Is my stuttering in Fortnite my GPU or RAM?

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

Okay so Ill leave full system specs at bottom but Im using as GTX 750 1gb.. I get freezing/stutter randomly with all low settings.

I noticed my GPU, because of the low settings is only using 80% utilization while my 6gb of memory (mismatched sticks, both CL 9 but different sticks) goes up above 95%.

Fortnite uses about 3.5 - 3.8 gb of the ram.

So if the GPU is only using 80% of its max utilization, but RAM is using over 95%, plus is mismatched chips, would it be safe to say that the culprit is the RAM before the GPU? I did notice that the recommended GPU is 2gb, however Im only using 80% of my current GPU because of low settings.

Also temps on the CPU and GPU are fine when under the gaming load.

* System Specs *

CPU- AMD A8 5600k
GPU- GTX 750 1gb
RAM- 6gb DDR3 (currently have another identicle 4gb chip coming in so it will be 8gb ddr3 1333)
MOBO- BIOSTAR A55ML2
PSU- Logysis 480w
WIN- Winodws 10 Home

penn919 · Jul 1, 2018

Jason H. :

Okay so Ill leave full system specs at bottom but Im using as GTX 750 1gb.. I get freezing/stutter randomly with all low settings.

I noticed my GPU, because of the low settings is only using 80% utilization while my 6gb of memory (mismatched sticks, both CL 9 but different sticks) goes up above 95%.

Fortnite uses about 3.5 - 3.8 gb of the ram.

So if the GPU is only using 80% of its max utilization, but RAM is using over 95%, plus is mismatched chips, would it be safe to say that the culprit is the RAM before the GPU? I did notice that the recommended GPU is 2gb, however Im only using 80% of my current GPU because of low settings.

Also temps on the CPU and GPU are fine when under the gaming load.

* System Specs *

CPU- AMD A8 5600k
GPU- GTX 750 1gb
RAM- 6gb DDR3 (currently have another identicle 4gb chip coming in so it will be 8gb ddr3 1333)
MOBO- BIOSTAR A55ML2
PSU- Logysis 480w
WIN- Winodws 10 Home

I'd say GPU. 80% Vram usage is still high and could mean that excess data might be swapped to your system ram. You'll need a 2GB card.

norcalsc · Jul 1, 2018

You are bordering the minimum specs for that game. Either try lowering the graphics settings or resolution to 720p. Also running the ram the way you are may have it in single channel, hampering your gameplay experience even further. You will have to work to get a satisfying experience with your current hardware

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

norcalsc :

Well the CPU passes the recommended spec.

The GPU passes other than the 1gb of Vram.

The ram passes minimum, but not recommended.

The graphics are all low, and the stuttering happens wether in 1080 60fps, or 720 30fps.

The frames are always a constant 60fps, but when the system RAM usage goes above 95%, I freeze n stutter n drop frames.

Which is what has led me to believe its the RAM. I have a identical 4gb chip to the current 4gb chip I have on the way in the mail, hopefully it works as the RAM is the only thing that hits 95-100% during gaming.

The ram in CPUz says Dual Channel 1333 so its running Dual Channel. The timings are the same besides 1 setting in the BIOS which 1 is 110ns and the other is 160ns... Non the less its still running dual channel 1333.

InvalidError · Jul 1, 2018

1GB of VRAM is too low for most modern games even at low-ish details, upgrading to a 2-3GB GTX1050 might help.

The biggest problem however might be the A8-5600k as AMD's pre-Ryzen chips are heavily handicapped in most cases.

Calvin7 · Jul 1, 2018

Power supply is poor choice with only +12V@16A.

Supported memory for A8 5600k is 1866MHz. 1333MHz is too slow. No guarantees for compatibility with mixed up combinations.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

InvalidError :

My whole thing is that if the game isnt even using the whole 1gb of Vram, and only 80% of it, but the game is using 95-100% of the System ram, how would that mean the GPU only having 1gb matters more than the rams usage?

Also the AMD A8 passes the minimum AND recommended CPU spec.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

Calvin7 :

yea I bought this build off ebay about 3 years ago, it was a rip off build... It came with a dual core processor and a gt 520 I had to buy new stuff for it just to play BO2 at maxed out settings, which I still can, and BO2 at max settings on this current build runs at over 90 fps, 1080p with EVERYTHING at max, so it just amazes me I cant play a game, that doesnt look as good, on LOW/DISABLED 720 30fps, without random freezing.

MoxNix · Jul 1, 2018

Sounds like you're going into virtual memory, that'll definitely cause stuttering and hitching on unreal engine games. With only 6GB of RAM you probably just need to install more RAM. You want at least 8GB total though 16GB would be better.

Also, sometimes even with plenty of RAM, windows paging gets screwed up. In that case turn paging (virtual memory) completely off, reboot and set it to have the system automatically manage the paging file. Had that happen to me, nothing else fixed it, even clean full OS installs on new formatted drives wouldn't work until I did that.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

MoxNix :

Hmmmm that brings up a interesting point. I am using a custom page file of 6gb min 10gb max ... the recommended is about 1.9gb ... could that be screwing up something?

I did that a long time ago though when I ran into some issues in other games, still have no idea if doing that fixed, or made things worse.

I also read that disabling it helped some people with performance issues but I didnt want to disable it as I just didnt want to make anything worse... Could you explain what it does for me? And if mine is too much orr whatever?

Also as Ive said I have another identical 4b chip coming in the mail that will be here friday to replace the mismatched 2gb chip, I know its not guarenteed to work even being the same part number but, for 26$ I figured worth a shot.

InvalidError · Jul 1, 2018

Jason H. :

The game may be using "only 80%" of the GPU memory but how much of the total GPU memory is actually in use? I'm on the desktop with no game or other 3D task open. Process Monitor tells me that 300MB of my GTX1050's 2GB is reserved by the OS and 1.6GB total is already in use just rendering my triple-display desktop. It shouldn't take much imagination to figure that throwing a game attempting to use ~800MB into the mix when only 1GB is available would be problematic. (In fact, I used to have a 1GB HD5770 and I upgraded because my triple-display desktop was often glitching while playing games due to running out of VRAM when I started playing WoW again.)

Also, when the GPU doesn't have enough local RAM to hold textures and other assets, the RAM usage spills over to system RAM, which reduces the GPU's performance due to having to access the extra memory over PCIe at a fraction of the speed and much higher latency, on top of reducing the amount of system memory available to software, which increases swapping and re-loading from HDD/SSD when you don't have that much extra RAM to spare.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

InvalidError :

Good point. I know the GPU needs upgraded Im just getting old I think and I just cant wrap my mind around this GPU being able to push Black Ops 2 max settings, max AA, max EVERYTHING, and looks and runs better than any game Ive played on this PC at 90+fps.

Sure is it a highly demanding game? Probly not, but with MAX everything the GPU is at 99% use and I get no stuttering, or freezing like I do in fortnite with everything on low, and only 80% GPU usage.

InvalidError · Jul 1, 2018

Jason H. :

I wouldn't worry too much about it. There is a ~90% probability that defects and user error aside, same model DIMMs will work right out of the box and pretty close to 100% if you don't mind messing around with memory timing/clock tweaks.

Fiddly RAM is an issue mostly when pushing aggressive RAM clocks and timings... and first-gen Ryzen.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

InvalidError :

I dont mind messing with clocks but would need guidance. I know how to access and change the memory clocks in my BIOS, I was looking into maybe OCing the RAM to 1600mhz but didnt know how or if it would work on my mobo.

but as long as all the timings are the same when I get the new RAM on friday Im sure itll work, I hope anyways and I hope it gives me that little boost of memory that I need to not be hitting 100% usage sometimes in game.

InvalidError · Jul 1, 2018

Jason H. :

Black Ops II is from 2012, Fortnite is from 2018. The typical PCs from 2012 were considerably slower than they are today...

Black Ops II recommended:
- 2.6GHz Core2Duo / 2.4GHz Athlon X3
- 2GB of system RAM
- 512MB GT8800 / HD3870

Fortnite recommended:
- 2.8GHz i5 (twice as many cores +60% IPC + higher clock = ~3X the CPU performance)
- 8GB of system RAM
- 2GB GTX660 / HD7870

The two games' system recommendations are in completely different leagues altogether. While your system is ahead of Black Ops II's recommendations, it is a fair bit behind Fortnite's.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

InvalidError :

Yea Ill be getting a new pc soon. As far as I seen, after I put the new ram in, the only thing that will be behind recommended is the 1gb of VRAM, which tbh, I wont be upgrading til I get a new pc.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

here is a photo of my MSI Afterburner showing during Fortnite in game if it helps anything

InvalidError · Jul 1, 2018

If you are correct about your system's swapfile usage being 6.7GB, then it basically mean that you'll still be the better part of 5GB short of the amount of RAM you'd need for getting rid of swapping-related stuttering.

If you have a bunch of stuff running in background, close all non-essential stuff and see by how much it reduces swapfile usage and whether that makes any difference to your game performance. If you don't want to close all your background stuff every time you want to play Fortnite, then you may need to aim for 16GB instead of 8GB.

Jason H. · Jul 1, 2018

InvalidError :

everything in the background is off, and even using xbox game mode in game to kill more processes in background while the game is running... and yes Ive tried it with it off. same.

and swapfile? It says pagefile in the monitoring options for MSI Afterburner. is swapfile another name for it ?

So does that seem to be the culprit? And other than closing processes and getting more ram, how can I lower it if even possible?

Does this mean the 4gb chip I get to replace the 2gb will be rendered useless? or will it bring down the page file usage?

InvalidError · Jul 2, 2018

Jason H. :

Adding 2GB of RAM should bring swapfile/pagefile usage down by about 2GB and hopefully make the worst of the stuttering more tolerable. If you have 1GB of graphics assets overflowing to system RAM, getting a 2-4GB GPU might reduce swapfile usage by another 1-2GB, so upgrading the GPU and carrying it over to your next PC may be worth considering.

Before you put more money in your old PC and possibly buy parts you intend to carry over, you may want to get a better quality PSU (you'll need one for your new PC anyway) so that Logisys piece-of-crap doesn't blow up your PC and whatever new parts you throw at it before you are ready to put your new PC together.

Jason H. · Jul 2, 2018

InvalidError :

Yea the PSU is pure crap! lol.

I have 1 last question, is this ram overclockable? https://www.ebay.com/i/372335681509?ul_noapp=true

thats the chip I bought that shares the same part # and timings for my current chip, although has a different heat spreader mine has a black one.

InvalidError · Jul 2, 2018

RAM overclocking is hit-and-miss, especially on modules that aren't marketed for higher speeds or overclocking.

My 4x8GB Kingston KVR DDR3-1600-10-10-10 doesn't go any higher than the 1600 it is marketed as (SPD chips claim it actually is 1333-9-9-9, so you could call it vendor-approved overclocking) and it has been running 1600-9-9-9 flawlessly for over five years.

Jason H. · Jul 2, 2018

InvalidError :

Hm interesting. Hey below is my experience with the new cooler and HDD I got today regarding all this freezing in fortnite.... Im actually surprised what happened performance wise in game......

So my new cooler and HDD came in today. All hooked up and working great. The cooler brought the temp in BIOS (which I believe was wrong) from 50c down to 38c. However with AMD I heard overdrive was the best, so I stress tested and before it used to go down to 16c thermal margin n downclock to 1.9mhz, but now it doesnt go below 30c thermal margin n stays at my custom clock of 3.9mhz with 1.4v (I really want to see if I can push it further to see if temps were making my clocks unstable before when I went over 3.9)

I moved Fortnite and a bunch of stuff to the new HDD. Started up Fortnite with MSI Afterburner and obviously, still has all the same numbers in MSi AB, HOWEVER I noticed there was very MINIMAL freezing. In fact, it seems like the freezing has turned into fps drops which is WAY more manageable than random freezing/stuttering.

Here and there I will get a little freeze when 1st dropping into a highly textured area, but not NEARLY as bad as before I put the new hardware in. Normally when it should freeze, it just drops about 10 fps then back to steady 60.

SOOOO... Of course this makes me ask more questions...

1. Could I be getting a slight performance increase since the game is running on a new drive without windows running on the same drive?

2. If yes to #1, would that help pinpoint whether its a GPU or RAM issue? (I know I need more than 1gb of Vram but, Im just asking)

3. Is the system using the new HDD's "less busy" pagefile over my main drives? Or do they share 1 pagefile? If yes, could that be giving a slight performance boost?

4. Basically, could anything I did be giving me a slight performance boost, or could it just be a fluke?

InvalidError · Jul 2, 2018

Nothing really unusual about that: you moved the game to a blank HDD, which means you have practically zero fragmentation and the data is likely on the outer edge of the platter where the HDD yields its highest speed. The swapfile is still on your old HDD, so swapping activity doesn't interfere with the game attempting to load stuff either.

About six years ago, I was in a similar situation with my Core2Duo which had 'only' 8GB of RAM while running workloads that needed 12-16GB. I ended up splitting my software and swapfile between three HDDs to make the performance bearable. About six months later, I couldn't take it anymore, upgraded my PC mainly to be able to use much cheaper DDR3 RAM ($300+ for 16GB DDR2 vs $80 for DDR3 at the time) which I quickly bumped to 32GB when I realized that 16GB still wasn't enough to eliminate the unnecessary disk IO I upgraded to get rid of.

Jason H. · Jul 2, 2018

InvalidError :

So basically, I can just thank the luck gods for basically curing the freezing/stuttering, not fully, but almost, just by switching to another new HDD lol.

Man hope the RAM does a little boost too then Ill be happy until I can get my new build lol.

My budget will be about 700$ but it wont be for about 3 months so maybe it may be a bit more then or parts will be cheaper.

And would splitting the pagefile give me a boost? Im down to do it if you know how. Or is that what putting the game on the 2nd hdd while leaving the page file on the main drive does?

Is my stuttering in Fortnite my GPU or RAM?

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