Stuttering and fps drops

[das3erawsdas]

Hello. First pc:
13900K stock
2x16 GB DDR5 GSKILL 6800
Rtx 4090 Gigabyte Gaming
Aorus Elite Z790 AX
SSD KINGSTON 2TB
Seasonic 1300W PX ATX 3.0 PCIE 5.
win 11


I have weird stuttering and fps drops when starting game. Is this game issue or system?
I mean gpu usage drops from 99% to 70-80 for split second and goes back like fps.
Like 200fps and drops to 150 and again to 200.
I have 1440P ultra settings and VSYNC OFF,
Also no DLSS and no FG.

[Blacksmith77K]

In fact your GPU usage will drop if your CPU cannot deliver more fps then your GPU can handle.

I would say: cap your fps depend on the minimum fps of your CPU.

It's impossible to create stable 200fps/native 1440p in UE5 with actual CPUs

Btw: i know that LOTF runs native 1440p ultra setting between 60-100fps on a 4090@13900k combo

[COWABUNGATIME]

It's a game issue. There seems to be a problem with 13 and 14 series CPUs. They're literally too good for the game apparently. People claim to have had good luck by installing software that lets you throttle back the CPU a little bit. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called though, sorry.

I have a similar less powerful build to you with an i5 13600k stock and a 4070ti and it still stutters for me as well. Its honestly amazing how poorly the game runs on good hardware. I went to a PC part website yesterday to compare my PC against the recommended specs and my weakest component (my CPU) is still 40% faster on average than their recommended hardware.

[Blacksmith77K]

The problem with 13 and 14 series CPU is a Intel problem. Not a game issue.

[das3erawsdas]

I launch game and reload level,and i have fps drops and stuttering. After some 1-2 minutes fps is stable. Just stuttering is bad on starting game at first minute.

[Blacksmith77K]

Try the following steam startoption:

-notexturestreaming

So UE5 can use so much vram it needs. No idea why, but UE5 games uses strictly 8GB, which is nonsense if you have 8GB+

[kondorasGR]

its just no good optimization of another UE5 game,also the game stutters when its auto saves or entering a new area,capping the frame rate makes things more stable....

[das3erawsdas]

when i am entering new locations it drops to 15 fps foor aa moment is this normal?i am on beggining in game

[SkacikPL]

Originally posted by COWABUNGATIME:

It's a game issue. There seems to be a problem with 13 and 14 series CPUs. They're literally too good for the game apparently.

Well, they have the number of cores and the Gigahertz but Intel's design is plain counteproductive for games.
Any newer intel CPU has Efficiency cores and Performance cores. First ones are meant to run low importance menial tasks, second ones are actually to get the job done.

The joke? No operating system has been built around that and windows task scheduler has no idea which threads should be assigned to Performance cores, it's pure random.

So intel users effectively have mOrE cOrEs but the utility of that is actually counterproductive and for "hardcore gamers" on modern intel rigs, it's actually more viable to disable E-Cores in BIOS entirely to have stable performance experience - essentially making them pay for cores they'll never use.

AMD is kinda similar with top end X3D CPU(s) above 5800x3D or 7800x3D where those are optimal for gaming since they're single CCX(core chip) which has access to the "3d memory". Higher X3D models have two CCX, out of which only one has 3D memory, giving people very similar diminishing returns to modern intel platforms, since you have no control which tasks will be allocated to the "faster" core.

TL;DR with gaming nowadays, there's a lot of research to be done, in order to not pay a lot of extra for less stable performance with very diminishing returns for the money.

[das3erawsdas]

I tested other games and no stuttering at all. I mean i launched Far Cry 6, Quake 2 rtx, Cybeprunk 2077 and all ok. So i think its game issue with Lords?

[SkacikPL]

Originally posted by das3erawsdas:

I tested other games and no stuttering at all. I mean i launched Far Cry 6, Quake 2 rtx, Cybeprunk 2077 and all ok. So i think its game issue with Lords?

To a large extent yes, UE and UE5 by extension has multiple sources of stuttering.
Some of it is shader compilation, some of it is related to loading areas, some of it was related to autosaving and was LOTF specific issue (but that got fixed recently).
Without seeing a video with exact cases and frametime graph it's hard to tell what exactly is your issue.

[das3erawsdas]

One time it dropped from 150fps to 15 fps when entering new area for a second.

Here i found someone playing on 4K but have the same stuttering fest. Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7NCpg3ZYAM

[SkacikPL]

From what i can see and i don't quite have time to watch the whole video, besides it being a month old and still having autosave stutter. Most of the instances appear in fixed areas where i'd assume loading zones are - that sadly is not really fixable to any measurable degree.

UE is thread bound with game logic being relegated to a single thread. And whilst you can design your entire game to be asynchronous, load assets in background and so on and so forth. There's eventually time where you have to spawn them in the world and hook them up to whatever logic they're supposed to run - that all goes through single thread and it's a bottleneck of the engine.

I imagine there are soft ways of mitigating this, over time CPUs will just be faster making the stutter less aparent. Intel platforms can also tryhard by disabling E-Cores to make sure game thread doesn't end up on one of those.
But in the end with current design engine, any game that loads large amounts of data at once will inherently stutter.

[das3erawsdas]

Originally posted by SkacikPL:

From what i can see and i don't quite have time to watch the whole video, besides it being a month old and still having autosave stutter. Most of the instances appear in fixed areas where i'd assume loading zones are - that sadly is not really fixable to any measurable degree.

UE is thread bound with game logic being relegated to a single thread. And whilst you can design your entire game to be asynchronous, load assets in background and so on and so forth. There's eventually time where you have to spawn them in the world and hook them up to whatever logic they're supposed to run - that all goes through single thread and it's a bottleneck of the engine.

I imagine there are soft ways of mitigating this, over time CPUs will just be faster making the stutter less aparent. Intel platforms can also tryhard by disabling E-Cores to make sure game thread doesn't end up on one of those.
But in the end with current design engine, any game that loads large amounts of data at once will inherently stutter.

Ah ok thx.

[Blacksmith77K]

Noone knows the settings from this guy. but for real: HIS frametimegraph is all over the place, thats NOT normal.

What I can say with certainty is that he is playing with DLSS and may have switched on frame generation via the Steam start option.

Because its CPU drops below 60% utilization when playing, which is not possible at native 4k.

@SkacikPL

Good posting!

[das3erawsdas]

I am on 1440P native without dlss,no Frame Generation via steam start option. I have between 150-200fps . Is this possible that i have somehow enabled Frame Generation?