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weird CS2 frametime stutter

L

lightworkdog

New Member
Joined
May 13, 2025
Messages
14 (4.67/day)
need help fixing this stutter i have with cs2 that wont go away - its either like the screenshot below or more stable and smooth with spikes every second or so

cs2 frametime.jpg


graphs are
framerate 0 - 500
frametime 2 - 20ms

ive tried everything obvious like reinstalling drivers, game settings, bios settings, power bar vs wall outlet, fps caps, etc

i dont want to drop money on a power station whatever the fuck just for it not to work

4080s
9700x
msi mag b650 tomahawk
p41 hynix 1tb
32gb 6000 cl30
850w gold
 
1. You mention only CS2. Does this problem not occur in other games or have you only tested cs? If you have nothing else to test you can download the free demo of 3dMark and run TimeSpy to test your system in another workload.
2. Also background programs might cause issues like that. Check what else is running on your system and shutdown as many programs as you can for testing.
3. Furthermore is your RAM installed in proper dual channel mode?
 
Have you tried disabling GPU power monitoring in RTSS?
 
DarkDreams said:
1. You mention only CS2. Does this problem not occur in other games or have you only tested cs? If you have nothing else to test you can download the free demo of 3dMark and run TimeSpy to test your system in another workload.
2. Also background programs might cause issues like that. Check what else is running on your system and shutdown as many programs as you can for testing.
3. Furthermore is your RAM installed in proper dual channel mode?
Click to expand...
this kind of consistent frametime zigzag only
happens in cs2 but i get normal stuttering with spikes in every game

Ive tried isolating just the game there dont seem to be any background apps causing it and with rtss off it feels the same with the in game cs2 max frametime indicator to back me up too

i have 2 ram sticks in their ideal slots
 
How are your CPU temps?
A screenshot of GPU-Z and zen timings might also help.
 
DarkDreams said:
How are your CPU temps?
A screenshot of GPU-Z and zen timings might also help.
Click to expand...
not relevant considering
1. it doesnt build up over time it happens the second i load in a game
2. i have a 3 fan aio and my cpu only gets to 105w
it never goes above 70C ever

1747171294826.png


isnt zen timings is am4 only?
 
What resolution and settings are you running CS2 at?
 
Do you have another mouse and KB you can plug in?

EDIT: I have on several occasions noticed on USB devices that poll to ludicrous speeds (above 1000hz) which is popular now that a multitude of different mobos and there respective USB controllers can have issues; and in every case they manifested as "hitching" in short bursts. Looking at your frame time matching your FPS and at how close the frequency of these are I am willing to bet this is not CS related at all.
 
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Solaris17 said:
Do you have another mouse and KB you can plug in?

EDIT: I have on several occasions noticed on USB devices that poll to ludicrous speeds (above 1000hz) which is popular now that a multitude of different mobos and there respective USB controllers can have issues; and in every case they manifested as "hitching" in short bursts. Looking at your frame time matching your FPS and at how close the frequency of these are I am willing to bet this is not CS related at all.
Click to expand...
i have an 8k mouse that ive tried on 1k through firmware no difference (i usually have it on 4k)

capped my fps at 164 in aimbotz workshop map and unplugged my mouse and keyboard and saw no diff but maybe thats bad methodology

1747179014007.jpeg

weird ass fps considering i have it capped at 164 and the graph goes from 0 - 500

cap of 330

1747179692845.jpeg
 
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I would try with something different and not just firmware toggles for polling rate. Bonus points if you have different colored ports which generally indicate a different controller in general.
 
Solaris17 said:
I would try with something different and not just firmware toggles for polling rate. Bonus points if you have different colored ports which generally indicate a different controller in general.
Click to expand...
usb mobo used.png

i use these ports for mnk

do i just unplug literally every usb - restart my computer - plug in old ass hardware - and see if it works then lol

1747180181692.jpeg

the finals capped at 160 fps no weird jittery frametime - still some 20ms (max on graph) spikes so could be related but could be that this game runs like shit i dont know
 
lightworkdog said:
do i just unplug literally every usb - restart my computer - plug in old ass hardware - and see if it works then lol
Click to expand...

No. Like I said, just the keyboard and mouse, alternatively or in addition, I would plug them into the blue and black ports which as predicted hang off of the chipset which is a different controller entirely.
 
Solaris17 said:
No. Like I said, just the keyboard and mouse, alternatively or in addition, I would plug them into the blue and black ports which as predicted hang off of the chipset which is a different controller entirely.
Click to expand...
even if its fine with other games? like the finals screenshot i sent
 
lightworkdog said:
even if its fine with other games? like the finals screenshot i sent
Click to expand...

I mean if you don’t want to test you are the one that needs to deal with it not us.
 
lightworkdog said:
ok i tried moving mnk to the grey ports and for good measure unplugged my other usbs and i still got the issue man
Click to expand...

Have you modified anything like tick rate etc with CS?
 
Solaris17 said:
Have you modified anything like tick rate etc with CS?
Click to expand...
only binds and viewmodel offset in my autoexec.cfg which are entirely irrelevant also cs2 uses subtick so you cant just change the tickrate or anything

1747182903271.png


i even downloaded csgo (capped 164) and it doesnt have this issue lol (well maybe its not as good as the finals but its better than cs2)

cs2 might just be dogshit and i cant do anything about it i dont know

i still get random frametime spikes id like to remedy though
 

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I decided to make an account because I had similar issues with CS2. I only had these issues with CS2 and other games worked fine. I'm not sure what it's deal was, but the issue went away when I wiped my machine and started over. Not suggesting you do that, just pointing out that the problem abruptly went away when I started fresh. On the "bad" setup, I was able to get CS2 to cooperate by...


1. Capping the framerate in CS to match refresh rate of my monitor.
2. Enabling Vsync. I shouldn't have needed to do this because of #1, but I had to do this in order to get unexpected screen tearing to stop.
3. Experiment with the AA settings. I can't remember if enabling it or disabling it helped me, but I remember seeing a wildly different result when I messed with AA in particular.

Also, are you using Nvidia's Shadow Play or anything like that? Anything that hangs out in the background (like Shadow Play, discord overlay, etc) can sometimes cause bizarre behavior like this.
 
There absolutely could be an underlying issue with a driver or other system process. Have you updated all of your drivers and OS? A very long time ago, I used to get a similar issue that was related to the audio driver of my Audigy 2. I do mean all of them like the network, chipset, and more than just the GPU drivers.
 
ThePunisher said:
I decided to make an account because I had similar issues with CS2. I only had these issues with CS2 and other games worked fine. I'm not sure what it's deal was, but the issue went away when I wiped my machine and started over. Not suggesting you do that, just pointing out that the problem abruptly went away when I started fresh. On the "bad" setup, I was able to get CS2 to cooperate by...


1. Capping the framerate in CS to match refresh rate of my monitor.
2. Enabling Vsync. I shouldn't have needed to do this because of #1, but I had to do this in order to get unexpected screen tearing to stop.
3. Experiment with the AA settings. I can't remember if enabling it or disabling it helped me, but I remember seeing a wildly different result when I messed with AA in particular.

Also, are you using Nvidia's Shadow Play or anything like that? Anything that hangs out in the background (like Shadow Play, discord overlay, etc) can sometimes cause bizarre behavior like this.
Click to expand...
Never cap to exact refresh rate of your monitor, this will bring VSYNC latency penalty. Always cap 5% under the max refresh rate, i.e. you're at 60 Hz = cap at 57 fps, you're at 144 Hz = cap at 137 fps.
 
Chomiq said:
Never cap to exact refresh rate of your monitor, this will bring VSYNC latency penalty. Always cap 5% under the max refresh rate, i.e. you're at 60 Hz = cap at 57 fps, you're at 144 Hz = cap at 137 fps.
Click to expand...

I'm aware. In CS2's case it didn't matter.

I tried capping the frame limit +/-5% the refresh rate, enabling/disabling Freesync, enabling/disabling enhanced sync, running borderless, running windowed... nothing changed. I got screen tearing no matter what.

This is the only game in the past 10+ years where I explicitly had to use vsync to get screen tearing under control. I walked away with the impression that something was just fundamentally broken with the game.

The only way I could get the game into a less-annoying state is by doing what I described above. I remember reading a thread elsewhere that explicitly said that AA was causing undesired issues and remember immediately seeing a massive difference when I toggled it around. I am pretty sure I toggled it off.
 
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