Microstutters in almost every game

[Bob Ware]

Hello everyone,

For months, my PC has been experiencing some microstutter during gameplay. It’ll either appear every 2-3 minutes or every 10 seconds. To my surprise, there was and is no bottlenecking or throttling. Temps are average/good. My PC should be capable of running games fair enough without too much of a hassle. I thought about upgrading some components, one by one, to see if I could eliminate the problem. I upgraded my CPU, GPU, heatsink, RAM, storage, monitor, and added an extra case fan. No luck at all. Tried reinstalling several versions of Windows to no avail.
A kind user from a post I created on Nvidia’s forums by the name of Greybear asked for a lot of data readings and log files and speccy results, which, if it’s relevant, I will add the link to this discussion.
The only things I haven’t upgraded yet is my MOBO and my PSU, but I’m not sure if it’s even worth it. Is there ANYBODY out there willing to help me out on this pain-in-the-ass-situation? I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much!

PC specs: Ryzen 5 1600, GTX 1080, 16GB of 3200Mhz RAM (dual channel), 500W PSU, and a B450 DS3H MOBO.

Nvida forum post:https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforc...70/reoccurring-stutterfps-drop-in-most-games/

TL;DR: My PC suffers from microstutters. I’ve tried a lot of things with no success and I don’t know what to do anymore. Help me, please and thank you!

 

[m&m's]

Does it stutter even when you're not gaming? Are videos stuttering? Do you notice your mouse stuttering while browsing?

I guess that you have 2x8GB, are the RAM sticks in the grey slots? If they're in the black slots move them to the grey slots, that's what Gigabyte recommends.

If it did not resolve the issue, set the RAM sticks at SPD speeds not A-XMP. If it solves the issue, you'll need to mess with the timings to get it to work correctly at 3200MHz.

Is your SSD in AHCI mode (not IDE)?

 

[Bob Ware]

Does it stutter even when you're not gaming? Are videos stuttering? Do you notice your mouse stuttering while browsing?

I guess that you have 2x8GB, are the RAM sticks in the grey slots? If they're in the black slots move them to the grey slots, that's what Gigabyte recommends.

If it did not resolve the issue, set the RAM sticks at SPD speeds not A-XMP. If it solves the issue, you'll need to mess with the timings to get it to work correctly at 3200MHz.

Is your SSD in AHCI mode (not IDE)?

Thank you for such a prompt response! Sometimes, it’s very rare, but I’ll notice the mouse hiccup, but I suspect it to be because there’s a lot happening in the background, but other than that, the stutter is exclusively in game.

And yes, RAM is in the grey slots. The tricky thing about the RAM situation was that it was stuttering prior to updating. My old memory sticks had no XMP profile and was never tampered with (and it was set at 2200mhz or so, which I thought was very low) so now I have sticks that reach 3200mhz with the XMP.
And yes, my SSD is in AHCI mode

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
What is your nvidia control panel set at ? best performance or quality ?

 

[Bob Ware]

Hi,
What is your nvidia control panel set at ? best performance or quality ?

I have it set at best performance

 

[ThrashZone]

I have it set at best performance

Hi,
Try quality it's what I always use.

 

[Bob Ware]

Hi,
Try quality it's what I always use.

I tried setting it to quality and as I suspected, the stutter still remains

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I don't know anything about ryzen
Only other thing games love besides memory / cpu clock is they love high cache so if ryren has a setting for cache increase it to at least 32 same as your memory speed.

 

[Bob Ware]

Hi,
I don't know anything about ryzen
Only other thing games love besides memory / cpu clock is they love high cache so if ryren has a setting for cache increase it to at least 32 same as your memory speed.

Have you ever done this with your setup? I’m not sure where to begin on doing this (I’m still pretty new to the gaming PC world)

 

[ThrashZone]

Have you ever done this with your setup? I’m not sure where to begin on doing this (I’m still pretty new to the gaming PC world)

Hi,
Intel is easy
AMD has different terms

AMD's CPU-to-GPU Infinity Fabric Detailed

Don't move the data.

www.tomshardware.com

If on all games what is your games installed on hdd or ssd ?

 

[Bob Ware]

Hi,
Intel is easy
AMD has different terms

AMD's CPU-to-GPU Infinity Fabric Detailed

Don't move the data.

www.tomshardware.com

If on all games what is your games installed on hdd or ssd ?

Thanks for the info and link! The thing is, the stutter is on almost ALL games! Surprisingly, very few games run without one hiccup. I’ve got a few games on my SSD and HDD. Games on both drives perform with the same stutter.

 

[m&m's]

Thank you for such a prompt response! Sometimes, it’s very rare, but I’ll notice the mouse hiccup, but I suspect it to be because there’s a lot happening in the background, but other than that, the stutter is exclusively in game.

And yes, RAM is in the grey slots. The tricky thing about the RAM situation was that it was stuttering prior to updating. My old memory sticks had no XMP profile and was never tampered with (and it was set at 2200mhz or so, which I thought was very low) so now I have sticks that reach 3200mhz with the XMP.
And yes, my SSD is in AHCI mode

I still think the issue is RAM related. What are your current timings? Download the Ryzen DRAM Calculator : https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/ and click on "Compare timings" and post a screenshot.

With my 3600X, I had a "lag" with A-XMP (everything seemed slow, I would move my mouse and could feel a delay), I messed with the RAM timings and then I had stutters (unplayable) and finally after more timings shenanigans, I fixed all issues.

Also make sure the memory ratio is set to 1:1.

 

[Bob Ware]

I still think the issue is RAM related. What are your current timings? Download the Ryzen DRAM Calculator : https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/ and click on "Compare timings" and post a screenshot.

With my 3600X, I had a "lag" with A-XMP (everything seemed slow, I would move my mouse and could feel a delay), I messed with the RAM timings and then I had stutters (unplayable) and finally after more timings shenanigans, I fixed all issues.

Also make sure the memory ratio is set to 1:1.

Hopefully it can be confirmed as a RAM issue so I at least have an idea of what to do. Here's a screenshot

 

[LFaWolf]

Do you have VSync on or off? What is your monitor? Sometimes VSync is the culprit.

 

[Bob Ware]

Do you have VSync on or off? What is your monitor? Sometimes VSync is the culprit.

I've tried with V-sync on & off, even with different options like adaptive and fast, sadly it did absolutely nothing but fix screen tearing. I have a samsung lc27rg50

 

[m&m's]

Hopefully it can be confirmed as a RAM issue so I at least have an idea of what to do. Here's a screenshot

Try the following (this wont give you the best framerates but that's not the goal here). If it fixes the issue then you can work on improving timings to achieve better performance.

 

[Bob Ware]

Try the following (this wont give you the best framerates but that's not the goal here). If it fixes the issue then you can work on improving timings to achieve better performance.

View attachment 172175

I tried out the settings and it actually increased the stutter :/ thanks a lot for the recommendation though

 

[m&m's]

I tried out the settings and it actually increased the stutter :/ thanks a lot for the recommendation though

Set tRFC2 to 416 and tRFC4 to 256. tRFC1 should already be at 560.

 

[Bob Ware]

Set tRFC2 to 416 and tRFC4 to 256. tRFC1 should already be at 560.

I should still keep the same settings you sent as a screenshot AND add change the tRFC2 and tRFC4? Just to be sure

 

[m&m's]

I should still keep the same settings you sent as a screenshot AND add change the tRFC2 and tRFC4? Just to be sure

Yes

 

[Bob Ware]

Yes

Tried changing the settings and the stutter is now really bad, practically unplayable

 

[m&m's]

Tried changing the settings and the stutter is now really bad, practically unplayable

Infinity Fabric set to 1600MHz? If so then I'm at lost here. Still looks like a memory issue to me since the issue was aggravated. Someone with more Ryzen Gen 1 knowledge may be able to help you.

Command Rate set to 1T (not 2T)?

 

[Bob Ware]

Infinity Fabric set to 1600MHz? If so then I'm at lost here. Still looks like a memory issue to me since the issue was aggravated. Someone with more Ryzen Gen 1 knowledge may be able to help you.

Command Rate set to 1T (not 2T)?

My apologies but I'm not entirely sure how to verify Infinity Fabric nor do I know how to edit this. Is this supposed to be in my BIOS? If so, I've never seen this before

 

[m&m's]

My apologies but I'm not entirely sure how to verify Infinity Fabric nor do I know how to edit this. Is this supposed to be in my BIOS? If so, I've never seen this before

Yes it's in the BIOS. Could also be under the name "FCLK" (Infinity Fabric Clock Speed).

 

[biffzinker]

Yes it's in the BIOS. Could also be under the name "FCLK" (Infinity Fabric Clock Speed).

Seen it also as FCLK:MCLK ratio on MSI boards.