FPS drops only when getting a checkpoint or checkpoint related areas...

SteamyStew · Jul 27, 2017

As the title says I get FPS drops when I go through a checkpoint or when the game loads really quickly. I have no idea if this is because of my hardware or if it's a software issue but something is wrong. I never had FPS issues with my old computer, until I decided to reinstall Windows 7, then I got issues... So I decided to upgrade my hardware and OS. It got better but I still have issues that really shouldn't be there. The only part I still have from my old computer is my GPU.

Now keep in mind, this happens with any game at any graphical settings. And I have tried playing games on both my SSD and HDD, but I have issues on them both.

Specs -
PSU: Corsair CX750M, 750W
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k Skylake 4.0GHz
CPU Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H90
Motherboard: Asus Prime Z270-A Socket-1151
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000MHz 16GB
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5"HDD
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5"SSD
OS: Win 10 Pro

FabioXN7 · Jul 28, 2017

What games are you facing this issue exactly? This is pretty common to happen depending on which engine the game uses, some takes more time for the textures, objects, details etc. etc to load so it's normal to expect fps drops until everything is loaded, now if you are experiencing heavy fps drops or stuttering all the time then we need to look further into that to figure it out the cause. But with that spec you shouldn't be having any trouble like these.

SteamyStew · Jul 28, 2017

As I said, this is happening in ALL games I play, doesn't matter if it's as simple as Armello or as complex as Metal Gear Solid V or The Witcher 3. Which is why i'm getting freaked out. If it was in "high end" games I could understand it, it still shouldn't happen, but I'd understand it, it's stressing the system. But with games like Armello It REALLY shouldn't happen. It happens in Armello when the day/night cycles and the game zooms in on the King in the middle of the map, then it's back to normal. There have been a few times where I have messed around with the graphical settings and everything has been smooth like it's supposed to be but then the next time I launch the game I'm back to the FPS drop...

I started to notice this a lot more during the previous Steam Summer Sale of 2017, When I bought, Hollowknight and Bayonetta. I noticed it in Hollowknight and asked a friend of mine who has worse hardware than I do, and he didn't have any FPS drops ever, no matter the graphical settings he used on Hollowknight. And in Bayonetta I got FPS drops almost constantly there.

I have a crazy theory that it's my GPU, cause my GPU is the only piece of hardware I still have from my old build. My old build went to hell after I reinstalled Windows 7 on it, so I decided to replace everything except the GPU, and things worked fine until I started to notice this issue.

FabioXN7 · Jul 29, 2017

Well before you jump to any conclusion let's try some stress tests if you didn't yet.

For cpu use prime95:
http://www.mersenne.org/download/

For GPU gputest:
http://www.geeks3d.com/gputest/

Another Great GPU stress Tester (Unigine Valley)

https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley

Run a stress test on both CPU and GPU with these softwares provided above, if anything crashes while running these tests you will find it out the problem but even if it crashes you should try these even if you already did...

1 - Run DDU http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html, to do a complete uninstall of your graphics driver and then reinstall gforce experience and install your drivers from there...

2 - Try cleaning your computer entirely, CPU, GPU and for the memory sticks try removing then and cleaning with an eraser and clean the RAM Slots with a clean brush then put them back again..

3 - Try running a complete virus scan and a cleaning software like CCleaner, if it's not the issue try checking your Task Manager to see if there's anything conflicting with the game that could be causing these fps drops

Then come back with your feedback regarding these..

Hope that Helps

SteamyStew · Jul 31, 2017

Currently running the CPU stress test i think.. I have no idea if it's running or finished, very unclear instructions.
I can't run the GPu tests cause they aren't for Windows 10 apparently.
I also attempted to do the hardware cleaning, but I don't see a difference in performance.

FabioXN7 · Jul 31, 2017

For CPU Stress in case of Prime it doesn't really tell you if it's finished you need to let it run as long as you think you had enough of it for example you could let the test running for around 2 to 4 hours if nothing happens between an hour or so, then I think your CPU is fine since they usually crash with less than an hour if there's anything wrong with it.

Heres a good tutorial that will make the instructions clearer for you http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html

Regarding GPU which one you mean is not Windows 10 compatible? Unigine Valley is compatible and it works with Windows 10 have you ran it?

SteamyStew · Jul 31, 2017

I haven't run the GPU tests since the first test you suggested isn't Win 10 compatible according to their website, I'll try the second one hesitantly.
I finished the CPU test, I let it run for about 3~ hours then restarted my pc. But now everything is slower than it used to be... Normally I'd load up let's say Metal gear Solid 5 and it'd take 30seconds to get to the start screen, now it takes 2-5 minutes... so that's not fun.

FabioXN7 · Jul 31, 2017

Prime 95 does not harm your computer or components in any way unless you didn't followed the tutorials as it says, if your specs are all in stock settings then the only thing you should be monitoring while running Prime is CPU temps nothing else... as long as those temps stays bellow 85 C I would say the tests are doing ok, because the CPU temps usually increases while running those tests. Tell me how the GPU tests went.

SteamyStew · Jul 31, 2017

I mean I started the tests then waited a few hours then stopped the tests, I didn't get any errors or messages when I stopped so I guess it worked like it was supposed to. But now things are slow when I play games. So something has happened somewhere.

Sedivy · Jul 31, 2017

I've seen a similar thread to this, someone complaining of this issue with gtaV. I did a bit of reading then and it turned out to be not an uncommon issue. I don't exactly know why it's happening, what combo of hardware/software makes it appear, but it might not be anything faulty with your individual components per se. Look on gaming forums for particular games to see if any of the solutions people were proposing do anything for you. It was usually suggestions regarding video settings from within game and such if I remember correctly.

FabioXN7 · Jul 31, 2017

What are your temps while gaming? And your CPU, DISK and RAM usage, usually when things takes longer to load it's because Disk usage are at high rates, at least for me.. is this happening both on SSD and HDD?

SteamyStew · Aug 1, 2017

MY CPU temp is never above 60, no matter what I play, my GPU is around 70-75, MB is around 30 I think.
I don't have any programs I can use to check my CPU,DISK and RAM usage when in-game. Do you happen to know of a good one to use?

Thanks for all the help so far

FabioXN7 · Aug 1, 2017

No problem, I'm trying my best based on issues I've faced on past... and regarding your question Task Manager from Windows can do the job pretty well for that matter, run the game on Windowed if you don't have a second monitor or use MSI Afterburner to check CPU and GPU usage ingame.

With Task Manager - Open Windows Task Manager, set the game to Windowed if you don't have a Second monitor to drag the Task Manager window, then let the Task Manager window sided by the game and play it.. then check the CPU, RAM and DISK usage see if any of it jumps from 0% to 99% or such for no apparently reason..

SteamyStew · Aug 3, 2017

I just tested with the Task Manager as you suggested. My CPU,RAM and DISK never suddenly spiked from 0-99%. The CPU was going between 15-25% depending on what I did in game(explosions etc), when I hit checkpoints and my fps would drop the CPU gained 1 or 2 percent but it never went above 25%.
My RAM was stable at 33% and my DISK never went above 10%. I will post the GPU and other stats from other games later when I have more time, with GPU stats from either afterburner or HWMonitor.

NOTE: These stats are from Metal Gear Solid 5. I will post the GPU from MGS5 then I will attempt another game and see if there's a difference.

FabioXN7 · Aug 3, 2017

SteamyStew :

Those are Okay percentages based on normal usage ingame, your components are working fine as far as I know... but ok I'll wait for those..

SteamyStew · Aug 4, 2017

Alright I used HWMonitor to check the max GPU temp when I was playing MGS5, the highest my GPU reached was 63degrees celsius. Also, according to HWMonitor my CPU cores went to degrees:
Core0 65degrees
Core1 70degrees
Core2 68degrees
Core3 69degrees
and the Package 68degrees.

Those temps were higher than what my other temp program told me so I don't know which one to trust.

I also tried the game Armello (a simple turn based game)
There I saw that my CPU spiked a little when the fps dropped, but it spiked from 9% to 15%, then it went back down to 9. The RAM wasn't stressed and neither was the DISK usage. The GPU temp was at 35degrees the whole game.

FabioXN7 · Aug 4, 2017

Those are fine temps as long as they keep that way and bellow 80C, as for GPU it's also ok mine reaches a max of 70 or 71C when gaming, I dont think overheat is the issue here nor the spikes, like if it was something from 9% to 99% then we would have a problem... it's been a long post now and the only thing left I can suggest is testing with other hardware if you manage to get one or even borrow one from someone you know instead of buying new stuff since you've tried reinstalling windows, reinstalling graphics driver, cleaning your pc, monitoring temps and none of that seems to work.. anyways, you could also try accesing your motherboards BIOS page and check if anything is running as it should.. like Fans, Clock Frequencies and other settings regarding your components beyond that I would only suggest testing each hardware piece on different computers, like take a RAM stick off and replace with another one in another computer and test it.. that will be for sure one of the best ways to find out if your hardware is the reason of these stutters.

SteamyStew · Aug 5, 2017

Yeah I guess I'll just have to try and find some other parts and see what happens. The thing that bothers me though is that I never had any problems until I decided to reinstall Win7 on my previous computer, then that started to lag and have issues, so I replaced everything except the GPU, and this new computer that I have is all new parts except the GPU, which I could buy a new GPU but if that doesn't fix my issues then I can't really just replace part after part until it magically fixes itself. I'll think of something probably.

Thanks for your help!

FabioXN7 · Aug 7, 2017

No problem, try to do that and do some testing then post your feedback.

SteamyStew · Aug 14, 2017

I recently changed my GPU to a GTX 1080 and still have issues.. I'd bet now that this isn't a hardware issue at all but a software issue

FabioXN7 · Aug 14, 2017

What about the other components ? RAM, PSU, HD? Did you only tested with new GPU?
Also what are some of the programs you have installed on your machine or that you may have installed lately?
Have you tried formatting the PC completely, by wiping the entire OS and data, defining the HD partition size and all the manually stuff you do when you install Windows through booting? I know that you formatted before but did you formatted the manual old way or the modern one that comes within new Windows versions like 8 and 10?

If you managed to test every hardware of yours on different computers or even borrow different parts to test on yours and see which one may be causing the problem but none of it worked then I would suggest you to try another "legal" copy of Windows to check if there's anything wrong with corrupted Windows CD or Files that could be related to these issues you're facing.

SteamyStew · Aug 14, 2017

I have run memTest and no issues, PSU should be more than enough, and SSD and HDD are both showing good usage. Lately I haven't installed much, but these issues started back when I first reinstalled my Win7.

When I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10 I first just upgraded it and kept everything. Then I did it the "old" way, I formatted my main drive and started with a clean slate, apart form my secondary drive, which I kept my games on. If I'm able to get my hands on another Windows 10 I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Sedivy · Aug 14, 2017

Try individual settings in video settings or better yet, from within the games. Like turning on/off vsync, see if that affects it at all. Or shadows, or anisotropic filtering etc. One of these settings is messing you up and it's probably turned on by default in all games. Find out what specific setting is throwing it off.

SteamyStew · Aug 15, 2017

Hmm. Will try, I have had games where I have had these issues and I have messed around with the settings and the games have run smooth. But then the next time I play them they're back to lagging even with the same settings as when they worked properly... :s

FabioXN7 · Aug 15, 2017

You have a similar spec just like mine but better CPU along the way.. I had a GTX 970, didn't had to change any settings as long as your NVIDIAs panel settings are either set to "Let 3D app Decide" or "Global Profile Settings" with no critical settings tweaked, and didn't had any problems or freezes in checkpoints but the normal freezing the game does to write save files to disk or something.. nothing else, but yeah.. maybe a setting or two might be messed up somehow or even your Geforce Experience is setting manual settings that could be causing this.. or you are just stressing your GPU way too much in games in a way you are just running out of VRAM somehow although most of the games you said despite GTA V and Witcher 3 that surpass the 4 GBs... like Metal Gear Phantom Pain you were supposed to max it out without a problem and still get stable 60 fps all the time just like i did.. with my 4th gen I5 and GTX 970

FPS drops only when getting a checkpoint or checkpoint related areas...

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