Random Occasional Stuttering

[ShadowRanger]

Exhausting myself of ideas at this point. Have brought this up here before on the Linus Tech Tips Discord and have received help from other uses which I very much appreciate. But I am still experiencing the same issue so just want to see if anyone else has any ideas.

 

For several months now I've been experiencing completely random stutters which I notice as my cursor freezes and jumps ahead slightly for a split second of time. Any audio that is playing is not affected at all, I just notice it from my screen. It seems to occur while running any program, I even notice it on the Windows 10 login screen occasionally when I start my computer up and move my cursor before typing in my password. Other times it's on Google Chrome browsing Facebook, on Discord, etc. Weird thing is I can reproduce the exact same sort of stutter simply by launching the Netflix app, or loading Netflix in my browser. It might be when some sort of network activity occurs, but I am not entirely sure. I noticed that if I turn my second monitor off, the stutter does not occur at all, or at least not as bad.

 

I have tried everything. Updating BIOS and all drivers, monitoring hardware load and temperatures, stress testing, reinstalling Windows... etc. I did notice that rolling back to Nvidia graphics driver v419.17 seems to stop the stuttering completely or to a degree where I don't notice it, which is quite strange.

 

It is also worth noting that this computer is less than a year old, with all brand new high end components, so I didn't expect this sort of thing to happen.

 

I would very much appreciate any assistance. If anyone has any questions for me to help understand the issue, please let me know.

 

PC Specs:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING

CPU: Intel Core i7 8700

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro CMW16GX4M2C3000C15 16GB DDR4

SSD 1: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 500GB

SSD 2: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB

Monitor 1 (Primary): Acer XB241H | 1920 x 1080 @ 144hz - Vi

Monitor 2 (Secondary): VX2370 SERIES | 1920 x 1080 @ 60hz - HDMI

 

Troubleshooting Steps Attempted:

• Updating BIOS, Windows 10 and all drivers
• Clean installing graphics driver with DDU
• Monitoring all PC temperatures
• Stress testing / stress testing all major hardware components
• Clean installing Windows 10

Important Notes

• Stutters eliminated or not noticeable on Nvidia driver version v419.17 and older
• Stutters eliminated or not noticeable with secondary monitor turned off

 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

msi afterburner is known to cause it for me and my friends ( somtimes after 1min somtimes after few hours )

 

other then that, its most likely hpet beeing off time  

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/915727-common-stutter-lag-crash-fix-hpet-guide/

 

 

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, ShadowRanger said:

Exhausting myself of ideas at this point. Have brought this up here before on the Linus Tech Tips Discord and have received help from other uses which I very much appreciate. But I am still experiencing the same issue so just want to see if anyone else has any ideas.

 

For several months now I've been experiencing completely random stutters which I notice as my cursor freezes and jumps ahead slightly for a split second of time. Any audio that is playing is not affected at all, I just notice it from my screen. It seems to occur while running any program, I even notice it on the Windows 10 login screen occasionally when I start my computer up and move my cursor before typing in my password. Other times it's on Google Chrome browsing Facebook, on Discord, etc. Weird thing is I can reproduce the exact same sort of stutter simply by launching the Netflix app, or loading Netflix in my browser. It might be when some sort of network activity occurs, but I am not entirely sure. I noticed that if I turn my second monitor off, the stutter does not occur at all, or at least not as bad.

 

I have tried everything. Updating BIOS and all drivers, monitoring hardware load and temperatures, stress testing, reinstalling Windows... etc. I did notice that rolling back to Nvidia graphics driver v419.17 seems to stop the stuttering completely or to a degree where I don't notice it, which is quite strange.

 

 

You'd want to monitor the temperature of the GPU since you appear to belive the GPU is to blame. If the cooler has been damaged, then it's just throttling down. Changes in drivers can reset or change the cooling profile. Remember that nVidia backported some of the raytracing features to the GTX 10x0 series around that time. 

[ShadowRanger]

53 minutes ago, Valkyrie Lenneth said:

msi afterburner is known to cause it for me and my friends ( somtimes after 1min somtimes after few hours )

 

other then that, its most likely hpet beeing off time  

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/915727-common-stutter-lag-crash-fix-hpet-guide/

 

 

It is an ASUS card and I don't use any software or tools for the graphics card so that wouldn't be an issue.

 

As for the HPET option, I checked your guide and found that the option isn't showing on my computer, so I don't think it has that option.

 

44 minutes ago, Kisai said:

 

You'd want to monitor the temperature of the GPU since you appear to belive the GPU is to blame. If the cooler has been damaged, then it's just throttling down. Changes in drivers can reset or change the cooling profile. Remember that nVidia backported some of the raytracing features to the GTX 10x0 series around that time. 

So I monitored my GPU speeds and temperatures and couldn't see any issues or changes when the stuttering occurs, though I will continue to monitor it just to be sure. I did perform a stress test on the graphics card and my computer ran fine with no crashes or noticeable issues, so that is just another reason that is leaving me confused as to the cause of this problem.

 

You stated some raytracing features were backported around this time. Is there some way I can disable these features or something? I notice these stutters when I am not playing any games, so I'm not sure how else I can ensure it is not caused by an issue with the graphics card.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

Just now, ShadowRanger said:

It is an ASUS card and I don't use any software or tools for the graphics card so that wouldn't be an issue.

 

As for the HPET option, I checked your guide and found that the option isn't showing on my computer, so I don't think it has that option.

 

So I monitored my GPU speeds and temperatures and couldn't see any issues or changes when the stuttering occurs, though I will continue to monitor it just to be sure. I did perform a stress test on the graphics card and my computer ran fine with no crashes or noticeable issues, so that is just another reason that is leaving me confused as to the cause of this problem.

 

You stated some raytracing features were backported around this time. Is there some way I can disable these features or something? I notice these stutters when I am not playing any games, so I'm not sure how else I can ensure it is not caused by an issue with the graphics card.

if the option isnt in ur bios, u have to disable it then timing wil be done by cpu, if u dont disable it in windows u will have stutter usually

 

if stutter is without playing games its possible that its the msi afterburner bug or other software

[Kisai]

18 minutes ago, ShadowRanger said:

It is an ASUS card and I don't use any software or tools for the graphics card so that wouldn't be an issue.

 

As for the HPET option, I checked your guide and found that the option isn't showing on my computer, so I don't think it has that option.

 

So I monitored my GPU speeds and temperatures and couldn't see any issues or changes when the stuttering occurs, though I will continue to monitor it just to be sure. I did perform a stress test on the graphics card and my computer ran fine with no crashes or noticeable issues, so that is just another reason that is leaving me confused as to the cause of this problem.

 

You stated some raytracing features were backported around this time. Is there some way I can disable these features or something? I notice these stutters when I am not playing any games, so I'm not sure how else I can ensure it is not caused by an issue with the graphics card.

 

You realistically shouldn't disable HPET since nearly every game on Windows since windows XP uses the HPET to time the central loop.

 

The Raytracing features aren't enabled unless you're using something that activates it. Basically what I'm getting at is that if that's the driver version that appears to be the under/over on the stutters, then the suggests a problem with the GPU throttling. That's something more likely to be seen on a OC'd setup (eg the GPU timings), but it could also suggest an issue with the system memory timings, since microstutters are also a trademark of error recovery.

 

Check the system event log to see if there's anything throwing a warning or error at the same time.

[ShadowRanger]

13 minutes ago, Kisai said:

 

You realistically shouldn't disable HPET since nearly every game on Windows since windows XP uses the HPET to time the central loop.

 

The Raytracing features aren't enabled unless you're using something that activates it. Basically what I'm getting at is that if that's the driver version that appears to be the under/over on the stutters, then the suggests a problem with the GPU throttling. That's something more likely to be seen on a OC'd setup (eg the GPU timings), but it could also suggest an issue with the system memory timings, since microstutters are also a trademark of error recovery.

 

Check the system event log to see if there's anything throwing a warning or error at the same time.

I just found another way to reproduce the stutter. Simply by loading my Facebook feed and moving my mouse around as it loads in, after a couple of seconds of the feed becoming visible a stutter occurs.

 

I have checked the event log and cannot see any issues in there.

[ShadowRanger]

Just an update in regards to the stutter when loading Facebook. It seems to only happen if there is a video at the top of the feed and it starts to play automatically. Around this time, it stutters for a split second. If there are no videos at the top and instead just photos, the stutter does not occur. I have tried turning hardware acceleration off in Google Chrome, but it did not resolve this issue.

[ShadowRanger]

Anyone have any ideas?

[ShadowRanger]

2 minutes ago, SnowWolf370 said:

I noticed you're using two monitors and one is running at 144hz and the other at 60hz.. You also mentioned it does not happen, at least not as often when the other monitor is off..

 

In the old days I noticed the same things when using a modern monitor and an old one.

 

If you set the 144hz to run at 60hz in the screen settings. But still keep both connected, does that prevent the computer from stuttering? By making both screens run at 60hz?

Just gave it a go, but unfortunately it did not make any difference.

[ShadowRanger]

5 minutes ago, SnowWolf370 said:

Hi, reading through my notes from before. Try setting the 144hz display to 120hz and see if that resolves the issue.

Just gave that a go but still no luck.

[HRK]

Did you find a solution? I'm experimenting the same issues

[ottawahacker]

If anyone has a similar problem, I had recently some horrific stuttering, I was ready to start tearing up the PC apart and ended up figuring out that it was a USB device (a midi keyboard) that I switched from an actual computer USB port to a USB hub and was the cause. 

Moved the keyboard back to the computer USB port and stutter is gone  

I believe this is the second time the USB hubs end up causing nightmares.