Micro-stutter in Games After Clean Install of Windows

[jtg1270]

I recently had the permissions on my C drive corrupted, which forced me to do a clean install of Windows. My c drive was located on a boot drive (SSD), whereas my steam library is located on a 2TB mechanical drive. After the clean install, I noticed that my steam library and client were still intact on the media drive, and Steam and my games loaded normally. During game play, however, I noticed some micro-stuttering in somes (PCars 2, Assetto Corsa, The Witcher 3). My question: Is it better to re-install steam and all of my games? Also, there are some other factors potentially at play here:

1. The clean install of Windows initiated the download and installation of the latest creator's update, which was not installed before.

2. I updated to the latest Nvidia driver, which was not installed before.

So, I am not sure which variable might be causing the issue. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

SYSTEM: i7 (skylake), GTX 1080, 16 GB RAM WIN 10 Home 64-bit

[FluffyPinkDecoyBunny]

Any game you want to play, I'd suggest you verify game file integrity. If that doesn't fix it - pick one game you normally play, uninstall and re-install it to see if that helps.

If you're still having issues, perhaps try an older WHQL Nvidia driver. Not all driver updates work for all computer configurations, so sometimes new isn't always better.

[EliteGamer]

It's the Nvidia drivers. All the new drivers cause stutter. I've gone back to driver 385.69 because that's the last driver that plays my games fine.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

If it's NVIDIA you're getting microstutter due to the GPU boost ramping up. The latest drivers seem to not compensate for it like they did with Driver Version 385.69. Just do a clean install of that driver version and you'll be OK.

[SoldierScar]

It's a combination of Creators update and bad latest Nvidia drivers.
Download drivers 388.00 or older and turn off all game mode junk in windows 10 + tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" in properties of each game .exe file.

[jtg1270]

Wow, two bad "updates"...that's unfortunate.

[SoldierScar]

Originally posted by jtg1270:

Wow, two bad "updates"...that's unfortunate.

Yes i'm getting sick of this, the last time i built a pc for gaming.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Originally posted by SoldierScar:

It's a combination of Creators update and bad latest Nvidia drivers.
Download drivers 388.00 or older and turn off all game mode junk in windows 10 + tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" in properties of each game .exe file.

I didn't really notice the affect the full screen optimizations had until I played CSGO. It will cause input lag on top of CSGO's already annoying issues with increased input lag.

[SoldierScar]

Originally posted by 🐱Sir Edmund's Spoopy Kitteh:

Originally posted by SoldierScar:

It's a combination of Creators update and bad latest Nvidia drivers.
Download drivers 388.00 or older and turn off all game mode junk in windows 10 + tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" in properties of each game .exe file.

I didn't really notice the affect the full screen optimizations had until I played CSGO. It will cause input lag on top of CSGO's already annoying issues with increased input lag.

It basically works like a borderless fullscreen mode..you get much faster and easier alt-tabbing at the cost of higher input lag, more variable frametimes and possibly stuttering or performance loss. And this might be only one of the causes of stuttering, some people including me didn't find a way to remove the stuttering in frostbite engine games (BF1, ME:A) after all this time, only fix is going back to 1607 build (Anniversary), MS even confirmed there is an issue with stuttering and will fix it with FCU but they fixed ♥♥♥♥..Microsoft is really killing gaming and nvidia don't help it with their drivers, they are the new AMD.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Originally posted by SoldierScar:

Originally posted by 🐱Sir Edmund's Spoopy Kitteh:

I didn't really notice the affect the full screen optimizations had until I played CSGO. It will cause input lag on top of CSGO's already annoying issues with increased input lag.

It basically works like a borderless fullscreen mode..you get much faster and easier alt-tabbing at the cost of higher input lag, more variable frametimes and possibly stuttering or performance loss. And this might be only one of the causes of stuttering, some people including me didn't find a way to remove the stuttering in frostbite engine games (BF1, ME:A) after all this time, only fix is going back to 1607 build (Anniversary), MS even confirmed there is an issue with stuttering and will fix it with FCU but they fixed ♥♥♥♥..Microsoft is really killing gaming and nvidia don't help it with their drivers, they are the new AMD.

Crap...yeah I forgot about borderless fullscreen reducing input lag on Windows 10.

 -noborder -windowed 

in the launch options

Also turning off Raw Input and Mouse Acceleration helped.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Shutup10 would be useful to use for a new OS install

DDU should be used for the NVIDIA driver, this will also stop Windows from downloading its NVIDIA driver before you have a chance to do a manual install, which may mess things up in the process.

Make sure all Windows Updates are completed as well.

[FluffyPinkDecoyBunny]

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

Shutup10 would be useful to use for a new OS install

DDU should be used for the NVIDIA driver, this will also stop Windows from downloading its NVIDIA driver before you have a chance to do a manual install, which may mess things up in the process.

Make sure all Windows Updates are completed as well.

Just download the driver you want to install and simply unplug your ethernet cable or disable the wifi on your computer before you install the new driver. Easy enough to do.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Originally posted by FluffyPinkDecoyBunny:

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

Shutup10 would be useful to use for a new OS install

DDU should be used for the NVIDIA driver, this will also stop Windows from downloading its NVIDIA driver before you have a chance to do a manual install, which may mess things up in the process.

Make sure all Windows Updates are completed as well.

Just download the driver you want to install and simply unplug your ethernet cable or disable the wifi on your computer before you install the new driver. Easy enough to do.

Yeah im aware of that, but besides the point.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You need to get off Creators Update and get on Fall Update; then all that Gaming Mode crap is disabled by default like it should be, and NVIDIA Drivers aren't a problem, ones like 388.00 are only meant to work on Win10 Fall Update 1709

You also need to go get all your other Drivers and install those...
Chipset, Audio, LAN, WiFi, etc...

Get them from the Chipset Makers Sites directly.
Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Realtek, etc.

[jtg1270]

Originally posted by 🐱Sir Edmund's Spoopy Kitteh:

If it's NVIDIA you're getting microstutter due to the GPU boost ramping up. The latest drivers seem to not compensate for it like they did with Driver Version 385.69. Just do a clean install of that driver version and you'll be OK.

Hey, just wanted to thank you for this tip. I downgraded to 385.69 and the issue has been resolved.