Help finding source of stutters

[OzQuaker]

When doing the UFO test to adjust the backlight and crosstalk via the strobe utility I get alot of stutters (warnings, drop in fps) which seem random in frequency. When in game, when facing a wall and strafing from side to side the same stutters are there. By stutter I mean a brief pause of the image. They are very subtle and you will not notice them when concentrating on playing however I want perfection.

I have tried removing all running applications from the task manager and taken note of cpu usage which is minimal only a few %.

I'm not quite sure where to look from here to try and solve my stutter problem.

I'm running a Benq 2720z V2 FW.

Any thoughts on where to start?

Thanks.

[Chief Blur Buster]

When doing the UFO test to adjust the backlight and crosstalk via the strobe utility I get alot of stutters (warnings, drop in fps) which seem random in frequency. When in game, when facing a wall and strafing from side to side the same stutters are there. By stutter I mean a brief pause of the image. They are very subtle and you will not notice them when concentrating on playing however I want perfection.

There are literally thousands of sources of stutters, that I am almost certain that the stutters you see in TestUFO are caused by different things than the stutters you see in FPS games.

It is really challenging to become completely-stutter free, but let's focus on TestUFO first. FireFox stutters more than Chrome and IE. If you are using Windows 8, try IE11 as it runs really smooth with TestUFO (and now supports 120fps). Otherwise, try Chrome. Close all windows, exit all tabs, run TestUFO as the only browser window. If needed, also quit system tray utilities, disable startup apps (start -> run -> "msconfig" -> startup) that you don't need. It should run much more smoothly, essentially stutterfree if you don't move your mouse or touch the keyboard. Certain systems (drivers, hardware config, GPU, etc) may not be stutterfree though.
- which browser are you using for TestUFO?
- which GPU and which version of WIndows?

Now, for your games, as a general rule of thumb, to minimize stutters:
- Reduce the amount of your background apps
- Powerful GPU
- Use reduced detail level
- Lower your AA settings (FXAA) or turn off AA
- Use a faster hard disk (SSD) to stop those texture-loading stutters
- Use extra RAM to stop those swapfile-access stutters (8+ GB instead of 4 GB)
- If using VSYNC OFF, uncap your framerate to >300fps if possible.
- If using VSYNC ON, try using a lower refresh rate, reduce detail, make sure framerate matches refresh rate at all times. In older engines such as source-engine games that can easily run capped-out on your GPU, VSYNC ON is often much smoother than VSYNC OFF but there's more lag.
- If you don't mind a bit of input lag, there are additional ways to smooth the stutters. There is sometimes a stutters-versus-lag tradeoff with certain kinds of tweaks.

[mello]

Now, for your games, as a general rule of thumb, to minimize stutters:
...

I would add to that list:

- get a CPU with more cores/threads

Recently, i switched from i5 (4 cores / 4 threads) to i7 (4 cores / 8 threads) and i love it. It fixed stuttering in games, and now i can have some apps running in the background, and it no longer causes any problems, everything runs smoothly as it should.