How I finally fixed my frame stuttering! (Nvidia users, GTX 970)

[KevinLongtime]

Its been a week or two since GTA V released on PC and I've already logged well over 62 hours on the PC version. However until 2 days ago I could never completely fix my framerate stutter in general gameplay and driving fast around the city. I've tried many things that have only worked for a little bit and then the stutter came right back. This method has worked for two straight days and the only thing I've had to do when I load the came up is disable vsync in game and re enable it and its back to no stuttering.

Seems these things have helped greatly and for 2 days I've been playing basically without any stutter (cutscenes sometimes stutter but general gameplay is very responsive even with framerate lowering with lots going on. As such I do get frame rate slow downs like normal but they are normal frame rate drops that don't bother me and arnt distracting like stuttering is.

Inside of the Nvidia control panel I changed the following settings to:

Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA): ON <900 series GPU feature only. If you use
in-game MSAA setting, enable this.

Multi-Display/Mixed -GPU acceleration: Single Display Performance Mode

Power Managment Mode: Prefer Maximum Performance

Shader Cache: ON (This feature talks about less CPU usage, reducing stutter and
improving load times)

Anisotropic Filtering: 16x (make this setting match what is set in your in-game settings


OPTIONAL// This feature is optional, I currently have it untouched to "use global setting" but for some people setting this to 1 allows for more responsiveness, less imput lag. Experiment without or with changing this. Works fine without touching it on my system though.

Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1



I'm not really sure how much this changed my game but its also worth it to note I launched the game, alt-tabbed out and set GTA V process to high priority for CPU usage in the processes in task manager by right clicking.






My machine:

i7 920 stock speeds.
EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked (superclocked was the only 970 in stock for a while at the time)
6gb corsair dominator ram 1600mhz


1920x1080 60hz usually 60-50 fps (ocassionally 45 but goes right back up)

[moloch nyx]

Also disable in-game VSync and enable it through Control Panel!

[KevinLongtime]

Originally posted by CamiloLS:

Also disable in-game VSync and enable it through Control Panel!

For me the Nvidia vsync options didnt work right and still had a bunch of tears or didnt really work at all in GTA V. In-game vsync worked best for me so far.

[Nocturna]

Vsync causes input lag, you shouldn't use that crap in games that require aiming.

[KevinLongtime]

I have no issues with regular Vsync in this game and I usually always use Vsync, so I think thats preference. Use that based on your own preference. I find screen tearing far more annoying than imput lag I hardly notice if at all

[moloch nyx]

Maybe. I had stutter until I disabled it. I guess it may or may not work for you, depending on your rig.

[Nocturna]

Originally posted by KevinLongtime:

I have no issues with regular Vsync in this game and I usually always use Vsync, so I think thats preference. Use that based on your own preference. I find screen tearing far more annoying than imput lag I hardly notice if at all

That just means you are not very good at aiming, no offense.

[KevinLongtime]

Originally posted by Raquel:

Originally posted by KevinLongtime:

I have no issues with regular Vsync in this game and I usually always use Vsync, so I think thats preference. Use that based on your own preference. I find screen tearing far more annoying than imput lag I hardly notice if at all

That just means you are not very good at aiming, no offense.

I'm going to divert from your off topic-ness and respectfully disagree.

[Nocturna]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1doh5l/ for a technical explanation

If you want to use vsync go ahead, you are just gimping yourself. It's not a matter of preference, it does hinder your accuracy. I was just trying to help but hey, suit yourself.

[KevinLongtime]

As I said before, use Vysnc based on your own preference. This thread isnt about how vsync works and why you should or shouldnt use it or if I can aim or if I can not. Its about fixing the frame stuttering. Who knows, if you have such a big issue with imput lag, maybe try messing around with the "Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1" option to see if it helps. Its supposed to reduce imput lag at the cost of a little bit less frames.

For me the imput lag is not a big issue and I can aim just fine with Vsync activated. I however cannot stand trying to aim with stutter. So this thread addresses stutter. Use Vsync or don't use Vsync. Your call

[Nalydyenlo]

The v-sync on this game causes me to lose 10+ fps, so I disabled it. Anyway you don't need v-sync if you run it in borderless windowed mode.

[DynOmite!]

Good to know. I wonder how many ppl with weirded out rigs and configs having this problem, who have already decided, "fix it rockstar!", won't even bother to try it.

I'm glad it fixed your problem, tho. We need more of this and less chest thumping from ppl with their nose in the air. They know who they are.

[InDigital]

It is all useless information. You can't change anything to make game run without stuttering if you have less than (for example) 16 gigs of ram, fast hard drive, i7 cpu and GTX 960+ VGA.
Game is poor optimized. There actually is memory leak issues and terrible isues!

They could at least make memory release when changing Jobs online (when map visible from sky view). But with every missiun lags come more and more...

These last 5 years of software development programmers wasting system resources by making frameworks run under frameworks and so on... Every game we see could run a lot better if it could be programmed with love. Like Watch Dogs. Game can be played on Ultra with same hardware as GTAV on medium or low. And it looks a lot lot lot better! Because they made new graphics engine from strach...

So unless you don't have superior system you cant actually play 3D "mario bross". :P
Only these games are made with love!

[Serrel]

Im sure having only 6GB doesnt help either. I would seriously consider some more ram and your CPU is only running at 2.66Ghz which is very slow by todays standards (My i5 is clocked at 4.4) and prolly why setting pre-rendered to 1 helps as the CPU only prepares 1 frame at a time for the GFX card. I am very sure that your CPU is severely bottlenecking your GFX Card.

[KevinLongtime]

Originally posted by InDigital:

It is all useless information. You can't change anything to make game run without stuttering if you have less than (for example) 16 gigs of ram, fast hard drive, i7 cpu and GTX 960+ VGA.
Game is poor optimized. There actually is memory leak issues and terrible isues!

While I agree this game definitely has some problems that needs addressing to optimize performance and stuttering, these options HAVE taken away stuttering for me for the most part. So the information is not useless and could possibly benifit someone else.

But I am greatly awaiting a patch from rockstar so that we don't have to use work arounds.

Originally posted by Serrel:

Im sure having only 6GB doesnt help either. I would seriously consider some more ram and your CPU is only running at 2.66Ghz which is very slow by todays standards (My i5 is clocked at 4.4) and prolly why setting pre-rendered to 1 helps as the CPU only prepares 1 frame at a time for the GFX card. I am very sure that your CPU is severely bottlenecking your GFX Card.

Yeah, it really doesn't. However I'm at a point where my game is functioning pretty great despite having 6GB of ram! I'm sure it would run even better once I upgrade but as of right now it really is running great when it used to stutter all the time. Sadly my current motherboard is known for throwing a fit when you put 12gb in it so I need to get that sorted before I upgrade. I agree! I should look into overclocking it again. I used to have it overclocked but that was before I got a good third party cooler and didnt want to mess too far with temps.

Originally posted by DynOmite!:

Good to know. I wonder how many ppl with weirded out rigs and configs having this problem, who have already decided, "fix it rockstar!", won't even bother to try it.

I'm glad it fixed your problem, tho. We need more of this and less chest thumping from ppl with their nose in the air. They know who they are.

Thanks man! Did your system have any problems with the game or did you luck out?

[Hidekisys]

I fixed mine with turning off Shader Cache in the Nvidia Control Panel, I'm on a 980 by the way.