Question Stuttering in games ?

[Syriker]

Hi i've been having stutters and micro stutters on my system for the past 2-3 years, every now and then i'll search for a solution or post and try different things but nothing comes up that saves me, the stutters sometimes happen suddenly or when i'm playing racing games and I hit a kerb hard enough or the tires spin out, sometimes it does. I usually use latency monitor to find out which is the highest latency driver and it always points to Nvidia.

I've tried clean installing my OS and drivers hundreds of times with or without nvclean install and I've even changed the bios to another brand gpu to see if that works. A quick note could be that my MB's bios is up to date and the only overclock i've done is the cpu, when i'm not overclocked there are more stutters than normal so i'm quite confused as to what could be the cause of this, if anyone has a clue what it could be or knows the answer it's very much welcomed, thanks.
edit: forgot to say I did use DDU and save mode for it.

CPU: i5-6600K (OC'd to 4.4GHz)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z270-K
RAM: HyperX DDR4 8GB x2, 2400MHz
SSD: Samsung 960 Evo, Kioxia Exceria G2
GPU: Palid GTX 1060 6GB
PSU: Nox Hummer 750W Bronze
OS: Win10 (Atlas OS)
Monitor: AOC G2460PF, BenQ BL2420PT

I'm adding my DPC, ISR latency log from this thread and my Latency Mon.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

What games are you talking about, that have the stuttering? All game, or just 1 or 2?

 

[Syriker]

Hey there,

What games are you talking about, that have the stuttering? All game, or just 1 or 2?

All games in general, sometimes I get stutters while using photoshop or premiere. Latency Mon shows up nvidia being the highest latency even not playing.

 

[boju]

Few things going on here, it'd be difficult to really find the cause but;

Atlas OS, cut down version, no updates? Reliability and performance is questionable.

Psu. A brand i wouldn't trust.

Cpu being a quad, it's not really appropriate nowadays. Reasonable expectations should be had with new games.

If some of your games did play better once upon a time, id try normal Win10 install.

 

[Syriker]

Few things going on here, it'd be difficult to really find the cause but;

Atlas OS, cut down version, no updates? Reliability and performance is questionable.

Psu. A brand i wouldn't trust.

Cpu being a quad, it's not really appropriate nowadays. Reasonable expectations should be had with new games.

If some of your games did play better once upon a time, id try normal Win10 install.

Thanks for replying, it's Atlas OS with updates turned on, I tried a clean install of Win10 and even other modified ones and got the same results, I'm also using the high performance power plan if that helps.

Its true this PSU is old, I recently bought a new PSU for a "server PC" I have, a Corsair CV550 and it plays the same effects.

It's not like I'm playing new games and stutters appear, it was fine before and now I'm playing the same games. Sorry, I wish I could upgrade to a newer CPU.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I'd agree with @boju - CPU is dated. And if trying to play modern games, it will struggle, as will the brilliant GTX1060.

When I asked about what games, I also meant which game titles, just so we can better understand.

The PSU side of things is bad though. The current one is useless. The replacement, the CV is an office setup power supply. Shouldn't be in a gaming rig really.

 

[Syriker]

I understand what you mean, I usually play a lot of games but the most common ones are Assetto Corsa, Core Keeper, Eurotruck Simulator 2, especially Rainbow Six Siege which was freezing like crazy for like 10 seconds or more but I fixed it by using the Vulkan version but still had some issues.

Yeah I don't use CV for my gaming PC, my whole PC is pretty outdated and I couldn't fully upgrade it, some parts are 8 years old, surprisingly the PSU didn't explode lol, I know the 12V line goes to 11.5V when gaming, but I don't know if that has a big impact on stability.

 

[boju]

Yeah, CV isn't really ideal also.

Some other ideas. Run single monitor. Test each ssd separately with fresh Windows install and a test game, to see if maybe one of the ssds is causing performance issues. Ssds need free space to perform too so that's around 100~150gb.

 

[Syriker]

I did some tests with a single monitor, for example yesterday I was racing with a single monitor and during the 40 minutes of the race the system stuttered sometimes. I might try putting the GTX1060 in my "server PC" and also I asked a friend to lend me my old GTX960 that I sold him to check if the stutters persists, but I need go get it first.

The SSDs seem to be fine, I just ran a benchmark and they still perform as they should from a reference from the internet, my 960Evo seems to be 300MB/s slower on write speeds in SEQ1M Q8T1 mode, plus they have over 100GB of free space.

 

[geofelt]

Stuttering is usually caused by a temporary lack of a critical resource.
Usually, cpu, but sometimes ram or a higher priority app.
In your case, I think cpu based on your noticing that stuttering is more prevalent when not overclocked.
What can you do??

At one time, Silicon Lottery had statistics as to what the best overclocks were for various processors.
As I recall, a 6600K was a popular chip and a small(2%) number could hit 5.0.
I suspect that with good cooling you might do better, perhaps 4.6.
Way back, I bought a I5-7600K from them which would do 5.0.

Today, you are looking at a motherboard and cpu change to do better.
Most games are limited by the single thread performance of the master thread.
To check your processor, run the cpu-Z bench.
You might get a score of 518:
https://valid.x86.fr/bench/3nje1c
Probably most of those entries came from overclocked 6600K's

Today, processors are binned and the turbo process is a better solution than overclocking.

 

[Syriker]

Hi, thanks for replying. I used to run my CPU at 4.6GHz but then I lost my overclocking settings and it was unstable at that speed. The highest overclock I've ever done was 4.89GHz (as it crashed on 4.9) but it was too unstable and I only did it to get a high score in benchmarks. Currently my CPU is delidded and I'm running a 240mm AIO cooler.

Although I honestly don't think the problem is my CPU speed.

edit: I just runned CPU-Z bench and im hitting 509singlecore and 1958multicore, a bit low compared to a 4.3 oc.

 

[RARRAF]

just trying to help are you using DisplayPort (v1.2) might sort out some of it.

 

[Syriker]

just trying to help are you using DisplayPort (v1.2) might sort out some of it.

(I forgot I had to click reply on every comment, mb)
I'm using HDMI on my primary monitor since DP doesn't work anymore for some reason (I have a 144hz that now just runs at 120hz), but I do use DP for my secondary, but the monitor that uses DP stops receiving a signal if I reboot my PC and I have to wait about an hour and try to turn it on again. It's just weird, but that's all.

 

[Syriker]

I did some tests with a single monitor, for example yesterday I was racing with a single monitor and during the 40 minutes of the race the system stuttered sometimes. I might try putting the GTX1060 in my "server PC" and also I asked a friend to lend me my old GTX960 that I sold him to check if the stutters persists, but I need go get it first.

The SSDs seem to be fine, I just ran a benchmark and they still perform as they should from a reference from the internet, my 960Evo seems to be 300MB/s slower on write speeds in SEQ1M Q8T1 mode, plus they have over 100GB of free space.

Great news, I tested the GTX1060 on my "server PC" and everything went well, the only issue I found was Latency Mon recording high DPC time from dxgkrnl.sys, but it didn't seem to affect my gameplay, maybe it was probably a big load spike when the game was rendering. Atleast I can say the GPU seems to be behaving correctly, I'll try tomorrow to change the PSU from one to the other and see what happens.

my latency mon log just in case

 

[Syriker]

Well, I tried playing with the CV550 installed and the stutters persist. I also tried playing with one RAM module at a time and they still persisted. I even tried changing the BIOS to another version but it was still the same.

The only clue I found of what the problem could be is that there were more stutters when the CPU frequency was lower. I guess this CPU really needs to be retired after a long 8 year service.

I read somewhere on a forum that stutters are usually caused by the CPU, so I hope it's not the motherboard all of a sudden.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Have you cleared CMOS at any stage after bios up/down grade?

 

[Syriker]

Have you cleared CMOS at any stage after bios up/down grade?

Yes, I always clear CMOS after flashing a new one.