Still have micro-stutter in Black Ops 3 after trying almost everything

[Corrupted_Samus]

So I suppose I didn't notice it when the game came out because I suppose I was wearing rose-tinted glasses about it, but I have had micro-stutter with it for as long as it has been out. None of the hotfix patches have fixed it or even helped. I'm about to tear my hair out over this so I made an account (after being a long time Youtube subscriber, of course) in the hopes of getting this fixed. I was running at 1080p with most settings around med-high except shadows, which were on low and for antialiasing, order-independent transparency, dynamic shadows, motion blur, ambient occlusion, and sub-surface scattering, which were all off.

My rig is as follows:

CPU - AMD FX-8320 @3.5GHz (turbos to 4GHz, never overclocked)
CPU Cooler - CoolerMaster Hyper212 Evo Aircooler (in Push-Pull configuration)
Motherboard - MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard
RAM - x2 8Gb sticks of AData DDR3 Ram (16Gb total)
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 770 Windforce (2Gb Vram) (running at default clock speeds)
PSU - EVGA Supernova 750 G2 (80 Plus Gold Certified)
Chassis/Case - NZXT S340 ATX Case
Cooling/Fans - 4 Case fans (2 intake at the front, 1 on top to exhaust, one in the back to exhaust)
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB (for programs)
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO (for OS)

It seems to only be Black Ops 3 (and wierdly, the Valley Benchmark) that runs like this. Black Ops 1 and 2, Borderlands 2, and Dragonball Xenoverse all run fine. All these were ran at 1080p with everything as high as it could go, except in the case for Black Ops 3, of course. I use MSI Afterburner's custom fan curve utility to run a custom fan curve to keep my hard cooler, and it never really even touches 60c under load, so it's not an overheating problem. I've monitored Vram usage in-game with GPU-Z and it never goes above 1.8 Gb. I know this is only a 2Gb card, so perhaps i'm just hitting the Vram limit and that's what's causing the stutter.

I've tried uninstalling the drivers and then doing a fresh, clean install multiple times to no avail. I tried to use an old 750ti I had but my rig wouldn't even boot with it in. The CPU shouldn't be bottlenecking the GPU and the temps are all fine. I can't RMA the card either, since I bought it from reddit very lightly used, but otherwise has performed fine. I've tried all the little config edits that people have made in the "players" folder of Steam to no avail. Also tried messing around with some Nvidia control panel settings I heard could help (Maximum Prerendered frames and Performance mode). Changing the power mode to performance got me a little boost in FPS, but didn't stop the stuttering and the Prerendered Frames option didn't help either.

Anybody have any recommendations other than to wait on the game to be better optimized?

[Morgan MLGman]

Inb4 FX hate train says it's the CPU, it's not, I've played the BO3 beta, didn't experience any stuttering.

I'm almost 100% sure it's the VRAM limit, this game takes a lot of it, 4GB is the least you should have. Turn down texture settings to lowest possible and see if it uses below the 1,5GB threshold then report back

[Tech_Dreamer]

most probably the GPU , time to bump up to a higher tier card? seems you would actually benefit from a flagship gpu

[Corrupted_Samus]

Thing is, I tried to drop the settings down as low as they would go and, if anything, it made the stuttering worse. I'd rather not buy a new card right now if I don't have to, but if that seems to be what's causing the problem, then I'll cave and go for a 970. I was gonna wait until Pascal was released and then make my decision, but as long as my problem goes away, i don't care anymore.

[XDroidie626]

It could be I/O speeds, maybe a failing drive, but chances are its not but its always a variable.

Chances are its the GPU, its not exactly a new one and I am sure its taken some torture during its life time, maybe time to upgrade, I would wait til new year though for the best deals.

Another thing could be reinstall the Nvidia drivers to latest beta just for testing purposes.

[Corrupted_Samus]

Already running the latest beta driver for the 770, which at the time of writing this, is 359.06. I just wish my little 770 could run it a little better.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Go to the config file and change Vram usage from 0.9-1.0 (90-100%) to 0.85 (85%)

Stopped ALL stutters for me.

 

//Fraction of video memory usage to target

VideoMemory = "0.85" // 0.75 to 1

[Morgan MLGman]

Thing is, I tried to drop the settings down as low as they would go and, if anything, it made the stuttering worse. I'd rather not buy a new card right now if I don't have to, but if that seems to be what's causing the problem, then I'll cave and go for a 970. I was gonna wait until Pascal was released and then make my decision, but as long as my problem goes away, i don't care anymore.

Get R9 390, more future proofness, more VRAM and a faster card, potentially better DX12 as well

[Corrupted_Samus]

Go to the config file and change Vram usage from 0.9-1.0 (90-100%) to 0.85 (85%)

Stopped ALL stutters for me.

 

//Fraction of video memory usage to target

VideoMemory = "0.85" // 0.75 to 1

Just tried that again, having tried that tweak before. Didn't do anything. You aren't running a 2Gb 770 too by chance are you?

[Corrupted_Samus]

Get R9 390, more future proofness, more VRAM and a faster card, potentially better DX12 as well

Yeah, if I end up replacing the 770, that was one of the cards I was giving a look over. That 8 gigs of Vram looks tempting.....and I could run the textures at Extra too and not have to drop them down to High like I've heard some 970 users having to do.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Just tried that again, having tried that tweak before. Didn't do anything. You aren't running a 2Gb 770 too by chance are you?

Nah, a 3.6GB GTX970

[Corrupted_Samus]

Nah, a 3.6GB GTX970

Ah, well then that would be why I suppose.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Ah, well then that would be why I suppose.

Well I still had massive stuttering at default settings though... Game is just...crap in regards to pre-caching everything.

Guessing you lowered each setting one by one to see if any particular one is a culprit?

[Corrupted_Samus]

Well I still had massive stuttering at default settings though... Game is just...crap in regards to pre-caching everything.

Guessing you lowered each setting one by one to see if any particular one is a culprit?

Well, yes and no. Yes, being that I did that when I first noticed the problems. Order-Independent Transparency and Subsurface Scattering are known to wreak havoc on framerates, so I turned those off right away. Dynamic shadows eats up a lot of Vram, so I turned that off right away as well, along with turning down the actual shadow detail to Low. Then it was just a matter of trying to find a good balance of settings I could play at without stuttering (which I never found, It still stutters). I can play it with a pretty decent 60fps almost all the time on all high settings except for the afformentioned settings.....but dat stutter doe..... 

[SkilledRebuilds]

Well, yes and no. Yes, being that I did that when I first noticed the problems. Order-Independent Transparency and Subsurface Scattering are known to wreak havoc on framerates, so I turned those off right away. Dynamic shadows eats up a lot of Vram, so I turned that off right away as well, along with turning down the actual shadow detail to Low. Then it was just a matter of trying to find a good balance of settings I could play at without stuttering (which I never found, It still stutters). I can play it with a pretty decent 60fps almost all the time on all high settings except for the afformentioned settings.....but dat stutter doe..... 

Yeah thats annoying...

 

Besides monitoring everything keenly like a hawk to see if anything is up (at any random time), I dunno what to suggest, sorry.

[Corrupted_Samus]

It just irks me because I know I've seen people run this game with the same card I have and get great performance out of it with no stuttering. For instance, this guy claims he has been able to run it hitch-free since launch and is getting more fps than I thought the 770 could produce at high/ultra in the game.

 

Scroll down until you see the username "Lucid"

http://steamcommunity.com/app/311210/discussions/0/490125737459916949/ 

[AstroBenny]

The game is still pretty buggy. I myself am also experiencing micro-stutter on BO3 and mouse responsiveness feels awful compared to BO2. Give them a year and they'll fix it..

[Corrupted_Samus]

The game is still pretty buggy. I myself am also experiencing micro-stutter on BO3 and mouse responsiveness feels awful compared to BO2. Give them a year and they'll fix it..

That's what my thinking keeps defaulting back to. I might see if I can find a 4gb version of the 770 for cheap though (since this seems like a Vram issue), because that'll probably hold me off for a while. I don't plan on moving up from 1080p anytime soon. Then again, the 970 is cheaper.... Can't really get something too powerful because of the possibility of FX-8320 bottlenecking reasons....

[Corrupted_Samus]

Ok, so out of the blue, I thought I'd try overclocking my 8320 to see what it did. I mean, since I have the Black Edition, it supports slightly higher voltage. After overclocking and loading up BO3, most of the stuttering was gone. For the few instances that were still apparent, it was much more bearable. I used RivaTuner to monitor the usage during gameplay, and it would occasionally hit 80%, but the gpu was being fully utilized (100%) when that would happen. I didn't think the 8320 would bottleneck my 770. So either it was indeed bottlenecking the card, or something related to me ever-so-slightly amping up the voltage fixed it....wierd.