Question Why do I get microstutters with my 6950xt? (stock)

[KennyonHenny]

I've been tinkering around with my graphics card for around 4-5 months as of now, and I've noticed that in my games in comparison to my friends pc, 165fps feels as though it's constantly stuttering or lagging behind despite the fact that I can run all graphics on high and get a consistent 165fps throughout. I've installed stable versions of previous drivers, of which actually made my pc slower than the newest drivers. I installed the current monitor drivers which seemed to help ever so slightly, but apart from that it feels as though nothing has really changed. The stutters are just noticeable enough for me to tell that it's not a smooth and consistent 165fps, and it's driving me absolutely nuts. I've turned off Vsync, played with it on, turned my fps limit up to 200 and lowered it to my refresh rate, and nothing has worked so far.

Current specs:
Radeon 6950XT Stock
Ryzen 5700X
Corsair Vengeance 3600Mhz 32GB
RM1000e Corsair PSU
Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite AX V2
HP 34X

I've heard things about the RAM causing the issues, and I'm starting to believe that it's that as well. I used to have stutters on my 1660 Super, but because I'm now getting higher fps with my graphics card, it's became more noticable over time.

I have done these to try and rectify stuttering:
Turned on SAM
Downloaded latest drivers, as well as most stable from previous drivers
Tinkered with memory timings on RAM
Turned off full screen optimization
Did stress tests on GPU, only slight stutters once shaders loaded.

I have done more to try and fix this, but I don't remember too much as it was a little while ago and I had accepted defeat. I do believe that it is the memory, so if nothing else works I'll replace that and we can see if that fixes my pain and suffering.

Thank you in advance.

 

[boju]

Recording a video of your monitor might help distinguish the kind of stutter as there are different kinds.

Your monitor is HP 34x, ultra wide 165Hz correct?

Is Freesync enabled in monitor osd?

What video cable are you using? Hdmi has a narrow Vrr range up to 100Hz while DP goes to full 165Hz. If you were using Hdmi instead that means fps over 100 is gonna look choppy.

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The HP X34 is an affordable 34" 3440x1440 165Hz 1ms ultrawide gaming monitor with a flat-screen IPS panel.

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Variable refresh rate (VRR) is supported with a 60-165Hz dynamic range over DisplayPort and 48-100Hz over HDMI at 2560×1440. It has AMD FreeSync Premium certification, but no official G-SYNC Compatible validation.

 

[KennyonHenny]

Recording a video of your monitor might help distinguish the kind of stutter as there are different kinds.

Your monitor is HP 34x, ultra wide 165Hz correct?

Is Freesync enabled in monitor osd?

What video cable are you using? Hdmi has a narrow Vrr range up to 100Hz while DP goes to full 165Hz. If you were using Hdmi instead that means fps over 100 is gonna look choppy.

HP X34 Review 2024: Affordable IPS UltraWide Gaming Monitor

The HP X34 is an affordable 34" 3440x1440 165Hz 1ms ultrawide gaming monitor with a flat-screen IPS panel.

www.displayninja.com

I attempted to record a video of my monitor, but I struggled to narrow it down. I could do it again and see if there's anything different that I can see.

Yes, I am using the UW 165Hz monitor, I attempted to use Freesync on and off and didn't find much of a difference, it still stuttered all the same. I am also using DP, as it came with the monitor.

I'm doing a stress test on my memory at the moment to see if there are any faults, I do believe that it is the memory, as I believe the GPU and CPU are a good combo and should work reliably for most games, and I've heard bad things about the Vengeance RAM. (Or corsair ram in general.)

 

[boju]

If monitor isn't matching fps output you get a non smooth jitter like look but no pauses. Pause stutters is usually hardware/driver/software/thermal related and pause stutters is an effort to diagnose.

If video just isn't smooth try vsync on + Freesync. Vsync just keeps fps within Freesync range. You don't want fps over 165Hz. Alternatively, limiting fps to 164 should do the same thing but can try fps limit in tandem with vsync.

If you're getting pauses, checking ram as you're doing now, check cpu for throttling, check startup items in TM along with sussing out highish resource hogs for cpu and ram. Can right click any process in TM and search about it if anything catches your eye.

 

[boju]

What games have you tried btw? Sometimes it can be the title not agreeing with something. Graphic setting, perhaps Radeon driver, cpu Hyperthreading, any background utilities etc. Sometimes searching game + stutters might help.

Bios / mobo chipset (chipset from Amd.com) updates can help address silly compatibilities as well.

What storage are you using for OS and games and how full? Don't want ssds being too full otherwise performance can be an issue. Try keep at least 30GB free, but even then that might be a little low depending on how large pagefile gets.

 

[KennyonHenny]

What games have you tried btw? Sometimes it can be the title not agreeing with something. Graphic setting, perhaps Radeon driver, cpu Hyperthreading, any background utilities etc. Sometimes searching game + stutters might help.

Bios / mobo chipset (chipset from Amd.com) updates can help address silly compatibilities as well.

What storage are you using for OS and games and how full? Don't want ssds being too full otherwise performance can be an issue. Try keep at least 30GB free, but even then that might be a little low depending on how large pagefile gets.

I've tried every game under the sun at the moment, but the main ones I play are R6S, Dead by Daylight, COD WAW, BO1, BO2, Escape from Tarkov, GTA 5, RDR2. My graphics settings are usually set to high, but I keep them off extreme or any setting higher than high as I don't see much of a change (But I have lowered graphics settings and not seen a change), I've tried 4 different versions of Radeon drivers and all work the same for me at the moment. I'm unsure about hyperthreading or how to change that. I close most things before I start up a game.

I got my latest BIOS update from Gigabyte, Rev 1.1, F17c. I downloaded my chipset as well, although it was just StoreMI and Ryzen Master that was available.

I'm using an NVME SSD, although it was a rather cheap one as I just needed one to be able to hold games and run them well. It was a 1TB KIOXIA EXCERIA G2 with 2100MB/s Read, 1700MB/s Write. It's got 45GB left, but I have a secondary SSD (the same make) to put them in if it gets too fool, I could swap them now.

 

[boju]

Hmmm get yourself a reliable nvme drive, 970 Evo plus 2Tb. Reinstall Windows on it. Wouldn't be surprised if that's your issue.

 

[KennyonHenny]

Hmmm get yourself a reliable nvme drive, 970 Evo plus 2Tb. Reinstall Windows on it. Wouldn't be surprised if that's your issue.

Would that be able to be returned if it wasn't the issue? It's nigh on £100 and I don't have that kind of money to be throwing on a blind guess atm. If not I can always just try later.

 

[boju]

You've been at it for awhile now so what's a little bit longer. I doubt you'll be able to return it, but at least you'll rule this out and have a good ssd.

 

[KennyonHenny]

You've been at it for awhile now so what's a little bit longer. I doubt you'll be able to return it, but at least you'll rule this out and have a good ssd.

That's fair, I suppose. I'll get one when I can and I'll update you if it fixes the problem in any way

 

[KennyonHenny]

I recorded my stuttering in game and this was the result, It's COD WAW so it's not intensive in the slightest, but I can clearly see some stuttering being left behind.

Recording a video of your monitor might help distinguish the kind of stutter as there are different kinds.

Your monitor is HP 34x, ultra wide 165Hz correct?

Is Freesync enabled in monitor osd?

What video cable are you using? Hdmi has a narrow Vrr range up to 100Hz while DP goes to full 165Hz. If you were using Hdmi instead that means fps over 100 is gonna look choppy.

HP X34 Review 2024: Affordable IPS UltraWide Gaming Monitor

The HP X34 is an affordable 34" 3440x1440 165Hz 1ms ultrawide gaming monitor with a flat-screen IPS panel.

www.displayninja.com

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Test your ram outside of windows with memtest86+. If there are no errors after 4 passes, you can rule out the ram.

Are you using Vsync when freesync is enabled? If not try that and see how it goes. By using Freesync, you really shouldn't have any stuttering.

 

[KennyonHenny]

Test your ram outside of windows with memtest86+. If there are no errors after 4 passes, you can rule out the ram.

Are you using Vsync when freesync is enabled? If not try that and see how it goes. By using Freesync, you really shouldn't have any stuttering.

I went onto R6S and turned on both Vsync and Freesync Premium, of which seemed to remove any stuttering and tearing. Although it still looks weird to me, I don't know if it's just because it looks blurry to me or my eyes just haven't adjusted, either way it feels as though it's been solved, thank you

 

[boju]

Games often have motion blur in graphics settings and it's usually on by default. Turn it off, that'll clear things up.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I went onto R6S and turned on both Vsync and Freesync Premium, of which seemed to remove any stuttering and tearing. Although it still looks weird to me, I don't know if it's just because it looks blurry to me or my eyes just haven't adjusted, either way it feels as though it's been solved, thank you

Good. Glad it worked out.

Happy gaming!