Games stutter and sort of lag, but fps counter says fps is steady at whatever I set it to.

MartinB2002 · Oct 13, 2021

I'm a bit of a noob in terms of pc gaming and run into this weird issue. I use a Lenovo Laptop that is defenitely capable of running games steadily. It has done it in the passed, so I know for sure. It could run GTA V, Far Cry New Dawn, Rocket League among other games without any performance issues. For some reason, since a couple weeks I think, it has started to run games very poorly. I tried deleting and installing drivers, checking for updates but nothing seems to help. I turned on the performance stats overlay in the NVidia GeForce Experience app and it says the fps is steady at whatever I set it to in game. Like in FIFA 22 I set it to 60 and the fps overlay says its running 74. But I still feel like I get fps lag spikes and the game just stutters in general. I am completely lost here.

I've got a Lenove IdeaPad L340 Gaming with a GTX 1650 and 16gb of ram.

Vayra86 · Oct 13, 2021

Please provide your system specs, or the laptop model.

The first thing that comes to mind is throttling, age = dust build up and throttling may become a performance hit you can feel over time. That is just a general comment though.

Specifically on your example (very little info is provided so that's what I work with now) of FIFA22, if you set your ingame FPS to 60 and the overlay shows you run 74, the stutter may happen because FPS is not synced to refresh rate. Use Vsync (Adaptive probably best) to see if that fixes your problem there. And if it does, you have your answer - sync refresh rate and FPS, or limit your FPS to refresh rate (just under or over can work magic as well, and work differently per game).

Mussels · Oct 13, 2021

MartinB2002 said:
I'm a bit of a noob in terms of pc gaming and run into this weird issue. I use a Lenovo Laptop that is defenitely capable of running games steadily. It has done it in the passed, so I know for sure. It could run GTA V, Far Cry New Dawn, Rocket League among other games without any performance issues. For some reason, since a couple weeks I think, it has started to run games very poorly. I tried deleting and installing drivers, checking for updates but nothing seems to help. I turned on the performance stats overlay in the NVidia GeForce Experience app and it says the fps is steady at whatever I set it to in game. Like in FIFA 22 I set it to 60 and the fps overlay says its running 74. But I still feel like I get fps lag spikes and the game just stutters in general. I am completely lost here.

Check the link in my sig, the top one.
Theres a lot in there, but it's absolutely relevant to helping diagnose your situation here and the types of info that will help us

What's changed with the laptop? Vsync? Gsync?
Does it happen when offline?
Does it happen when on battery?
Does it happen on mains, with the battery removed?

System Name	Tiny the White Yeti
Processor	7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG Mortar b650m wifi
Cooling	CPU: Thermalright Peerless Assassin / Case: Phanteks T30-120 x3
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengeance 30CL6000
Video Card(s)	ASRock RX7900XT Phantom Gaming
Storage	Lexar NM790 4TB + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + Samsung 980 1TB + Crucial BX100 250GB
Display(s)	Gigabyte G34QWC (3440x1440)
Case	Lian Li A3 mATX White
Audio Device(s)	Harman Kardon AVR137 + 2.1
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova G2 750W
Mouse	Steelseries Aerox 5
Keyboard	Lenovo Thinkpad Trackpoint II
VR HMD	HD 420 - Green Edition ;)
Software	W11 IoT Enterprise LTSC
Benchmark Scores	Over 9000

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

Games stutter and sort of lag, but fps counter says fps is steady at whatever I set it to.

MartinB2002

New Member

Vayra86

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator