Overwatch stuttering

[Ashleyyyy]

i'm getting stutters in Overwatch when a lot happens on screen at once. i play on all ultra settings. 

 

my specs are:

2x Xeon X5650

48GB DDR3

GTX 690 (SLI enabled)

240GB SSD

Windows 8.1

 

screenshots of task manager and afterburner:

[rhyseyness]

Drop the settings to medium and see if it persists.

Check your graphics drivers are up to date.

 

It sounds like your frame rate is dropping when a lot is happening in game.

Overwatch is pretty CPU heavy (compared to GPU), and your CPU is pretty slow (single threaded performance).

 

If dropping the graphics settings down doesn't help, it looks like you might be CPU bound, and will need to overclock/upgrade.

Overclocking is near impossible on Xeon chips, so it COULD be time for a new CPU.

 

Drop the graphics settings down first though and make sure it's not just that your graphics card can't keep up.

 

Hope this helps

[Ashleyyyy]

2 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Check your graphics drivers are up to date.

they aren't. i'm running 391.35. the problem is that if i update them to the latest one, my pc bluescreens, restarts, and then won't go to the login screen. it will bluescreen before it gets there.

 

4 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

It sounds like your frame rate is dropping when a lot is happening in game.

Overwatch is pretty CPU heavy (compared to GPU), and your CPU is pretty slow (single threaded performance).

none of the core's are maxed out though...

 

4 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

If dropping the graphics settings down doesn't help, it looks like you might be CPU bound, and will need to overclock/upgrade.

Overclocking is near impossible on Xeon chips, so it COULD be time for a new CPU.

i do have a core i5 machine laying around, and that didn't have these issues, but yea i don't want to setup a seperate machine just for this game.

 

5 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Drop the graphics settings down first though and make sure it's not just that your graphics card can't keep up.

i did notice the vram (2gb) maxes out from time to time, but if it does it doesn't stutter immediately.

also i don't want to turn down the settings. if you look at the screenshots you'll notice max usage on my gpu is 68%....

[rhyseyness]

42 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

they aren't. i'm running 391.35. the problem is that if i update them to the latest one, my pc bluescreens, restarts, and then won't go to the login screen. it will bluescreen before it gets there.

Fair enough. That's unlikely an issue.

42 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

none of the core's are maxed out though...

I think there will be short periods of time (milliseconds) where the cores are maxed out.

It's just not captured by task manager.

I believe that's when you're seeing the stuttering.

44 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i do have a core i5 machine laying around, and that didn't have these issues, but yea i don't want to setup a seperate machine just for this game.

Unfortunately looks like the lower single core performance of the Xeon is causing the issue.

I agree, you don't want to have seperate machines for some games, haha!

47 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i did notice the vram (2gb) maxes out from time to time, but if it does it doesn't stutter immediately.

also i don't want to turn down the settings. if you look at the screenshots you'll notice max usage on my gpu is 68%....

Yea, I agree that I don't think the GPU is the issue...

Just a quick thought, have you tried running without SLI?

I don't know how overwatch performs with SLI... it wasn't great on my old 290X's in crossfire.

 

I'm fairly confident from what you've said that it's your CPU single core performance that's hurting you

[Ashleyyyy]

22 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Just a quick thought, have you tried running without SLI?

I don't know how overwatch performs with SLI... it wasn't great on my old 290X's in crossfire.

crossfire isn't SLI. it's completely different and much more broken.

 

and i don't wanna run without SLI because if i do that i might as well swap the 690 out for a 780Ti i have laying around. the 690 without SLI is basically a lower clocked 680 so... pretty bad by todays standards.

 

24 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

I'm fairly confident from what you've said that it's your CPU single core performance that's hurting you

yea i was afraid of that. that's really annoying. i could use the i5 system but then i'd have to use Windows 10... which i don't wanna do. so...

[rhyseyness]

4 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

crossfire isn't SLI. it's completely different and much more broken.

 

and i don't wanna run without SLI because if i do that i might as well swap the 690 out for a 780Ti i have laying around. the 690 without SLI is basically a lower clocked 680 so... pretty bad by todays standards.

Yea, I know, completely agree with you.

I moved to nVidia and vowed never to use crossfire again because of my experiences with it.

 

I understand your thought process, and I'd be doing the exact same thing if I was in your position.

5 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

yea i was afraid of that. that's really annoying. i could use the i5 system but then i'd have to use Windows 10... which i don't wanna do. so...

Yea it sucks  

Not sure if there's a faster processor (for single core workloads) you can buy for that socket, that's still got the horsepower you need.

I'm not up on the Xeon sku's I'm afraid so can't make a recommendation.

 

I'd always recommend better single core for gaming, but I'm guessing beacuse you have a xeon system with 12 cores, you do a lot more than just game!

 

I'm afraid as it stands, doesn't look like there's a cheap solution to your problem, without using your other system

[Ashleyyyy]

8 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Yea, I know, completely agree with you.

I moved to nVidia and vowed never to use crossfire again because of my experiences with it.

 

I understand your thought process, and I'd be doing the exact same thing if I was in your position.

i originally bought this GTX 690 for fun, because i thought it was interesting being a dual-gpu card. i've been very impressed with the performance.

4 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Not sure if there's a faster processor (for single core workloads) you can buy for that socket, that's still got the horsepower you need.

I'm not up on the Xeon sku's I'm afraid so can't make a recommendation.

there is. the X5690. that has a clock speed of 3.46ghz... now i have 2.66ghz... the problem is those are kinda rare and not officially supported for my machine (i'm running a prebuilt server) but i do have a board that will support those. now that i'm running into issues with these i might buy 2 X5690's and use that other board.

 

there are slightly higher clocked quadcore chips i believe, but those have basically no difference in price from the hexacore core chips so i might as well go for the hexacore chips.

6 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

I'd always recommend better single core for gaming, but I'm guessing beacuse you have a xeon system with 12 cores, you do a lot more than just game!

tbh not really lmao... but i multitask a lot. sometimes for school i have a VM or two open, about 50 tabs, a few word documents, etc... and with this machine i can have all that open and still go play a game if i want a break from homework without closing everything else.

 

also not having to worry at all about what i have open because this system is OP as hell is very nice. i just don't have to think about it. i can open whatever i want on it and expect it to be fast.

 

i originally built this machine for the same reason i bought the GTX 690. i thought it was interesting, and i've always wanted to experience a 12-core system.

[rhyseyness]

11 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i originally bought this GTX 690 for fun, because i thought it was interesting being a dual-gpu card. i've been very impressed with the performance.

there is. the X5690. that has a clock speed of 3.46ghz... now i have 2.66ghz... the problem is those are kinda rare and not officially supported for my machine (i'm running a prebuilt server) but i do have a board that will support those. now that i'm running into issues with these i might buy 2 X5690's and use that other board.

 

there are slightly higher clocked quadcore chips i believe, but those have basically no difference in price from the hexacore core chips so i might as well go for the hexacore chips.

tbh not really lmao... but i multitask a lot. sometimes for school i have a VM or two open, about 50 tabs, a few word documents, etc... and with this machine i can have all that open and still go play a game if i want a break from homework without closing everything else.

 

also not having to worry at all about what i have open because this system is OP as hell is very nice. i just don't have to think about it. i can open whatever i want on it and expect it to be fast.

 

i originally built this machine for the same reason i bought the GTX 690. i thought it was interesting, and i've always wanted to experience a 12-core system.

All makes good sense!

If I was in your position, I'd be swapping to the X5690- that clock bump is huge!

I think it will solve your problem... but mega expensive by the looks of it!

 

I think I'd go hexacore, but it's up to you if you need the 12 cores or not.

 

Best of luck my dude.

Jealous of all your cores (from an 8600K user and fellow overwatch player! rhyseyness#2637)

[Ashleyyyy]

6 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

All makes good sense!

If I was in your position, I'd be swapping to the X5690- that clock bump is huge!

I think it will solve your problem... but mega expensive by the looks of it!

 

I think I'd go hexacore, but it's up to you if you need the 12 cores or not.

nah not really. i can get X5690's for €50 per cpu if i'm patient and wait for a good listing.

 

6 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

Jealous of all your cores (from an 8600K user and fellow overwatch player! rhyseyness#2637)

i'd rather have an 8600K but it's too expensive for me. my entire pc cost the same as an 8600K. so there's that lmao..

do you play on US or EU servers? i usually play on US servers... i'd love to add you but i need to know what region.

[rhyseyness]

24 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

nah not really. i can get X5690's for €50 per cpu if i'm patient and wait for a good listing.

 

i'd rather have an 8600K but it's too expensive for me. my entire pc cost the same as an 8600K. so there's that lmao..

do you play on US or EU servers? i usually play on US servers... i'd love to add you but i need to know what region.

That's not too bad. It was over $1000 at launch!

I reckon that's what I'd do.

 

I play on both, but EU way more than US.

I'm only high gold/low plat and a main tank/hitscan main.

[Ashleyyyy]

13 minutes ago, rhyseyness said:

I play on both, but EU way more than US.

I'm only high gold/low plat and a main tank/hitscan main.

i'm low silver /bronze so you're a lot better than me xD.

[rhyseyness]

3 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

i'm low silver /bronze so you're a lot better than me xD.

Haha! Higher SR =/= better.

I know plenty of boosted master players who would be silver/gold if they solo queued!