Sudden Screen Tearing in most games!

[Brokencarr00t1]

Hello guys!

First of all my PC ( About 3-4 months old , builded myself)

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k 3.5Ghz
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz
SSD (Windows 7) : Samsung 850 Evo 120Gb
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003 3.5 1TB
MOTHERBOARD : Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
PSU: Corsair CX600m
CASE: NZXT Source s340
MONITOR : BENQ 1080x1920 Full HD 60hz


PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THREAD IF YOU ARE WILLING TO HELP ME AND SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH!

So , recently ive builded a gaming pc hoping to handle all games without any problem. First time ive started a PC and installed Windows 8.1 on SSD. PC worked great , without any problem. First games ive tried was Dying Light , Fifa 15 , FarCry4 , Battlefield 4. They worked perfectly , without any problem. FPS was high , very smooth gameplay and i NEVER used vsync. I was really happy with my build. I should mention too that when ive first builded this PC ive builded it without HDD ( bought only SSD then cause i was short with my budget).

So finally ive managed to get money to buy HDD as well. Ive decided to buy Seagate Barracuda 1TB, got it and i mounted it. I wanted to reinstall Windows 8.1 as well because i got ne HDD , i mean why not? Wanted to put Windows 8.1 and programs on SSD , games on HDD. I did it. I did format both SSD and HDD then installed Windows 8.1 ( same copy) on SSD together with some programs on it. Games on HDD.

First game i installed was Dying Light (High settings) . My FPS was very high about 90 but game was stuttering as hell, if i pay atention carefuly i can see that is small screen tearing happening whole the time. Its like FPS DROP despite my FPS is very high. It was same feeling like FPS usually does, when im in close tight area its smooth as butter , but when i go in open area with lot of things happening then i get that weird stuttering/screen tearing (my fps does not drop below 70). But when i lower settings to low there is a less stuttering / screen tearing. Sadly for me , but dying light is not only game that stutters/screen tearing. I get this in FarCry 4 (game that worked well before) Then i get a lot in Battlefield Hardline , Battlefield 4 (only in 62 players open areas) and many more games. When playing GTA V screen tearing is more noticable , and does not feel choppy as much as Dying Light , its more screen tearing thing (still very unplayable). But in other hand there is a games like Alien : Isolation , Assassins Creed Black Flag who do not have this issue. I dont know why Alien : Isolation does not have it ( probably cause is not to demanding games) But AC Black Flag have forced vsync i guess , which pervents game to stutter/screen tear.

Enabling a vsynch fixe all this issues. But this is a not option for me , cause vsync introduce a lot of spikes (i belive input lag is called). So do you know what can cause this sudden stutter / screen tearing? And please do not tell me that this is normal and that all games will screen tear when gaming on 60hz monitor. As i said this never happened before. I got some screen tearing here and there but nothing that makes game unplayable.

I have installed latest invidia Nvidia drivers. Windows 8.1 is updated.

 

[Cvrk]

GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690k 3.5Ghz
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz
SSD (Windows 7) : Samsung 850 Evo 120Gb
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003 3.5 1TB
MOTHERBOARD : Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
PSU: Corsair CX600m
CASE: NZXT Source s340
MONITOR : BENQ 1080x1920 Full HD 60hz

No idea what your problem is. There a lot of experts around, i'm sure they will help out. As for me i can only envy and say congratulations! That is a dream pc for me. Absolutely gorgeous configurations. Wish i had the money. Good for you man.....good for you

 

[Ruyki]

Screen tearing is completely normal and should not cause you to not have a smooth experience.
Same thing with vsync input lag.

I think you may have another problem that is causing your issue.

Check background programs. Also make sure your GPU and CPU are not overheating. It's a long shot but weird stutter may also be caused by the CPU / GPU switching power states, or not operating in the right state so check that.

 

[Brokencarr00t1]

No idea what your problem is. There a lot of experts around, i'm sure they will help out. As for me i can only envy and say congratulations! That is a dream pc for me. Absolutely gorgeous configurations. Wish i had the money. Good for you man.....good for you

Well , thanks. I was building this pc one year. Finally im done and now this :/ I wish that i could enjoy gaming too :/

Screen tearing is completely normal and should not cause you to not have a smooth experience.
Same thing with vsync input lag.

I think you may have another problem that is causing your issue.

Check background programs. Also make sure your GPU and CPU are not overheating. It's a long shot but weird stutter may also be caused by the CPU / GPU switching power states, or not operating in the right state so check that.

GPU and CPU temps are fine.

These are programs im running on my windows , anything that you see weird ?

http://s23.postimg.org/be5hixgkb/Screen_Shot_20150423224501.png
http://s23.postimg.org/eotuit6hn/Screen_Shot_20150423224521.png
http://s23.postimg.org/bfffccie3/Screen_Shot_20150423224537.png
http://s23.postimg.org/iwomrk7x7/Screen_Shot_20150423224614.png
http://s23.postimg.org/7gi7titqz/Screen_Shot_20150423224624.png

 

[Ruyki]

I don't see anything wrong in those screenshots.

 

[Caring1]

It may be a SATA controller issue, try moving the Seagate Drive to a different port away from the SSD.
Only guessing as a lot of boards use separate controllers for the ports, due to limitations in the controller and CPU.

 

[Vayra86]

From what I can distill you are NOT having a real problem, it's just a normal issue that happens at high or fluctuating framerates (or in general, FPS not in sync with monitor refresh rate).

I see you have MSI Afterburner on your system. Installed along with that app you get Rivatuner RTSS (should show in taskbar as it opens/closes with AB) Click on that little monitor icon with the pink '60' in its corner and you get the Rivatuner Statistics Server. Set a framerate cap at 60 and see if the tear still exists. If it does, try using 59 as a framerate cap. One game may handle a 60 fps cap better than a 59 cap or vice versa, so experiment with this.

If that still doesn't suit you, enable Adaptive Vsync within the Nvidia config screen for all games. This can help to reduce input lag compared to Vsync. But it can also cause 'jumps' from going between 60 and 30 fps Vsynced, though this seems unlikely with your graphics card.

Remember a couple of things about gaming and game engines for future reference:

- Every engine handles Vsync differently, one may introduce more input lag than the other, but unless you play competitively or online, the influence of it is very limited especially if you are running a framerate that is always higher than 60 fps.
- Adaptive Vsync is more flexible for framerate drops than regular Vsync.
- Every engine handles high framerates differently. One engine may become extremely choppy above monitor refresh rate, the other may be silky smooth. Some show lots of ghosting, others do not.

The reason you have more apparent tearing in open world environments is because of view distance: being able to see lots of objects from a transition going inside>outside causes a framedrop - it is the framedrop that you see because you are not using a FPS cap. A very good tweak for improving Dying Light's smoothness is by lowering View Distance. It is hardly noticeable but dramatically improves performance.

Low FPS/spikes in BF4 64 player maps is likely due to a CPU bottleneck, not GPU. Overclocking CPU will help in reducing this.

As you can probably see, the issue is slightly different for every game, because every game taxes different components in a different way. It really is a balancing trick that you have to do per game.

To be clear, I do NOT think you have a 'sudden' issue where you didn't have problems earlier, as enabling Vsync fixes your problems like you said - Vsync is actually quite resource-intensive, more so than a framerate cap.

Some things you can do 'to be sure' that will reduce spikes in gameplay due to loading from SSD or HDD:
- What Caring1 said: some SATA ports may be on a separate controller. ALWAYS have as many drives on the chipset native controllers and try to avoid the 'lesser' SATA 3 ports.
- Make sure your SSD is set to AHCI mode (in BIOS or Samsung Magician)
- Make sure your pagefile is on the SSD
- Check if you have Overprovisioning. SSD's need this to stay fast when they are (nearly) full
- Check SMART status of SSD and HDD for any values. Magician doesn't offer a lot of explanation with the different SMART codes, but HD Tune (pro) does. Just two days ago I fixed hard freezes by swapping my SSD SATA cable because it was causing errors (goes to show how silly some fixes can be).

 

[Aquinus]

To be clear, I do NOT think you have a 'sudden' issue where you didn't have problems earlier, as enabling Vsync fixes your problems like you said - Vsync is actually quite resource-intensive, more so than a framerate cap.

A frame rate cap also doesn't align the frames, so you could very well still get tearing at 60FPS. It sounds to me that vsync was in fact on before (maybe forced somewhere outside of the games?) and now isn't. Tearing alone isn't an indication of a problem.

The OP should probably just turn vsync on and call it a day if it really is that bothersome.

Side note: It wouldn't be the first time I've seen someone with 8GB of memory run out and start trashing while playing a game either (even more so if stuff is open in the background.)

 

[Cvrk]

How to properly configure the SSD as boot drive and HDD as storage drive

 

[azngreentea01]

This issue would be the your seagate HDD . Try install one or two games on your SSD, if the Screen Tearing stop. Then we know it is a harddrive issue. If it doesnt stop the screen tearing, we will start looking somewhere else. Try to start with that first.

ALso can you screen shot your motherboard and cable connection with your SSD and HDD?
Is your computer install, intel rapid storage technology, this will also help with HDD.

Thanks.

 

[vega22]

my money is on new driver version since new install.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

use an app to limit your fps to 59fps to keep it just below your monitors refresh rate, or upgrade to 120-144hz monitor. Otherwise live with the tearing, you will get it no matter what if your GPU is able to output higher frames then your monitors refresh rate.

 

[Brokencarr00t1]

I dont understand why do you guys saying that i dont have any problem and that this is all normal , and you dont belive me that i never expirienced this before. Do you take me as a sick person who forgets things? Well im perfectly healthy and my memory is pretty good. So i know that i wasnt getting this sutters before when i have installed windows 8.1 for the first time. Now i getting this stutters and tiny screen tears and you say its normal. Well let me ask you does screen tearing makes game unplayable for you , that you feel like youre getting framerate drops? I bet it not. Well it does for me. Make games unplayable , otherwise i would enjoy my powerful pc. I never said that i was never getting screen tearing , well i did but its almost zero comparing to what i get now. It does not feel like is screen tearing , its feel more like micro stuttering, but when i look carefuly and close i can notice that is very small screen tearing that happening very fast to make me think is stutter. SO DONT SAY TO ME THAT THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL CAUSE ITS NOT , OTHERWISE NO ONE SHOULD BUY HIGH END PC TO ENJOY HIGH FPS AND SMOOTH GAMEPLAY WHEN THEY CAN PLAY UNDER 60 FPS ON LOW END PC. CAUSE THAT FEELS FOR ME RIGHT NOW , LIKE IM PLAYING ON LOW END PC WHEN VSYNC IS OFF WITH HIGH FPS. Sorry about caps lock , but im really tired reading that people dont belive me and makes me look stupid!

So ive tried :

To cap fps at many different values , screen tearing gets bigger but still unplayable , no sttuttering then.
I did tried messing with paging file.
I did tried some older gpu drivers but not all.
Tried to install games on ssd , same problem occurs.
Ive checked SSD to be in AHCI in bios and it is.
Making vsync on with frame cap to 59 reduces input lag but make game stutter ever 1-2 seconds.

Im happy to try more suggestions , i really want to try to fix this problem before starting change parts.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I dont understand why do you guys saying that i dont have any problem and that this is all normal , and you dont belive me that i never expirienced this before. Do you take me as a sick person who forgets things? Well im perfectly healthy and my memory is pretty good. So i know that i wasnt getting this sutters before when i have installed windows 8.1 for the first time. Now i getting this stutters and tiny screen tears and you say its normal. Well let me ask you does screen tearing makes game unplayable for you , that you feel like youre getting framerate drops? I bet it not. Well it does for me. Make games unplayable , otherwise i would enjoy my powerful pc. I never said that i was never getting screen tearing , well i did but its almost zero comparing to what i get now. It does not feel like is screen tearing , its feel more like micro stuttering, but when i look carefuly and close i can notice that is very small screen tearing that happening very fast to make me think is stutter. SO DONT SAY TO ME THAT THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL CAUSE ITS NOT , OTHERWISE NO ONE SHOULD BUY HIGH END PC TO ENJOY HIGH FPS AND SMOOTH GAMEPLAY WHEN THEY CAN PLAY UNDER 60 FPS ON LOW END PC. CAUSE THAT FEELS FOR ME RIGHT NOW , LIKE IM PLAYING ON LOW END PC WHEN VSYNC IS OFF WITH HIGH FPS. Sorry about caps lock , but im really tired reading that people dont belive me and makes me look stupid!

So ive tried :

To cap fps at many different values , screen tearing gets bigger but still unplayable , no sttuttering then.
I did tried messing with paging file.
I did tried some older gpu drivers but not all.
Tried to install games on ssd , same problem occurs.
Ive checked SSD to be in AHCI in bios and it is.
Making vsync on with frame cap to 59 reduces input lag but make game stutter ever 1-2 seconds.

Im happy to try more suggestions , i really want to try to fix this problem before starting change parts.

What you do need to know whether or not you want to believe it, is that screen tearing is normal, especially if your GPU is able to output more frames then your monitor is able to output every second. Screen tearing is also due to the monitor and GPU being out of sync, this is one of the many issues that G-Sync (Nvidia display technology, done from hardware module board in the monitor) and FreeSync (AMDs version that uses newest VESA display port standard and is done via software) are trying to solve. Now I do believe that either you werent getting this issue before, or you are just now noticing it the more you play, which is what I will say is actually happening.

Also don't use Vsync + a frame cap. One or the other. You can use a feature in MSI Afterburner that will allow you to set an FPS cap in any of your games, as long as you install the Rivatuner server feature or whatever during the installation process.

Another solution which is a bit on the extreme side, is upgrading to a 120-144hz monitor so you can enjoy frames higher then 60fps with very little to no screen tears. I went from a 60hz screen to a 1440p PLS that is native 60hz, but I overclocked it to 96hz, and its been an awesome transition. I notice the different in Battlefield mostly. I get zero tearing and my FPS in in the 80-90s.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-nvidia-g-sync-the-end-of-screen-tear-in-pc-gaming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing

 

[Aquinus]

Making vsync on with frame cap to 59 reduces input lag but make game stutter ever 1-2 seconds.

Are you absolutely certain that you're computer isn't swapping pages because it needs to make room in memory for the game? It wasn't more than 2 months ago that someone else came on complaining about stuttering like this and come to find out he was running out of physical memory despite having 8GB of ram. So while you may have enough physical memory to run the game okay, it may not be enough memory to run everything from system memory and the blips could be page faults/swaps while the game is running. Running resource monitor or task manager while the game is running (with the issue occurring) and alt-tabbing back out to see if system memory is filled up. I personally haven't been playing any newer games, but I suspect memory requirements have been continuing to grow. I needed 16GB of ram before I got my i7 because I was running out with my typical workload plus StarCraft 2 and that was 3 years ago.

So in summary: Check your memory usage when this occurs to see if you're filled up or not. Also as a side note, try setting your power options to "High Performance." It's entirely possible that the game doesn't need all that much CPU power so it might be running in a lower power state and when it jumps between states it may stutter but that's just conjecture.

Side note: I've used up at 12GB of my 16GB running a typical workload and a game at the same time and in one rare case as much as 14.5GB but that all depends on what you're doing with your tower.

 

[Ruyki]

I still think you have a problem but it's not screen tearing. The fact that you're also noticing screen tearing does not mean it is the cause of your problems. Screen tearing is actually very common and happens every time you are not using vsync of some kind.

 

[Jetster]

I still think you have a problem but it's not screen tearing. The fact that you're also noticing screen tearing does not mean it is the cause of your problems. Screen tearing is actually very common and happens every time you are not using vsync of some kind.

I don't use vsync and never see tearing. Its has to do with having a balanced PC graphics or having non matching refreash rates. Its drawing two frames at one time. So no its not common. The only time i see it is with a SLI or crossfire setup or single powerful card on a 1080p

Get a video of the problem

 

[BiggieShady]

It does not feel like is screen tearing , its feel more like micro stuttering, but when i look carefuly and close i can notice that is very small screen tearing that happening very fast to make me think is stutter.

Did you look at the monitoring graph histories in afterburner, does your GPU change power states while gaming? What is your graphics driver version? All latest directx and visual studio redistributables are installed?

 

[TC-man]

How's your virtual memory setting in Windows? Perhaps make a screenshot of it, so we can help you out.

 

[RejZoR]

I had horrible screen tearing with one AMD Catalyst driver version years ago where I got this horrible tearing if I used MLAA in games. I remember Bioshock 2 tearing like mad.

Have you been updating drivers lately.