Micro-stuttering / hitch & Frametime spikes issue

[Rachmaninoff]

Hey, I am sorry, I thought that new reply alerts were enabled by default and I was expecting some kind of e-mail in order to know that my post had been replied.

I am going to read all your replies and I'll let you know.

Thanks in advance!

[Rachmaninoff]

It's asset/shader loading from the HDD/SSD.

There's nothing you can do to eliminate it. It's known, it's normal, and it varies in severity and frequency per game.

Yes, all my tests lead me to this conclusion since I've achieved that games like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 show very very isolated spikes from time to time (when loading assets) meanwhile others like Batman Arkham Knight or Far Cry 5 are some kind of stuttering festival, I am sure that they're engine related.

[Rachmaninoff]

In some cases, SSD can unexpectedly fragment sufficiently to have noticeable performance slowdowns
I've optimized NVME and SDD's , is there anything else I can do?

Too many M.2 SSDs in M.2 slots using processor with too few PCI-X lanes
All my tests were done with 1 SSD alone or 1 MVME alone.

Overclocking Threasholds pushed too hard?
Special Note about Overclock-induced unexpected performance sensitivities
I've tested from default stock setting to hard overclock and, to be honest, I got best results with hard OC, with default setting even The Witcher 3 gave me frametime spikes each few seconds. Maybe it's due to C-States and setting like this that are enabled with bios stock settings.

Are you using variable refresh rate?
You have to keep in mind that although is my first post in this forum I am an old-timer fan, so I've read some many times all your articles and posts about v-sync, g-sync, latency, fps limiter and so on.

I've tested under all conditions, but my most used scenario is V-sync/G-sync ON in NVCP, V-sync Off in Game, RTSS FPS Limiter 3 fps under refresh rate.

Faster GPU will help....to a certain extent
I've just purchased a RTX 3090, so I'll be able to give you some feedback on 3 weeks.

I have to take a look at RAMdisk as you suggested.

Thank you very much to you both for your tips and hints.

[jorimt]

Batman Arkham Knight or Far Cry 5 are some kind of stuttering festival, I am sure that they're engine related.

Arkham Knight is/was known for regular stutter due to texture streaming mismanagement (UE3 is ironically not well suited to open world games for this reason, among others). There were even mods to try and alleviate this.

As for Far Cry 5, I haven't played it myself, but I have played previous entries. That engine is also known for its texture streaming issues, and it is also very heavy on the CPU, which means high minimum framerates are difficult to achieve, which can cause stuttering in the 0.1% and 1% lows, for instance.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Some of the best texture streaming is done in too-end virtual reality games where stutter is a matter of life-or-death. Oculus, in particular, has been quite stellar about getting VR games to focus on hitchless texture streaming and all.

I actually wish such programming techniques were more widespread in non-VR games.

[jorimt]

Some of the best texture streaming is done in too-end virtual reality games where stutter is a matter of life-or-death. Oculus, in particular, has been quite stellar about getting VR games to focus on hitchless texture streaming and all.

I actually wish such programming techniques were more widespread in non-VR games.

Very true. VR devs are effectively forced to prioritize zero asset-related stutter due to the risk of breaking the illusion/creating nausea.

Issue is, up until very recently (Half-Life: Alyx, etc), VR has prioritized said lack of stutter over visual fidelity (and overall game scale) as to achieve the former, something non-VRR AAA games typically can't afford to sacrifice, primarily due to market and user expectations where continual graphical improvements/game scope are concerned.

Again, as I mentioned earlier, this will hopefully gradually change with advent of the next-gen consoles and their prioritization of ultra fast SSDs and new data management techniques at the engine-level (and elsewhere), so we'll be able to have our cake (complex graphics) and eat it to (less or no asset-related stutter).

It's honestly long overdue.

[Rachmaninoff]

Some of the best texture streaming is done in too-end virtual reality games where stutter is a matter of life-or-death. Oculus, in particular, has been quite stellar about getting VR games to focus on hitchless texture streaming and all.

I actually wish such programming techniques were more widespread in non-VR games.

This is the answer to one question I've been wondering all this time, "why I have no stuttering issues in VR games?" It makes sense now.

There should be some kind of Wikipedia were people could check stuttering issues related to games engines. It would save a lot of time and frustration... Sometimes is not easy (at least for me) to believe users who post in forums that some game runs 'butter smooth' o 'as silk' if I cannot see their frametime graphs.

[Rachmaninoff]

Hi again (sadly...)

I assumed and accepted that frametime spikes (micro hitches) in some games were impossible to get rid of since they were related to engine but, in the other hand, I achieved superb frametime performance in games like The Witcher 3, Watch Dogs 2, RDR2, Hitman... with not a single spike, thanks to all configuration steps listed in my first post.

So... I bought a RTX 3090 (Zotac 3090 Trinity) and now I have frametime spikes each few seconds (assets loading) in ALL GAMES, (including those that were performing awesome like TW3, RDR2 and so on.

I've tried anything (from a simple driver installation through DDU in the system restoration backup I did when performing superb, to several clean installations re-doing all previous steps).

This is very frustrating, even more than before because I don't know what I am supposed to do since all possible tests were already done during my "first" issue.

[jorimt]

So... I bought a RTX 3090 (Zotac 3090 Trinity) and now I have frametime spikes each few seconds (assets loading) in ALL GAMES, (including those that were performing awesome like TW3, RDR2 and so on.

You may have created a CPU bottleneck by switching to a 3090 while retaining your 8700k. This can cause more CPU-derived frametime spikes.

Try downsampling to 4k (to put more load on the 3090) and see if the stutter is reduced. If it is, it means your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU. If it isn't, another cause is more likely.

[Rachmaninoff]

@jorimt thanks for your reply.

Just for your information, I've tested 8700k with stock settings, 5, 5.1 and 5.2 ghz (it's delidded so it can manage this voltages and temps) with the same results. In fact, in The Witcher 3 tests, with 1080ti and medium settings, FPS capped at 97, I have no frametime spikes, but with 3090 and medium settings, FPS cappet at 97 (same scenario) I got frametime spikes when loading textures/assets.

Does it make sense for you? Could it point to CPU bottleneck anyway?
None of the threads is maxed out? Could it be bottlenecked even not reaching 85% usage?

I'm going to try downsampling and I'll give you some feedback.

By the way, if at the end it results in cpu bottleneck issue, is there any solution under LGA 1151 socket? i9 9900K would do the job?

Thanks in advance!