Hidden Power savings techniques causing unstable framerate FIXED!

[Vocaleyes]

Hi all. So ever since I got back into the gaming scene 3-4 years ago, there have been a collection of issues I and we all have been facing.
There have been many theories as to what causes it, but I don't want to focus on those today.

My theory is this. A country must have some sort of energy compliance limit or code that must be within regulation (speculative), so the more time goes by, the more power hungry our rigs, the more demanding the power draw, the more 'energy savings' techniques must be implemented in order to distribute up to code, which I imagine wouldn't be updated very frequently, or frequently enough to keep up with more and more demanding setups.
Even if this isn't the case.. I digress as it isn't really majorly important.
But with this thinking, that these techniques put in place with the primary goal of energy savings have a known impact on system performance.
The problem is, a majority of these aren't displayed in the bios.

So to the point, whenever i would play warzone my fps would dip constantly, as if on a cycle, not caused by rendering issues, but every few seconds. Would dip anywhere from 230-80. Now this is obviously an issue when it comes to gaming, as stable frames = stable image and smoother gameplay.

So, using SCEWIN to grub the bios (ONLY USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, IMPROPER SETTINGS MAY BRICK YOUR SYSTEM!) I searched through using some keywords before resetting the pc to apply changes. The settings I changed before applying in this case and before the fix, were "USB, spread, GPU". That's it.

I then progressed through the list disabling anything that sounded like power saving, gating etc. and changing anything that wasn't defaulting full performance or power.

Now I cannot say exactly which one of these did it.. But i can speculate and more importantly I have the current grub list as a frame of reference, which now contains the key to the unsmooth image and frame dip issue.

So if anyone would care to look over my grub and compare it to their own, then please let me know how to copy pasta without spamming an entire page of crap.

I speculate one of the key settings may have been the 'USB 2.0 controller mode' entry.

Setup Question = USB 2.0 Controller Mode
Token =E48 // Do NOT change this line
Offset =1E
Width =01
BIOS Default =[01]HiSpeed
Options =[01]HiSpeed // Move "*" to the desired Option
*[00]FullSpeed

there are 2 options. Hi-speed and full speed. It is set to hi speed by default instead of full speed. and as we all know that usb polling has not only an effect on the mouse, but also frame smoothness, then I see this entry as 'USB ports throttled' to be compliant.
Once again, this is speculative but nonetheless, whatever was changed has now ENTIRELY fixed the frame drop issue.

Tested over the course of the whole day on warzone and the behaviour of the fps is now never out of the range of 180-160.
In return, this causes the gameplay to appear BUTTER. SMOOTH.

Before, fps would tick as follows 180....200...60....165....180.....45......180...200...

That is not the case anymore. Link to the video proof will follow soon.

So once again, even if my speculations as to why or which one has resolved this issue, is irrelevant. The point is, one of those 3 keywords and it's associated settings has now changed the game.

EDIT: when there is heavy load on the disk, there will still be fps drops. always will. But take note of in game once loaded.
Tl/dr ignore when loading in to a game, that will always hit hard.

EDIT 2: Here's the link https://youtu.be/UkcVKrbFaYg to the video I captured after the fix, pay attention to the fps… no more drops into the red at all, no more wild fluctuations, all stable and marginal differences. Also bear in mind, this is whilst running obs on the same machine at the same time as cod so frames are lower than usual, captured using nvenc and 15000 bitrate.

[assombrosso]

This may help ppl who have unexplained fps dips, my fps in csgo is locked at +400fps and I have the worst mouse delay/input lag imaginable.

[DPRTMELR]

This may help ppl who have unexplained fps dips

then it's a good information. the level of people intermingling on these posts about their issues on other people's thread is really weirdly high.

reading this post is like seeing a video thumbnail on trending pages of youtube though like god damn.

Some members of the public have attributed a diffuse collection of symptoms to low levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields at home. Reported symptoms include headaches ... loss of libido.

https://www.who.int/news-room/questions ... tic-fields

just stick to power settings. while disabling spread spectrum does help with things, I am okay with staying under the governing body's limit for this.

[Patrykelele]

Hi all. So ever since I got back into the gaming scene 3-4 years ago, there have been a collection of issues I and we all have been facing.
There have been many theories as to what causes it, but I don't want to focus on those today.

My theory is this. A country must have some sort of energy compliance limit or code that must be within regulation (speculative), so the more time goes by, the more power hungry our rigs, the more demanding the power draw, the more 'energy savings' techniques must be implemented in order to distribute up to code, which I imagine wouldn't be updated very frequently, or frequently enough to keep up with more and more demanding setups.
Even if this isn't the case.. I digress as it isn't really majorly important.
But with this thinking, that these techniques put in place with the primary goal of energy savings have a known impact on system performance.
The problem is, a majority of these aren't displayed in the bios.

So to the point, whenever i would play warzone my fps would dip constantly, as if on a cycle, not caused by rendering issues, but every few seconds. Would dip anywhere from 230-80. Now this is obviously an issue when it comes to gaming, as stable frames = stable image and smoother gameplay.

So, using SCEWIN to grub the bios (ONLY USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, IMPROPER SETTINGS MAY BRICK YOUR SYSTEM!) I searched through using some keywords before resetting the pc to apply changes. The settings I changed before applying in this case and before the fix, were "USB, spread, GPU". That's it.

I then progressed through the list disabling anything that sounded like power saving, gating etc. and changing anything that wasn't defaulting full performance or power.

Now I cannot say exactly which one of these did it.. But i can speculate and more importantly I have the current grub list as a frame of reference, which now contains the key to the unsmooth image and frame dip issue.

So if anyone would care to look over my grub and compare it to their own, then please let me know how to copy pasta without spamming an entire page of crap.

I speculate one of the key settings may have been the 'USB 2.0 controller mode' entry.

Setup Question = USB 2.0 Controller Mode
Token =E48 // Do NOT change this line
Offset =1E
Width =01
BIOS Default =[01]HiSpeed
Options =[01]HiSpeed // Move "*" to the desired Option
*[00]FullSpeed

there are 2 options. Hi-speed and full speed. It is set to hi speed by default instead of full speed. and as we all know that usb polling has not only an effect on the mouse, but also frame smoothness, then I see this entry as 'USB ports throttled' to be compliant.
Once again, this is speculative but nonetheless, whatever was changed has now ENTIRELY fixed the frame drop issue.

Tested over the course of the whole day on warzone and the behaviour of the fps is now never out of the range of 180-160.
In return, this causes the gameplay to appear BUTTER. SMOOTH.

Before, fps would tick as follows 180....200...60....165....180.....45......180...200...

That is not the case anymore. Link to the video proof will follow soon.

So once again, even if my speculations as to why or which one has resolved this issue, is irrelevant. The point is, one of those 3 keywords and it's associated settings has now changed the game.

EDIT: when there is heavy load on the disk, there will still be fps drops. always will. But take note of in game once loaded.
Tl/dr ignore when loading in to a game, that will always hit hard.

EDIT 2: Here's the link https://youtu.be/UkcVKrbFaYg to the video I captured after the fix, pay attention to the fps… no more drops into the red at all, no more wild fluctuations, all stable and marginal differences. Also bear in mind, this is whilst running obs on the same machine at the same time as cod so frames are lower than usual, captured using nvenc and 15000 bitrate.

after these tips mouse is way faster but i get blue screen mouseclass.sys

[Unreazz]

Can you go more into Details pls ? Which entries you changed exactly ?

[Vocaleyes]

Hey man, like I said before I can’t remember specifically aside from the example I listed.

Is there a way I can copy past my grub, but compressed so to not spam a page full?

That way it will be easy for people to then filter by my tags and see what is no longer on the default settings.

[Ragerlis]

You can just download your bios at motherboard manufacturer reflash it and compare to the default one with the modified grub you already have, no need to have another person with another bios from another motherboard to compare.

[Vocaleyes]

I have no need to do that is my point, I spent too long going through that list in the first place and am unwilling to do it once again tbh. Which is why if anyone would like a copy to analyse they are more than welcome to request.

I’m now back on the mouse tracking issue, just thought I’d share as I noticed people having framedrops and such, but can now clearly establish that the 2 issues are unrelated for the time being.

[Crazyness]

bcs my bios is already by default altered(overclocking nonK cpus)..i could not grab .txt..unfortunate

i also tried the other metod mention above same result..

so i used usbtree again 2 check actual speeds..
so maybe its the faster way for some1 2 determine should they or should they not alter hidden settings.

[kokkatc]

I have no need to do that is my point, I spent too long going through that list in the first place and am unwilling to do it once again tbh. Which is why if anyone would like a copy to analyse they are more than welcome to request.

I’m now back on the mouse tracking issue, just thought I’d share as I noticed people having framedrops and such, but can now clearly establish that the 2 issues are unrelated for the time being.

Thanks for the post. I've been meaning to use this method for awhile to see what kind of hidden settings I can tinker with.

Just to reiterate, you changed USB 2.0 Controller Mode from 'HiSpeed' to 'FullSpeed,' correct? And this fixed your problem?