Stuttering and Poor Frame Times in Games | RTX 2080 & i7 9700k Build

[Matthew A]

I am not sure if this is the best place to post this but here we go.

I built my computer a while ago (year and half ago) for the first time and I have noticed some stuttering in my games, some worse than others. I was hoping I could get some help in identifying if this is normal and if not, how to fix it.

I have included some examples of the frame times to see if what I am experiencing is normal or not. If you want more examples let me know and I can get the frame times for those games as well. I played Don't Starve, Black Ops 3 Zombies, and Modern warfare (new one of course). With Modern warfare the frame spikes correspond with me spawning in. Black Ops 3 is particularly bad to the point where I feel like it might be the games issue. Don't Starve seems to showcase what I'm experiencing the most. (Side note, the spikes in the beginning is the game loading)

Here is my User Benchmark, for some reason it was having a hard time running my GPU but it runs on other benchmarks. I have a rtx 2080 gaming x trio from msi. https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/35211423

If there is anything else you want that may help in figuring out if there is an issue and how to fix it please let me know

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Black Ops 3 Zombies:

Don't Starve:

Modern Warfare Multiplayer (New):

Counter Strike: Source:

Doom Eternal:

Witcher 3:

 

[Krenum]

Are you playing games off the mechanical drive? That drive would be the weakest link in your performance system.

 

[Master_shake_]

How are the temperatures on your CPU?

Could be throttling.

 

[Matthew A]

Are you playing games off the mechanical drive? That drive would be the weakest link in your performance system.

Yes, I play Modern Warfare off of my HDD, the rest I am playing off of my Samsung 1 TB SSD.

 

[Matthew A]

How are the temperatures on your CPU?

Could be throttling.

I Haven't seen my CPU go above 70 C (typically stays around 60 C when gaming) but I have seen my GPU hit 85 C once (Not typical, more like 75 C). As far as I know the thermals seem to be pretty good.

 

[Master_shake_]

Any new taxing programs working in the background?

Install a new gpu driver lately?

 

[Matthew A]

Any new taxing programs working in the background?

Install a new gpu driver lately?

There shouldn't be any major programs in the background, I ran a virus scan a while ago to be sure and it came back clean. I ran the tests you see there after restarting my pc with only the game, steam, and afterburner on.

Yes, I make sure to check if there are GPU drivers about once a week, I install them through GeForce . The stuttering has persisted through multiple driver updates. All of my drivers should be up to date to my knowledge because I was worried that would be an issue, I even updated my bios.

Thanks for the responses by the way!

 

[Matthew A]

If it helps, Assassin's Creed Odyssey stuttered for me pretty bad. I found capping the FPS for that game to 60 helped but I still experienced stutters pretty often. I played the game for 109 hours and it never got any better.

While I have not verified this with the other games I did do a little extra testing on Black Ops 3 Zombies and found that the stutters I was experiencing there corresponded with CPU usage spikes. However, I do not know how valuable that info is since Black Ops 3 performs so poorly I am inclined to think the game is the issue. I will test Don't Starve and see if I observe the same issue. Also are there any other games you recommend I test on? I can give them a try as it would be better to have a bigger sample size I think.

Also, is it possible the games I have been playing are just poorly optimized? I operated under that assumption for a while but seeing that so many of the games I was playing were stuttering I don't know if that is the case. What are your thoughts?

(Update: Don't Stave stutters and frame time spikes did not correspond with CPU spikes, must just be Black Ops 3)

 

[Krenum]

If it helps, Assassin's Creed Odyssey stuttered for me pretty bad. I found capping the FPS for that game to 60 helped but I still experienced stutters pretty often. I played the game for 109 hours and it never got any better.

While I have not verified this with the other games I did do a little extra testing on Black Ops 3 Zombies and found that the stutters I was experiencing there corresponded with CPU usage spikes. However, I do not know how valuable that info is since Black Ops 3 performs so poorly I am inclined to think the game is the issue. I will test Don't Starve and see if I observe the same issue. Also are there any other games you recommend I test on? I can give them a try as it would be better to have a bigger sample size I think.

Also, is it possible the games I have been playing are just poorly optimized? I operated under that assumption for a while but seeing that so many of the games I was playing were stuttering I don't know if that is the case. What are your thoughts?

(Update: Don't Stave stutters and frame time spikes did not correspond with CPU spikes, must just be Black Ops 3)

Try playing Witcher 3 or Doom if you have them. Load up Counter Strike Source for a control.

 

[Matthew A]

Try playing Witcher 3 or Doom if you have them. Load up Counter Strike Source for a control.

Can do, I'll download Witcher 3, Doom Eternal, and counter strike. I'll post the results hopefully by tonight.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[chameleoneel]

If you have geforce experience installed, you can turn on "experimental features" and access new stuff in the "performance" tab of the Nvidia overlay. In this tab, you can limit the maximum power usage of your GPU. Try turning it down to 80% and see if there is improvement (MSI Afterburner also gives you the same option, if you already use it). If there is an improvement, your power supply may be having issues.

Addtionally, Nvidia's HUD overlays now include options to see more advanced data, which you may be interested in using.

 

[Matthew A]

If you have geforce experience installed, you can turn on "experimental features" and access new stuff in the "performance" tab of the Nvidia overlay. In this tab, you can limit the maximum power usage of your GPU. Try turning it down to 80% and see if there is improvement (MSI Afterburner also gives you the same option, if you already use it). If there is an improvement, your power supply may be having issues.

Addtionally, Nvidia's HUD overlays now include options to see more advanced data, which you may be interested in using.

I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip!

 

[Matthew A]

I have updated the post to now include Counter Strike: Source, Doom Eternal, and Witcher 3. What do you guys think of the results?

Also, It seems that that the frame time spikes do not correspond to FPS drops. my FPS remained pretty consistent plus or minus ~10 frames.

Games seemed to run the same with 60% max power to GPU so I don't know if power is the issue from that one test.

 

[chameleoneel]

If its been a year and a half since your last install of Windows, the stuttering could be due to driver issues or it could be something with windows, which may be fixed by doing refresh/reinstall of windows. Its pretty simple with W10.


For drivers specifically, have you tried uninstalling your video drivers with DDU? It will wipe out any saved driver settings profiles you have for games. So make sure to take note of some of that stuff. Nvidia doesn't have a way to back those up, unfortunately.

 

[Matthew A]

If its been a year and a half since your last install of Windows, the stuttering could be due to driver issues or it could be something with windows, which may be fixed by doing refresh/reinstall of windows. Its pretty simple with W10.


For drivers specifically, have you tried uninstalling your video drivers with DDU? It will wipe out any saved driver settings profiles you have for games. So make sure to take note of some of that stuff. Nvidia doesn't have a way to back those up, unfortunately.

I haven’t tried reinstalling my video drivers or doing a refresh of windows 10. I’ll give it a try, are there any other drivers I need to reinstall or just my GPU driver? Also I assume with a windows reinstall it’ll also wipe all of the stuff on my PC?

I have never done a fresh install with windows or drivers which is why I ask. Any advice for it?

 

[Matthew A]

So I did a reinstallation of my GPU drivers, I tried it both manually and the GeForce but it doesn’t seem it have changed anything.

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of the spikes seem to correspond to me generating new areas of the game and auto saves/checkpoints. So in Doom most of my stutters happened when I entered a new room or new area and if there was a save/checkpoint that was guaranteed to cause a stutter.

I find this odd because I am playing all of my games (excluding Modern Warfare) on an SSD (Samsung 860 evo 1 tb) and I would expect that to remedy any stuttering caused by saving and accessing files.

(I am trying to exhaust my options before I resort to fresh windows install)

I am also running memtest because I heard bad ram could cause stutters, I will let you guys know the results when I get them.

Thanks for all of the help I have been getting, you guys are great!

 

[chameleoneel]

I haven’t tried reinstalling my video drivers or doing a refresh of windows 10. I’ll give it a try, are there any other drivers I need to reinstall or just my GPU driver? Also I assume with a windows reinstall it’ll also wipe all of the stuff on my PC?

I have never done a fresh install with windows or drivers which is why I ask. Any advice for it?

Wiindows 10 has a refresh option, which retains all of your files and documents. But it clears the Operating System and re-installs it. You will need to reinstall programs and drivers.

It works really well. But I still recommend backing up any important files and documents, just in case.

and don't forget to backup game saves, profiles for any programs such as MSI afterburner, OBS, handbrake, etc. Anything with a custom profile, back it up!

 

[Krenum]

Yeah, sounds like the nuclear option is in order. Just to be sure. Back up all your stuff & just re install Windows.

I'll bet the issue is with page filing in Windows, on the surface(not the device) Windows is a good OS, but it does some crazy backend things that make it a terrible one as well.

 

[Matthew A]

Wiindows 10 has a refresh option, which retains all of your files and documents. But it clears the Operating System and re-installs it. You will need to reinstall programs and drivers.

It works really well. But I still recommend backing up any important files and documents, just in case.

and don't forget to backup game saves, profiles for any programs such as MSI afterburner, OBS, handbrake, etc. Anything with a custom profile, back it up!

Yeah, sounds like the nuclear option is in order. Just to be sure. Back up all your stuff & just re install Windows.

I'll bet the issue is with page filing in Windows, on the surface(not the device) Windows is a good OS, but it does some crazy backend things that make it a terrible one as well.

Ok, I will give it a try and let you guys know what happens.

 

[Matthew A]

Update:

The stuttering persisted after the windows reinstall where I kept my data so I moved on to the clean wipe windows install. So I opted to have it wipe all of my files in all of my drives, clean my drives, and reinstall windows. Once it finishes I’ll test some games and pray that the stuttering goes away.

However, the windows reinstall has been stuck on 23% for a few hours now.

 

[Krenum]

Update:

The stuttering persisted after the windows reinstall where I kept my data so I moved on to the clean wipe windows install. So I opted to have it wipe all of my files in all of my drives, clean my drives, and reinstall windows. Once it finishes I’ll test some games and pray that the stuttering goes away.

However, the windows reinstall has been stuck on 23% for a few hours now.

Hmm, you might have found your problem. Could be the drive. Never had W10 take more than 30min at the max to install.

Let us know how it turns out once you get everything up and running.

 

[whateverer]

Sounds like a bad SSD, or bad memory.

 

[chameleoneel]

when you reinstall Windows, there are two ways to do it:

1. Use the base OS files already on your PC.

2. You can opt to have windows download a fresh set of the latest base files and then use those. It's a good idea to do that, if you suspect OS corruption or some sort of deep issue.

Since you've already wiped and hit a roadblock: MS has a tool you can download on another PC and create windows Installation files on a thumb drive.

if you still can't get a good install, then yeah, SSD or RAM issues. (and I would be running tests anyway, even if you can complete an install).

how long did you run memtest for? Was it a Windows memtest or one which runs before windows boots?

 

[Matthew A]

Hmm, you might have found your problem. Could be the drive. Never had W10 take more than 30min at the max to install.

Let us know how it turns out once you get everything up and running.

So the reinstall finally finished after about 4 or so hours. I did opt for it to “clean” my drives, could the be attributed to the extra time?

Sounds like a bad SSD, or bad memory.

I thought about this too, I did try running the games on my m.2 and my hard drive separately and the issue seemed to persist still. I can give it another try and see what happens now that I have a fresh install of windows. Memory is high on the list of things that could be causing a problem in my mind.

when you reinstall Windows, there are two ways to do it:

1. Use the base OS files already on your PC.

2. You can opt to have windows download a fresh set of the latest base files and then use those. It's a good idea to do that, if you suspect OS corruption or some sort of deep issue.

Since you've already wiped and hit a roadblock: MS has a tool you can download on another PC and create windows Installation files on a thumb drive.

if you still can't get a good install, then yeah, SSD or RAM issues. (and I would be running tests anyway, even if you can complete an install).

how long did you run memtest for? Was it a Windows memtest or one which runs before windows boots?

So I opted originally for it to keep the base files but the stuttering was still there so then I re did it and had it wipe everything and clean to drives which I think is your option 2, correct me if I’m wrong because then I’ll redo the install.

I ran memtest86 and it took about 3 hours to complete but it came back with zero errors. Is this definitive? With a result like that are we sure there is no issues with the ram?

I had a little time before it got to late to install some games after the fresh windows install and the performance and stuttering seems to be the same on those particular games however it’s hard to tell without me testing some of the other games so I will install them in the morning and let you guys know.

What are the major components that can contribute to frame time spikes? If the windows install doesn’t fix the issue then it must be a hardware issue so it would be nice to narrow it down.

Again thanks for all of your help. It’s painstaking, I understand, but it is really appreciated!

 

[Matthew A]

Alright, so after the fresh windows install the stutter is still there. I tested it with a few more games just to make sure but the games are running exactly how they were before the reinstall.

I can give a little more insight into the stuttering, it seems to be different or worse in some games. So, for instance, in Doom Eternal the stuttering it not super bad but it seems to happen at the same points throughout a single level. I will get a stutter every time I load a new area (i.e. punch a wall to reveal a new section of the map is always accompanied by a frame time spike) or every time I reach a checkpoint or the game autosaves I will also get a stutter. Another example I have noticed is in The Witcher 3. The game seems to run fine but every time I get to a "town" (new area with a congregation of NPCs) there is almost always a big frame time spike and some times it will happen a few times before it goes away. It seems to be the same thing that I mentioned in Doom Eternal where when I load a new area it stutters, maybe Witcher 3 has a differnt way of loading its world?

This seems to persist throughout all of my games, is that normal? Maybe games just always have stutters and I am sensitive to them? Like I said this is my first build so I have no previous PC to compare it to however I did used to play on console and I don't ever remember stutters like this while playing.

With that being said I would think the next course of action would be to identify if there is a hardware issue? While I was testing I made sure to keep my eye out for any spikes in the usage of my components during the stutters and I didn't observe anything unusual. The GPU and CPU seemed to be pretty consistent even through the stutters. If it is a hardware issue (it seems that it is) how would I identify the faulty part? I feel like I have stress tested many parts of my PC and they always seem to pass with flying colors so I am at a loss. I am open to redoing or doing any tests to check if my hardware is the issue. Any help you guys can give will go a long way.

Thanks for reading this!

Edit: I have a friend who is willing to let me borrow his GPU and ram, do you think that will be helpful?

Edit Edit: I borrowed my friend's 1070 Ti and identical Trident Z ram and I still got the same stutters, the stutters didn't seem to be any be any better or worse, just the same. Would a msinfo32 or dxdiag file be helpful to include?

 

[Krenum]

Do you by chance have any Razer devices attached to your computer using the Razor software?

I had crazy stuttering in DOOM (2016) It all went away by turning off the software for my Razer mouse and keyboard.

 

[Keljian]

Alright, so after the fresh windows install the stutter is still there. I tested it with a few more games just to make sure but the games are running exactly how they were before the reinstall.

I can give a little more insight into the stuttering, it seems to be different or worse in some games. So, for instance, in Doom Eternal the stuttering it not super bad but it seems to happen at the same points throughout a single level. I will get a stutter every time I load a new area (i.e. punch a wall to reveal a new section of the map is always accompanied by a frame time spike) or every time I reach a checkpoint or the game autosaves I will also get a stutter. Another example I have noticed is in The Witcher 3. The game seems to run fine but every time I get to a "town" (new area with a congregation of NPCs) there is almost always a big frame time spike and some times it will happen a few times before it goes away. It seems to be the same thing that I mentioned in Doom Eternal where when I load a new area it stutters, maybe Witcher 3 has a differnt way of loading its world?

This seems to persist throughout all of my games, is that normal? Maybe games just always have stutters and I am sensitive to them? Like I said this is my first build so I have no previous PC to compare it to however I did used to play on console and I don't ever remember stutters like this while playing.

With that being said I would think the next course of action would be to identify if there is a hardware issue? While I was testing I made sure to keep my eye out for any spikes in the usage of my components during the stutters and I didn't observe anything unusual. The GPU and CPU seemed to be pretty consistent even through the stutters. If it is a hardware issue (it seems that it is) how would I identify the faulty part? I feel like I have stress tested many parts of my PC and they always seem to pass with flying colors so I am at a loss. I am open to redoing or doing any tests to check if my hardware is the issue. Any help you guys can give will go a long way.

Thanks for reading this!

Edit: I have a friend who is willing to let me borrow his GPU and ram, do you think that will be helpful?

Edit Edit: I borrowed my friend's 1070 Ti and identical Trident Z ram and I still got the same stutters, the stutters didn't seem to be any be any better or worse, just the same. Would a msinfo32 or dxdiag file be helpful to include?

I had exactly the same issue with the 9700k, the solution in my case was to quit all background tasks before launching a game. (AC: Origins was particularly bad). Slack was a particularly bad “influence” on stutter.

Moving to a 9900k completely resolved the issue.

 

[chameleoneel]

Some other things to try:

right click on desktop and open display settings
scroll down until you find "graphics settings" and then try disabling hardware accelerated GPU scheduling. reboot PC. try your games

You can also search "game mode" in the windows search bar to find the game mode settings. and try disabling game mode. reboot pc. try your games.

 

[Matthew A]

Do you by chance have any Razer devices attached to your computer using the Razor software?

I had crazy stuttering in DOOM (2016) It all went away by turning off the software for my Razer mouse and keyboard.

Interesting, I don’t have any Razer devices but I do use a Corsair keyboard and Logitech mouse which have their own softwares. I could give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

I had exactly the same issue with the 9700k, the solution in my case was to quit all background tasks before launching a game. (AC: Origins was particularly bad). Slack was a particularly bad “influence” on stutter.

Moving to a 9900k completely resolved the issue.

I wondered if it was a CPU issue and it’s interesting that you had the same issue. When you said you close all background apps did you do it through task manager or just normally close the open apps? When you did that did it stop all stuttering? It would suck to have to get another CPU with how expensive they are, I guess I could sell it and put it towards another if that ends up being the issue. Thanks for the advice!

Some other things to try:

right click on desktop and open display settings
scroll down until you find "graphics settings" and then try disabling hardware accelerated GPU scheduling. reboot PC. try your games

You can also search "game mode" in the windows search bar to find the game mode settings. and try disabling game mode. reboot pc. try your games.

I will give this a try and see if I get any improvements. Thanks for the suggestion and I’ll keep you updated on it!

So I caved and ended up bringing my PC into my local Microcenter to see if they can fix it so I won’t have the PC for another 4 or 5 days. If it comes back and for some reason they still can‘t fix it then I will do some more tests and try these suggestions out.

I will keep you guys updated and thanks for all of the help!

 

[Keljian]

I wondered if it was a CPU issue and it’s interesting that you had the same issue. When you said you close all background apps did you do it through task manager or just normally close the open apps? When you did that did it stop all stuttering? It would suck to have to get another CPU with how expensive they are, I guess I could sell it and put it towards another if that ends up being the issue. Thanks for the advice!

I closed everything non essential in the system tray (including slack, discord, krisp, one note etc) and anything on the taskbar (including chrome) that seemed to fix it for me.

 

[Matthew A]

So I finally got my PC back from microcenter and the technician was having a hard time recreating the issue because it was coming and going so he couldn't guarantee it was fixed. He did hardware tests and found that my power supply was partially failing. I swapped it out with a 750 EVGA now and it looks like the stuttering in normal gameplay is gone. Though, I still do get that really quick micro stutter whenever the game saves or I save/quick save. Maybe that's just the way games work?

 

[Keljian]

So I finally got my PC back from microcenter and the technician was having a hard time recreating the issue because it was coming and going so he couldn't guarantee it was fixed. He did hardware tests and found that my power supply was partially failing. I swapped it out with a 750 EVGA now and it looks like the stuttering in normal gameplay is gone. Though, I still do get that really quick micro stutter whenever the game saves or I save/quick save. Maybe that's just the way games work?

check your background tasks again..

 

[GoldenTiger]

So I finally got my PC back from microcenter and the technician was having a hard time recreating the issue because it was coming and going so he couldn't guarantee it was fixed. He did hardware tests and found that my power supply was partially failing. I swapped it out with a 750 EVGA now and it looks like the stuttering in normal gameplay is gone. Though, I still do get that really quick micro stutter whenever the game saves or I save/quick save. Maybe that's just the way games work?

That's not abnormal to have a quick blip when saving or loading.

 

[Deleted whining member 223597]

So I finally got my PC back from microcenter and the technician was having a hard time recreating the issue because it was coming and going so he couldn't guarantee it was fixed. He did hardware tests and found that my power supply was partially failing. I swapped it out with a 750 EVGA now and it looks like the stuttering in normal gameplay is gone. Though, I still do get that really quick micro stutter whenever the game saves or I save/quick save. Maybe that's just the way games work?

Yeah, that's normal. The stutter issues are so hard to pin down sometimes, seems the PSU is often the culprit though. Glad you got it fixed

 

[Matthew A]

check your background tasks again..

Background tasks seem to be good. However, if i get issues in the future this will be the first thing I check again. Thanks for your help!

That's not abnormal to have a quick blip when saving or loading.

Yeah, that's normal. The stutter issues are so hard to pin down sometimes, seems the PSU is often the culprit though. Glad you got it fixed

That's good to hear, I just wanted to make sure all of my "unnatural" stuttering was gone so thank you for the reassurance!

I would just like to thank everyone who posted on this forum and taking the time to help me out. You guys are great!