a ram issue.

Single thread performance is most important in games.
Run the cpu-Z bench and look at the single thread rating you get.
It should be in the area of 515:
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/1sllkv

 

[bentheblobfish]

Go to userbenchmark.com and run the test. Once completed, link results here.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/50504151

Gpu is in low percentile, but was able to get much higher when OC was enabled.

 

[bentheblobfish]

Try this program, Latency monitor, Resplendence Software - Free Downloads install the program and let it run in the background while using your computer and gaming. Wait until you experience the problems described. Then check its report generated to see if it finds any driver problems etc.

Highest DPC time was 680 by the Nvidia kernel mode driver.

However, got about 16K pagefaults after only running userbenchmark and opening rainbow six siege. about 12k of those were within the 30 seconds of opening siege. also, i was watching the pagefaults and lots of times, whenever a stutter occurred, so did a pagefault. This being said, sometimes there would be a stutter without a pagefault occurring (just moving the LatencyMon window in a circle around the desktop caused it, without any more pagefaults occurring). I think we found the problem. How do i fix it? Note that last time I ran memtest86 overnight (probably a month ago at most), there were 0 errors.

EDIT: Stutters happen without a pagefault at the same time more often than not in game. I must have had something else running in background.

 

[bentheblobfish]

What might have changed in the past 6 months when all was well?

Stuttering happens when there is a temporary delay because of a critical resource.
Usually this is the cpu. But, a hard page fault will look similar. Possibly a game will hesitate if it needs something in vram and needs to load it from a drive.

Start hwmonitor or such and monitor temperatures.
After a stutter, look at the maximum temperature for a core.
If you see 95c. It is likely that that core throttled a bit.

Look at task manager/resource monitor/memory.
Look at the hard fault page rate.
If you see anything more than zero, there may be a ram issue.

Single thread performance is most important in games.
Run the cpu-Z bench and look at the single thread rating you get.
It should be in the area of 515:
http://valid.x86.fr/bench/1sllkv

Temps are ok. 75 maximum across system.

Just discussed pagefaults in a reply above in detail; about 17,000 when all I did was launch a game and run userbenchmark.

CPU-Z got a bench of 502.1 - thinking i just lost the silicone lottery.

 

[projectfixit]

Maybe try windows memory diagnostic tool, or a registry cleaner?

 

[Schlachtwolf]

Personally a CPU even if not the best of the bunch will not cause stutter, constant low FPS yes but not stutter. RAM can cause stutter or.... (drum roll) a degredation of the memory chips and/or the surrounding mosfets on your GPU. The temps might be fine but first the stutter.... then the artifacting....
If your GPU is no longer in warrenty then I would re-paste and replace the thermal pads on the GPU. It only takes one chip to feel it's age and these issues come about, I had/have an 2080 OC that I recently overhauled and it was like new afterwards.

Cheers

 

[Nighthawk117]

Have you made any changes to your systems hardware at all in the past 6 months? Do you have more than one monitor at different refresh rates?

I had an issue on my old system which was i7 6700K, with RAM running at 3000Mhz, I used to get frame drops and stuttering across games, running at 2666Mhz fixed it.

 

[Schlachtwolf]

Maybe try windows memory diagnostic tool, or a registry cleaner?

Not a bad idea, disable Steam overlay, use CCleaner Registry, update chipset drivers and or bios.

 

[bentheblobfish]

Have you made any changes to your systems hardware at all in the past 6 months? Do you have more than one monitor at different refresh rates?

I had an issue on my old system which was i7 6700K, with RAM running at 3000Mhz, I used to get frame drops and stuttering across games, running at 2666Mhz fixed it.

no changes. one monitor. same problems with XMP off.

 

[bentheblobfish]

Personally a CPU even if not the best of the bunch will not cause stutter, constant low FPS yes but not stutter. RAM can cause stutter or.... (drum roll) a degredation of the memory chips and/or the surrounding mosfets on your GPU. The temps might be fine but first the stutter.... then the artifacting....
If your GPU is no longer in warrenty then I would re-paste and replace the thermal pads on the GPU. It only takes one chip to feel it's age and these issues come about, I had/have an 2080 OC that I recently overhauled and it was like new afterwards.

Cheers

so bad ram can kill GPU (or slowly degrade)?
GPU is only a year old and has already been RMAed once when i first got it. Also, just stutters, no artifacting. that i can see

 

[bentheblobfish]

Not a bad idea, disable Steam overlay, use CCleaner Registry, update chipset drivers and or bios.

isnt CCeaner a bad idea? ive heard not great things about it

 

[bentheblobfish]

Maybe try windows memory diagnostic tool, or a registry cleaner?

Yes, memtest86. 0 errors. not used a registry cleaner.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Is your page file system controlled by the computer or have you set a personal one?

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Can you post a pic of your disk managemt screen showing your drives/ssd?

 

[bentheblobfish]

Is your page file system controlled by the computer or have you set a personal one?

not sure what this means, but i haven’t messed with page file system.

 

[bentheblobfish]

Can you post a pic of your disk managemt screen showing your drives/ssd?

https://imgur.com/I7U2a73

View: https://imgur.com/I7U2a73