Stuttering (Solved!)

[Fëanor]

Okay, so I've had Grim Dawn since mid 2015, used to run smooth as butter s'far as I remember.
But I've upgraded my PC, and updates have been installed etc. And now i have this constant stutter, IDK what it is, it's a constatnt thing, like a half second stutter every few seconds.

Any ideas?

Specs -
GPU - Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 "Strix OC edition"
CPU - AMD FX 6300 "Bulldozer" 6 core, 3.5 GHz
RAM - 16GB (Hyper X Fury 8GB x2 DDR3, 1600MHz)
MoBo - ASUS M5A78L-M
OS - Windows 10 Pro

- Edit.

Thanks to the legend that is Powbam - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=700083557

Have aglance through them, CPU Affinity was my issue.

[Knightmare]

Try to disable steam cloud. Worked for me.

[Fëanor]

Ten-Mou tried that, on both the steam options and the in game option, a bunch of charcters dissappeared (though thats my bad for using clou save initally :P) and It still stutters, got my graphics to the "default" setting and still stutters :/

[Kure]

Hey, I've been having the same problem recently, thing that helps a bit is switching between fullscreen - window (borderless) in options whenever stuttering shows up.
Also, instructions on moving chars from Cloud save to local:
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20752

[tm0Lif3]

you are not the only one having problems. the real problem is Crate.

[Fayte]

Anything more on this? I'm getting 60fps or close to it, almost all the time, but the micro stutter is driving me nuts.

[powbam]

Originally posted by Fayte:

Anything more on this? I'm getting 60fps or close to it, almost all the time, but the micro stutter is driving me nuts.

Disable Vsync in-game settings. Enable it thru the Nvidia control panel instead (create a game profile for GD).

If disabling Steam Cloud doesn't work this is the only other thing it would be.

[ritzcrackers]

Originally posted by powbam:

Originally posted by Fayte:

Anything more on this? I'm getting 60fps or close to it, almost all the time, but the micro stutter is driving me nuts.

Disable Vsync in-game settings. Enable it thru the Nvidia control panel instead (create a game profile for GD).

If disabling Steam Cloud doesn't work this is the only other thing it would be.

Enabling Vsync through an Nvidia profile worked for me, thanks powbam.

[Fayte]

I'll give it a go, thanks!

[Fëanor]

Originally posted by powbam:

Originally posted by Fayte:

Anything more on this? I'm getting 60fps or close to it, almost all the time, but the micro stutter is driving me nuts.

Disable Vsync in-game settings. Enable it thru the Nvidia control panel instead (create a game profile for GD).

If disabling Steam Cloud doesn't work this is the only other thing it would be.

Thanks dude! Micro Stuttering is minimal now, I'll just have to tweak at a few settings and wait for multi thread optimisation as Grim awn seems to like sitting with 1 core out of 6, ive enabled Threaded Optimisation in the Nvidia panel along with the Nvidia Vsync and seem to get not too bad gameplay, Thanks again! :D <3

[Fayte]

Originally posted by powbam:

Originally posted by Fayte:

Anything more on this? I'm getting 60fps or close to it, almost all the time, but the micro stutter is driving me nuts.

Disable Vsync in-game settings. Enable it thru the Nvidia control panel instead (create a game profile for GD).

If disabling Steam Cloud doesn't work this is the only other thing it would be.

This worked for me also, the gsync fix. I still have cloud saves on, game is buttery smooth now. Thanks!

[powbam]

Originally posted by ritzcrackers:

Enabling Vsync through an Nvidia profile worked for me, thanks powbam.

Originally posted by Turin son of Hurin:

Thanks dude! Micro Stuttering is minimal now, I'll just have to tweak at a few settings and wait for multi thread optimisation as Grim awn seems to like sitting with 1 core out of 6, ive enabled Threaded Optimisation in the Nvidia panel along with the Nvidia Vsync and seem to get not too bad gameplay, Thanks again! :D <3

Originally posted by Fayte:

This worked for me also, the gsync fix. I still have cloud saves on, game is buttery smooth now. Thanks!

Awesome guys. It isn't everyday we can help out people that easily but every once in a while it's the simple things I guess.

Happy gaming.

Edit: Just for clarity I first noticed this stuttering problem last summer with the Win 10 anniversary update and shortly after fiddling with the settings I realized that it was the in-game Vsync. I don't know the exact cause but I do know that before the big Anniversary update (Win10) the game ran fine for me. Afterwards, major micro-stutters. So, quite possibly a Win 10 issue in conflict with the way GD implements its in-game Vsync.

[Fëanor]

HUMANS, I have found a glorious list of commandments .

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=700083557

I did a nosey and found them on Powbam's profile as a guide...
GD is now smooth as a freshly shaven and moisturised Godess of lust's legs.

We owe you a lot Powbam <3!

[powbam]

Originally posted by Turin son of Hurin:

HUMANS, I have found a glorious list of commandments .

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=700083557

I did a nosey and found them on Powbam's profile as a guide...
GD is now smooth as a freshly shaven and moisturised Godess of lust's legs.

We owe you a lot Powbam <3!

Aha yup.. mikey put that together a while back and I helped in a few spots but he gets credit for doing the work and compiling all the various issues and possible resolutions. I simply looked them over and did some light edits I believe :)

But if you have problems or get stumped on something just ask and we'll try to help as much as we can.

[[MOSS]-BurningUp]

When you say stutter do you mean video lag? Like it freezes for a second and then speeds up to catch up? I get this all the time and my PC should def. be able to run this game w/ no problem. I only have a 960 GTX but that should certainly be good enough.

[powbam]

Originally posted by MOSS-BurningUp:

When you say stutter do you mean video lag? Like it freezes for a second and then speeds up to catch up?

It's an extremely rapid micro-stutter that occurs constantly while your character is moving. Very noticeable and disconcerting when you experience it. It's tied to the in-game Vsync [and usually Win10] as I detailed above.

Besides that GD does display other forms of "stutter" like what you describe, this style usually only occurs for me when I whip the camera around, which I often do. It can also display it during massive on-screen activity, particles flying around etc and those would usually be attributed to frame drops during this activity.

Currently the best way to minimize that sort is to set Lighting to Low (and possibly other related settings like Particles, AA, Shadows etc.), if you don't mind the decreased quality.

This stems from the fact, as mentioned above earlier by the OP, that GD isn't very optimized for multi-core thanks to the aging engine. It does use more than 1 core, but not evenly. I've seen someone also recently mention that their cores displayed more usage depending on which Nvidia driver they were using. One driver, all cores showed activity. A different driver and suddenly only one core taking all the brunt.

Personally I monitor my cpu usage from time to time and I often see it using multiple cores. However, it tends to use one core heavier than the others. When it maxes one core out, this is usually the culprit that causes these drops.