CS Stutters

[uwaaa]

Hi! I've been getting random stutters in CS that I can’t seem to fix. Not tied to fps drops, just little hitches that happen every now and then. Happens in both CS2 and CS:GO.

Specs:
9800X3D
RTX 5070
G.Skill 2x24GB 6400 CL32
X670E Tomahawk
990 Pro
RM1000x

Tried so far:
Completely stock BIOS
JEDEC, EXPO, and manual primary timings
Stock clocks, PBO off
Different NVIDIA + NVMe drivers
Reflex on/off
RTSS on/off

Temps are all solid imo, CPU tops out at 50°C, RAM at the very max 40°C, GPU around 45°C. Nothing running in the background, even steamwebhelper is disabled.

I'm currently running 5.1GHz at 1.175vcore, SMT off. RAM timings below (only tweaked tRCD, tRP, tRAS), with 1.4V VDD, 1.37V VDDQ, and 1.2V VSOC — rest on auto. These tweaks helped reduce stutter a bit, but the core issue is still there.

Also noticed something odd: if I clear the shader cache, the first launch of the game runs buttery smooth. But every launch after that, the stutters come back, this happened 5 times now.

Other games like Overwatch 2 run perfectly. I can cap FPS at 600 and play for hours without a single stutter or frametime spike. So it feels like a Source/CS-specific issue, but I can’t rule out some system-level quirk either.

ZenTimings screenshot below if that helps.

Anyone else running into this on similar hardware or have any leads?

[kyube]

Hi! I've been getting random stutters in CS that I can’t seem to fix. Not tied to fps drops, just little hitches that happen every now and then. Happens in both CS2 and CS:GO.

Specs:
9800X3D | RTX 5070 | G.Skill 2x24GB 6400 CL32 | X670E Tomahawk | 990 Pro | RM1000x

Tried so far:
Completely stock BIOS | JEDEC, EXPO, and manual primary timings | Stock clocks, PBO off
Different NVIDIA + NVMe drivers | Reflex on/off | RTSS on/off

Did you happen to experience these stutters in a title such as Apex, Dota or Deadlock, which are also a Source-based game?
Instabilities may be more apparent in one engine (Source) far more than they do in other engines, due to the specific instructions executed during play.

Temps are all solid imo, CPU tops out at 50°C, RAM at the very max 40°C, GPU around 45°C. Nothing running in the background, even steamwebhelper is disabled.

I'm currently running 5.1GHz at 1.175vcore, SMT off. RAM timings below (only tweaked tRCD, tRP, tRAS), with 1.4V VDD, 1.37V VDDQ, and 1.2V VSOC — rest on auto. These tweaks helped reduce stutter a bit, but the core issue is still there.

Also noticed something odd: if I clear the shader cache, the first launch of the game runs buttery smooth. But every launch after that, the stutters come back, this happened 5 times now.

Other games like Overwatch 2 run perfectly. I can cap FPS at 600 and play for hours without a single stutter or frametime spike. So it feels like a Source/CS-specific issue, but I can’t rule out some system-level quirk either.

image

Anyone else running into this on similar hardware or have any leads?

Thank you for including a ZenTimings screenshot.
The biggest issue, which I see, is you owning a 5070 (RTX 50 series) GPU... as obscure as this sounds.
The past few drivers of Nvidia have been very subpar and I don't have any other recommendation other than trying a different GPU and troubleshooting afterwards...
it could be some X3D + 50 series combination issue, which only manifests in rare cases.
There's a lot of potential mismatch happening...

[calendare]

Hi! I've been getting random stutters in CS that I can’t seem to fix. Not tied to fps drops, just little hitches that happen every now and then. Happens in both CS2 and CS:GO.

Specs:
9800X3D
RTX 5070
G.Skill 2x24GB 6400 CL32
X670E Tomahawk
990 Pro
RM1000x

Tried so far:
Completely stock BIOS
JEDEC, EXPO, and manual primary timings
Stock clocks, PBO off
Different NVIDIA + NVMe drivers
Reflex on/off
RTSS on/off

Temps are all solid imo, CPU tops out at 50°C, RAM at the very max 40°C, GPU around 45°C. Nothing running in the background, even steamwebhelper is disabled.

I'm currently running 5.1GHz at 1.175vcore, SMT off. RAM timings below (only tweaked tRCD, tRP, tRAS), with 1.4V VDD, 1.37V VDDQ, and 1.2V VSOC — rest on auto. These tweaks helped reduce stutter a bit, but the core issue is still there.

Also noticed something odd: if I clear the shader cache, the first launch of the game runs buttery smooth. But every launch after that, the stutters come back, this happened 5 times now.

Other games like Overwatch 2 run perfectly. I can cap FPS at 600 and play for hours without a single stutter or frametime spike. So it feels like a Source/CS-specific issue, but I can’t rule out some system-level quirk either.

ZenTimings screenshot below if that helps.

Anyone else running into this on similar hardware or have any leads?

Hey I have a 14900k (not degraded) I was getting frame drops in CS2 and GTA 5 (from like 400 FPS to 20 fps) with a regular Windows 11 Pro setup.

I swapped to Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC and my frames are completely stable (with % lows but no noticeable stutters).

I recommend trying the cut down Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC as there are many background processes which accumulate and can result in stutters.

Cheers,

[uwaaa]

Hi! I've been getting random stutters in CS that I can’t seem to fix. Not tied to fps drops, just little hitches that happen every now and then. Happens in both CS2 and CS:GO.

Specs:
9800X3D | RTX 5070 | G.Skill 2x24GB 6400 CL32 | X670E Tomahawk | 990 Pro | RM1000x

Tried so far:
Completely stock BIOS | JEDEC, EXPO, and manual primary timings | Stock clocks, PBO off
Different NVIDIA + NVMe drivers | Reflex on/off | RTSS on/off

Did you happen to experience these stutters in a title such as Apex, Dota or Deadlock, which are also a Source-based game?
Instabilities may be more apparent in one engine (Source) far more than they do in other engines, due to the specific instructions executed during play.

Temps are all solid imo, CPU tops out at 50°C, RAM at the very max 40°C, GPU around 45°C. Nothing running in the background, even steamwebhelper is disabled.

I'm currently running 5.1GHz at 1.175vcore, SMT off. RAM timings below (only tweaked tRCD, tRP, tRAS), with 1.4V VDD, 1.37V VDDQ, and 1.2V VSOC — rest on auto. These tweaks helped reduce stutter a bit, but the core issue is still there.

Also noticed something odd: if I clear the shader cache, the first launch of the game runs buttery smooth. But every launch after that, the stutters come back, this happened 5 times now.

Other games like Overwatch 2 run perfectly. I can cap FPS at 600 and play for hours without a single stutter or frametime spike. So it feels like a Source/CS-specific issue, but I can’t rule out some system-level quirk either.

image

Anyone else running into this on similar hardware or have any leads?

Thank you for including a ZenTimings screenshot.
The biggest issue, which I see, is you owning a 5070 (RTX 50 series) GPU... as obscure as this sounds.
The past few drivers of Nvidia have been very subpar and I don't have any other recommendation other than trying a different GPU and troubleshooting afterwards...
it could be some X3D + 50 series combination issue, which only manifests in rare cases.
There's a lot of potential mismatch happening...

I tried playing Apex yesterday and got 0 "visible" stutters, my game felt pretty good but when i tried CapFrameX my frametimes looked pretty weird.

[kyube]

I tried playing Apex yesterday and got 0 "visible" stutters, my game felt pretty good but when i tried CapFrameX my frametimes looked pretty weird.

Whoops, I forgot to mention this (rare) issue. Thank you for reminding me!
Supposedly (I don't know whether this is a 9800X3D or CS2 specific quirk), using PresentMon version 1.10 is required to get frametime data to record properly.
It doesn't seem to display correctly past the 2.0 version branch.
Similarly related issue on PresentMon github: https://github.com/GameTechDev/PresentMon/issues/248

Latest version (v2.3.0) gave one user erroneous results, which looks like this:


Funnily enough, this user also has a eerily similar setup, which consists of: 9800X3D + X670E Tomahawk + RTX 5080

He never complained about having sporadic (macro)stutters on his setup (he's a CS2 player as well), so I assume there is a possibility of HW instabilities or SW overhead at play...

[uwaaa]

I tried playing Apex yesterday and got 0 "visible" stutters, my game felt pretty good but when i tried CapFrameX my frametimes looked pretty weird.

Whoops, I forgot to mention this (rare) issue. Thank you for reminding me!
Supposedly (I don't know whether this is a 9800X3D specific quirk), using PresentMon version 1.10 is required to get frametime data to record properly.
It doesn't seem to display correctly past the 2.0 version branch.
Similarly related issue on PresentMon github:

Latest version (v2.3.0) gave one user erroneous results, which looks like this:

Funnily enough, this user also has a eerily similar setup, which consists of: 9800X3D + X670E Tomahawk + RTX 5080

He never complained about having sporadic (macro)stutters on his setup (he's a CS2 player as well), so I assume there is a possibility of HW instabilities or SW overhead at play...

Thank you for the PresentMon fix.

I don't think its SW overhead since it happens even if i have nothing running in the background except Windows services and bg processes.
HW instabilities i don't know, as i said i still have those issues on fully stock bios with the default core clock (4.7ghz) and expo disabled and w/o any GPU overclock, even if i lock my voltage.

Also may i ask which NVIDIA driver he uses.. maybe theres one 50 series driver out there that's not AS bad? I tried latest and 576.40 and 576.28

[kyube]

Thank you for the PresentMon fix.

I don't think its SW overhead since it happens even if i have nothing running in the background except Windows services and bg processes.
HW instabilities i don't know, as i said i still have those issues on fully stock bios with the default core clock (4.7ghz) and expo disabled and w/o any GPU overclock, even if i lock my voltage.

Also may i ask which NVIDIA driver he uses.. maybe theres one 50 series driver out there that's not AS bad? I tried latest and 576.40 and 576.28

He told me that he's on 576.40

[uwaaa]

I turned off fTPM, NX Mode, IOMMU, Secure Boot and it seems like my stutters are gone. I had to have those enabled for FaceIT, but i saw that some people on AMD are stuttering because of TPM so i assume that's the fix..

[JimCarry]

I turned off fTPM, NX Mode, IOMMU, Secure Boot and it seems like my stutters are gone. I had to have those enabled for FaceIT, but i saw that some people on AMD are stuttering because of TPM so i assume that's the fix..

i have the same but nx mode makes my pc worse i think, do you know whad does it do ? also i think there is at lest few more things that you must change in your bios,also dou you have mouse / keyboard dataq tweak?

[uwaaa]

I turned off fTPM, NX Mode, IOMMU, Secure Boot and it seems like my stutters are gone. I had to have those enabled for FaceIT, but i saw that some people on AMD are stuttering because of TPM so i assume that's the fix..

i have the same but nx mode makes my pc worse i think, do you know whad does it do ? also i think there is at lest few more things that you must change in your bios,also dou you have mouse / keyboard dataq tweak?

NX Mode is a security feature, turn it off unless u must use an AC that requires it. MouseDataQueueSize should be left on default.