I experienced spilt second freeze in games like GTA V, Fortnite....

[puseng]

Hey guy!! I need help

I just recently build a budget PC.
Spec: Core i3 3220 3.30ghz
4gb gb RAM
GTX 750 FML (2gb)
An old Acer 1366 x 768 Resolution monitor

So....I start off by testing GTA V with High-Very High setting. 10mn to the game, It run smoothly with solid 60fps+. However, this is where thing turned me off. The game starting to freeze for split second every 5 sec even thought the fps rate is dropping but it happen constantly to point it's getting annoying. I know for sure that the problem is not coming from the GPU which is GTX 750 FML. I suspect either CPU or RAM is the cause of it. But I think it most likely the RAM is the reason. I check the task manager and I saw that the CPU usage is just 60% to 80%, but the RAM usage is nearly 100%. I also check the cpu temp and it seem to be at somewhat 50 to 60 degree celcius which is normal according to what I read on intel site. The question is << IS THE RAM CAUSING THE GAME TO SPLIT SEC FREEZE FRAME? SHOULD I UPGRADE TO 8GB OR 12GB?>>. Any answer is appreciated.

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

CPU is becoming a bottleneck but the 4GB of system ram is definitely a problem as well. Either lower your settings in game or buy some memory. I would look into a second hand i5 or i7 as well.

An i5 3570 can be had for around $50. $60 for 8GB 2x4 GB of 1600 Mhz DDR3. Which would go a long way to stabilizing frame rates.

That said the freezes you are having are likely due to the game data spilling over from ram to the HDD page file.

 

[puseng]

CPU is becoming a bottleneck but the 4GB of system ram is definitely a problem as well. Either lower your settings in game or buy some memory. I would look into a second hand i5 or i7 as well.

An i5 3570 can be had for around $50. $60 for 8GB 2x4 GB of 1600 Mhz DDR3. Which would go a long way to stabilizing frame rates.

That said the freezes you are having are likely due to the game data spilling over from ram to the HDD page file.

Really apprecitaed your answer. I'm planning to upgrade to either i5 3570 or i7 3770 but not now anyway. If the RAM is the one who cause split freeze then I must upgrade it. But one question, you said the game data spilling over from ram to the hdd page file. What is that mean? I'm newbie to computer knowledge so do not mind.

 

[droopyRO]

I means you should get more RAM as the game is using your HDD to write/read data that usually is stored in RAM. What motherboard do you have ?

 

[phanbuey]

leave task manager open in the background and see what's going on when it starts to freeze... - also get more ram, thats definitely going to help -- but it is strange that it waits that long to start acting up. Mainly what you're looking for in the task manager is to see if your CPU clock has started dropping.

When something starts stuttering 10 mins in, there is sometimes a temperature problem (could be with VRM /mobo/gpu).

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

Its an issue of the CPU being nearly maxed out and memory being inadequate.

Order of issue,

CPU is at a very high usage. possible spill over from cache to memory, Game / OS loads memory full, both use the page file on the HDD (auto configured by windows) page file on the HDD is extremely slow. These pauses are data being passed from system memory to HDD page file and back again. Not only does this apply to the game running in system memory it also applies to your Graphics card.

if all 2GB of vram is used the GPU will pass data to the system memory as well which when already full once again relegates data to the page file.

What this means is your 4GB of memory is not only being used for Game / OS / Drivers its also acting as spill over for the GPU for when the 2GB vram buffer fills. since the 4GB of memory is always maxed out your system is hammering the HDD. If your running a single HDD in your system and nothing else that makes worse as well.

Temps could also be an issue but since its an i3 3220 at just 55w TDP I don't see that being likely. Would be worth looking into before spending money.

That said i still bet the biggest limiting factor is memory. The gf's laptop here has only 4gb of memory with a few tabs open in the browser similar situation happens with Netflix.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I would agree that this is an issue indicative of an over burdened CPU. The reason I say that ,is I used to play Grandtheft auto5 on an extremely overclocked Pentium G3258. And the stuttering was very minimal, very consistent, and The game was completely playable aside from that issue .

Ram may also be hindering you, but the stuttering sounds to me like a struggling cpu.

i ended up getting it to smooth out pretty well, but it took some pretty extended fine tuning to see exactly what the CPU could , and couldnt handle. Once i got the settings dialed in right, it was pretty smooth, and you may also have luch with tinkering with the graphical settings. i dropped all of mine to bare minimum. see below.

played on a Pentium G3258 (of course you CPU is 2c/2T, and mine was clocked high, but i think if you dialed in the settigns, you too could get the desired results)
16Gb's DDR3
Win10 iirc

stupid Simeon, he's like a clingy Girlfriend, or like cousin roman or whatever it was with the Damn bowling from GTA4. he called me 3x, in 37 seconds of unpaused gameplay.

 

[droopyRO]

of course you CPU is 2c/2T,

2c/4t the 3220 is https://ark.intel.com/products/65693/Intel-Core-i3-3220-Processor-3M-Cache-3_30-GHz

 

[Vya Domus]

Yep , up the RAM to 8 GB.

 

[jboydgolfer]

2c/4t the 3220 is https://ark.intel.com/products/65693/Intel-Core-i3-3220-Processor-3M-Cache-3_30-GHz

Is a typo. Obv i meant 4t. I entered my cpu ccount instead of his

played on a Pentium G3258 (of course your CPU is 2c/2T,

 

[BadFrog]

I'll stick my 2 cents in. I think having only 2gb of video memory is what's causing the problems. GTA V uses alot of video memory. I know it says, minimum specs are 600 series 2gb and you have a 700 series 2gb, but I think that's also hindering you besides the CPU. Do you have a 3 or 4gb video card you could test this theory on?

 

[phanbuey]

I'll stick my 2 cents in. I think having only 2gb of video memory is what's causing the problems. GTA V uses alot of video memory. I know it says, minimum specs are 600 series 2gb and you have a 700 series 2gb, but I think that's also hindering you besides the CPU. Do you have a 3 or 4gb video card you could test this theory on?

Yeah but why after 10 minutes though? That's what threw me....

 

[puseng]

I'll stick my 2 cents in. I think having only 2gb of video memory is what's causing the problems. GTA V uses alot of video memory. I know it says, minimum specs are 600 series 2gb and you have a 700 series 2gb, but I think that's also hindering you besides the CPU. Do you have a 3 or 4gb video card you could test this theory on?

Unfortunately, GTX 750 FMl is the only GPU I had right now

 

[Athlonite]

Yeah but why after 10 minutes though? That's what threw me....

that's how much was cached in ram before having to turn to the HDD and the Pagefile which is more or less cause lag spikes whilst it reads data from the hdd into ram

 

[jboydgolfer]

Unfortunately, GTX 750 FMl is the only GPU I had right now

i wouldnt sweat it. although people mentioning that 2Gb's of vRAM is kind of skimpy are correct, i ran a 1Gb 6950 for years w/o issue. My nephew runs a 750ti 2Gb, and he has a 4k monitor, ofc he isnt playing the most intense games, and the ones he does play that are Tripl3 A, he runs at Very low settings, or drops the Resolution. But he manages fine. I think where he differs from you, is that he has 4 Physical cores to work with, and you have only 2. Ive had exactly what your explaining happen, its the CPU being overwhelmed 9/10 times, and sadly, the priciest fix often. i would bet money, if you were to go into Nvidia control panel, and set universal LOW aF settings, and also, drop them super low in game, it would help, but short of a new CPU, your at the ceillng for that chip.

 

[eidairaman1]

Overclock the cpu if possible, otherwise jump to a 3770K, see if yhere is a setting for nvidia like frame pacing. Microstutters are horrible, run games at lower details and resolutions. Othrrwise grab a 290/390/560/570/580 or 980/ti, 1050ti, 1060/ti 6GB, 1070/ti.

 

[Mussels]

at 768P, the GPU load will be pretty low - so its very likely you're running out of system RAM after a few minutes, and the lag spikes are windows dumping/restoring data from the hard drive.

I've got quite a few ivy bridge systems in the house (something like 15 of those CPU's have been through here this year) so i can say they still perform very damn well - a 4C/4T with high enough clocks can still run demanding modern games with ease. 3550's are my pick for those chips, fairly cheap, low heat, fast.

Upgrade to 8GB of ram and make sure its two matching sticks (both 4GB) for dual channel operation, and you'll be fine at your current monitor resolution

 

[puseng]

Here is the video

I lower the setting from high to normal and set the population density and view distant to 1/4 and the problem still happen

 

[phanbuey]

Here is the video

I lower the setting from high to normal and set the population density and view distant to 1/4 and the problem still happen

Look at your disk spikes when that happens.... see what program is causing that IO... every time it happens, as it is happening, your disk is spiking.

Looks like the guys above were right - you're running out of ram and its paging to the slow disk and has to wait until it finishes.

 

[John Naylor]

All of that hardware is a bit "light" for GTAV.

When upgrading, I thnk ypou will find that there is little cost difference between current hardware and that which is severa;l generations old, at least if buying new.

 

[puseng]

One more thing, when I turn on MSAA the game fps drop drastically. Beside that, every setting I set won't make the fps drop

 

[phanbuey]

One more thing, when I turn on MSAA the game fps drop drastically. Beside that, every setting I set won't make the fps drop

That's normal, MSAA is extremely heavy.

 

[puseng]

All of that hardware is a bit "light" for GTAV.

When upgrading, I thnk ypou will find that there is little cost difference between current hardware and that which is severa;l generations old, at least if buying new.

So what should I upgrade first? beside the RAM which I definitely will

The core i5 3570 the used one is cost around 75-80$ and core i7 3770 cost around 140-150$. Which should I get?

 

[Mussels]

more ram, faster hard drive*, CPU, GPU**

in that order of upgrading

* an SSD is the best, but not exactly a requirement - i've seen modern 2TB drives break 200MB/s reads and writes, and that is worlds above what an old hard drive can do

**As long as you're gaming at 768P, your 2GB GPU will be quite good. If you ever upgrade to 1080p, it will become much more important. I can play PUBG fine at 1080p on my HTPC with a GTX750 without issue, on very low settings for example

i5 3550 and 3770 perform almost exactly the same in games, the 3770 only helps when you run software that uses all 8 threads - very few games do. I've had first hand experience with a 3550, 3570k and 3770k and apart from the extreme overclocks i achieved boosting benchmark results, you'd never tell them apart in gaming/daily use.

 

[eidairaman1]

Look at your disk spikes when that happens.... see what program is causing that IO... every time it happens, as it is happening, your disk is spiking.

Looks like the guys above were right - you're running out of ram and its paging to the slow disk and has to wait until it finishes.

Ram and disk defrag for hdds is needed