Persistent, system-wide microstutter/jitter. Hard to diagnose

[ticoex]

Hi all,

I've been having persistent micro-stutter, despite high fps, in multiple games and the system as a whole. Id describe it as 300fps feeling like 60. Upon further inspection using a 960fps slowmo video, it looks as if the frames are vibrating back and forth. It seems to be associated with a very high reading on LatencyMon. Every now and then I try to figure it out, but always end up without any progress or solution. I'm hoping that somebody on this forum might be able to help or at least point me in the right direction. I've made posts on Tom's Hardware, Superuser, Guru3d and PCHelpForum and have not made progress following the troubleshooting steps they provided. I found this forum and figured a more display centered approach might help. I'm starting to believe that all the correct frames are being rendered, but they're being displayed "out of order." to me this implies an issue at the end of the render pipeline. I'm a layman and don't fully understand how to trouble shoot this. I'm thinking something along the lines of frame-by-frame analysis of footage taken from a capture card.

I couldn't share the links to my other forum posts here. I'm hoping i can reply with them as there is a significant amount of recorded troubleshooting steps and supporting conversation. If not, I'll post the titles here so you can look them up:

Guru3d- "Persistent and hard-to-diagnose microstutter"
SuperUser- "How would I go about differentiating between an issue that lies with the CPU vs one that lies with the RAM vs one that is tied to the Motherboard"
TomsHardware- "Hard to diagnose/research: Persistent jitter, stutter, and screen tearing"
PCHelpForum- "Impossible to research; persistent frame stutter/jitter"

As an aside, I've now seen close to a dozen posts, videos, and replies that have very similar symptoms for years and no solution. It seems like something of a pattern. I'm also happy to share links to the other posts I've found.

[bleya99]

Hi all,

I've been having persistent micro-stutter, despite high fps, in multiple games and the system as a whole. Id describe it as 300fps feeling like 60. Upon further inspection using a 960fps slowmo video, it looks as if the frames are vibrating back and forth. It seems to be associated with a very high reading on LatencyMon. Every now and then I try to figure it out, but always end up without any progress or solution. I'm hoping that somebody on this forum might be able to help or at least point me in the right direction. I've made posts on Tom's Hardware, Superuser, Guru3d and PCHelpForum and have not made progress following the troubleshooting steps they provided. I found this forum and figured a more display centered approach might help. I'm starting to believe that all the correct frames are being rendered, but they're being displayed "out of order." to me this implies an issue at the end of the render pipeline. I'm a layman and don't fully understand how to trouble shoot this. I'm thinking something along the lines of frame-by-frame analysis of footage taken from a capture card.

I couldn't share the links to my other forum posts here. I'm hoping i can reply with them as there is a significant amount of recorded troubleshooting steps and supporting conversation

As an aside, I've now seen close to a dozen posts, videos, and replies that have very similar symptoms for years and no solution. It seems like something of a pattern. I'm also happy to share links to the other posts I've found.

When I install fresh windows, if I go above my refresh rate my game feels like 80 fps, even if I have 200+. The only thing that worked for a long time was g sync + v sync + cap under refresh rate. Then I discovered Scanline Sync (from RTSS) and that has been working wonders across most games. You can try messing with timers (like disabledynamictick and useplatformclock true, check other discussions on this) to see if one or more commands might help you. Definitely give scanline sync a try tho.

[ticoex]

Here are previous posts
https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/persi ... er.454408/
https://pchelpforum.net/threads/impossi ... ter.90301/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads ... g.3850816/
https://superuser.com/questions/1851106 ... the-cpu-vs

[ticoex]

When I install fresh windows, if I go above my refresh rate my game feels like 80 fps, even if I have 200+. The only thing that worked for a long time was g sync + v sync + cap under refresh rate. Then I discovered Scanline Sync (from RTSS) and that has been working wonders across most games. You can try messing with timers (like disabledynamictick and useplatformclock true, check other discussions on this) to see if one or more commands might help you. Definitely give scanline sync a try tho.

Hey thank you for the reply. Scanline sync sounds neat. I took a look at it and it looks like something ill need to take some time to figure out before implementing. I don't think it will work though. The issue is not solved by any combination of VSYNC, GSYNC, or framecaps. All these methods do as they should and minimize tear, however the underlying jitter/vibration is still there (along with some less noticeable tearing)

[RealNC]

If you have RGB control software, completely uninstall it (simply closing those is not enough, because their drivers remain active.) If you use monitoring software (like MSI Afterburner) close it (no need to uninstall this, just close it.) RGB drivers and sensor polling are known to cause frame time issues. Test that and see if it helps.

[ticoex]

If you have RGB control software, completely uninstall it (simply closing those is not enough, because their drivers remain active.) If you use monitoring software (like MSI Afterburner) close it (no need to uninstall this, just close it.) RGB drivers and sensor polling are known to cause frame time issues. Test that and see if it helps.

Hi thank you for your response. I made sure MyAsus and ArmoryCrate are disabled in the bios. I don't have any RGB control installed whatsoever. I've scrolled through my running processes a couple times just to see if theres anything in there. Nothing. You can see more details about my PC specs and installed programs in the PCHelpForum post. Maybe something will stand out to you?

[RealNC]

What's your monitor? Maybe it's a display issue?

What happens when you switch to 120Hz or 144Hz mode? (And verify games are actually not switching it back to 240Hz.) Does it look smoother?

[ticoex]

What's your monitor? Maybe it's a display issue?

What happens when you switch to 120Hz or 144Hz mode? (And verify games are actually not switching it back to 240Hz.) Does it look smoother?

I'm currently using an Odyssey G7. I also have a 27in Dell 165hz panel. I've tested on both. I actually originally observed it on the Dell. I've tried every permutation of refresh rate. I just gave 60hz another try and saw a change in behavior. The frames no longer look like they jitter, but there is some sort of 'pre-ghosting.' It looks like there is a shadow of the image that will be displayed being displayed before the frame actually moves there.

[TN_fun]

Hi all,

I've been having persistent micro-stutter, despite high fps, in multiple games and the system as a whole. Id describe it as 300fps feeling like 60. Upon further inspection using a 960fps slowmo video, it looks as if the frames are vibrating back and forth.

can you show us this video?

[ticoex]

Hi all,

I've been having persistent micro-stutter, despite high fps, in multiple games and the system as a whole. Id describe it as 300fps feeling like 60. Upon further inspection using a 960fps slowmo video, it looks as if the frames are vibrating back and forth.

can you show us this video?

Of course. Heres a small collection for 3 environments. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... qldJh_YDUY I didn't want to fall afoul of link rules. More are posted in the PCHelp link too. Specifically the ones pertaining to VSYNC GSYNC.