Micro-stutter - 2600K, 2x 6950 (ShaderUnlocked), 8GB GSkill 1333 CAS7

A

Adam1203

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
159
Hey Guys,

I'm at a loss, and need some help. I have a brand new build and I'm getting some micro-stuttering. I have the latest 11.4 drivers with CAP3. I'm using RadeonPro with profiles for each game. I use vsync and found that my framerate will bounce between 60 and 61. When it hits 61, I stutter (almost like a missing frame). I have been banging my head against this for a couple of weeks. I removed my CPU overclock and set my memory speed/timings to auto. It seems to have taken care of about 99% of the micro-stutter.

I want to OC my processor, since I spent a bunch of cash on an awesome WC setup. I've tried OC'ing and leaving the RAM on auto, but find that the micro-stutter returns... so it's starting to looking like a processor I/O issue. I have the Asus Maximus IV Extreme, and my vid cards are using the native x8/x8 lanes.

My question is, has anyone else had this problem and if so... did you find anything specific to fix it? Maybe disable Hyperthreading?

Thank you, all!

Adam
 
I actually have the same issue as you.
My specs:
2500K
Asus sabertooth
Corsair Vengeance 1866Mhz 2x4gb
HD 6950 [unlocked to 6970]
Crucial SSD C300 64gb x2 raid 0
Corsair AX750W

If I use auto overclocking by the motherboard, then the micro-stuttering goes away (ram is slowed down as well as lower overclocking)
 
Last edited:
distortion69 said:
Did this issue occur before unlocking the 6950's?

Josh
Click to expand...

I tried it with the original BIOS, same issue when I OC my CPU and set RAM to factory rated speeds.

I just uninstalled my chipset and rst drivers, I'll see if that makes a difference. :)
 
TazDmAn said:
I actually have the same issue as you.
My specs:
2500K
Asus sabertooth
Corsair Vengeance 1866Mhz 2x4gb
HD 6950 [unlocked to 6970]
Crucial SSD C300 64gb x2 raid 0
Corsair AX750W

If I use auto overclocking by the motherboard, then the micro-stuttering goes away (ram is slowed down as well as lower overclocking)
Click to expand...

So you used the auto overclock from AI Suite, or the motherboard's auto OC?
 
I do not have auto overclock from AI Suite on sabertooth. It is from motherboard. It still has more potential for OCing. I have even used prime95 and it is stable. But this microstutter is killing me really. It even stutters during music which pisses me off. I would really appreciate if someone finds out why it is like that.
 
Did you reinstall Windows after you unlocked the 6950s? I have almost the same exact setup, except I have a 2500k.

I found that after I reinstalled Win7 64bit while leaving the PC connected to the internet during install (first install I didn't) seemed to clear up any lag problems.

Also, Intel has updated chipset drivers on their website that I installed this time around instead of using the ones from Asus's website.
 
Hey guys,

I was a member here before Genmay split off and I reregistered to post in this thread.

For those having microstuttering issues I would not blame the video card or motherboard. Do yourselves a favor and look into the C300 stuttering problems. The fact that music stutters as well seems to indicate (to me) that this is a hard drive reading issue and not a video issue.

I have a 2500k, ASRock Extreme4, C300 128gb, 6950 w/unlocked shaders as well. I have read that this stuttering is an issue that many only notice if the drive is more than halfway full. I don't have the same problem as you BUT I'd suggest checking out these threads and following the steps listed to try to fix this problem:

http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...eze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2139854
 
darrpara is probably correct, because the only piece of hardware on my sys that is different is the SSD and I didn't have any music stuttering, only very slight stuttering during random moments.
 
datap1mp said:
Did you reinstall Windows after you unlocked the 6950s? I have almost the same exact setup, except I have a 2500k.

I found that after I reinstalled Win7 64bit while leaving the PC connected to the internet during install (first install I didn't) seemed to clear up any lag problems.

Also, Intel has updated chipset drivers on their website that I installed this time around instead of using the ones from Asus's website.
Click to expand...

I reinstalled Windows 7 a couple of times, no difference

darrpara said:
Hey guys,

I was a member here before Genmay split off and I reregistered to post in this thread.

For those having microstuttering issues I would not blame the video card or motherboard. Do yourselves a favor and look into the C300 stuttering problems. The fact that music stutters as well seems to indicate (to me) that this is a hard drive reading issue and not a video issue.

I have a 2500k, ASRock Extreme4, C300 128gb, 6950 w/unlocked shaders as well. I have read that this stuttering is an issue that many only notice if the drive is more than halfway full. I don't have the same problem as you BUT I'd suggest checking out these threads and following the steps listed to try to fix this problem:

http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...eze-ups-in-Windows-7-solved-for-me/td-p/38766

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2139854
Click to expand...

I am running everything game related off my Western Digital Black 1 TB... could it still be the C300? Maybe because Windows is installed on it, along with the video drivers...?

[EDIT]

I disabled the Windows write cache flushing on all my hard drives.

I also just installed the beta RST drivers from Intel's site and tried a conservative OC, the stuttering wasn't that bad... but it was still slightly there.

It's just so annoying considering the $$$ I dumped into this system.... ya know?
 
Last edited:
Adam1203 said:
I reinstalled Windows 7 a couple of times, no difference



I am running everything game related off my Western Digital Black 1 TB... could it still be the C300? Maybe because Windows is installed on it, along with the video drivers...?

[EDIT]

I disabled the Windows write cache flushing on all my hard drives.

I also just installed the beta RST drivers from Intel's site and tried a conservative OC, the stuttering wasn't that bad... but it was still slightly there.

It's just so annoying considering the $$$ I dumped into this system.... ya know?
Click to expand...

I hear ya man.

Your drive is fairly new correct? There is a brand new crucial firmware for the C300 drives at: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

I believe it was released yesterday or today. Try it out and if that doesn't fix it try taking a video card out and seeing if the problem persists. I would be somewhat surprised if this turns out to be a video card issue though.
 
darrpara said:
I would be somewhat surprised if this turns out to be a video card issue though.
Click to expand...

i agree, considering stuttering occurs while playing music. i have a different setup than yours OP, so take this for what it's worth, but i get no stuttering whatsoever and i've only got one drive with everything loaded on it; a WD Caviar Black 1TB.
 
I feel your pain i have the same problem. but your computer is better then mine. i hope it works out for you.
 
darrpara said:
I hear ya man.

Your drive is fairly new correct? There is a brand new crucial firmware for the C300 drives at: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

I believe it was released yesterday or today. Try it out and if that doesn't fix it try taking a video card out and seeing if the problem persists. I would be somewhat surprised if this turns out to be a video card issue though.
Click to expand...

Yeah and if it's smooth take out that card and check the other, if their both smooth you narrow down the problem.
 
The reason I ruled out the SSD was because its only when I am ocing. I was wondering if its somehow slows down my pc or something due to bad OC?

As long I stick to lower clock it is allright. (4.2Ghz) I guess it has to do but I will appreciate if I find the culprit
 
Another vote for the C300 SSD being the cause of your system stuttering.

As an owner of the C300 128 GB, the stuttering happened after I installed my OS on that drive. Opening applications occasionally causes stuttering, watching videos, I also notice the stuttering as well. Fortunately, a firmware update addressing these issues was released today.

The firmware update 0007 is available: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

I installed it earlier today and haven't experienced any stuttering since. It's too early to tell if the firmware update is truly effective, but I'm counting on it!
 
This is a old Amd issue. The 58xx series was plagued by it. There's so much annoyance about it that people went into investigating the matter coz they were fed up with it. I believe its the crappy Amd drivers. Off course some Amd customers are going to come out saying I never had any driver issues in my life with Amd. But here you go

1.
http://www.rage3d.com/articles/ati_catalyst_10_7/index.php?p=6

2.
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-c...ntitative-investigation-finished-results.html

3.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-71763.html

That's just a few
 
BusyBeaverHP said:
Another vote for the C300 SSD being the cause of your system stuttering.

As an owner of the C300 128 GB, the stuttering happened after I installed my OS on that drive. Opening applications occasionally causes stuttering, watching videos, I also notice the stuttering as well. Fortunately, a firmware update addressing these issues was released today.

The firmware update 0007 is available: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

I installed it earlier today and haven't experienced any stuttering since. It's too early to tell if the firmware update is truly effective, but I'm counting on it!
Click to expand...

seriously use process manager and check up how many times writes are being made on a ssd. When level or scene or whatever gets loaded into the ram, caches before you start to play not during it so I don't see how a ssd can cause it.
 
Spooony said:
This is a old Amd issue. The 58xx series was plagued by it. There's so much annoyance about it that people went into investigating the matter coz they were fed up with it. I believe its the crappy Amd drivers. Off course some Amd customers are going to come out saying I never had any driver issues in my life with Amd. But here you go

1.
http://www.rage3d.com/articles/ati_catalyst_10_7/index.php?p=6

2.
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-c...ntitative-investigation-finished-results.html

3.
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-71763.html

That's just a few
Click to expand...

Those are all old articles that have nothing to do with the 69XX series. This series has much better crossfire capability and scaling, as for microstutter I have had a 5970, 5970 and now 3x 6970s. When the 5870 was trifired with the 5970 I did experience a little stutter, none with the 6970s however.
 
Spooony said:
seriously use process manager and check up how many times writes are being made on a ssd. When level or scene or whatever gets loaded into the ram, caches before you start to play not during it so I don't see how a ssd can cause it.
Click to expand...
The SSD is constantly being accessed since it runs the OS, so the SSD is a potential culprit at all times.

In this case, the C300 stuttering is a well-documented problem and the latest firmware address that issue:

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-S...07-Firmware-Update-Feedback-Thread/td-p/44696

Release Date: 04/26/2011

Change Log:

- Improved product reliability.
- Resolved performance anomaly which resulted in brief, intermittent pause in drive response time for some users.
Click to expand...
 
SeaFoam said:
Those are all old articles that have nothing to do with the 69XX series. This series has much better crossfire capability and scaling, as for microstutter I have had a 5970, 5970 and now 3x 6970s. When the 5870 was trifired with the 5970 I did experience a little stutter, none with the 6970s however.
Click to expand...

have your read those articles?
Well here's a clip
There are other potential sources for micro stuttering, some of them, for example, having to do with moving memory around, which can cause either blackouts for the CPU or the GPU. Others exist when the CPU and GPU are more unbalanced (fast GPU, slow CPU), for example where the CPU will not generate any frames for a while, then generate 2 frames. It could be that in that case, we get an average time for frame 1 which is the idle time plus render, while frame 2 will be only render. That could lead to 16ms and 1ms frame times, which wouldappear as stuttering (assuming 15ms idle, 1ms render times). Multi-GPU makes the problem worse, as the GPU consumption rate is even higher. We are investigating these and others, though it's a tall task to fix all of them while also achieving peak performance.

^that's from the above link
 
BusyBeaverHP said:
The SSD is constantly being accessed since it runs the OS, so the SSD is a potential culprit at all times.

In this case, the C300 stuttering is a well-documented problem and the latest firmware address that issue:

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-S...07-Firmware-Update-Feedback-Thread/td-p/44696
Click to expand...

op do the following

51110675.jpg


Then go here and read this
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-129691.html
 
Last edited:
Spooony said:
op do the following

51110675.jpg


Then go here and read this
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-129691.html
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I updated my mobo drivers, flashed the C300 firmware and updated to the WHQL 11.4 drivers.

I found that if I set my 6950's to their stock speeds it runs fine... no stuttering.

I overclocked my CPU and set my RAM to the factory recommended speed... no stuttering.

As soon as I touch the GPU clock speed, even by 5Mhz, it stutters.

VERY strange. I'm probably just going to leave the GPU clock set to stock, what's the point of having super high FPS if I use vsync and get stuttering.... plus, with it stock it's super quite.

Also, do you all use a pagefile? I am using a 2 GB pagefile on my 1TB drive (game drive) instead of my SSD.

Thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Long shot but disable eRecordEnable via regedit as it causes and endless stream of useless writes to the system event log.
 
Adam1203 said:
I found that if I set my 6950's to their stock speeds it runs fine... no stuttering.
Click to expand...

Did you check both cards individually after you unlocked the shaders? Also, did you leave the GPU voltage at 6950 spec?
 
What I do not understand is why does overclocking cause this microstuttering. How can overclock be the issue behind GPU bios hacked. Can anyone give me a reason how that works?

If it is the GPU bios hacked that is the problem then regarding my OC, microstutter should occur. I am gonna try to update my system during the weekend and post my results as well. I really appreciate this thread and the solutions provided.
 
TazDmAn said:
What I do not understand is why does overclocking cause this microstuttering. How can overclock be the issue behind GPU bios hacked. Can anyone give me a reason how that works?

If it is the GPU bios hacked that is the problem then regarding my OC, microstutter should occur. I am gonna try to update my system during the weekend and post my results as well. I really appreciate this thread and the solutions provided.
Click to expand...

I was able to get it running at 880 / 1375 on the 6970 voltage. Since I didn't use the 6970 bios, the VRAM's voltage is the same as the 6950.

I think I'm just going to leave it at 880.
 
TazDmAn said:
What I do not understand is why does overclocking cause this microstuttering. How can overclock be the issue behind GPU bios hacked. Can anyone give me a reason how that works?

If it is the GPU bios hacked that is the problem then regarding my OC, microstutter should occur. I am gonna try to update my system during the weekend and post my results as well. I really appreciate this thread and the solutions provided.
Click to expand...

Because its unstable...
 
If the gpu (bios flashed) is unstable then I should get the same problem when I am not OCing the CPU. I am using 6970 voltages as well. I doubt it is the gpu causing my problem but I will try to update the SSD and see what happens.
 
Auraka said:
Long shot but disable eRecordEnable via regedit as it causes and endless stream of useless writes to the system event log.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of eRecordEnable... I'll look up some more info. Thanks for the suggestion!

[EDIT]

I saved this as a registry file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Atierecord]
"eRecordEnable"=dword:00000000
"eRecordEnablePopups"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\Atierecord]
"eRecordEnable"=dword:00000000
"eRecordEnablePopups"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atierecord]
"eRecordEnable"=dword:00000000
"eRecordEnablePopups"=dword:00000000
 
Last edited:
I don't know.... I just read through the techpowerup articles and they made a good point that the Afterburner custom fan profiles used CPU power when changing gears and that leads to micro-stuttering. I have noticed it a bit here and there but my cards have been running stable with high framerates for hours so I didn't really look into it. I am using Afterburner and when I raise my clocks for benching up to 950 / 1420 I also use a more aggressive fan profile in Afterburner and the micro stutter seems more apparent. Tonight I'm going to try to use CCC for my overclocking and set a static fan speed there.... I'll post results and keep my fingers crossed. FYI, I DON'T have a C300; I have two Intel X-25Ms in raid 0 for a boot drive so I doubt that it's solely caused by the C300s.


*edit* Going to try this theory out tonight:
http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/796040-new-crossfire-micro-stutter-fix.html


.
 
Last edited:
UPDATE:

The fix I posted above TOTALLY ELIMINATED the micro-stutter on my setup. I'm not saying it will fix it for everyone, but it definitely worked for me. Dirt 2 and Grid run totally fluid and fraps was reporting 70-90 FPS in Dirt 2 and over 120 in Grid.

Summary: If you have microstutter and you use Afterburner check out the fix posted above, it may fix your problem.
 
blackhawk777 said:
UPDATE:

The fix I posted above TOTALLY ELIMINATED the micro-stutter on my setup. I'm not saying it will fix it for everyone, but it definitely worked for me. Dirt 2 and Grid run totally fluid and fraps was reporting 70-90 FPS in Dirt 2 and over 120 in Grid.

Summary: If you have microstutter and you use Afterburner check out the fix posted above, it may fix your problem.
Click to expand...

I've stopped using the AB fan profile too. As soon as I turned it on, I was microstutting.

Good find!
 
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