Frametime spikes at high fps - 1080p 60hz monitor

[Diaz]

MOBO Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite
GPU Zotac Geforce RTX 2070 AMP EXTREME EDITION 8GB
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600
RAM Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB 3000MHz
PSU Kolink 600W 80 Plus Bronze
SSD Samsung 250GB 860 EVO
HDD Seagate BarraCuda 2TB
MONITOR AOC E2460SH (1080p@60hz)

Yes. my PC is overkill to the max for this monitor but i will be upgrading to a 1440p 144hz Monitor (See below).

(Things I've done - windows performance mode on, all gaming bloatware on windows disabled, clear standby memory every 5 minutes, NVIDIA Performance power management mode, no overclocks)

So basically i configured and bought a brand new £1k custom-built gaming PC which is AMAZING (compared to my 10 year old PC).However, it has given me problems when gaming only... everything else seems to be smooth and work perfectly fine. Basically games stutter on my PC at high fps which includes but is not limited to: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (both DX11/DX12), Battlefield 1 (both DX11/DX12), Metro Exodus (both DX11/DX12), CSGO, Dying light and Call of duty Modern Warfare. Somehow GTA V and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 do not stutter at all, it is "buttery" smooth. Now I know that the cause of my frametime spikes are fps drops (when frames drop e.g. -20/30/50fps frametime spike occurs). One common solution is to cap the fps using an in-game frame rate limiter or RTSS. However, doing so does not help... fps drops still occur even at low caps (e.g. 90fps). VSYNC seems to remove all stutters however as my monitor has a refresh rate of 60hz this really isn't a solution with the massive 16.67ms input lag... now this leads to my question. Will upgrading to a Gsync (1440p) 144Hz monitor solve my frametime spike issues (caused by fps drops) or just make them more clear to the eye. Since using vsync at 60hz solved my issues... surely vsync at 144Hz will too, given i can keep that framerate up or enable gsync? Either way I'm looking to upgrade to the Dell S2716DG (1440p 144Hz) soon unless another monitor pops up for a great price.

I'd really appreciate if anyone can help me on this issue or has had similar experience in the past

[SunsetChaser]

I doubt that monitor/GSync will help you with frametime spikes. You have to diagnose more carefully to narrow down the issue. Also, I wouldn't expect CSGO to stutter on this kind of PC, there is certainly something wrong here.
1. How often do spikes occur?
2. Check your CPU temperatures. Also, do you use a stock CPU cooler?
3. You should probably check GPU/CPU utilization as well.

[Diaz]

I doubt that monitor/GSync will help you with frametime spikes. You have to diagnose more carefully to narrow down the issue. Also, I wouldn't expect CSGO to stutter on this kind of PC, there is certainly something wrong here.
1. How often do spikes occur?
2. Check your CPU temperatures. Also, do you use a stock CPU cooler?
3. You should probably check GPU/CPU utilization as well.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I used afterburner to monitor my hardware while playing one game of CSGO Deathmatch with an uncapped framerate.
It shows that the max CPU usage is on CPU1 92% and max GPU usage 54%
Sure I can cap my framerate (at 120/180fps to lower cpu usage), however, like i stated in the OP that stutters still occur (maybe to a lesser extent not too sure). Also it should be noted that CSGO (>fps) stutters the most and shadow of the tombraider/dyinglight (CSGO < fps) etc the least. What i dont understand is how GTA V does not stutter at all... its one of the most demanding games i've played, far more demanding than CSGO!
To answer your third question, my temps seem perfectly fine. im using an aftermarket heatsink cooler (Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU cooler)

Anymore help is much appreciated

[SunsetChaser]

For what it's worth, after a little bit of research I have found the following thread on NVidia forums:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... -games/13/

There are a couple of posts on Reddit describing similar issues with RTX 2070.

Looking at your graphs, I don't see anything abnormal with your GPU necessarily. GPU usage drops down around spikes, meaning the game might be going CPU bound at those time slices. But this is only an assumption. Stutters may still be connected to the GPU, and not your CPU.

By the way, here is a thread describing your issues almost one to one. https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/rtx-2 ... ng.426588/
Surprisingly, a reasonable amount of people experience framerate issues in CSGO, judging by the amount of info about it on the Internet. This doesn't explain other games you have issues with, though.

Sorry I couldn't be more of help.

[Diaz]

For what it's worth, after a little bit of research I have found the following thread on NVidia forums:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topi ... -games/13/

There are a couple of posts on Reddit describing similar issues with RTX 2070.

Looking at your graphs, I don't see anything abnormal with your GPU necessarily. GPU usage drops down around spikes, meaning the game might be going CPU bound at those time slices. But this is only an assumption. Stutters may still be connected to the GPU, and not your CPU.

By the way, here is a thread describing your issues almost one to one. https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/rtx-2 ... ng.426588/
Surprisingly, a reasonable amount of people experience framerate issues in CSGO, judging by the amount of info about it on the Internet. This doesn't explain other games you have issues with, though.

Sorry I couldn't be more of help.

Thanks for the further help. i really appreciate it.
I can understand from the graphs when you say that the frametime spikes may be due to the GPU drops. Theoretically, capping my fps would put a lower load on the CPU meaning it will not have to work as hard - therefore reducing the GPU drops? Testing the caps again in CSGO (180fps) and dying light (120fps) the frametimes seem to have flattened out a bit. So...

1. will using GSYNC (with Vsync) further give me better frametimes?**
2. will using a 1440p xHz monitor (any monitor with a res > 1080p) put a higher load on the gpu and relieve some load on the CPU?
3. This question is just out of curiosity, why does GTA V not cause any frametime problems on my PC o.O?

** I ask this as running Vsync (@60Hz) solved the frametime issues on the games listed in the OP. So I am thinking with a new monitor preferably 1440p 144hz, Vsync @ 144Hz should work too with a much lower input lag compared to my current monitor at 60hz? Of course this time I would be running GSYNC as well which puts a cherry on top

Thanks!

[SunsetChaser]

Yes, you are right, capping would put less load on CPU. You can also investigate stutters by locking problematic games to 30 fps and checking frametime graphs. By setting it so low, you can make assumptions and isolate generic CPU hitching from specific spikes caused by the game engine itself.

Now, to answer your questions:
1. VSync will improve your framerate, but at the cost of increased input latency. GSync won't, as described here https://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync ... ettings/2/

G-SYNC eliminates traditional V-SYNC stutter caused below the maximum refresh rate by repeated frames from delayed frame delivery, but frametime spikes still affect G-SYNC, since it can only mirror what the system is outputting. As such, when G-SYNC has nothing new to sync to for a frame or frames at a time, it must repeat the previous frame(s) until the system resumes new frame(s) output, which results in the visible interruption observed as stutter.

I recommend reading the whole G-SYNC 101 series of posts if you haven't already.

2. Yes, going from 1080 to 1440 will certainly put a higher load on GPU. Will it decrease CPU load? Probably not, since CPU still has to do the same amount of work it did before. That is unless you go completely GPU-bound, then CPU may have to wait for GPU tasks to finish. Which is unlikely in your situation, as you want to maintain fps closer to 144 in G-Sync range. (Also considering your setup, 1440 in CSGO should be nothing to RTX 2070). By the way, you can try setting resolution scale to 1440 equivalent in Tomb Raider and measure performance impact again instead of making a guess.

3. This is what confuses me too. Do you have any other games in the same category of requirements? Maybe Overwatch or some of the older games like Battlefield 3?

If I were you, I would focus on those frequent stutters first. I haven't seen you mention anything about turning off Steam overlay/Game DVR, double-checking your NVidia drivers and Windows updates. You probably tried those already anyway. If not - definitely try them, even if it involves reinstalling your Windows, it is worth it.

[ko4]

I get stutters in csgo deathmatches too. I think its engine related. And its not my pc. Tried on 2 entirely different rigs. And it stutters the same. Meanwhile i can play games like BF1 and BF4 butter smooth (when standby memory isnt full).