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Single GPU Microstuttering.

Tags:
  • GPUs
  • Final Fantasy
  • Monitors
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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September 1, 2013 1:46:04 PM

- Sorry for the double post, I have no idea how that happened -


Hello all,

I recently upgraded my system heavily, a 1440p monitor being one of them. The first thing I noticed while firing up the new Final Fantasy MMO was the incessant microstutter.

I have fraps running and carefully eyeball it when the frame drops occur, and fraps never reports the drop.

I've thoroughly combed through all of the graphic settings, understanding what my system can and cannot comfortably handle with plenty of room to spare in case of upward deviations of both GPU and CPU, these both being commonplace in MMO's.

I've tried different combinations of Vsync from the nvidia control panel, evga precision, and in-game frame limit as well. I've tried running 70 FPS to prevent the frames from dropping. I've set my CPU power settings to 100% (Although I never go above 30% usage in-game,) as well as setting the priority in task manager of the game to high.

I understand that microstutter is common, and even an inevitability on SLI configurations, but alas, I am running single GPU.

It happens to frequently to the point where it passes being just a minor inconvenience and becomes a frustrating aspect of gaming, and I'd very much like to hear what potential things I've missed (There being some thing that I've tried that I've probably forgotten to list here) that some of you might be kind enough to share.


Oh and drivers are definitely up to date :) 


Update:
Including this graph from a microstutter checker.


_________________________________________________________________


Specs.


i7 3930k @ 4.5ghz (liquid cooling, never goes above 55C)
GTX Titan
32gb DDR3
DX79T0 Intel mobo
Corsair H100i cooling
Corsair TX650 PSU


More about : single gpu microstuttering

a b C Monitor
September 1, 2013 1:53:55 PM

have you oced your gpu?

it could also be a defective card. I've had a 660ti that started microstuttering and I RMAed it for a new one and it had no problems.
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September 1, 2013 1:56:36 PM

How's your latency?
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September 1, 2013 1:59:22 PM

oczdude8 said:
have you oced your gpu?

it could also be a defective card. I've had a 660ti that started microstuttering and I RMAed it for a new one and it had no problems.


I have not manually OC'd my GPU, It overclocks itself with GPU boost 2.0.

I previously owned a 680 and had the micro stuttering as well, but was playing on a 1080p monitor and was only playing WoW. So needless to say I wasn't bothered at all by it. Being on a 1440p now and playing a very graphically appealing game I have now turned a very cold shoulder towards it, so I can't personally see it being the GPU, but it could very well be a possibility.
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September 1, 2013 2:00:15 PM

yes, you simply shouldn't be experiencing any microstutter with that setup. Have you updated all drivers etc game patches? I'm sure you have, but that would be a starting point. Maybe a clean install of drivers might help. Have you any mods running? although with 6gb ram that still shouldn't be an issue.
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September 1, 2013 2:16:17 PM

knightmike said:
How's your latency?


Optimal for gaming. FFXIV does not offer an actual number of MS, but rather an "Excellent" though. I can sniff latency out and differentiate it from frame drops for the most part.

keith12 said:
yes, you simply shouldn't be experiencing any microstutter with that setup. Have you updated all drivers etc game patches? I'm sure you have, but that would be a starting point. Maybe a clean install of drivers might help. Have you any mods running? although with 6gb ram that still shouldn't be an issue.


I just re-installed GPU drivers. Final Fantasy XIV has just been released a few days ago and allows no mods yet, so everything is stock. Also, It having just been released can't be the issue because I receive the exact same type of stutter no matter what game I play. Inbetween the stutter the game preforms flawlessly graphics wise.

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September 2, 2013 1:47:23 AM

Spotshot said:
knightmike said:
How's your latency?


Optimal for gaming. FFXIV does not offer an actual number of MS, but rather an "Excellent" though. I can sniff latency out and differentiate it from frame drops for the most part.

keith12 said:
yes, you simply shouldn't be experiencing any microstutter with that setup. Have you updated all drivers etc game patches? I'm sure you have, but that would be a starting point. Maybe a clean install of drivers might help. Have you any mods running? although with 6gb ram that still shouldn't be an issue.


I just re-installed GPU drivers. Final Fantasy XIV has just been released a few days ago and allows no mods yet, so everything is stock. Also, It having just been released can't be the issue because I receive the exact same type of stutter no matter what game I play. Inbetween the stutter the game preforms flawlessly graphics wise.



what temp does it get to at full load? Heat could be the issue.
INstall MSI afterburner, and monitor the temps under a heavy gaming load.
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September 2, 2013 7:52:36 AM

keith12 said:
Spotshot said:
knightmike said:
How's your latency?


Optimal for gaming. FFXIV does not offer an actual number of MS, but rather an "Excellent" though. I can sniff latency out and differentiate it from frame drops for the most part.

keith12 said:
yes, you simply shouldn't be experiencing any microstutter with that setup. Have you updated all drivers etc game patches? I'm sure you have, but that would be a starting point. Maybe a clean install of drivers might help. Have you any mods running? although with 6gb ram that still shouldn't be an issue.


I just re-installed GPU drivers. Final Fantasy XIV has just been released a few days ago and allows no mods yet, so everything is stock. Also, It having just been released can't be the issue because I receive the exact same type of stutter no matter what game I play. Inbetween the stutter the game preforms flawlessly graphics wise.



what temp does it get to at full load? Heat could be the issue.
INstall MSI afterburner, and monitor the temps under a heavy gaming load.


Temps of my GPU range from 55C-65C, I always have all the numbers of my hardware showing on my second monitor when I have any game open and from what I can tell everything is what it should be. Titans are graded for 80C use, and I've never gone anywhere near that temperature, and have tuned the graphics in game to have the card putting out about 70% power on average.
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September 2, 2013 9:07:25 AM

Spotshot said:
keith12 said:
Spotshot said:
knightmike said:
How's your latency?


Optimal for gaming. FFXIV does not offer an actual number of MS, but rather an "Excellent" though. I can sniff latency out and differentiate it from frame drops for the most part.

keith12 said:
yes, you simply shouldn't be experiencing any microstutter with that setup. Have you updated all drivers etc game patches? I'm sure you have, but that would be a starting point. Maybe a clean install of drivers might help. Have you any mods running? although with 6gb ram that still shouldn't be an issue.


I just re-installed GPU drivers. Final Fantasy XIV has just been released a few days ago and allows no mods yet, so everything is stock. Also, It having just been released can't be the issue because I receive the exact same type of stutter no matter what game I play. Inbetween the stutter the game preforms flawlessly graphics wise.



what temp does it get to at full load? Heat could be the issue.
INstall MSI afterburner, and monitor the temps under a heavy gaming load.


Temps of my GPU range from 55C-65C, I always have all the numbers of my hardware showing on my second monitor when I have any game open and from what I can tell everything is what it should be. Titans are graded for 80C use, and I've never gone anywhere near that temperature, and have tuned the graphics in game to have the card putting out about 70% power on average.


jeez, that a scratch the head problem. Pity about second system just to try test it in another machine. Any friends can hep out? quickest and least costliest way to be sure its not the GPU itself.
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September 2, 2013 11:40:03 AM

It seems putting adaptive Vsync on in the Nvidia control panel and disabling any other form of ingame or monitoring utilities frame limitation helps compensate for a lot of those frame delays. I'm still getting very minor stutters but not nearly at the frequency they were happening at before. They also seem to be less severe.
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September 2, 2013 1:11:09 PM

A few suggestions off the top of my head:

1. Hard drive. It would be a terrible coincidence, but it may be starting to go south. (I experience micro-stuttering when the HD is being accessed heavily by any game)

2. Power supply. It could be that the power supply isn't providing enough power at spike points, where your GPU load goes above the average for just a moment. With a fast enough analog multi meter (digitals that cost less than a typical computer generally don't refresh fast enough), you may be able to monitor the voltage on the card's supply cable.
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September 2, 2013 1:15:10 PM

Is this reproducible in other games? May be an issue with just FF?
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September 3, 2013 8:17:45 AM

Ranko Kohime said:
A few suggestions off the top of my head:

1. Hard drive. It would be a terrible coincidence, but it may be starting to go south. (I experience micro-stuttering when the HD is being accessed heavily by any game)

2. Power supply. It could be that the power supply isn't providing enough power at spike points, where your GPU load goes above the average for just a moment. With a fast enough analog multi meter (digitals that cost less than a typical computer generally don't refresh fast enough), you may be able to monitor the voltage on the card's supply cable.


I run windows and any primary game I'm playing on a 256gb SSD which I maintain at around 60-70% capacity. I've read about people having resolved stuttering issues by changing installation configurations on them, so I will definitely look into it.

I'll definitely take a peak at the voltages the PSU is putting out, I was just convinced that 650watts would be sufficient upon buying the titan. I could very well be wrong, as I'm not well versed of what is an acceptable or liberal amount of power that a system like mine would need.

All things I should have taken into consideration before hand. The stuttering is back with a vengeance even with adaptive vsync going. Any benchmarking software I run is plagued with constant stuttering, roughly every 5-10 seconds. Sometimes, however, the FPS will drop to 50-55, but will feel like 20-30. I still remain unconvinced that my system isn't capable of a smooth 60 in an MMO benchmark, where the variables of player population and rapidly loading in and out of zones aren't factors.

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September 3, 2013 8:18:59 AM

ThermalV said:
Is this reproducible in other games? May be an issue with just FF?


I get the same type of stuttering playing WoW. I've installed some single player games off of steam to test if it's an MMO issue, although I doubt it in regards to the post above about benchmarking.
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a b C Monitor
September 3, 2013 8:41:22 AM

I think the card is defective, if there is nothing wrong with your psu. If you can, test the card in someone elses system. If it has any stuttering, send it for RMA. Ive had the same issue before.
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a b C Monitor
September 3, 2013 11:29:30 AM

It could be background stuff. How many background processes do you have and how is your IDLE CPU usage?
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September 4, 2013 6:35:15 AM

oczdude8 said:
I think the card is defective, if there is nothing wrong with your psu. If you can, test the card in someone elses system. If it has any stuttering, send it for RMA. Ive had the same issue before.

I'm going to bring my comp over to a buds and swap some parts in and out to hopefully figure out what is causing it.


smeezekitty said:
It could be background stuff. How many background processes do you have and how is your IDLE CPU usage?


Background processes include the monitoring software I use, skype, mumble and potentially a few chrome windows. I end any process that isn't needed before I play any games.

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October 5, 2013 11:33:46 AM

had any luck?

im experiencing the same thing, for me its basically a constant thing happening, maybe unnoticeable by some, definitely noticeable to me, but seems like a constant lag, even though my fps is like higher than 60fps it stutters.

ive read everyone tips but i dont think its anything like background programs etc. i recently bought a new pc and kept the other one for her, i did take a better gpu out for my new one and put back in its original 560ti i bought to go into this. i never had the stuttering before but seems to get it now. im thinking its the card, some games are more noticeable to me like bf3/4, ive done things to smooth it out as best as possible, but when its sitting next to my 120hz monitor it just looks even worse. i havent got time atm to switch hardware around, but i will and let you know.
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