Micro-Stuttering and Fluctuating FPS

Koolstr

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
14
0
1,520
For quite some time now, I've been dealing with micro-stuttering occurring whenever I'd be playing games. By this I mean, in about one second intervals, the pc seems to skip or not show a few frames. Even though the pc is rendering the games at full 60fps+ and task manager doesn't show anything putting any kind of heavy load on CPU or RAM....

This has been particularly debilitating for competitive games like Overwatch. The micro-stuttering really messes up your aiming capabilities, and sniping is practically impossible because your tracking is thrown off every second. I also watch the FPS counter in game and witness how once in a while it will legit drop 20-30 fps for a couple of seconds before shooting back to 60+.

I've tried everything to fix this, so now I am coming to you for help. I've updated all drivers and BIOS, tried shutting down all background processes, stopped/removed windows indexing, disabled Cortana, removing GeForce Experience, tried high performance power mode, have all other apps closed when playing, lowered the graphic settings and resolution to extremely low.... and yet the problem persists. What am I missing?

I noticed that sometimes my attempts will work. I tried removing my external HD and sometimes that would stop the stuttering. Not sure if it's related though. It's hard to see why it would be.

I know for a fact my laptop can run these games at 60fps high settings smoothly, as it has done so in the past, and on a good day, still does so now. My laptop specs are as follows:

Intel Core i7 4720HQ @ 2.6GHz
8GB RAM Dual-Channel DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4600
2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
256GB SSD

A detailed breakdown of my specs (as taken from a Speccy scan) is available here. If you think you can identify the problem using that log, then please look it over for anything that you think stands out.

Thanks for your help.
 
First check the temps, make sure fans and vents are clean. Don't have any other drives connected to the system when gaming, if you are not using your external drive, don't have it connected. Could be a program or a virus on the system causing the issue, was anything installed before you started having these issues.
 

Koolstr

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
14
0
1,520


The stuttering goes away if I switch to a different user account on the pc. On a clean setup, it seems to be working fine.
I make sure my vents are cleared with air cans, and I monitor my CPU and GPU temps while playing. They are at what I assume to be safe (but still not ideal) levels: 70-90, avg 80 C. When not playing, the temps are ~45.
 

Koolstr

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
14
0
1,520


The switching is really tedious whenever I want to play a game. And having to duplicate the parts of my setup in another account so that I can play as intended, is annoying as well. So ideally I'd like to figure out what is causing the stuttering.

I know 90 is high, and close to reaching dangerous/damaging temperatures, but has not seem to ever go beyond 100C, so I think I'm fine.