Could the fact I stutter in certain games mean faulty GPU/CPU?

[Hoppled]

I've been doing extensive troubleshooting, only thing I can do now is replace my CPU and GPU one by one. They are new, got the CPU/GPU a few months ago AND I recently just replaced my motherboard and RAM. Here is a link to a comprehensive thread I made on tomshardware: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/very-sad-many-games-stutter-often-on-new-system-no-possible-fix-it-seems.3799469/

Basically, I get high framerates in all games - no issue with low framerate. However, I get these little, annoying frame drops of only a few frames - sometimes even 1 or 2 frames can cause a microstutter.

Deep Rock Galactic, Dead By Daylight and Portal have it really bad. Then, Red Dead Redemption 2, Bugsnax and Rainbow Six Siege have no issue at all.

Yet, I feel most games have these little frametime issues, etc.

You can see in that thread how much I've done to troubleshoot... It's just so annoying, since I've done everything software side that I'm aware of - even updated BIOS since a new ver one just dropped last week. Reinstalled windows, etc.

Just upsetting... put hundreds of dollars to a new PC and I cannot even have a smooth experience on 70% of the games I play.

[Komarimaru]

I'd do a cmos reset, if you reset the bios and see how things run at stock settings, no XMP. If smooth, enable XMP profiles etc again and test then.

That sounds exactly like TPM stutter for AMD, but you said you already updated your bios, so going with the the small possibility things just need reset fully just once.

[Tiberius]

It could mean anything: cpu bound, not enough ram, poorly optimized program. Faulty hardware usually has a more widespread effect.

Why not use frame limiter if that bothers you so much

[PopinFRESH]

After resetting your UEFI settings as Komarimaru suggested, if you're still having issues try setting your memory to its XMP profile so its voltage and timings get set, and then manually dropping it to 3200MT/s. Then go to your CPU configuration and ensure your fclock is st to 1600MHz and your FCLK:MCLK:UCLK is 1:1:1.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

It could mean anything: cpu bound, not enough ram, poorly optimized program. Faulty hardware usually has a more widespread effect.

Why not use frame limiter if that bothers you so much

I actually do limit my frames, usually to 120, or a few frames below my monitors refresh rate which is 165 Hz.

It's a 1080p Freesync display. As for RAM, I have 32GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws w/ XMP enabled 3600 MHz. 16-19-19-39-58 are the preset XMP timings.

Here's a CPU-Z validation link for all my specs and config: https://valid.x86.fr/8r66ua

[Komarimaru]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

After resetting your UEFI settings as Komarimaru suggested, if you're still having issues try setting your memory to its XMP profile so its voltage and timings get set, and then manually dropping it to 3200MT/s. Then go to your CPU configuration and ensure your fclock is st to 1600MHz and your FCLK:MCLK:UCLK is 1:1:1.

This right here as well.

If these don't solve the issues is do these steps.

Reseat memory modules and make sure in proper slots

Reseat CPU. This step normally can fix things for many users, since confirms CPU is properly in socket with right tension. Check for bent pins.

Reseat GPU.

Confirm all power cables are fully inserted.

[Heretic]

Try figuring out what engines the problem games are using. A lot of Unreal 4 engine games can suffer from framedrops at high refresh rates, especially if they've been designed for console. The same goes for Unity. Rainbow Six Siege (your non problem game) is quite optimised for PC and can run on older hardware quite well.

[Hoppled]

Originally posted by Heretic:

Try figuring out what engines the problem games are using. A lot of Unreal 4 engine games can suffer from framedrops at high refresh rates, especially if they've been designed for console. The same goes for Unity. Rainbow Six Siege (your non problem game) is quite optimised for PC and can run on older hardware quite well.

Well, this makes sense. Deep Rock Galactic and Dead by Daylight both use the Unreal Engine 4. Rocket League uses Unreal Engine as well, which stutters sometimes too, not nearly as bad as the aforementioned ones.

RDR2 uses the RAGE engine and Siege is the AnvilNext 2.0. Also, just to check, the devs of Wreckfest use their own engine, which is another game that runs butter smooth for me.

The problem seems to be primarily Unreal Engine (I've always hated the unreal engine as an AMD user and question why devs use it so much), however, it wouldn't explain Portal and Hunt: Showdown - although in Hunt's case, the frame issues seem to be of a different cause.

Portal is on the Source engine. I also remember CSGO stuttering for me.

[michaelplehner]

I had a stutter issue as well even in youtube but it was after a driver update. I used DDU and then backdated the drivers. I then reinstalled the update and the stuttering went away. Since the older drivers never had an issue I backdated them again just in case. The current version I am on is 23.2.2. It might be worth a shot.

[Illusion of Progress]

A lot of good advice was given already. Try stock settings (namely, no XMP) to make sure it's not being caused by that.

1. Shader compilation stutter with unreal engine games on PC is a thing unfortunately. This should only occur the "first" time a shader is compiled (at least until the driver is changed or the shader cache otherwise doesn't have it, not sure if restarting the game causes this).

2. Consistent performance isn't a thing. I whine and stress this point a lot, but PCs are VERY variable when it comes to performance simply due to the fact that software doesn't load them consistently or evenly (and it's impossible to even on "fixed" platforms like consoles, but even more impossible on platforms like PCs where every configuration varies). So to get something like consistent performance, you need a frame rate cap, and then you need EVERY part of your PC to be able to meet that frame rate value at the lowest/most demanding possible scenario. This is not always easy, even on "high end" (which is a meaningless, arbitrary distinction) hardware. If anything, it probably occurs more often on better PCs because you're more likely to be after a higher frame rate value.

Namely, when you changed your monitor, if you moved to a higher refresh rate display (like 60 to 165, but even 120/144 to 165), you possibly vastly increased the performance you need to have in your worse case scenario in order to still match your frame rate quota. And CPUs take a LONG time these days to double in IPC because they just don't advance like they used to (mentioning this because stutter is often not the GPU but the CPU).

If you set a frame rate limit of 60 FPS, or 120 FPS, or whatever, what happens? I'm curious because I'm wondering/thinking it might be reduced or even gone.

FWIW, I have that "same" RAM (just more of it) and it played well with a 3700X and now my 5800X3D on both an Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming and my current MSI MAG X570S Tomahawk Max, so it's PROBABLY not the RAM unless your motherboard isn't handling it well (my based-on-nothing-but-hunch guess is your CPU and board is handling it fine though). You can try stuff like disabling XMP and lowering the speed/FCLK as others have advised, but my own guess is it's probably not related to that.

I find it unlikely that the CPU or GPU is faulty, but that's based less in fact of knowing it's not, and more based in the fact that stuttering has a lot of causes and you'd likely be seeing many other symptoms if you had a faulty CPU or GPU.

It might just be something you have to deal with or turn the frame rate cap down to minimize.

[DevaVictrix]

Are the games installed on a hdd or ssd? There’s a few games I’ve got that are barely playable off a hdd for me.

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:

Are the games installed on a hdd or ssd? There’s a few games I’ve got that are barely playable off a hdd for me.

Yes, this is worth asking, too. I presumed OP was running them on the SSD but it's worth asking.

I see in the other thread that OP noticed this as soon as they upgraded the GPU and monitor (so, before the CPU/motherboard/RAM/SSD changes enter into it). Which gives us some more information.

I think it's just a case of the likely higher refresh rate meaning it's going to be that much harder to get consistent performance, and the fact it happened with the monitor (and GPU) change does support this. Also supports that the CPU/RAM/FCLK/FTPM stutter concerns PROBABLY aren't involved (though worth ruling out still).

If OP could try with the old monitor (ideally more conclusive than using the new monitor capped to the old refresh rate) but with the rest of the new hardware, it'd rule this out either way.

[[N]ebsun]

Did you do any overclocking at all ?
Disable it, run at stock and get lower temps - oc is great for short bursts of extra computation, but usually worse anything longer.

[Rod]

I found some games will feel bad no matter what you do. I have an amazing feeling setup and love how smooth my games are at 280hz. But some games like CSGO feel so garbage you would think its a system fault. Its not its that game only....


Troubleshoot in a well known stutter free game at highest fps your hz allows and low settings. And using prerendered frames 1 and free/gsync setup correct as in ingame triplebuffer and vsync must be off and only enable vsync in control panel. I would use Overwatch its a great modern engine to test on or maybe Doom in vulkan?


If you want smooth gameplay, My reccomendation is learn to slimline your install and OS for gaming only and start removing programs and tools. And consider testing 240hz. I say this as i had personally had games that i never liked smoothness wise and when i went to 240hz it mostly dissapeared as i guess the engine was poor to begin with and ultra high fps made it unoticeable. You do say some games are ok i think it sounds like a unoptimized and untweaked setup system combined with badly coded games.

[Pocahawtness]

I think stuttering has become the modern scourge of gaming. It may be your PC it may just be your game. I would check with other uses on a game per game basis.

[Castyles]

Bottleneck, temps, storage, RAM, drivers and even the games, themselves.

Crap thing about PC gaming is that lots of stuff can count as culprits.