Unsmooth/choppy mouse movements/polling during high cpu usage

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ko4
Posts: 126
Joined: 06 Jul 2018, 16:14

Unsmooth/choppy mouse movements/polling during high cpu usage

Post by ko4 » 13 May 2021, 04:01

So I recently got into Apex Legends and I've come across this issue where my mouse inputs are very jittery/choppy while in a busy area or looking at a large of the map. I'm suspecting its related to high cpu usage and although naturally this only happens in real BR matches I've managed to recreate it in testing range by using prime95 on 4 cores out of 16(9900k)

Description of the issue:
Instability of mouse input processing or frametime spikes NOT VISIBLE ON FRAMETIME GRAPHS caused by mouse interrupts. This leads to a choppiness when panning and tracking enemies.

Here is some 120FPS footage of me comparing mouse inputs to controller inputs.
download the video to view it in 120fps.
-Controller is perfectly smooth while using the mouse results in jitter.
-look at the buttons to see which input I am using.

Here's some footage on a random part of the map. There is not even a lot of activity going on here but the stuttering is still present.
The stutter is much worse when there are multiple teams fighting
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Zc1M0 ... sp=sharing


I managed to recreate this issue in the test range by simulating high cpu usage with prime95
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P3RbJg ... sp=sharing

Pretty obvious that the mouse input is laggy compared to controller because the game only processes the position of the joystick at 125hz. Strafing with the keyboard is pretty smooth too as it should be. Only when I move the mouse it becomes laggy

Heres some footage on youtube since the jitters are visible EVEN on 60fps. The 120fps videos show it better though.
Focus on the crosshair, the stutters make the pipe and weapons "vibrate" while doing this type of maneuver.
LOOK AT THE BUTTON HINTS TO SEE WHICH INPUT I AM USING
phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]




Things I've tried (main rig) 9900k, gtx 1080
stock windows 20h2
stock windows 21h2
stock windows 7 sp1
125hz, 500hz, 1000hz polling
different usb ports (usb 2, usb 3, front panel)
all devices unplugged except mouse
different mouse, different keyboard, different mousepad
180fps cap, 160fps cap, 140fps cap, 120hz cap. It seems like is reduced the I go but it is definitely still there.
r5apex low priority, high priority
mouse interrupt cpu affinity
different nvidia drivers
cpu underclock
cpu overclock
cpu stock (stock bios)
hyperthreading on, off
different monitor
entirely different rig (9600k, 1650 super)

At this point I just think its the game but how come no one else has noticed it?
I really would appreciate it if someone could try this out on their setup.
If you want to try it out just go to a busy area in the map (might have to try multiple times as it seems very random on which areas of the maps it happens) and do the same movement I am doing in the video footage.

You can also go to testing range and run large fft's on 4+ cores
confirmed that the stutter only happens on 4+ atleast on 9900k and 9600k



Since I've tried pretty much everything I suspect it's just due to a bug in the game engine similarly to how the frame pacing in this game breaks when its running at 200+ FPS, but then again how isn't this on the front page of r/apexlegends?
I've wasted lots of hours trying to fix this and would appreciate if any apex players on this forum could try this out so I know if its just the engine being bad or something wrong with my setup

ALIEN_I_AM
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 May 2021, 19:46

Re: Unsmooth/choppy mouse movements/polling during high cpu usage

Post by ALIEN_I_AM » 22 May 2021, 20:29

I feel you my Friend.
I spend MONTHS...thats not even a Joke, MONTHS of my Lifetime to try and "optimize" this Game with all its "jittering", "lags", "stuttering" and whatever...(no i am not talking about the 189fps+ Engine Breaks Problem.)

I see the "jitter" around the Crosshair that you mention, its really hard to see and most of the people here that would love to help do not really "see" a problem at all with that footage, it is really special and while you game live on your PC it is for sure 10x more annoying than on the Footage.

So i fired up my Apex and used Prime FFT and let it run on 4 threads out of the 16 of my Ryzen 3700x while moving around that same Weapon Stack. It really is different, but in my case, its not the jittering around the Crosshair, that i did not notice though i got some sort of flickering textures on the weapon stacks after alt tabbing that i NEVER have seen before (maybe because Freesync active who knows) but everything else was feeling reallyyyyy sluggish.

Getting from walking speed to running speed and jumping from one plattform to the other with octanes tactical felt like running on ice skates. There was a very noticeable "lag" in the Inputs. And it was not placebo because i did not eat my cereals this morning ^^ i can reproduce it with your method and it is instantly, also goes instantly away as soon as i stopp Prime.

Why it happens for you also in the middle of a game, without maxxing out any threads with any background programs is the question now.

I heard about a "bug" where Apex is MAXXING out ONE Thread for a long period of time up to 100% and THAT this CAN bring strange behaviours in performance and input commands. The Background why has to do with that "prefered cores" Feature that came some months ago.

I can enable and disable CPPC or PPC or whatever its called in the Bios and the Windows Scheduler wont even bother trying to "force" the Apex.exe to those "best" cores and just run as usual. But yeah, thats the only thing that i have in mind right now. I dont know if INTEL has some sort of "prefered cores" (*oh yes it does) Technology like Ryzen has but have all your Cores/Threads be visible on Screen while you play, maybe with RTSS and HWInfo and see if the Percentage of one thread is hanging at 100% for many seconds.

Maybe disabling your "prefered Cores" Feature in the Bios can help fixxing it, if Intel has something like that.
Same goes with the C-States, which you maybe already tried totally disabling it. I mean there are hundreds of "tweaks" and 1000 different "myths" but in your special case, and because you can "reproduce it" like that, it looks like it has something to do with the Scheduler and how the interrupts are handled and then "stucked" which occures to those jitterings.

ofc i can be totally wrong...its just a guess.

One last thing that maybe is worth trying out is the Bios Option XHCI Handoff for the USB Controllers. But this is more a "general" suggestion when it comes to "general" Mouse Jitterings.

Good Luck and may the Force be with you !!! :) (just made an account to write to you buddy because i feel the pain !!!)
Need to go back to my UFO now, time for some Cow Abductions :D :D :D

best regards from Germany
ALIEN_I_AM

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