[SOLVED] Frametime spikes/Stutters/FPS drops in all games.

[Mussels]

Hi,
I tried all the methods described but nothing...

For me is happening frametime spikes with a good pc, no OC, all by default

http://imgur.com/a/DPimM2A

Any tool to guess what is happening?

Thanks,
James.

You need to post your system specs, and probably your own thread - there is a very low chance that people with lag issues have the same cause

 

[bobalazs]

Have you set gpu to msi (message signaled interrupts) mode?

Download the msi util v3 here

MSI_util_v3

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Run as admin, check the msi box for your gpu and apply in top right corner, restart and re-run the utility to see if your gpu has a negative number instead of a positive one. If it doesn't change update your graphics driver and re-run the utility (all you should have to do to switch to msi mode is check the box, apply and restart).

View attachment 190046

Also if it's win 10 you're using try this.

1.Search and open Exploit Protection
2.Once on Exploit protection page, set Control flow guard (CFG) to OFF.
3.Restart

And make sure nvidia control panel 3d settings/global settings power management mode is prefer maximum performance and low latency mode is ultra.

Thank you for this.
This,
[checked MSI for all 3 of these: PCIe and NVM Express i SET HIGH, GTX 1070 Ti to NORMAL,]
along with removing RTSS (Rivatuner StatisticsServer) (may have contributed, don't know), and all of MSI Afterburner monitoring, solved my intermittent freezes in games.

 

[oobymach]

Thank you for this.
This,
[checked MSI for all 3 of these: PCIe and NVM Express i SET HIGH, GTX 1070 Ti to NORMAL,]
along with removing RTSS (Rivatuner StatisticsServer) (may have contributed, don't know), and all of MSI Afterburner monitoring, solved my intermittent freezes in games.

I love it when my fixes work, it validates my existence here when you post that it works. Much love.

 

[bobalazs]

I love it when my fixes work, it validates my existence here when you post that it works. Much love.

No, we thank you for sharing, and doing the hard work, saving us hours of detective work. It's a gem to find such information on the internet.

 

[Kanon82]

I still have to solve it and I have been fighting for more than a year! I swear I don't understand what it could be ..


Ryzen 9 5900x CPU

Mobo msi b550 gaming carbon

Crucial ballistix 32gb 3600hz

Rtx 3080 GPU gigabyte 10gbn oc

Bequiet 750w power supply

 

[alex_steward]

i have also random frametime spikes and on win11 an frametime increase from between 3.4ms and 6.0ms to 6.6ms and 12ms. The spikes goes up to 50ms.

i could determine that the frametime increase is caused by the nvme ssd samsung 980. i installed a second win10 os and there my frametime was 3.4ms - 6.0ms.
After some research i found some people told win11 introduced a change for drives (changed a sector length value or something) and some samsung ssd‘s worked mailfunctioned.
i bought a new western digital nvme ssd and my frametime is now like on win10.
So the frametime increase was fixed, but the spikes werent eliminated.
Now im trying to replace component for component to find the source of my issue. GPU and ssd already replaced.
Next step is psu, cause i got a alternative psu at home. I hope i can find it.

 

[Mussels]

i have also random frametime spikes and on win11 an frametime increase from between 3.4ms and 6.0ms to 6.6ms and 12ms. The spikes goes up to 50ms.

i could determine that the frametime increase is caused by the nvme ssd samsung 980. i installed a second win10 os and there my frametime was 3.4ms - 6.0ms.
After some research i found some people told win11 introduced a change for drives (changed a sector length value or something) and some samsung ssd‘s worked mailfunctioned.
i bought a new western digital nvme ssd and my frametime is now like on win10.
So the frametime increase was fixed, but the spikes werent eliminated.
Now im trying to replace component for component to find the source of my issue. GPU and ssd already replaced.
Next step is psu, cause i got a alternative psu at home. I hope i can find it.

Do you run with Vsync on?
3-10ms is reasonable frame render times depending on your FPS values, anything under 16ms is okay and under 8ms is great

hitting Vsync limits or a game like cyberpunk that forces pre-rendered frames, you tend to see 20-50ms really solid, it wont dip or waver

 

[daone246]

Hi Everyone
I managed to fix my Fps drop and Frametime spike issue on my LAPTOP by reducing the maximum processor state from 100% to either 99% or below.
Tried most of the suggestions and tweaks, nothing stopped the lag.

I have a Dell G15 gaming laptop
nVidia GeForce Rtx 3060
24gb Drr4 ram
i9 10th Gen
Ssd Hd

Games like Apex and WWZ was lagging randomly even though my CPU and Gpu usage was low.
Eventually changed the maximum processor state in PowerOption setting from 100% to below 99% solved the issue for me. I set it to 90% at the moment but 99% also worked fine.
Now I can play with almost everything set on High setting in Apex without the frametimes spike~
Apparently if you change it to below 100%, it turns off turbo boost but for me, it improves both my game smoothness and graphics~ otherwise it was unplayable even on low

Hope this helps~

 

[alex_steward]

Do you run with Vsync on?
3-10ms is reasonable frame render times depending on your FPS values, anything under 16ms is okay and under 8ms is great

hitting Vsync limits or a game like cyberpunk that forces pre-rendered frames, you tend to see 20-50ms really solid, it wont dip or waver

My frametime spikes are fixed. My mainboard was faulty. The pcie slot delivered 11.9v on idle and only 11.5v on max load. Replaced mainboard and spikes are gone.

 

[Mussels]

My frametime spikes are fixed. My mainboard was faulty. The pcie slot delivered 11.9v on idle and only 11.5v on max load. Replaced mainboard and spikes are gone.

quite often those voltage readings are extremely inaccurate and they naturally vary


The motherboard could have had a fault for sure, but dont assume those voltages are it - these are from my perfectly working system for example
Current - min - max - average over 132 hours of uptime

11.85v? better throw my brand new platinum rated PSU in the bin!

 

[flickz]

All of you do me a favor because I had no idea about this. Look on your motherboard website. There is a ram list. If you don't have the proper speed at the proper size it could be incompatable. After upgrading from a Rx 6600 to a Rx 6750xt and from a 9600k z390 to a 12600k z690 I am still stuttering. Only to realize I got ram that isn't on the list. My board says G skill 3600 8gb is comparable but not the 3600 16gb I have. I just ordered a new kit and hope it will fix it. I have my games on a m.2 and upgraded my power supply while upgrading the others. So this is my last hope here. Have reinstalled windows like 10 times. I will post results when the new kit comes in. Hope this helps someone out there.

 

[Mussels]

All of you do me a favor because I had no idea about this. Look on your motherboard website. There is a ram list. If you don't have the proper speed at the proper size it could be incompatable. After upgrading from a Rx 6600 to a Rx 6750xt and from a 9600k z390 to a 12600k z690 I am still stuttering. Only to realize I got ram that isn't on the list. My board says G skill 3600 8gb is comparable but not the 3600 16gb I have. I just ordered a new kit and hope it will fix it. I have my games on a m.2 and upgraded my power supply while upgrading the others. So this is my last hope here. Have reinstalled windows like 10 times. I will post results when the new kit comes in. Hope this helps someone out there.

Not how it works my friend, those are just what they've tested before launch, and they never include products that were only made and sold afterward.

RAM settings are something you'll need to look up specific to your CPU/socket, usually it just means the automatic settings may not work and you manually have to set some (This is usually related to how many ranks the memory has - four single rank 8GB sticks require the same settings as two dual rank 16GB sticks, four dual rank sticks requiring higher voltages or lower clock speeds)


As for me, my mystery issues on my second PC were resolved with the new W11 updates and may be related to what some people are dealing with
November 29, 2022—KB5020044 (OS Build 22621.900) Preview - Microsoft Support
Microsoft Fixes Windows 11 22H2 Gaming Issues, Resumes Updates - ExtremeTech

 

[flickz]

It's not even the speed or voltage causing stutters. It's the timings themselves. I can tell because the last few days I've been tweaking them. I can get the stutters nearly gone with either tighter timing. Or making it looser timings. But cannot make them go away 100%. This is why I'm grabbing new sticks to see if the supported list will help. I have a feeling it's the secondary timings I would need to tweak at this point. But I don't really wanna learn that deep into it if I don't have to. But my room mate gets no stutters even when checking my GPU and everything else. We even tested power supply. Has no issues but got lucky because the ram he got was listed on the supported page for his motherboard.

 

[Mussels]

Thats not how RAM works
You might be making the system faster and reducing the stutters, but it's not the cause - the ONLY way RAM can behave that way is ECC RAM, where the RAM is finding and correcting errors

The reason you're not finding the cause, is because you're looking at the wrong things - something you have overlooked or ignored as 'not the problem' is in fact, the problem


There have been so many known causes of stutter and people always get obssessed with one theory, and quite often make wild assumptions that are just incorrect.

I had stutters I could fix by using my onboard wifi instead of my LAN port, so clearly the LAN card is faulty! - No, it was a faulty smart TV spamming the network and the wifi card was on "public" in windows so the firewall protected me from it
mechanical hard drives powering up/down, mapped network drives, TPM bug on older ryzen BIOSes, this glitchy win 11 22H2 problem fixed with the update, any and all wallpaper programs - there are so, so many possible causes and people will try something, get it working once as a coincidence and then run down a rabbit hole trying to re-create that fix when it's something else entirely

 

[SomeOne99h]

Thats not how RAM works
You might be making the system faster and reducing the stutters, but it's not the cause - the ONLY way RAM can behave that way is ECC RAM, where the RAM is finding and correcting errors

The reason you're not finding the cause, is because you're looking at the wrong things - something you have overlooked or ignored as 'not the problem' is in fact, the problem


There have been so many known causes of stutter and people always get obssessed with one theory, and quite often make wild assumptions that are just incorrect.

I had stutters I could fix by using my onboard wifi instead of my LAN port, so clearly the LAN card is faulty! - No, it was a faulty smart TV spamming the network and the wifi card was on "public" in windows so the firewall protected me from it
mechanical hard drives powering up/down, mapped network drives, TPM bug on older ryzen BIOSes, this glitchy win 11 22H2 problem fixed with the update, any and all wallpaper programs - there are so, so many possible causes and people will try something, get it working once as a coincidence and then run down a rabbit hole trying to re-create that fix when it's something else entirely

And one fella had stutters but after uninstalling BitDefender, they went away. Disabling real-time scan wasn't enough.

 

[Mussels]

And one fella had stutters but after uninstalling BitDefender, they went away. Disabling real-time scan wasn't enough.

That was me, I never found out the root cause of that. Was so unique - in SW: Squadrons it'd trigger by holding the left trigger in, in Project Zomboid it was whenever I sped up time

 

[Mussels]

Found an old example that may be helpful here


Nvidia/AMD's Vsync may prove better than the in-game vsync with regards to frame-pacing, and preventing a framebuffer using old, outdated frames
V-Sync: Driver or Game? - Blur Busters Forums

Even with the same FPS values, sometimes you just need to use the Vsync from your graphics driver to over-ride a crappy games Vsync implementation.

 

[RubberduckzillA]

Can someone chime in here, I saw the MSI util thing not sure if that applies to me. My issue is exactly the same as the OPs, sometimes my spikes are as high as 298 but often they ar eeither near double the frametime or a mild 2.9ms bump but the behaviour is basiclaly identical to the OPs issue. I have tried parking the e cores, disabling gsync, disabling g sync and v sync etc. No matter what I get the spikes, sometimes they are paired with a 1fps drop from my locked frame rate, but not all the time.

So I have a new rig, the first mobo was indeed faulty and would not post this one works fine.

13700K
ASUS STRIX - E Z790
CORSAIR VENGENCE CAS 34 7200MHz DDR5
ASUS TUF OC 3080
EVGA SUPERNOVA PLATINUM PSU 850W
Various NVME drives, wither corsair blacks sn850 x1, sn850x x1. Samsung 970 PRO, SAMSUNG 980 PRO.

WINDOWS 1122H2.

 

[Mussels]

Can someone chime in here, I saw the MSI util thing not sure if that applies to me. My issue is exactly the same as the OPs, sometimes my spikes are as high as 298 but often they ar eeither near double the frametime or a mild 2.9ms bump but the behaviour is basiclaly identical to the OPs issue. I have tried parking the e cores, disabling gsync, disabling g sync and v sync etc. No matter what I get the spikes, sometimes they are paired with a 1fps drop from my locked frame rate, but not all the time.

So I have a new rig, the first mobo was indeed faulty and would not post this one works fine.

13700K
ASUS STRIX - E Z790
CORSAIR VENGENCE CAS 34 7200MHz DDR5
ASUS TUF OC 3080
EVGA SUPERNOVA PLATINUM PSU 850W
Various NVME drives, wither corsair blacks sn850 x1, sn850x x1. Samsung 970 PRO, SAMSUNG 980 PRO.

WINDOWS 1122H2.

There have been many many suggestions through this thread as to possible solutions, many involving background software - unless you know and list what software you have running at the same time as gaming, we'd all be guessing and going through the same suggestions

frametimes and FPS are the same thing displayed a different way, render times are entirely different

 

[southpaww]

Hi,
PC Specs
RTX 3080 FE 10GB
32GB 3200MHZ DDR4
NVME SAMSUNG 980 EVO
RYZEN 9 5900X
850W PSU
TFORCE AIO 360MM COOLER

I have tried everything reinstalling windows, drivers, changing where my pc is in my house, unplugging the front usb panel cable, reapplying thermal paste on my CPU, optimizing my pc as best as i can in terms of performance, cpu and gpu are stock values no OC active. This started after I moved my setup from one part of my room to the other. I play Fortnite and now when i launch into a game when i land in game and i move around i get frame drops when i move around, all my in game settings are at the lowest available and my resolution is native. I dont know what the issue is, if it could be the outlet im using to plug my psu into the wall or something.

 

[Mussels]

Nah it wont be that

More like the questions that keep coming up: what antivirus do you use, have you tried another

post a HWinfo sensors readout screenshot/snip while the game is running, and has been running for several minutes that looks like this (dark mode optional) - so we can see every clock speed and temperature sensor

Show your startup tab, and list any crap you have running while gaming - discord, wallpaper engine, monitoring software, extra monitors

Since you're on ryzen Zentimings is relevant as well, you can combine that with the SPD and RAM pages of CPU-Z to show your SPD and XMP timings vs what it's actually running at



Moving it didnt break it, the power didnt break it - but you can have a flat CMOS battery reset your BIOS when you unplug it from the wall and not reconfigure it properly, you can add program doing crap in the background that slows things down, you could have changed resolution or refresh rate and be hitting a Vsync limit

Wallpaper engine causes Aero to refresh every update which causes a system stutter. Network shares can cause this, mechanical drives can cause this, USB devices can cause this
It's all a guessing game and throwing suggestions out, because only you can truly identify the issue being there in person


Heck often a good example to try first is just to do a "clean install" of the nvidia drivers as people often follow guides and apply a bunch of settings without knowing why, and what fixes one game breaks another (Prefer max performance should never be used in global settings since the GPU never idles, for example)

 

[RubberduckzillA]

Hi,

So I did not manage tocatch any aggregious frame spikes this morning before having to start work, i am also trialing vr pre render frames 2 in the nvidia driver to see if that helps. But here are some details I manage dto capture this morning, I will work on more this evening. Hifi Rush msi afterburner chart is related to hwinfo 2.

My AV is k aspersky but i've tried disabling it and still have the same issue. Also my power mode is on balanced now so the CPU speed fluctuates but even on high power mode at a constant 5.3 I get these issues.

I have noticed what afterburner seems to report and what hwinfo rtss reports seem to be different things but i definitely feel a stutter even though it is only 2.4ms...

 

[SomeOne99h]

Hi,

So I did not manage tocatch any aggregious frame spikes this morning before having to start work, i am also trialing vr pre render frames 2 in the nvidia driver to see if that helps. But here are some details I manage dto capture this morning, I will work on more this evening. Hifi Rush msi afterburner chart is related to hwinfo 2.

My AV is k aspersky but i've tried disabling it and still have the same issue. Also my power mode is on balanced now so the CPU speed fluctuates but even on high power mode at a constant 5.3 I get these issues.

I have noticed what afterburner seems to report and what hwinfo rtss reports seem to be different things but i definitely feel a stutter even though it is only 2.4ms...

It is established that If you actually wanted to troubleshoot an issue that you suspect from an anti-virus, disabling it isn't enough. You have to uninstall it.

 

[Mussels]

am also trialing vr pre render frames 2 in the nvidia driver

that only affects VR and is a terrible decision to do, unless you want extreme input lag and motion sickness

It is established that If you actually wanted to troubleshoot an issue that you suspect from an anti-virus, disabling it isn't enough. You have to uninstall it.

and trial another one entirely, since windows doesnt let you go AV free - like how intel had problems with windows defender for a few months

 

[southpaww]

PC Specs
RTX 3080 FE 10GB
32GB 3200MHZ DDR4
NVME SAMSUNG 980 EVO
RYZEN 9 5900X
850W PSU
TFORCE AIO 360MM COOLER

Im experiencing fps drops from 240 constant down to 100 (while looking around in fortnite)

things ive tried
- disabling HPET
- updating bios
- 2nd PCIe Slot
- rolling back windows 11 to windows 10
- sfc /scannow command to check for windows erros
- replace gpu
- replace power supply
- a different outlet in my room
- a different display port cable
- ISLC program for lowering latency and clearing ram
- Process Lasso
- undervolting my gpu and cpu
- overcloking my gpu and cpu
- running cpu and gpu at stock
- using an hdmi cable
- clean installion of both windows 11 and 10 only downloading fortnite
- using 1 16gb stick of ram
- xmp enabled and xmp disabled
- unplugging front 3.0 usb and hd audio and usb c cables from motherboard

im now looking to try an outlet in my living room and swapping out my motherboard