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Started by MxOAgentJohnson | | 10 answers
Why do some games micro freeze.
Hey guys, quick question.
So i've recently branched out from gaming on the usual stuff i do and started going at all the games on my steam list, ticking off one by one, which i finally have the time to do and have had time to play some absoloute gems!
But i've noticed some games have problems, not game breaking but surely noticable.
How come some games, when say, walking into a new area, spawning in an enemy, doing certain things, does the game freeze for a very short period of time?
I've noticed it with a few games recently, stuff like Skyrim, DmC, Dishonoured and a few others, going into certain areas or certain things happening cause a slight hiccup and then back to normal for a little bit.
Some games benefit from being on the SSD, but usually this doesnt eliminate it, sometimes i notice it more on games because i limit my FPS in order of stability but sometimes it just... Happens?
Some games run smooth as all can, Sleeping Dogs being a great example of a game that runs so fab on my computer, and Fallout 3 being a case of one that really doesnt.
I assume it's loading stuff off the Hard Drive, because in some games it happens in the same area, and in stuff like TF2 it happens sometimes (but i suspect thats tf2 being a bit shoddy lately)
It isnt completely game breaking, in most cases, fallout 3 has definately been a pain to replay due to this problem, but others seem completely fine.
Is it just natural? or is something in my setup causing it? Maybe the VRAM/RAM isnt as good as can be?
Many thanks for the insights!
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September 30, 2014 8:50:34 AM

No, having the game on lowest graphics makes no difference :( 
i've just made the SSD have 8gb of Virtual Ram so i hope that helps, i will take note when i reinstalled windows with the ssd it was the first time i ever took virtual memory off and disabled paging
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2014 8:43:57 AM

Does adjusting graphical settings make any difference at all?
September 30, 2014 7:54:59 AM

It happens more noticably at higher framerates, i.e 120 over 60 (i run 120hz) but some games have certain things making it pause, some worse than others, mostly unreal games suffer.

Others run fine.
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2014 7:51:40 AM

1: Turning off the pagefile doesn't gain you anything. All Windows Memory Management is done via Virtual Addressing. All disabling the pagefile does is force windows to allocate real memory addresses 1:1 with virtual addresses. Aside from that, Windows handles memory management exactly the same, with the only exception being, instead of storing data on the HDD if you run out of RAM, Windows BSOD's instead.

2: Microstutter = Latency. It's likely some frames are taking significantly longer to be created, thus causing periods where the game stutters. FPS wise, you get a nice average, but you're seeing the results of "worst case" processing.
September 30, 2014 7:50:01 AM

I have a 1920x1080 Resolution on 27 inches, and 2GB of Video Ram on my 680!
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2014 7:44:51 AM

Some programs expect a pagefile. I'd create a small one on your SSD and test.
How much RAM is on your video card, and what is your display resolution?
September 30, 2014 7:32:42 AM

I've turned all virtual pagefiling off.

It's not a problem with my rig, just sometihng i noticed with particular games, and some make it worse at higher fps.
Well atleast i think its not.

I started installing games on my SSD because the HDD has a slow rpm, and actually has failing blocks on harddrive tests, i only use it for Emulators now, so 1TB of emulation games.

Moving games to my SSD definately helped, and some games like Half Life 2 and TEam Fortress 2 that would practrically freeze for full seconds stopped and only freeze for .2 of a second in some places now

Just asking for anyones insight if they've had this kidna thing before ^_^
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2014 7:31:18 AM

Make sure you do not have a Windows Swap File on the Green drive. If you are concerned about reducing the lifespan of your SSD (it really shouldn't matter), get another small SSD just for your swap file (e.g. 32GB-64GB).
September 30, 2014 7:27:03 AM

i7 2600 @ 3.4, nVidia 680 Power Edition, 8GB Samsung RAm, 250gb 840 Samsung, 1tb WD Green (games not installed on it)
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2014 7:21:48 AM

Please provide your complete system specifications.

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