Graphics Stutters When Skype/Telegram Alerts Pop-up

[Oxygenetic]

Hi TPU members!

I'm new to the forum but have frequented TPU for information on reviews and the like.. Hopefully the community can shed some light on an issue I've been having.

Firstly here are my system stats:

Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme6
CPU - Core i7-3770K
RAM - 8 GB Corsair Vengeance (I can't remember the clock speed)
HDD - 2x SanDisk 250GB SSD, 1X 1TB WD HDD
Graphics - 1x EVGA GTX 670 (basic with 2GB)
Screens - 2x Dell U2412M
PSU - I think i have a 550W unit... Don't remember the brand though.
Nothing has been overclocked.

Everything's peachy keen for the past 3.5 years except I had to switch the graphics card to the second PCI-e slot in Jan 2015. For some reason the first slot wasn't working well and the PC keeps stuttering or playing videos in really slow motion accompanied by slowed down sound. I simply swapped slots and all was well; even the windows experience index got a boost from the swap.

I recently got the second monitor as I needed more screen real estate. I usually game on one of my monitors and have other data up on the other (websites, news streams, text-based data, graphs and charts). I noticed while playing Dota 2, when I get a pop-up alert from Skype or Telegram, the whole game stutters really badly and only disappears when I manually close the alert or it disappears after the time out. I usually play games on full screen windowed mode so I can alt-tab faster. It's not just this game but others like Heroes of the Storm, Diablo 3, StarCraft II. I have them at close to max settings (the game auto calibrates). I don't usually play anything heavy duty like Watch Dogs, Far Cry and the like.

Is the 2GB VRAM causing the stutter? If so and I have to upgrade, will the pretty old motherboard suffer from any PCI-e bottlenecks from the faster cards currently out there? I don't think it's the PCI-e slot even though the stutter is similar... It only happens when there's a pop-up. Sometimes I can stream Twitch videos on the secondary screen and the game seems fine.

Or perhaps something else is causing this? Any help is appreciated and do let me know if I can get you guys more information to help me troubleshoot this.

Cheers and thanks in advance everyone!

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Very unlikely that the VRAM is causing stuttering in those games.

I have had problems with skype in the past in the form of memory and processing leaks and would generally advise anyone to avoid it.

I would suggest looking at your CPU (and other) usage when this happens, it could reveal where the bottleneck comes from.

 

[GhostRyder]

Hi TPU members!

I'm new to the forum but have frequented TPU for information on reviews and the like.. Hopefully the community can shed some light on an issue I've been having.

Firstly here are my system stats:

Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme6
CPU - Core i7-3770K
RAM - 8 GB Corsair Vengeance (I can't remember the clock speed)
HDD - 2x SanDisk 250GB SSD, 1X 1TB WD HDD
Graphics - 1x EVGA GTX 670 (basic with 2GB)
Screens - 2x Dell U2412M
PSU - I think i have a 550W unit... Don't remember the brand though.
Nothing has been overclocked.

Everything's peachy keen for the past 3.5 years except I had to switch the graphics card to the second PCI-e slot in Jan 2015. For some reason the first slot wasn't working well and the PC keeps stuttering or playing videos in really slow motion accompanied by slowed down sound. I simply swapped slots and all was well; even the windows experience index got a boost from the swap.

I recently got the second monitor as I needed more screen real estate. I usually game on one of my monitors and have other data up on the other (websites, news streams, text-based data, graphs and charts). I noticed while playing Dota 2, when I get a pop-up alert from Skype or Telegram, the whole game stutters really badly and only disappears when I manually close the alert or it disappears after the time out. I usually play games on full screen windowed mode so I can alt-tab faster. It's not just this game but others like Heroes of the Storm, Diablo 3, StarCraft II. I have them at close to max settings (the game auto calibrates). I don't usually play anything heavy duty like Watch Dogs, Far Cry and the like.

Is the 2GB VRAM causing the stutter? If so and I have to upgrade, will the pretty old motherboard suffer from any PCI-e bottlenecks from the faster cards currently out there? I don't think it's the PCI-e slot even though the stutter is similar... It only happens when there's a pop-up. Sometimes I can stream Twitch videos on the secondary screen and the game seems fine.

Or perhaps something else is causing this? Any help is appreciated and do let me know if I can get you guys more information to help me troubleshoot this.

Cheers and thanks in advance everyone!

Well if its the way you described all that is the messages taking over the GPU instead of the game. Might be better to turn Skype onto do not disturb while playing and see if that helps.

 

[RCoon]

Plug your secondary monitor into the motherboard output instead. Ensure your iGPU is turned on in BIOS as it will usually automatically turn off when a graphics card is detected. You can still do multi display with iGPU and dedicated GPU running separate displays. It will also alleviate GPU hoarding from Skype provided it's displayed on the monitor hooked up to the iGPU

 

[bubbleawsome]

Is the game screen losing focus? If so you'll need to disable alerts

 

[OneMoar]

simple solution is to disable skypes overlay

 

[Oxygenetic]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I'm certain turning Skype notifications off will fix the problem but I sorta got used to it and need them for work.. And the game screen isn't losing focus, the pop-up occurs on the secondary screen and I can continue my actions in-game with no problems.

But I'll certainly check for CPU and other usage during such occurrences and try the iGPU method as well.

Was concerned the 2GB wasn't large enough for two 24" screens but I'll try the above and see if there's any other reason for the issue.

Thanks again all!

 

[OneMoar]

not a hardware issue just skype being garbage... which it is ...