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Almost all of my games have the tiniest stutter.

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  • Video Games
Last response: in Video Games
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March 12, 2014 10:58:57 AM

I've been having this problem for awhile now and it's really, really annoying me. I get a constant 60 FPS in games (apart from harder to run games for obvious reasons, but I get this issue on games that could probably run on a budget laptop)

Specs:
Windows 7 64 Home Pro
AMD FX 6300
GTX 660ti
Asrock970 Extreme4
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB
Stock Cooler

My system is fairly cooled with 4 case fans.

Fixes I've tried:
Reinstalling Windows 7
Switching to ACHI mode
Used a different monitor

Frametimes:
http://imgur.com/FNmAv3A

Some games I get the issue on:
Diablo 3
Awesomenauts
Torchlight
Psychonauts
Pretty much everything that isn't retro graphics.

More about : games tiniest stutter

March 12, 2014 11:11:46 AM

so it got one spike, that not bad, it would be helpful if you can tell if the cpu or gpu is max out at that time.
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March 12, 2014 11:31:44 AM

If you have V-Synch on this will Synch your Video card to the Display (displays normally max at 60Hz) which will max your FPS. But as you can't "see" with any human eye above 60FPS anyway, what is the problem really? If it is you want to see 'numbers' say your doing better then 60FPS, really stop wasting your time, it doesn't make a difference 'visually' if your at 62FPS or 620FPS.
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March 12, 2014 11:37:43 AM

rgd1101 said:
so it got one spike, that not bad, it would be helpful if you can tell if the cpu or gpu is max out at that time.


No, every time it does one of those tiny spikes, it stutters for what feels like a 20FPS difference, like a half second pause. The giant one was a loading screen. How would I do that?
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March 12, 2014 11:40:05 AM

Tom Tancredi said:
If you have V-Synch on this will Synch your Video card to the Display (displays normally max at 60Hz) which will max your FPS. But as you can't "see" with any human eye above 60FPS anyway, what is the problem really? If it is you want to see 'numbers' say your doing better then 60FPS, really stop wasting your time, it doesn't make a difference 'visually' if your at 62FPS or 620FPS.


I'm not complaining about it being higher than 60. (Which is very visable, but that's for another discussion, not willing to have a stupid argument about what we can and cannot see right now)

It stays at 60FPS, but occasionally, I'll get a slight stutter or pause while playing a game that makes it seems like it dips 20FPS for a half second randomly, when I'm trying to immerse myself in a game, it's a big problem.

"Stop wasting your time" - Stop wasting my time.
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March 12, 2014 11:46:09 AM

FeeMort said:
rgd1101 said:
so it got one spike, that not bad, it would be helpful if you can tell if the cpu or gpu is max out at that time.


No, every time it does one of those tiny spikes, it stutters for what feels like a 20FPS difference, like a half second pause. The giant one was a loading screen. How would I do that?


Install and run MSI Afterburner while playing. Put the OSD to display your CPU as well, then you can also see your temps and GPU usage. Then you can make more determination on 'what is happening' during that spike.
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March 12, 2014 12:35:50 PM

Tom Tancredi said:
FeeMort said:
rgd1101 said:
so it got one spike, that not bad, it would be helpful if you can tell if the cpu or gpu is max out at that time.


No, every time it does one of those tiny spikes, it stutters for what feels like a 20FPS difference, like a half second pause. The giant one was a loading screen. How would I do that?


Install and run MSI Afterburner while playing. Put the OSD to display your CPU as well, then you can also see your temps and GPU usage. Then you can make more determination on 'what is happening' during that spike.

Not 100% sure what you needed, also, I couldn't figure out how to use it, so I used hwinfo instead, I hope this doesn't impact it much.

Here's the max of the most important thing:

CPU:
Core clock: 3703mhz
NB clock: 1950mhz
Core 0 Usage: 60%
Core 1 Usage: 55%
Core 2 Usage: 22%
Core 3 Usage: 16%
Core 4 Usage: 83%
Core 5 Usage: 55%

CPU 0: 46.5 C
CPU Power: 46 W

GPU:
GPU Fan: 1200RPM
GPU Temp: 36 C
GPU Core Voltage 0.987 V
GPU Clock: 783.9 MHz
GPU Memory Clock: 1502.3 MHz
GPU Core Load: 47%
GPU Memory Controller Load: 44%
GPU Video Engine Load: 0%
GPU Video Bus Load: 7%
GPU Memory Usage: 25.2%
GPU D3D Usage 48.3%
GPU Fan. 30%
Total GPU Power 31%

This was tested with Awesomenauts @ 720p High OpenGL
If you need me to test using a different game or you want to know anything else, please ask.
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March 12, 2014 1:52:05 PM

Core 0 Usage: 60%
Core 1 Usage: 55%
Core 4 Usage: 83% - Something is eating at one core. As AMD is known not to have the best threading policy for data management something is going to 'spike' a core and thus probably that 'peak' your speaking of. You might be best to make sure all applications are turned off you don't absolutely need to be running, or check your threads and see which one is eating on the Core 4.
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March 12, 2014 2:06:40 PM

Tom Tancredi said:
Core 0 Usage: 60%
Core 1 Usage: 55%
Core 4 Usage: 83% - Something is eating at one core. As AMD is known not to have the best threading policy for data management something is going to 'spike' a core and thus probably that 'peak' your speaking of. You might be best to make sure all applications are turned off you don't absolutely need to be running, or check your threads and see which one is eating on the Core 4.


All application besides hwinfo in sensors only mode (and steam obviously) were off, there's nothing eating into it, I'll have another go with it with the resource manage on and make sure it's all the game.

I also ran it again with hwinfo and all cores besides 1 and 2 had a max of 86 to 99%.
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March 12, 2014 3:49:49 PM

MM seems like the CPU is choking on either the graphics level demands (try lowering the level one) OR something else may be running (as I first said).

We might want to do some basics first, just to be clear we are both 'looking' at this the same way please;

Open Computer, Can Air dust out the bunnies and use paint brush on the vents, coolers, fans, etc.

Remove whatever AV your using and go to www.filehippo.com and download AVAST! or AVG and do a full system scan - this repeatedly has resolved alot of people issue relying on MS Essentials.

Download Malwarebytes do a full system scan (AV doesn't pick up alot of malware) - this resolved almost ALL other similiar posts to date as most had Malware the AV didn't pick up.

Repeat the AV/Malware scans till the system comes up clean.

Did you install all Windows Updates? Including options except BING? Check them and repeat till ALL are installed.

Download and run Slim Drivers, install all the latest updates but you don't need to reboot until you do the last update

Lastly MSI Afterburner, go to the tray icon, go go to settings, then under monitoring to set what to monitor, then go to OSD (on-Screen Display) and set the ones to show on the screen as you play. If your seeing what your seeing in HWInfo, then most likely (as I said above) either something (hopefully some malware we will remove) is running or your choking on the CPU with the level of graphics would be the most likely. Otherwise a reason for the temps is also to see if that is affecting things.

Let us know what happens when you do all this, it usually picks up somethings you may not been aware of.
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March 27, 2014 6:29:15 AM

Tom Tancredi said:
MM seems like the CPU is choking on either the graphics level demands (try lowering the level one) OR something else may be running (as I first said).

We might want to do some basics first, just to be clear we are both 'looking' at this the same way please;

Open Computer, Can Air dust out the bunnies and use paint brush on the vents, coolers, fans, etc.

Remove whatever AV your using and go to www.filehippo.com and download AVAST! or AVG and do a full system scan - this repeatedly has resolved alot of people issue relying on MS Essentials.

Download Malwarebytes do a full system scan (AV doesn't pick up alot of malware) - this resolved almost ALL other similiar posts to date as most had Malware the AV didn't pick up.

Repeat the AV/Malware scans till the system comes up clean.

Did you install all Windows Updates? Including options except BING? Check them and repeat till ALL are installed.

Download and run Slim Drivers, install all the latest updates but you don't need to reboot until you do the last update

Lastly MSI Afterburner, go to the tray icon, go go to settings, then under monitoring to set what to monitor, then go to OSD (on-Screen Display) and set the ones to show on the screen as you play. If your seeing what your seeing in HWInfo, then most likely (as I said above) either something (hopefully some malware we will remove) is running or your choking on the CPU with the level of graphics would be the most likely. Otherwise a reason for the temps is also to see if that is affecting things.

Let us know what happens when you do all this, it usually picks up somethings you may not been aware of.


Sorry it took so long to reply, family issues.

K, so I completely dusted out my PC, there's almost nothing in there now, it was quite dusty.

I did everything else and it found nothing, it's still stuttering, although it does feel less often, so maybe it's just the games issues now, or my CPU.

I haven't done the mSI afterburner thing, I'll do it shortly.
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March 27, 2014 11:00:19 AM

Well that it was 'quite dusty' and now 'does feel less often', I think the first problem was you were overheating the machine. Airflow maybe a issue when your 'pushing' the hardware when your gaming (more demand, more electricity, more heat).

So first downloading and running SPECCY to give us your first tab of info (just highly copy and paste) will have your 'normal' temps listed then running MSI Afterburner in game will show temps in game. Further I believe that 'spike' I pointed to as well shows one core is getting very busy, and might be as mentioned a application running in the background or too much Graphics (not GPU) demand that the CPU is bottlenecking. The way to determine is to again throttle back the graphics one level see if it changed (MSI Afterburner displays also your CPU % so you can monitor while in game) and so on. Right now we are trying to isolate what it is that causes this 'glitch' your saying your getting.

By the way referring back, during "loading screens' and it "feels" like a 20FPS drop (but you have no actual measured numbers) are you normally accustomed to PC playing games or consoles? Because that is normal that during screen loads the FPS is faster (you have a static image) then game play. Again I think some 'numbers' when things are happening will help clarify what you perceive as a issue.
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March 28, 2014 8:37:41 AM

Tom Tancredi said:
Well that it was 'quite dusty' and now 'does feel less often', I think the first problem was you were overheating the machine. Airflow maybe a issue when your 'pushing' the hardware when your gaming (more demand, more electricity, more heat).

So first downloading and running SPECCY to give us your first tab of info (just highly copy and paste) will have your 'normal' temps listed then running MSI Afterburner in game will show temps in game. Further I believe that 'spike' I pointed to as well shows one core is getting very busy, and might be as mentioned a application running in the background or too much Graphics (not GPU) demand that the CPU is bottlenecking. The way to determine is to again throttle back the graphics one level see if it changed (MSI Afterburner displays also your CPU % so you can monitor while in game) and so on. Right now we are trying to isolate what it is that causes this 'glitch' your saying your getting.

By the way referring back, during "loading screens' and it "feels" like a 20FPS drop (but you have no actual measured numbers) are you normally accustomed to PC playing games or consoles? Because that is normal that during screen loads the FPS is faster (you have a static image) then game play. Again I think some 'numbers' when things are happening will help clarify what you perceive as a issue.


Well, to be fair, most of the games I play aren't taxing for the system I have, I mean just recently, I'm having the same issue with Escape Goat 2. xD

You mean this?
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD FX-6300 11 °C
Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 647MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASRock 970 Extreme4 (CPUSocket) 27 °C
Graphics
TOSHIBA-TV (1280x720@60Hz)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (EVGA) 27 °C
Storage
465GB Seagate ST500DM0 02-1BD142 SATA Disk Device (SATA) 23 °C
Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD RW AD-5260S SATA CdRom Device
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
Audio
NVIDIA High Definition Audio

As for the temps in game, which game do you want me to test it with? If it counts, I have the issues with EG2, yet the CPU temp never went over 19. The GPU never went over 29. As for the usage of the CPU, it was around 50% for individual cores. I've throttled the graphics level back for a few games, it hasn't had much impact on the CPU, albeit it seems less taxing, although not by much, either way, it still suffers from the stutter.

Oh, I know loading screen can and will unthrottle the FPS and cause ms render times to increase, but obviously, I'm not counting those. All I know, is when I'm busy playing in something that's completely loaded, it'll stutter, rarely, but it's enough to break the immersion. The only proof I have is those microstutter checker render times. :/  I'm used to playing both BTW, although consoles annoy me less, because I know that can't be helped.

Personally, after testing so many games, I believe it could be many reasons, all together. I believe that some of the games I'm testing are slightly poorly optimized, such as Diablo 3, as people with better rigs, that don't have any problems whatsoever, get stutter. However, I also believe it's my CPU, down and simple, a lot of indie devs can't optimize well for CPUs they don't use after all and then sometimes, especially with AAA games, it's overheating.
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March 28, 2014 10:38:19 AM

Simple answer: The FX-6300 is having one of its cores get overloaded, since per-core performance is relatively weak. This has the net effect of drastically slowing down FPS until that core "catches up" with the rest of the system.

Having Vsync on also can cause this problem, since any time you drop under 60 FPS, you incur a very large performance penalty, so that might be exasperating the issue.
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March 28, 2014 10:49:45 AM

gamerk316 said:
Simple answer: The FX-6300 is having one of its cores get overloaded, since per-core performance is relatively weak. This has the net effect of drastically slowing down FPS until that core "catches up" with the rest of the system.

Having Vsync on also can cause this problem, since any time you drop under 60 FPS, you incur a very large performance penalty, so that might be exasperating the issue.


I was thinking the same thing myself actually, in fact, if I never found an answer, I was simply just going to replace it with an i7 4770, go for broke basically.

I still think it's rather strange overall though, but it's easy enough to deal with... when I can get the money.

I would remove vsync but... screen tearing, I hate it, probably as much as the stuttering.
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March 28, 2014 11:03:23 AM

@gamerk316 yeps

@OP I can't speak about developers and such, nor does it appear as your machine overall is lacking, but again is why I am asking these probing questions to isolate down. So far we helped the overall health with clearing out the dust (very unhealthy for PCs), and your temps are fine. I insisted on using MSI Afterburner and actually try a few of the games your having problems with (EG2) INSTEAD of whatever other measuring tool you may be using because MSI doesn't drag on system resources and you immediately see the 'numbers' and can check what you see is the problem as your playing.

All your responses have been anecdotal, we are trying to come up with factual I see A and here are numbers on the parts causing it, so now we can track down the cause behind it. Until you can do that as I am suggesting, then we really won't know the real cause.

My personal opinion is, other then Core2 acting as it does as a potential reason, I think your expectations might be a bit overboard because it is PC, whereas on 'Console' your more lenient. All games will not be 100% of the time perfect never a glitch or such, as each programmer, each developer, uses different engines, different programming 'tricks', different focused elements to be their most effort and some they just 'hacked out' over the weekend, and so on. So how EG2 performs can not be compared to Diablo 3, just as much as how BF3 can't be compared to BF4 because there is totally different engines and goals for how they want the game to play, though both come from the same 'developer'. Oh by the way, titles don't mean same developer or programming team. Just look at the COD Wiki on whom did which one and you can see how many differen't "hands" were in it.
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May 3, 2014 2:13:46 PM

gamerk316 said:
Simple answer: The FX-6300 is having one of its cores get overloaded, since per-core performance is relatively weak. This has the net effect of drastically slowing down FPS until that core "catches up" with the rest of the system.

Having Vsync on also can cause this problem, since any time you drop under 60 FPS, you incur a very large performance penalty, so that might be exasperating the issue.


So, recently bought a i5 4670k, not only am I able to play some games I wasn't able to before, but all stutter (besides very few games, Shadow Warrior etc) is completely gone.

Thanks for the help guys,
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May 3, 2014 2:26:29 PM

could be just the card , I had a sapphire [6850] that shuddered and did not matter the driver or any settings I used other that that it seemed to work fine [I guess] I ran it for some time and then got a new 7850 popped it in and the shudder was gone. so the only thing that changed was the card.
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