[SOLVED] Why has GTA 5 suddenly started to stutter?

[Slavskyyyy]

As I'm writing this I've got GTA 5 re-installing as my last hope to hopefully fix my issue.

I've owned GTA for couple years through steam but haven't played it all that much. Due to the recent "hype" of it going free on EPIC I thought I'll install it and get back into it (This was about 2-3 weeks ago). The game worked fine at first on the default high settings. I wasn't experiencing any stutters except the odd few online when my internet started to act up.

A few days after installing the game it started to stutter, chopping up every couple seconds during driving a car at high speeds. I turned to this video (

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9eUCEkpRKA
) to fix the problem. To my surprise it helped, the stuttering had stopped, for now. A few days after the stuttering returned and no matter what I was doing it was happening, even on low settings which I think shouldn't be at all demanding. I tried a couple more fixes that I found online that had you change some of the GTA settings in the NVIDIA control panel. Unfortunately they didn't help. I started looking around forums and I've seen many people that are having a similar issue without any clear explanation. People with rigs much better than mine are having similar issues. By the way this is happening both online and in story mode so I don't think my internet is at fault here.

A little before the stuttering happened I had a bit of a malware problem with ByteFence. It was installed onto my PC without my knowledge. I acted quickly and got rid of everything (at least I think so) using Malwarebytes and my anti virus Kaspersky. I don't think that it had an impact on my game but I'm not as knowledgeable as some of you guys so maybe it did.

Some videos also suggested to use a FPS limiter to fix my problem. I tried, using RivaTuner and limiting my game to 45fps and 50fps but it fixed nothing. At this point I've given up in trying to fix this. I'm not sure as to why this is happening considering that my other games like 2k20 and Rainbow Six Siege both on high settings, are not having this problem.

My specs are:

OS - Windows 10 Home 64bit
CPU - Intel i36100 3.70 GHz
RAM - HyperX Fury 8gb DDR4 2400 (Will be upgrading to 16gb before the end of the month)
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2H
GPU - Gigabyte NVIDIA 1050ti 4gb
x2 HDD - WD blue 1TB (Will be adding a 500gb SSD shortly)
Power Supply - EVGA 500W 80 Plus

Hopefully you're able to help me with this problem as it's really frustrating me at this point.

Any replies are very much appreciated

Thanks.

 

[anotherdrew]

@Slavskyyyy
GTA V is one of the more CPU intensive games out there. Your i3-6100 only has 2 cores, so if any software does something in the background it will interfere with the game. Shutdown all background apps (Twitch, Discord, antivirus to game mode, etc) and see if that helps. You can use your task manager to see what's running.

I have heard moving the game to an SSD also helps.

 

[Slavskyyyy]

@anotherdrew
I tried disabling as much as I possibly could in the task manager. Also, I will most definitely be moving the game to an SSD as soon as I get one. I assume the extra 8 gigs of RAM I'm going to be adding soon will have a massive difference as well.

Could it be possible that inappropriate cooling is causing this to happen? My cooling isn't great with one fan at the very back of the case above the GPU and a stock cooler on the CPU. Believe me I'm quite ashamed in saying this is what I have cooling my PC.

I have ordered a 5pack of Arctic fans to improve cooling. I've also ordered the Arctic Freezer eSports DUO as my CPU cooler.

Do you reckon an improvement in the cooling of the PC would be able to help in solving this or is it just the CPU and the HDD that aren't able to run the game effectively?

 

[anotherdrew]

@Slavskyyyy
The extra memory will help, but I doubt the difference will be massive (this is assuming the GTA V is all that is running ... if you have something else using lots of memory, like Chrome, then it will help more ... you can monitor usage via task manager and resource manager)

The 1050Ti is not the hottest running card and your CPU is lower power too ... I don't know if I worry too much about heat unless you have a super small case. Don't forget the PSU is also blowing air out (in most cases). That said, I am a big proponent of cooler computers. Yes, a CPU at 80C is within spec, but a CPU that tops out at 70C will have a longer life. Heat kills computers (slowly ... like years and years). Also, cooler computers are less likely to have a hardware error that could cause a blue screen, freeze, or crash.

Sounds to me like you moving in a good direction. I might put the game on the shelf for a couple weeks until you get the upgrades done and then give it another shot.

 

[TerryLaze]

You already said it yourself, people with much better rigs have the same problem so why do you expect upgrading to fix anything?
You can have stutters because your GPU's Vram isn't enough which you already tested by using low settings.
the real problem is that the game runs its main thread at a higher priority then the rest of the threads causing windows to stop running the game's secondary threads until the main thread is done working,which sine it's a game it never happens.
This is not the same as putting your whole game on a different priority in case you already tried that,this is something different.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN-mdoMDuSQ

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/scheduling-priorities

 

[Slavskyyyy]

@TerryLaze
It all started out of nowhere. A year ago I was able to run the game fine on high settings. A few weeks ago when I reinstalled it I was able to run it on high settings just fine and then suddenly it starts to stutter just like it does in that video. I'm thinking that the game is just really poorly coded as it works for some and doesn't for others.

Would changing the priority of the thread like in the video above (at least that's what I think he's doing) act as a short fix until I get a new CPU? I was thinking about upgrading to a Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8 GHz QuadCore as well as getting a new motherboard alongside it later this year. Is this CPU a good option for me and would it last me a good couple years or should I save up for something better?

 

[Slavskyyyy]

@anotherdrew
Keeping it as cool as possible is something I'm definitely going to try to do. I think Terry is right on this one though, it's most likely my CPU that's the issue. Hopefully a new CPU and motherboard along with the other upgrades will solve my problem.

Thanks for your help.

 

[anotherdrew]

@anotherdrew
Keeping it as cool as possible is something I'm definitely going to try to do. I think Terry is right on this one though, it's most likely my CPU that's the issue. Hopefully a new CPU and motherboard along with the other upgrades will solve my problem.

Thanks for your help.

Since GTA V is a CPU intensive game, I think moving to the i5-7600K will help. Be aware that your motherboard requires the F20 or later BIOS to support that chip.

 

[Slavskyyyy]

Since GTA V is a CPU intensive game, I think moving to the i5-7600K will help. Be aware that your motherboard requires the F20 or later BIOS to support that chip.

I'll be upgrading the motherboard as well so I should be fine. Thanks for the heads up though.