Stuttering in games with i7 8700k

[NoelD123]

Last december I made my new gaming pc. These are the specs:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming
Intel Core i5 8600K
MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS
G.Skill DDR4 Trident Z RGB 2x8GB 3000
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Seasonic M12II Evo 620W
Fractal Design Meshify C Tempered Glass edition
1TB HDD
playing on a 1080p 144hz monitor

The pc worked fine. Games ran smoothly and temps stayed low. The only thing that bothered me was that the i5 got to 100% usage when playing cpu intensive games like bf1 and ac origins. So I sent the i5 back and ordered a i7 8700k.

The day I installed the i7 it ran perfect. bf1 ran even smoother than with the i5 and usage was low.
But that didn't last long. The next day I noticed stuttering in some games, and it didn't go away. I thought it maby where some drivers or my old hdd causing it. So I ordered a 525gb ssd and did a clean installation of windows 10 and installed all the drivers. Didn't help tho. I still have a lot of stuttering and I have no idea what's causing it.

Hardware is new, drivers are up to date, temps are low.

Here is a screenshot of AC: Origins: https://ibb.co/mKssCR
Cpu usage is all over the place and spikes everywhere.
I'm not overclocking. I've only set the to ram to 3000Mhz in the bios.

Can someone help me with this problem? I've done all I know and it's really taking away that smooth 144fps experience.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

Okay so, I have actually done some playing around on my own 8700k and noticed a couple of things on mine and remembered a lot of what I did when I had this horrible issue with WoW a few months ago. It might be the games themselves causing the issues.

I played AC:Syndicate a little and noticed that I was actually getting lower fps than I was on my 6700k which was highly unusual, especially considering it is actually a fairly well optimized game and the new CPU has 2/4 more c/t even if it is a little bit slower on the clock speed. Then I remembered something I read a while back about Far Cry (can't remember exactly which one, 4 maybe?) but in that game only during certain parts the CPU usage skyrocketed on a single core and caused super bad stuttering. Maybe the same thing is happening here on a smaller scale? Ubisoft is kinda notorious for these types of things. But in my case AC: Syndicate did have somewhat of the same issue and neither the CPU or GPU was at 99% (at least not that I saw). I would suggest lowering the settings just a tiny bit to see if it helps smooth out the fps. It might not be stuttering in the traditional sense it may just be small fps spikes.

Another thing worth mentioning on my end, Fallout 4 was also giving me some small issues. I have a G-sync monitor and they say on the Nvidia website the best way to use G-sync is by enabling G-sync in the NCP, and also turning on V-sync in the NCP but off in the program itself. Well I turned it off because I wanted to do some benchmarking without an fps cap, and I booted up fallout 4 and my fps was all over the place kind of like you are describing, and even lower than normal in some cases (ranged from about 80-160), and the pip-boy maps were not working either, which was really weird. Also the little loading screens where you can move the objects around (kind of like where you can run around in AC loading screens) was moving at like 10 times the normal speed, and the menu options when I would use my joystick to move the selection would skip up and down very quickly (not one option per click). When I enabled V-sync everything went back to normal and my fps stayed rock solid at 100 as usual.

Talking Blizzard games, I also had horrible stuttering in WoW which was contributed to another setting in the NCP. Apparently WoW has to have preferred refresh rate selected in the program and not by the NCP.

Even furthermore, I decided to boot up Diablo 3 after like forever, and was getting horrible stuttering. I disabled XMP and it got better.

I know I'm talking a lot but I also remembered a while back when I had a really weird lighting issue in BF1.

I changed one of the NCP settings, and for the life of me I can't remember which one... But it got rid of the lighting issue. I want to say it was something with the power management.

In summation of this rant, there are a couple of times I have had to set the NCP settings for specific games or else stuff went wonky.

You might try doing that for those games that are having issues on the default settings (which I would keep at unless a game is having an issue). And I would definitely try setting BIOS to default settings as well since disabling XMP for me also helped in Diablo.

 

[NoelD123]

Okay so, I have actually done some playing around on my own 8700k and noticed a couple of things on mine and remembered a lot of what I did when I had this horrible issue with WoW a few months ago. It might be the games themselves causing the issues.

I played AC:Syndicate a little and noticed that I was actually getting lower fps than I was on my 6700k which was highly unusual, especially considering it is actually a fairly well optimized game and the new CPU has 2/4 more c/t even if it is a little bit slower on the clock speed. Then I remembered something I read a while back about Far Cry (can't remember exactly which one, 4 maybe?) but in that game only during certain parts the CPU usage skyrocketed on a single core and caused super bad stuttering. Maybe the same thing is happening here on a smaller scale? Ubisoft is kinda notorious for these types of things. But in my case AC: Syndicate did have somewhat of the same issue and neither the CPU or GPU was at 99% (at least not that I saw). I would suggest lowering the settings just a tiny bit to see if it helps smooth out the fps. It might not be stuttering in the traditional sense it may just be small fps spikes.

Another thing worth mentioning on my end, Fallout 4 was also giving me some small issues. I have a G-sync monitor and they say on the Nvidia website the best way to use G-sync is by enabling G-sync in the NCP, and also turning on V-sync in the NCP but off in the program itself. Well I turned it off because I wanted to do some benchmarking without an fps cap, and I booted up fallout 4 and my fps was all over the place kind of like you are describing, and even lower than normal in some cases (ranged from about 80-160), and the pip-boy maps were not working either, which was really weird. Also the little loading screens where you can move the objects around (kind of like where you can run around in AC loading screens) was moving at like 10 times the normal speed, and the menu options when I would use my joystick to move the selection would skip up and down very quickly (not one option per click). When I enabled V-sync everything went back to normal and my fps stayed rock solid at 100 as usual.

Talking Blizzard games, I also had horrible stuttering in WoW which was contributed to another setting in the NCP. Apparently WoW has to have preferred refresh rate selected in the program and not by the NCP.

Even furthermore, I decided to boot up Diablo 3 after like forever, and was getting horrible stuttering. I disabled XMP and it got better.

I know I'm talking a lot but I also remembered a while back when I had a really weird lighting issue in BF1.

I changed one of the NCP settings, and for the life of me I can't remember which one... But it got rid of the lighting issue. I want to say it was something with the power management.

In summation of this rant, there are a couple of times I have had to set the NCP settings for specific games or else stuff went wonky.

You might try doing that for those games that are having issues on the default settings (which I would keep at unless a game is having an issue). And I would definitely try setting BIOS to default settings as well since disabling XMP for me also helped in Diablo.

I'm pretty sure it's not the games themselves causing the issues. Yes Ubisoft fails most of the time to make a well optimized pc port. And fallouts 4 engine isn't made to go over 60 fps. The engine speeds the game up beyond 60 fps, hence the weird loading screens and gameplay.

But I know bf1 and pubg should be no problem with the PC I got. Most people with similar specs have 0 stutters. And when I assemled this pc I had no stutters either. It was just one day to another that I started getting stutters.

I've already tried tweaking NCP settings a bit. And I've tried default BIOS settings while switching XMP on and off. Nothing seems to help.

 

[EpIckFa1LJoN]

No I play FO4 at 100 no problem most of the time. In fact they patched the game so it is no longer locked to 60fps (could be a mod but not really sure) it's not locked for me whether or not I change the ini setting.

In any case it might be something stupid and seemingly irrelevant, like how V-sync is accelerating things in Fallout 4.

It's is really strange that it worked and then stopped a day later. You might think really hard about what might have changed between when it was working and when it "broke"

Worst case you change out the chip and see if that was it.

 

[NoelD123]

Thanks to luckeR I now have solved the problem. It was a problem with Standby Memory. Windows wasn't deleting it so it was building up and not leaving any ram for the game itself. I fixed it with a program called EmptyStandbyList.exe.

Thanks everybody for helping me!

 

[marksavio]

oh okay so it was a memory leak problem. that is usually caused by an outdated driver or a conflict with a recent windows update. or it could just be the game itself. thats a good temporary fix to your problem. glad you found it. you can also download cleanmem and follow the instructions below to do it automatically for you while you are gaming.
http://www.pcgamer.com/dealing-with-memory-leaks/

 

[NoelD123]

yes I did that and it was great...for a while. Now it's back
My chrome also stutters: https://ibb.co/mWYNOm
It's so weird and very annoying

 

[marksavio]

there must be a background program you installed there recently thats eating up your RAM. like a virus/malware scanner. you can check your task manager at times when you see the stutters again. just sort by memory.

 

[The Original Ralph]

there's a short thread in the GeForce forums about the latest Nvidia drivers being buggy and recommending rollingback to the last known stable driver https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1035287/nvlddmkm-sys-crashing/?offset=1

Nvidia still lists all their former drivers, and suspect this may be the reason - hope that helps

 

[NoelD123]

there must be a background program you installed there recently thats eating up your RAM. like a virus/malware scanner. you can check your task manager at times when you see the stutters again. just sort by memory.

I'm checking RAM in the resource monitor and while playing csgo I get stutters with 12gb ram free...

 

[NoelD123]

there's a short thread in the GeForce forums about the latest Nvidia drivers being buggy and recommending rollingback to the last known stable driver https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1035287/nvlddmkm-sys-crashing/?offset=1

Nvidia still lists all their former drivers, and suspect this may be the reason - hope that helps

388 and 389 or both stuttering. I'll try to install the 387.92 driver, thanks.

 

[NoelD123]

When playing csgo one highest settings with 290 fps, I looked at what is happing when a stutter occurs and I found out that GPU Usage, FB usage, BUS usage, power and fps are dropping. cpu usage is going up and down all the time but when the stutter happens it's also pretty low.

Maby it's my gpu or psu?

 

[raggass]

When playing csgo one highest settings with 290 fps, I looked at what is happing when a stutter occurs and I found out that GPU Usage, FB usage, BUS usage, power and fps are dropping. cpu usage is going up and down all the time but when the stutter happens it's also pretty low.

Maby it's my gpu or psu?

Hi NoelD123. Have you solved the problem?
I got the same problem and I'd very much like to know how I can change that.

 

[NoelD123]

When playing csgo one highest settings with 290 fps, I looked at what is happing when a stutter occurs and I found out that GPU Usage, FB usage, BUS usage, power and fps are dropping. cpu usage is going up and down all the time but when the stutter happens it's also pretty low.

Maby it's my gpu or psu?

Hi NoelD123. Have you solved the problem?
I got the same problem and I'd very much like to know how I can change that.

Hello Raggass,
I did not get rid of all the stutters. Games like CSGO and LoL stutter at the start of a match. PUBG is still unplayable with stutters every 5 seconds or so. Most of the games I play like BF1 or Kingdom Come are smooth after I started using EmptyStandbyList.exe. So I don't think it's a hardware related issue.

If you have the exact same problem as me I'd recommend first checking if it's your hardware and if you haven't already try using EmptyStandbyList. Also I've heard for some people the stutters are worse when the pc has been on for a while or just came out of sleep mode.

Hope this helps a bit. If you are using a i7 8700k and the stutters occur only in some games chances are it has something to do with Windows or the game itself.

 

[Exteez]

Got a similar problem, I think it has something to do with loading objects. When objects load it sutters. Idk why that is :/ I’ve tried everything like you, from
clean windows install to buying a new pc and the stutters are there. Sometimes I get stutters until I reset pc which those stutters are separate from the loading stutters I think. I just give up with this bs.

 

[xddddfghhvfhh]

Hey @NoelD123 or anyone other, did you guys found pernament fix for it? I am asking because I have the same problem with other specification, emptystandbymemory was temporary helping but in last week even my OS started stuttering so I had to reinstall it. I don't think this is hardware fault though.
My spec:
GPU: GTX 1060 Strix 6GB
CPU: i7-8700 non k
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz
PSU: 600W
Temperatures are okay, and my problem looks exactly like problem of NoelD123, so please don't make useless spam of buying new hardware. Best regards

 

[NoelD123]

Hey @NoelD123 or anyone other, did you guys found pernament fix for it? I am asking because I have the same problem with other specification, emptystandbymemory was temporary helping but in last week even my OS started stuttering so I had to reinstall it. I don't think this is hardware fault though.
My spec:
GPU: GTX 1060 Strix 6GB
CPU: i7-8700 non k
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz
PSU: 600W
Temperatures are okay, and my problem looks exactly like problem of NoelD123, so please don't make useless spam of buying new hardware. Best regards

Hey,
Emptystandbylist fixed alot for me. Most games run well now. Dome older or unoptimized games still stutter but I think those games just aren't optimized for hyperthreading.

I don't think I ever had any problems with the OS. Did Emptystandbylist work again after the Windows reinstallation?

Also which games are stuttering?

Noel

 

[xddddfghhvfhh]

Yes emptystandby works fine, but it is annoying to do it
I am getting stutters or game spikes in near to every game, The Walking Dead Season 4, Get Even, Paladins, Deadly 30 which is flash game, CS: GO etc

 

[NoelD123]

Yes emptystandby works fine, but it is annoying to do it
I am getting stutters or game spikes in near to every game, The Walking Dead Season 4, Get Even, Paladins, Deadly 30 which is flash game, CS: GO etc

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/7a0763/standby_memory_issue_causing_stutters_on_creators/

Follow the instructions in this link to create a task that runs it automatically every 5 minutes.

 

[mhmdqrn]

Hi, guys! Joining your party here. I just got a new i7-8700 and installed it into my box. But let's go slow this time, as I did.

1. Tests. First of all, I wanted to know how much do I actually get with 8700 compared to my i5-8400. So I tested few games, made screenshots of results and refreshed in my memory how they look and feel in a sense of stuttering. Meanwhile, I already knew about EmptyStandbyList and it works perfectly for 8400, removing all stutters almost completely. Its task was active in all tests, RAMMAP also proved that. I didn't know what comes, I was just curious and scientific-y.

2. Then I installed 8700, without changing anything else. And tested again on the same HW, SW, BIOS settings.
(CMOS was reset and then I adjusted fan curves and boot sequence, that's it).

3. 8700 stutters soooo heavily. So Much Stutter. Not only it gave me 3-5fps less than 8400 on average, but also it stuttered so much that I didn't have look for it, it was just ___|___|___|___|__ and so on, visible without any graphs, and going from 7.2ms to 25-35ms in e.g. Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. Other games like GTA V, Far Cry Primal etc suffered less, showing much lower 1% and 0.1% framerates, almost halved.

4. I then returned 8400 back into my PC, just in case something broke in software and 8700 is not guilty somehow. All problems disappeared: no stutters, slightly higher fps returned back, everything was just like before step 2.
---

All of described happened today. I don't know why you think that it is SW-related, since it is completely hardware. I just post this for future comers who, like me, are shocked by this behavior, so they have a word of pretty clean experiment instead of yet another story.

I'm not going to try to fine-tune or adapt to this "new reality", I'm returning it back to the shop tomorrow and will only think of upgrade when it's required. It's... not very constructive, but if I wanted to play with numbers, settings and benchmarks for weeks, I would build on Ryzen instead.

And my i5-8400 is just amazing, I must say.

(Edit: forgot to say my specs: gtx 1080, a-data nvme ssd, 16gb ram 2666, g-sync on, vsync off in game, vsync on in NVCP, 140 fps limit, no background processes running except EmptyStandbyList every 5 minutes. Tested on (comfort, ultra) x (1080p, 1440p) combinations)