All Games Micro Stuttering

[Twisted4000]

So for just about as long as I can remember, every 3D game I play micro stutters whenever something new happens (such as in Hearthstone, when a new card is played, the game will stutter for anywhere from half a second to sometimes over an entire second, in Overwatch when a certain weapon or action is performed for the first time, etc.). It seems to be when anything has to be loaded, it stutters, and it happens pretty consistently throughout the entire game. I guess I had this issue for a long time but I thought it was normal, it wasn't until recently I figured out it was completely abnormal for games to behave this way.

Here is my system:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 4771 @ 3.50GHz
RAM: 32GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (10-10-10-27) (4x Corsair 8GB)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
Motherboard: ASUSTeK MAXIMUS VI HERO
SSD: 119GB OCZ-VERT OCZ-VERTEX4 SCSI (OS installed on this, obviously)
HDD: 2x Seagate SATA 1TB @ 7,200rpm 64MB Cache (2TB total)
PSU: Corsair CX Series CX750M 750w

Main Monitor: Acer GN246HL (1920x1080@144Hz)
Second Monitor: ASUS VS228 (1920x1080@60Hz)

Here's what I tried based on what I looked up so far:

1) I tried running my games in compatibility mode for Windows 7.
2) I made exceptions for them in Windows Defender and even tried disabling it.
3) I tried closing out Discord (it's overlay feature I already had disabled).
4) I closed out my anti-virus, CCleaner, and all other background-running programs.
5) The latest drivers are all installed.
6) I ran my anti-virus and did not find anything.
7) I tried playing with Aero disabled.

All of my temps are fine. The frame-rates I get are usually very high, max settings and it normally around 90FPS on average, depending on what's going on. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[EarthDog]

You are running a multi gpu setup (690 is 2 cards on one)... some microstutters are normal. That said, what you are describing doesnt appear to be microstutters in the first place. Nothing micro about a .5s to 1s hitch!

When you see this hitching in games, does your hdd light light up when it happens? Im guessing its loading from the platter drives causing that hitching you see. Have you tried installing a game on the vertex4 and seeing if it does that still?

 

[Twisted4000]

You are running a multi gpu setup (690 is 2 cards on one)... some microstutters are normal. That said, what you are describing doesnt appear to be microstutters in the first place. Nothing micro about a .5s to 1s hitch!

When you see this hitching in games, is your hdd light light up when it happens? Im guessing its loading from the platter drives causing that hitching you see.

The way my setup is, I don't really have a way to see if the HDD LED is lighting up at the exact moment a (I guess I'll call them just "stutters" now) occurs... but I did expect it to have something to do with the hard drive, as that's where the games are on, not the SSD (no room).

 

[EarthDog]

Youll need to figure out a way to see it to confirm....

Thats my first guess man... id find a way to test with the game(s) on a different hdd or an ssd. Time to upgrade that old vertex4 to something a bit more modern (and more capacity) perhaps?

Also, microstutter - https://www.extremetech.com/computi...g-micro-stuttering-bane-of-high-end-pc-gamers

 

[Twisted4000]

Youll need to figure out a way to see it to confirm....

Thats my first guess man... id find a way to test with the game(s) on a different hdd or an ssd. Time to upgrade that old vertex4 to something a bit more modern (and more capacity) perhaps?

Also, microstutter - https://www.extremetech.com/computi...g-micro-stuttering-bane-of-high-end-pc-gamers

For the longest time I was told programs were not needed to be installed on SSD's as it would only make a slight difference in merely loading them for the first time, but I guess that wasn't true. My brother recently got a large SSD and installed his games on it (same ones I play) and said, although he used to have the same "stutter" issue I have, he no longer does. So I guess I'll install my games on an SSD from now on.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Also, run a SMART diagnostic on your HDD's to confirm they're in good health. This could be the sign of ana aging drive.

 

[mackerel]

I had a similar problem recently, and never found the solution.

In my case, I did have hardware monitoring on a 2nd display, so I could try to see what was happening when those glitches happened. I noticed I had a CPU usage spike when it happens, with a corresponding drop in GPU performance. I think the 1st is leading to the 2nd as the GPU is starved of things to work on. The process making that CPU spike was "System", and in my case, that was Win10 so might not be the same on Win7. I never managed to break it down further than that. I also eliminated as far as possible the storage drive from consideration, didn't see any significant activity or reported latency corresponding to the glitches. Updated all drivers, didn't help.

Oh, in the past, I've occasionally seen cases of glitching when running some hardware monitoring. I think this mostly affected Corsair USB connected products, like AIOs and higher end PSUs. Excluding them from monitoring temporarily resolved it in that instance, but this wasn't applicable here.

While I don't know what caused that CPU spike, I was already running close to the CPU limit at over 50% usage in game. Before you say 50% isn't 100%, this has HT. At 50% you're effectively using all the cores if they didn't have HT, so what's left is variable depending on how HT friendly it is.

I did suspect/feel that the system wasn't as responsive as it used to be. It is a Win10 install from the start in 2015 so there may be a lot of excess baggage. I attempted to uninstall some stuff I knew I didn't need, but again that didn't help. I think a good test would be a clean install, but that is too much pain for me to consider doing. In the end, I worked around the problem by building another system just for gaming...

 

[EarthDog]

While I don't know what caused that CPU spike, I was already running close to the CPU limit at over 50% usage in game. Before you say 50% isn't 100%, this has HT. At 50% you're effectively using all the cores if they didn't have HT, so what's left is variable depending on how HT friendly it is.

Does it work that way though? I wasnt under the impression all logical cores were used 'first' before HT? But not sure. Have anything a i can read?

Edit: i believe you are correct. Caffeine is good.

 

[mackerel]

Windows does try to spread the work around. It does an ok job but not perfect, and in some multiple single thread workloads, I've seen some inefficiencies unless you fiddle with affinity. This is why sometimes I turn off HT, to prevent interference from the 2nd thread of a core being used and reducing the performance of the 1st. Especially important when doing single thread benchmarking.

 

[peanutbudder]

Disable page file in windows and thank me later.

 

[EarthDog]

That can cause some issues...especially if something needs it.

 

[peanutbudder]

I had terrible micro stuttering in every game I owned and spent the better half of two days trying to resolve it. I re-installed windows, new bios, display drivers, ect, ect.. If he has 32gb of ram there is no need for page file to be used. I have been using my computer without page file enabled for almost two years now and have never run across any issues.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Devil's Advocate: I have 32GB and while working on large Photoshop or Premiere files I will utilize all the RAM and have caused crashes before due to not having page file enabled.

 

[EarthDog]

I had terrible micro stuttering in every game I owned and spent the better half of two days trying to resolve it. I re-installed windows, new bios, display drivers, ect, ect.. If he has 32gb of ram there is no need for page file to be used. I have been using my computer without page file enabled for almost two years now and have never run across any issues.

There re enough cases of issues happening with it disabled to at least mention a warning.

 

[wingman99]

For the longest time I was told programs were not needed to be installed on SSD's as it would only make a slight difference in merely loading them for the first time, but I guess that wasn't true. My brother recently got a large SSD and installed his games on it (same ones I play) and said, although he used to have the same "stutter" issue I have, he no longer does. So I guess I'll install my games on an SSD from now on.

Post back how it works out.

 

[Twisted4000]

Got a new SSD and put my games on there. No more stutter issues.

Thank you for all of your replies.

 

[wingman99]

Got a new SSD and put my games on there. No more stutter issues.

Thank you for all of your replies.

Glad the SSD worked out for you.

 

[Organik]

This is a good thread for everyone with a hard disk thrashing. Get a SSD the technology has been for over 8 years. Your life will change big time. Enjoy

 

[wingman99]

It gets quite expensive storing 4TB of games and data on SSD's

 

[Organik]

It gets quite expensive storing 4TB of games and data on SSD's

Yes, over 1k and beyond. There are some good SSD deals now though for 270 dollars you get like 2TB or was it 1TB I will try to find the link or info on this. Very good SSD for gamers. It's not a Samsung or Intel but hey you cant beat the price storage ratio.