Jolting issue while gaming?

ShepsCrook

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Feb 16, 2003
Messages
9,439
Has anyone else been seeing a "jolting" or random frame drop while gaming?

I'll be playing, and probably every few seconds my frame rates drop enough to give a jolt or stutter type of issue with the game play. It almost makes me feel sea sick. I uninstalled the drivers, and rolled back 2 versions just to see what would happen and for 24 hours I had no issues. Then without upgrading the drivers, it's back.

V - 445.87 and up at least
RTX 2080 Ti XC
Win10Pro 2004
32GB DDR4 3200
X99 E5-2667v4 8 core with HT
Alienware 34" 3440x1440 @ 100hz with G-Sync enabled
Samsung 500GB 970 EVO - OS Drive
Samsung 960 Pro 1TB - Game Drive
Wired network

Games:
Fallout 76 (This is my primary game)
Sniper Elite 4 was my alternate test and same thing.

Microsoft Game Bar OFF
HAGS - Non Existant
VRR - OFF
 
Last edited:
What's the rest of your specs?

Resolution/framerate? CPU? PSU? RAM?

Limited to a certain game or all the games you play? Which games?
 
What's the rest of your specs?

Resolution/framerate? CPU? PSU? RAM?

Limited to a certain game or all the games you play? Which games?
Updated my original post with the specs and games.
 
Maybe try disabling GSync to see if that helps? I know it doesn't *solve* your problem but it might give more clues to the cause. Also have you enabled the HAGS or VRR within Windows with the new 2004 graphics features?

Any CPU% spikes during these times?
 
Maybe try disabling GSync to see if that helps? I know it doesn't *solve* your problem but it might give more clues to the cause. Also have you enabled the HAGS or VRR within Windows with the new 2004 graphics features?

Any CPU% spikes during these times?
I haven't enabled anything else at this time. Should I?

And I haven't been monitoring the CPU since it wasn't an issue before.
 
What software do you have running in the tray?

iCUE, Samsung Magician, EVGA X1, Discord, Sound Blaster Cinema 3, Nvidia Geforce Experience, and the usual Windows: Bluetooth, Sound, Network, Mic, Defender
 
I haven't enabled anything else at this time. Should I?

And I haven't been monitoring the CPU since it wasn't an issue before.

No. You should get MSI's AB and see if you are going to 100% CPU or GPU usage and that is coinciding with the drops. I doubt it's a gsync issue but you should have gsync ON and vsync ON in nvidia CP with a fps cap of 2-3 under refresh rate.
 
It'd take some time, but disable as much as possible to see if that solves the issue. Then enable one by one to see if one is the culprit.

I just disabled Sound Blaster and Samsung Magician, still the same.
 
It'd take some time, but disable as much as possible to see if that solves the issue. Then enable one by one to see if one is the culprit.

HAGS - Doesn't even exist on my machine oddly.
VRR - Is disabled
XBOX Gaming stuff is disabled
Game Mode - Disabled
 
I just disabled Sound Blaster and Samsung Magician, still the same.
These are actually the programs from your list that has little to no impact. Magician literally does nothing while it is running on Windows 10. You should only use it if you need to check drive health, run a benchmark, or update firmware. The three that I would expect having an impact are GeForce Experience, iCUE and EVGA X1.

I've had issues with iCUE eating up CPU cycles while running in the background. It's an issue that rears its head every other update. The version I'm currently on doesn't have a performance impact. I noticed that there is a new version out this week, so maybe they broke it again.

If you have the OSD enabled in either iCUE or EVGA X1 then I would disable them. Also make sure the FPS limiter in X1 is disabled. If you need an FPS limiter use the one in the NVIDIA control panel.

In GeForce Experience I would disable streaming, if you haven't. Also make sure you're not inadvertently recording something with ShadowPlay. Also, disable Freestyle.
 
Jolting sounds like to me is when framerates suddenly drop, say from 144 to 90, when it happens to me it looks like framerate suddenly went to zero for a split second. In my experience Gsync/Freesync doesn't really help with the visual affect of high frame-rate volatility. This just means your CPU isn't up to the task of maintaining the high framerate. Set your refresh rate to 85hz or something lower so there's less demand for CPU resources and it should be silky smooth.
 
Jolting sounds like to me is when framerates suddenly drop, say from 144 to 90, when it happens to me it looks like framerate suddenly went to zero for a split second. In my experience Gsync/Freesync doesn't really help with the visual affect of high frame-rate volatility. This just means your CPU isn't up to the task of maintaining the high framerate. Set your refresh rate to 85hz or something lower so there's less demand for CPU resources and it should be silky smooth.
this as it does sound like some kind of cpu limitation
 
My firmware-dev brain immediately goes to a device driver not playing nice, and spending too long at elevated privs or masking interrupts.

Occasional slow-downs are something which can happen for huge numbers of reasons, but when you use the word 'jolting', that kinda screams "system holdoff" to me.
 
My firmware-dev brain immediately goes to a device driver not playing nice, and spending too long at elevated privs or masking interrupts.

Occasional slow-downs are something which can happen for huge numbers of reasons, but when you use the word 'jolting', that kinda screams "system holdoff" to me.


Maybe check your system latency?
 
I was having similar problems and it ended up being some problem with the CPU/RAM frequency.

I had an overclock before, and I thought that was causing it, and tried stock settings (which helped) but it did not go away.

In the end, I think it was the RAM speed. Even though my XMP profile supported 4133, it just wasn't good. I ended up at 3000 speed and that seems to fix it (and good performance too).

On my CPU, I changed the overclock to max at 4.8, and added a little voltage and now I am in business. Seems really smooth now.
 
Back
Top