Lags and stutters in Windows

[birdie]

Some Linux fans claim (with only anecdotal evidence, of course) that the Windows OS is broken by design and it results in lags and stutters pretty much in all games under Windows.

What's your personal experience while gaming in Windows (7, 8, 10, 11) over the past 10 years?

I don't want people to talk about microstutters in certain modern games based on the UE4 engine where shaders precompilation is disabled or about the situations where your hardware is clearly not up to the task. This is just bad coding/bad design and it's not related to Windows in any shape or form.

 

[Chomiq]

Squad stutters but you can't blame it on Windows but rather bad coding from the dev team.

 

[phanbuey]

Windows is fundamentally stuttery because of the way it handles interrupts and IO and prioritizes background/network services above the game.

That being said there are configurations that are butter smooth 99% of the time, as well as frame pacing / rendering tricks (Gsync) that can make it really good. But there will always be the occasional stutter.

A specialized kernel just for gaming is way smoother tho (consoles).

 

[theFOoL]

Well in my experience not every game is coded/developed the same. Some games have bad hardware seeing then others. That's my 2¢

 

[birdie]

Windows is fundamentally stuttery because of the way it handles interrupts and IO and prioritizes background/network services above the game.

That being said there are configurations that are butter smooth 99% of the time, as well as frame pacing / rendering tricks (Gsync) that can make it really good. But there will always be the occasional stutter.

A specialized kernel just for gaming is way smoother tho (consoles).

This is fundamentally wrong because only server editions "prioritize background/network services above the game". All client Windows versions prioritize foreground tasks.

I've had exactly 0 stutters in Windows over the past decade. We are not in 2000, when PCs had a single CPU [core] and e.g. your AV running in background could simply destroy your experience/performance.

 

[dgianstefani]

Zero stuttering here.

 

[phanbuey]

This is fundamentally wrong because only server editions "prioritize background/network services above the game". All client Windows versions prioritize foregrounIm just d tasks.

I've had exactly 0 stutters in Windows over the past decade. We are not in 2000, when PCs had a single CPU [core] and e.g. your AV running in background could simply destroy your experience/performance.

You don't have 0 stutters, no one does.

You're in denial. Almost any game will stutter in windows at some point, as evident by TPU frametime comparisons, any network IO that holds up the bus will cause stutters, any SSD controller that isn't playing nice etc.

Windows runs stuff in the background constantly even in game mode. If you try to run games with the same hardware that consoles have at the same settings you're going to get garbage performance comparatively.

It's not undoable, you can have smooth windows gaming installs, but if you're comparing windows to a lighter linux kernel designed for games, it's going to be worse.

 

[dgianstefani]

You don't have 0 stutters, no one does.

You're in denial. Almost any game will stutter in windows at some point, as evident by TPU frametime comparisons, any network IO that holds up the bus will cause stutters, any SSD controller that isn't playing nice etc.

Windows runs stuff in the background constantly even in game mode. If you try to run games with the same hardware that consoles have at the same settings you're going to get garbage performance comparatively.

It's not undoable, you can have smooth windows gaming installs, but if you're comparing windows to a lighter linux kernel designed for games, it's going to be worse.

A "stutter" from 240fps locked to 160 (my 1% lows) for example isn't really the same definition of a hold up or freeze is it now.

 

[phanbuey]

A "stutter" from 240fps locked to 160 (my 1% lows) for example isn't really the same definition of a hold up or freeze is it now.

My point isn't that your beast system at 240hz isn't smooth on windows.

My point is that youre compensating for windows by running a beast system.

Run windows on your nintendo switch then tell me how smooth those games run.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

My point isn't that your beast system at 240hz isn't smooth on windows.

My point is that youre compensating for windows by running a beast system.

Run windows on your nintendo switch then tell me how smooth those games run.

So you are comparing Windows to a stripped-down Linux designed for gaming on low-spec hardware, or a general distro that is intended for every user with different use cases?

 

[phanbuey]

So you are comparing Windows to a stripped-down Linux designed for gaming on low-spec hardware, or a general distro that is intended for every user with different use cases?

Exactly - this is what ops question was.

Windows is designed as a general purpose os - compatibility - ability to load wide array of drivers, stability - error catching/data loss prevention, security (kernel virtualization, high entropy memory addresses, control flow guard etc.), full network capability… you’re talking a TON of overhead that takes priority over the currently running game.

Is it broken by design? - no. But it is not designed primarily for games and will game much worse than operating systems that are.

 

[Frick]

Exactly - this is what ops question was.

Windows is designed as a general purpose os - compatibility - ability to load wide array of drivers, stability - error catching/data loss prevention, security (kernel virtualization, high entropy memory addresses, control flow guard etc.), full network capability… you’re talking a TON of overhead that takes priority over the currently running game.

Is it broken by design? - no. But it is not designed primarily for games and will game much worse than operating systems that are.

Like the Windows-based Xbox OS? And that wasn't the question, as I understood it.

 

[phanbuey]

Like the Windows-based Xbox OS? And that wasn't the question, as I understood it.

Again you’re proving the point - windows-based. I.e. cut down.

did they maybe cut it down to get more performance in gaming out of it than windows 11?

if windows 11 was perfectly optimized and designed for gaming, why did they need to cut it down?

 

[Chrispy_]

Stuttering, lag, poor frame pacing etc - it's almost always some shitty software.

I've had it several times in the last 20+ years of PC gaming and there's ALWAYS a culprit. Occasionally, that culprit is a lousy game server and not something you can do anything about but nine times out of ten it's a background process or some shitware disguised as a driver or monitoring tool.

 

[Frick]

Again you’re proving the point - windows-based. I.e. cut down.

did they maybe cut it down to get more performance in gaming out of it than windows 11?

.... Ok so this is how I read the OP:

People on the internet claim Windows 8/10/11 stutters in games, and general use Linux-based distros (say Ubuntu or Fedora) does not.

But I take it that is not how you read it.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Exactly - this is what ops question was.

Windows is designed as a general purpose os - compatibility - ability to load wide array of drivers, stability - error catching/data loss prevention, security (kernel virtualization, high entropy memory addresses, control flow guard etc.), full network capability… you’re talking a TON of overhead that takes priority over the currently running game.

Is it broken by design? - no. But it is not designed primarily for games and will game much worse than operating systems that are.

I was asking if you are comparing W10 to a general purpose Linux distro, or a cut-down linux distro to a non-cut down Windows?

It seems to me if you are going to compare SteamOS, for example, you need to compare it to a lighter version of Windows designed for gaming (Xbox OS). Otherwise, try a common distro such as Ubuntu.

 

[Vayra86]

Ever since I run shit on decent hardware I honestly have no stutter issues anywhere.

Yes, if you run something on lacking resources, it stutters. But the point of running Windows for gaming is really: run it light. Don't stack a million apps on top of it 'to get your Windows the way you want it'. That's a short road to stutter hell.

But yeah since a 3570K my experiences have been buttery on Win 7~10, until that CPU started showing its limits.

Other than that, when there is a stutter, its generally attributable to game not the OS.

 

[phanbuey]

.... Ok so this is how I read the OP:

People on the internet claim Windows 8/10/11 stutters in games, and general use Linux-based distros (say Ubuntu or Fedora) does not.

But I take it that is not how you read it.

I did understand it differently.

linux is a lighter kernel but gaming wise it sucks without direct x or as many games.

at the high end - windows provides the best, most complete gaming experience.

Linux is faster and less bloated but totally lacks the software support to compete with windows in gaming. The occasional stutter isn’t anywhere near enough to offset that.

That being said they could come out with a slim gaming os based on windows that will kick the crap out of vanilla 10/11.

 

[64K]

I don't remember having any problems except years ago I played Crysis 2 with a GTX 980 Ti and it was a mess on some levels until I turned down the settings from the highest.

Edit: but the problem with Crysis 2 was game related. In general my experience with Windows and gaming going all the way back to Windows 3.11 has been good with the exception of Windows ME.

 

[Ahhzz]

Guys, keep it calm and respectful, please.... thanks!

 

[lexluthermiester]

I voted the "Never" option. I rarely play games on potato-like hardware but even on beefy hardware, settings are always configured in favor of frame-rates. Frame-rate is life!

 

[mclaren85]

Just take a quick look on my newest topic:

Solution for Stuttering Issue

* This topic is how I solved my stuttering issue, it may or may not be the same problem as yours. It is well known that most in game stuttering and freezing issues are related with either gpu vram or system ram. In order to minimize pagefile usage, It is a good idea to clear the ram...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[birdie]

Thanks for the votes. The numbers are in line with my expectations.