Blur Busters Forums

Hello, I have what seems like an unfixable issue with my PC, long story short I got a pre-built PC back in 2017, ran all games disgustingly bad, a year later I got another pre-built PC, exact same thing, constant stutter and fps drops in every single game, fast forward to 2020 and I decided to build my own PC from scratch, new case, new monitor, new mouse and keyboard, everything was replaced... Exact same issue, exact same fps drops and stutter despite going through three different computers. This makes absolutely no sense and I am out of options here.

I honestly feel like I have tried everything at this point, I have been trying to fix it nonstop since 2017, like I am not joking, I probably spend at least an hour or so each time trying to fix it, I have probably tried every little "fix" in the book and nothing ever helps, if rebuilding an entirely new PC didn't help then I don't know what will. I was hoping it was something to do with EMI interference? So I took it to another house yet it still did it there, I have no idea what to do, it's so stressful spending thousands of pounds just for it to be pointless.

Here is an example, keep in mind it's like this in every single game...

New PC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD4i-rvNyos

Old PC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUFVAHttud0


Specs:

i9 9900k

RTX 2080 SUPER

32GB DDR4 3200MHZ

NZXT KRAKEN Z73

Aorus Z390 AORUS MASTER

Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G3

I'm >99% sure it is not EMI.

But can you supply way more information:
- Previous configurations?
- What games do you play?
- Do you get the same problems in offline gaming?
- Did stuff you try in the past have any effect (improve/worsen)?

Chief Blur Buster wrote: ↑

28 Oct 2020, 19:37

I'm >99% sure it is not EMI.

But can you supply way more information:
- Previous configurations?
- What games do you play?
- Do you get the same problems in offline gaming?
- Did stuff you try in the past have any effect (improve/worsen)?

The first build, I honesty can't remember the specs other than it had a GTX 1080 in it.

The second build was...

CPU: Intel i7 7700k
GPU: GTX 1080ti
RAM: Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3000MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Hero
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 4TB
Cooler: Corsair H100i

I play many different games, Battlefield, Minecraft, Halo, Assassin's Creed, CSGO, DOOM... It literally does it in every game, some games aren't as bad as what I showed in the videos, but there is always a constant stutter or frame drop in every game I play.

I do indeed get the same issues offline.

It hasn't improved or worsened over the years, its just been the same the whole time despite going through three different PCs.

Have you optimized your PC as much as possible?

Calypto's guide covers a good amount although not everything:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c2- ... mrau4/edit

Also, try using Process Monitor and Process Explorer to see if anything seems to correlate to the stutter events.

Temporarily disable antivirus to reduce/eliminate disk access related stutter as a factor.

Also, I noticed you have a Samsung SSD. I had relatively frequent stutter after one of the Windows updates and eliminated it by uninstalling the Samsung NVME driver and have been using MS's standard NVME driver instead with no issues. I tried 3.0 thru 3.3 but they all induced stutter in my case. I have the 960 Evo and 970 Evo 1TB.

Also, make sure you've installed your AIO CPU cooler properly. Radiator end with tubes should be towards bottom of case with other end near top of course (if vertical radiator mount). The AIO CPU block/rotor should be at a height lower than the top of your radiator too. The point is to capture all or most of the air at the top of the radiator and NOT at your CPU block.

The reason I say this is that you could get random CPU throttling on some or all cores causing stutter. Of course, if your load temps are pretty good and you have no significant pump noise/whine, then this shouldn't be an issue.

Some may laugh and even I found this a bit surprising but many years ago I had some stutter issues and found that my GPU wasn't fully seated in the PCIe slot. You'd think that the poor contact or shorting would cause more serious issues but I guess in my case the card would still function and PC would boot up just with stutter and DPC latency spikes. So that's worth checking although I doubt you'd have the same problem in both PCs and I'm guessing you've already been reinstalling / plugging things back in during your past troubleshooting.

Probably this is not your problem but if you want to check:
Follow this on your own risk (but i did these -and more i "undid" - and had no problems):

1- On Task Manager how is Disk usage? Does it often hit-stay at 100%? If so, a few things i've done:

-Disable Telemetry on registry
On task scheduler
Disable "connected user experiences and telemetry" on services

Optional:
- Turn Off Windows Search (i disabled it on services )

- Also in Task Scheduler on "Task Scheduler Library" i disabled Chrome and Edge update tasks (MicrosoftEdge has to be disabled every restart)



2- Have you tried Intelligent standby list cleaner? (is there another one "EmptyStandbyList" if you want to search for it).


Good luck anyway .


EDIT: Also to give more info, have you tried with a fresh Windows Install with nothing else than the game? Maybe one of your programs that you always use can interfere.

Yuiiski wrote: ↑

28 Oct 2020, 19:22

Hello, I have what seems like an unfixable issue with my PC

If it remains across builds and locations, then it's a background process, connected peripheral, or hardware component related to both builds causing this.

It definitely looks like non-game-app processes are interrupting with SSD/HDD access.

As others have said here, evaluate the background programs/processes running when you're playing games. Even though you've had it happen on entirely new builds, you could be loading the same programs with the same background processes on each of your PCs.

Also, do you have any physical disc drives connected to your PC? I ask, because in the past I've had an old blu-ray drive connect to one of my PCs cause these kind of issues. If you have any extra devices connected to your PC while gaming, disconnect those to rule them out as well.

Finally, you didn't mention whether you were using multiple monitors.

Much good feedback.

I don't have any DVDROM drive, so I can use legacy-free cases like Inwin 303. But I have an external bus powered USB DVD-R drive for whenever I need to do legacy disc stuff. The legeacy stuff can sometimes inadvertently slow the rest of the system too.

After disconnecting all spinning media, as a last-resort for asset-load stutters:

Test a RAMdrive to rule out QD1 bottlenecks
Testing the game from a RAMdrive can also be a good option too. Reduce to 16GB and use a 16GB RAMdrive, install a Steam game to the RAMdrive, and test-game on it.

If this partially/mostly solves your problem, then get Intel Optane memory/SSD to store your games for RAMdrive-like seeks and Queue Depth 1 (QD1) speeds. You found a situation where you're small-block-QD1-asset-load-bottlenecked (SSD's are still slow at QD1, but Optane is incredibly fast at high-rate QD1). Most game asset loads are optimized for hard disks, not SSDs, so you're QD1-bottlenecked rather than Queue Depth 32 (QD32)-bottlenecked. And make sure you never use more than about 75% of your SSD (they start to slow down noticeably when nearly full); perhaps defragment your SSD, do an Optimize BEFORE and AFTER installing your game. SSD defrag is rarely needed but it can reduce the assetload stutters a little bit. Fresh Windows install, fresh game installs, and make sure lots of SSD space left.

Keep System Simple
The fewer hardware devices in your computer, the better, so remove everything except the bare essentials to run your game really scorchingly fast. Also try briefly test a small underclock too, since on some systems it will suddenly eliminate latencies of certain buses pressed to limits. Fixed your CPU speed to a fixed speed (no SpeedStepping), CPU 100%, but at a slightly underclocked speed, so you don't have CPU-speed-changing latencies. See if that helps.

Variable Refresh Rate: Partial Help
Variable Refresh Rate displays can help sightly on the minor stutters but not asset-load stutters (since VRR helps absorb single-framedrop stutter, as in www.testufo.com/vrr ...) -- it won't fully fix asset-load stutters. That said, not all legacy games are VRR-friendly, generally use "G-SYNC + VSYNC ON" in drivers, and VSYNC OFF in-game, for best fluidity combo.

Asset Load Stutters are Difficult To Fix in Legacy Games
These non-SSD-optimized games are really annoying when I cannot fix asset-load stutters but you can help shock-absorb them maximally by some overkill:
- Plentiful RAM, combined with;
- Intel Optane memory, combined with;
- Premium high-IOPS non-QLC SSDs such as Samsung 960 Pro (And similar) etc
- RTX 2080+ or 3080+
- G-SYNC (not for asset loads, but will smooth the rest)

I shall get back to answering you all, I just wanted to share this quickly, its only four games but if you take a look you'll notice how unstable the frametime is at the bottom, which has a result causes the game to basically stutter and just feel pretty horrible at all times.

jorimt wrote: ↑

29 Oct 2020, 09:30

Yuiiski wrote: ↑

28 Oct 2020, 19:22

Hello, I have what seems like an unfixable issue with my PC

If it remains across builds and locations, then it's a background process, connected peripheral, or hardware component related to both builds causing this.

It definitely looks like non-game-app processes are interrupting with SSD/HDD access.

As others have said here, evaluate the background programs/processes running when you're playing games. Even though you've had it happen on entirely new builds, you could be loading the same programs with the same background processes on each of your PCs.

Also, do you have any physical disc drives connected to your PC? I ask, because in the past I've had an old blu-ray drive connect to one of my PCs cause these kind of issues. If you have any extra devices connected to your PC while gaming, disconnect those to rule them out as well.

Finally, you didn't mention whether you were using multiple monitors.

I have already considered that, there is nothing running in the background that would appear to be causing the issues, I have also tried closing most processes whilst in-game just to see if it would help and it didn't. I should also add that this issue would still happen after a new fresh install of the OS, meaning it would happen before I had even installed anything other than the OS. As of right now all I have installed is... Battle net, Bright Memory, Modern Warfare, Discord, New Vegas, GOG, Mass Effect Andromeda, Minecraft, Firefox, Origin, Rockstar Launcher, Steam, Rainbow Six Siege, Uplay, VRChat, Watch Dogs Legion, WinRAR. That's basically it.

And no, I don't have any disc drives connected to my PC, the only things connected to my PC currently are the mouse and keyboard. I have already removed them whilst gaming and it still does it. Also, I am using a single monitor.

Yuiiski wrote: ↑

29 Oct 2020, 17:18

I shall get back to answering you all, I just wanted to share this quickly, its only four games but if you take a look you'll notice how unstable the frametime is at the bottom, which has a result causes the game to basically stutter and just feel pretty horrible at all times.

Yeah, that's pretty bad...
Just for the heck of it, try disabling HT although I highly doubt that's causing this specific issue.

Which NVME driver are you using, how much free SSD space do you have, and are you over-provisioning it?