Unfixable? Persistant stuttering in ALL games, need help

[upbasher]

I have been dealing with a persistant micro stuttering issue in games for a long time. This is a gonna be a read because I have tried a LOT of different things, and nothing I do fixes it. I would very much appreciate any and all help/suggestions because this is essentially ruining pc gaming for me....My problem is I get random micro stutters(spikes in frametimes - as recorded with afterburner) in all games. Even CSGO. There is no rhyme or reason to them, I cannot consistenly produce them, and they happen continuously. They are very small, just enough of a spike that you can notice it. Again, it happens in all games, the same way, so its not the game itself. And I get very high framerates, thats also not the problem.
Games I play that it happens in:
PUBG, Witcher 3, csgo, ring of elysium, etc.

My specs:
Motherboard: Z390-E
CPU: i7 9700k
Card: Asus strix 1080ti OC running in OC mode
RAM: Ripjaws 16gb ddr4 running at 3200mhz, dual channel
PSU: EVGA 750w
Windows 10 home 64bit
My OS and all my games/programs are installed on a samsung 850 evo 500gb ssd.
Monitor, AOC AG271QG gsync 1440p 27" at 165hz. Displayport cable of course.
Mouse: G502 proteus spectrum
Keyboard: G810 spectrum
Soundcard: soundblaster z
Headphones: Sennheiser hd 598 cs
My bios is set at xmp profile 1 for the ram to run at 3200mhz

Things I have tried that I can confirm do NOT fix the problem:

Resetting the bios to optimized defaults and running with no overclock and stock settings on the cpu and ram,
Running the Graphics card with no overclock and stock settings,
ALL settings in nvidia control panel - None of them fix it, Ive tried EVERY one in every way,
Running the game(s) in windowed, fullscreen, etc etc
Different gpu drivers, have tried 388.71 which was said to be the best one for pubg, and the latest one, have already reinstalled them multiple times with DDU, makes zero difference,
Settting cpu power plan to 100%,
Disabling cpu c states in bios,
Disabling/enabling the pagefile,
ran memtest - no errors,
Completely uninstalled chrome with revo
Removed soundcard and all drivers with revo
Tried different polling rate and dpi settings for my mouse
Monitoring temperatures, cpu and cpu both run very cool, cpu rarely goes above 50 -55c,
Changed all sorts of settings in windows defender to make it run as little as possible, put my entire c drive as an exception not to scan, even completely disabled the whole program in the registry.
Ands lots of other stuff Im forgetting.
Again, ANY suggestions besides the stuff Ive already tried would be greatly appreciated, I cant even enjoy my games with a several thousand dollar setup, getting very frustrating. I have read about people saying it could be a power supply issue, but I really doubt this. Next thing I am going to try is removing my soundcard/ soundblaster driver entirely and only using the onboard realtek sound

 

[norcalsc]

did you reinstall win 10?, not a reset but a fresh install? also did you download and install z390 chipset drivers?

 

[upbasher]

Yes to both

 

[mdd1963]

Is your stutter simply dropping good sync whenever well below 165 fps, which would/should happen frequently at 1440P attempting 165 hz refresh....

Try a 1080P monitor first just to make sure this is not a simple 'can't maintain 165 fps at 1440P' issue...

 

[upbasher]

Is your stutter simply dropping good sync whenever well below 165 fps, which would/should happen frequently at 1440P attempting 165 hz refresh....

Try a 1080P monitor first just to make sure this is not a simple 'can't maintain 165 fps at 1440P' issue...

I am using gsync, this is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion.
Regardless it happens even when getting well above 165hz anyway

 

[SgtScream]

I suspect the issue is because your have FPS that is way higher than the refresh rate of your monitor. Try limiting the FPS to 4 FPS lower than your monitors refresh rate for a buffer.

 

[upbasher]

I suspect the issue is because your have FPS that is way higher than the refresh rate of your monitor. Try limiting the FPS to 4 FPS lower than your monitors refresh rate for a buffer.

I have vsync on in ncp. It never goes above 165. This is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion

 

[nikoskostantopoulow]

Probably not gonna fix your problem but when dealing with shuttering disable vsync/gsync and just render unrestrained.

 

[upbasher]

Probably not gonna fix your problem but when dealing with shuttering disable vsync/gsync and just render unrestrained.

Thank you for the suggestion. I actually have tried this already and like you suspect it did not fix it. It did however introduce a ton of screen tearing which just makes the issue worse lol

 

[nikoskostantopoulow]

How much is your timeframe when it spikes ?
Make sure that's the timeframe in gameplay not when you die in overwatch for example.

P.S. I meant frametime.

 

[upbasher]

It jumps randomly, 90% of the time its around 5.9-6.3 ms in pubg, get random spikes to 12 or 13 or so. Its just enough that you can notice it

 

[upbasher]

And yes I am looking at them during gameplay, not during events that always cause it to jump (like opening inventory)

 

[nikoskostantopoulow]

I don't think 12-13ms frametime is a big deal.
I have a 60hz monitor so the minimum i can get is 16.6 ms.
And still i can play all the FPS games out there.

 

[SgtScream]

Try limiting the FPS to 161.

 

[upbasher]

Guys, my framerate is NOT the issue. Anything concerning frameRATE is unrelated to my problem. I am talking about frameTIME, its different

 

[nikoskostantopoulow]

For minimum frametime you should render unrestricted.
I always render unrestricted on FPS because it lowers frametime up to 3x and never had tearing issues.

 

[mgallo848]

I am using gsync, this is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion.
Regardless it happens even when getting well above 165hz anyway

I have vsync on in ncp

Upbasher,

You should NOT have Gsync and Vsync enabled at the same time. The proper way to utilize Gsync AND keep frametime down to a minimum is to run Gsync AND manually cap your FPS 2-3 below the maximum fps that Gsync works at. (I believe it's 144 so you should manually cap the in-game fps around 141-143). Even Jayz Two Cents refers to this at the 11:40 mark of this video from just last week.

https://youtu.be/QjIfwfF2Hc8?t=700

If you want the absolute best case senario for frametime, disable both Gsync AND vsync and manually cap your fps to 165 so it never goes above the monitors refreshrate.

 

[RememberThe5th]

What if you play singleplayer games?

 

[upbasher]

I am using gsync, this is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion.
Regardless it happens even when getting well above 165hz anyway

I have vsync on in ncp

Upbasher,

You should NOT have Gsync and Vsync enabled at the same time. The proper way to utilize Gsync AND keep frametime down to a minimum is to run Gsync AND manually cap your FPS 2-3 below the maximum fps that Gsync works at. (I believe it's 144 so you should manually cap the in-game fps around 141-143). Even Jayz Two Cents refers to this at the 11:40 mark of this video from just last week.

https://youtu.be/QjIfwfF2Hc8?t=700

If you want the absolute best case senario for frametime, disable both Gsync AND vsync and manually cap your fps to 165 so it never goes above the monitors refreshrate.

I will try this and report back

 

[upbasher]

What if you play singleplayer games?

It happens in the witcher 3 as well

 

[upbasher]

I am using gsync, this is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion.
Regardless it happens even when getting well above 165hz anyway

I have vsync on in ncp

Upbasher,

You should NOT have Gsync and Vsync enabled at the same time. The proper way to utilize Gsync AND keep frametime down to a minimum is to run Gsync AND manually cap your FPS 2-3 below the maximum fps that Gsync works at. (I believe it's 144 so you should manually cap the in-game fps around 141-143). Even Jayz Two Cents refers to this at the 11:40 mark of this video from just last week.

https://youtu.be/QjIfwfF2Hc8?t=700

If you want the absolute best case senario for frametime, disable both Gsync AND vsync and manually cap your fps to 165 so it never goes above the monitors refreshrate.

Just tried this and can confirm it does not fix the problem. Tried it with and without gsync, capped at 140fps, and uncapped. Still get erratic small frametime spikes at random times

 

[J_E_D_70]

Try disabling HPET. This got me a few more frames and folks have reported it fixed stutters for them:
https://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/18/try-changing-hpet-settings-to-improve-your-pcs-performance/

 

[upbasher]

Try disabling HPET. This got me a few more frames and folks have reported it fixed stutters for them:
https://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/18/try-changing-hpet-settings-to-improve-your-pcs-performance/

My mobo has no option to turn this on or off. However I tried running the windows command line to turn it off, and that also did not work

 

[RememberThe5th]

What if you do bare minimum?
Keep ONLY Monitor, keyboard and mouse and disconnect everything else, by everything i mean it and re try.

 

[mgallo848]

I am using gsync, this is not the problem but thank you for the suggestion.
Regardless it happens even when getting well above 165hz anyway

I have vsync on in ncp

Upbasher,

You should NOT have Gsync and Vsync enabled at the same time. The proper way to utilize Gsync AND keep frametime down to a minimum is to run Gsync AND manually cap your FPS 2-3 below the maximum fps that Gsync works at. (I believe it's 144 so you should manually cap the in-game fps around 141-143). Even Jayz Two Cents refers to this at the 11:40 mark of this video from just last week.

https://youtu.be/QjIfwfF2Hc8?t=700

If you want the absolute best case senario for frametime, disable both Gsync AND vsync and manually cap your fps to 165 so it never goes above the monitors refreshrate.

Just tried this and can confirm it does not fix the problem. Tried it with and without gsync, capped at 140fps, and uncapped. Still get erratic small frametime spikes at random times

It's time to look elsewhere because this fix SHOULD have worked. It's not one of those "it work's for some and not others" type of fix.

You're going to have to either:

Use a second monitor to keep certain system monitoring apps open while gaming so you can see what's causing the issue or play some games in a small window mode to see the monitoring apps open at the same time.

Good luck