Intermittent lag spikes

[noodlecake]

Hi

I have an RTX 2070, Ryzen 2600X and 16GB RAM and am running the game on an SSD.

Basically everything runs smooth with ultra settings for everything and everything turned up full at 1080p, except every 20-25 seconds I get a little lag spike. It's really irritating and totally ruins the experience.

Following advice I've read online I have:

Set my frame limit at 59 in the config as my monitor's refresh rate is slightly less than 60Hz.

I've set the maximum pre-rendered frames to 1 in NVidia Control Panel.

I've disabled V-Sync in the game and enabled it in NVidia Control Panel. (I get screen tearing with no v-sync).

I've disabled the GeForce overlay thing.


Does anybody have any ideas on what I can do to fix this? It doesn't seem like an issue caused by just not having good enough hardware as I get smooth frames except for those little spikes. I don't think turning off hairworks, for examples, would be a solution (Kind of defeats the purpose of me having just upgraded my PC too!).

[Vega Count]

Documents/The Witcher 3/user.settings:

For a huge perfomance improvement when playing on Ultra-Settings, set Cascade Shadowmap Size from 3072 to 2048 and also raise the Texture Memory Budget from 800 to 3600. With these two changes, especially the first one, you will get a lot of FPS and a smoother experience.

[noodlecake]

Originally posted by WhyteKnight:

Documents/The Witcher 3/user.settings:

For a huge perfomance improvement when playing on Ultra-Settings, set Cascade Shadowmap Size from 3072 to 2048 and also raise the Texture Memory Budget from 800 to 3600. With these two changes, especially the first one, you will get a lot of FPS and a smoother experience.

Cool. I've done that. I'm still getting the intermittent lag spikes. I tried just standing still and spinning the camera and it was about 20-25 seconds between the little freezes but they really take you out of the moment in battles and stuff.

[Vega Count]

Have you any mods installed?

[noodlecake]

Originally posted by WhyteKnight:

Have you any mods installed?

Just a textures mod, but I have the same issue with no mods too. I reinstalled windows because I was having a lot off issues with a lot of games and it fixed most of the issues. Installed Steam and The Witcher 3 again and tried it and had these issues, and then installed the hd textures mod and continued to have the same issues with no real change in FPS or anything.

[Vega Count]

Indeed, if you're talking "The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project", new version 10, then some people are reporting these lag spikes - myself included. It also has issues with HBAO+, seemingly, not to mention the puddles.. I've now removed it pending further improvement.

Instead I use:
1 (Base) The Ultra High Definition Project: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2126?tab=files
2 The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project 5.1 (the older, one-folder version)
3 HDRP_UPhoenixTP1 and HDRP_UPhoenixTP2: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1505?tab=files

*base having lowest piority, TP1+2 having highest.

With a couple of misc. other textures like candles, birds etc., then this is a working alternative with no stutters/lags.

Also, here are recommended Nvidia settings:
Anisotropic filtering: 16x
Antialiasing - Gamma correction: Off
Maximum pre-rendered frames: 1
Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample optimisation: Off
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Clamp
Texture filtering - Quality: High quality
Texture filtering - Trilinear optimisation: Off
Vertical Sync: On

...and in-game settings:
Navigate to Options > Video > PostProcessing.
Click High preset button.
Set Sharpening to Low.
Set Ambient Occlusion to HBAO+.
Navigate to Options > Video > Graphics.
Click Ultra preset button.
Set Vertical Sync to Off.
Set Maximum Frames Per Second to Unlimited.
Set NVIDIA Hairworks AA to 2.
Set Foliage Visibility to High.
Set Shadows to High.
Set Hardware Cursor to On.

Hope this helps.

[tlktk]

I would try to Up the Ram speed as high you can get it (higher Hz, lower CL, higher voltage) and OC the mouse so the report rate becomes faster. Also may help to work with the cpu in make each core a bit faster. You shouldn't have to take any specific actions with your gpu as it already one of the fastest on the market.

I'm using nvidias v-sync as well with this game, it seems to work best.
Keeping my game capped at 60fps with afterburner.

It should also be possible to switch which fps windows uses in EDID with tools like cru.
It's a tool that can check what settings nvidia loads into windows each time a new driver is installed in the system. So you sure it's uses correct settings, like ++ for best color reproduction etc. https://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/Custom-Resolution-Utility.shtml

You might as well see a tiny difference in the camera flow if the game is clamped or not.

[noodlecake]

Hey! I'm 90% sure it's fixed! I basically just set my frame limit to 30fps to see if I got any hitching and I didn't, so I set it to 60fps and seemingly still no hitching.

I think maybe the advice you gave in your first reply would have fixed the problem but having my frame limit set at 59fps was causing issues somehow? Now it's at 60 it seems fine.

Thank you so much for the advice anyway. If i have any more problems I will try what you have suggested and report back.

[noodlecake]

Originally posted by WhyteKnight:

Indeed, if you're talking "The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project", new version 10, then some people are reporting these lag spikes - myself included. It also has issues with HBAO+, seemingly, not to mention the puddles.. I've now removed it pending further improvement.

I was talking about that mod indeed. I will check out the AO and puddles now. I hope they don't look too bad. I don't want to have to fiddle around too much more if I can help it... Although it is strangely fun to tinker with this stuff.

[noodlecake]

No. Never mind. I had no hitching for 10 minutes then pretty much and now it's started again.

[Progus]

What fixed it for me was using a program called Intelligent standby memory cleaner. Worth a try, can google it.

[Vega Count]

Yeah, troubleshooting this stuff can be time consuming, but helps later if/when it happens again.

If you're on Win10 - Game Bar, Background Recording, Captures and Game Mode in Settings/Gaming is often cited as causing stuttering. Turn them all off and test...

Try with antivirus and internet off.

Close all non-crucial apps/services especially AfterBurner, Fraps etc...

Oh, when you tested without HDReworked Project v10, did you remember to replace Bin folder with default (supplied in "Config backup" folder)? I still suspect this as I had it too, until I completely uninstalled it.

Verify game install files?

Launch outside of Steam, directly from game executable?

If worst comes to worst, uninstall game, clean registry (e.g. CCleaner) and reinstall, verify files and try again.

All I can think of at moment.

Good luck...

[Vulkan]

Originally posted by Progus:

What fixed it for me was using a program called Intelligent standby memory cleaner. Worth a try, can google it.

Highly recommend this. Set it so it runs at system startup aswell as being minimzed , set and forget 😀. Even if it doesn't fix your hitching in this case it is definitely still worth getting as it fixes stutters in certain games such as the division 2.

[Eibez]

What are your temperatures during playing? Is your Graphics card hitting temp. limit/ power limit/ Voltage limit?