Stream/game stuttering on higher end consumer PC

[Ridingwolf]

Greetings and salutations!  Thank you in advance for any help provided!  I hope I am giving everyone the information needed to help me.

 

Issue/Background/Hardware information:  I recently did my first home PC built in a very long time.  I bought as much higher end hardware as possible and had zero issues installing everything.

 

ROG Strix z390 Gaming-E (Bios on 9/20 update, no others indicated.)
Binned i9 9900k (Was able to get stable OC at 5.2ghz, ran at 4.7ghz, since removed overclock because of issues)
2x ROG Strix 2080ti OC (1 used during gaming) (current bios, no OC)
2x 1tb Samsung 970 Evo M.2 NVME
64 GB Corsair Vengeance 3600Mhz RAM (No OC XMP enabled, SKU showed compatible with MOBO before purchase, was removed from ASUS compatibility list, then readded.)
Intel Optane SSD 9 series 480GB

2x WD Black 10TB HDD
Corsair Obsidian 500D
EK Custom water loop
2x Acer 32" IPS curved monitor 2MS response
1100W Corsair Titanium+ Power Supply

For those curious:  Internet is Cox Gigablast with an average of 940 up and 970 down

Windows 10 64bit (1902 update)

Server grade EPS

 

Uses for this PC are these:  Some 3D animation (I am a scientist and some of my work requires using 3D animations to show data sets), home gaming, and streaming during off times.  Stream stutters and lags almost constantly, 3D software stutters and takes AGES, even longer than my previous PC from 2013 (18 hour render for 1GB 5 second animation vs 7 hours on previous computer w/4770K and 32GB RAM on AMD 5790), and games stutter and lag.  Streaming never makes it above 720p and I can't play games at any higher settings than medium on older titles, lower on newer titles.  CPU and GPU temps average 55C on saturation (looping r20 and others)

 

Software/games used:

Adobe suite

Chemsketch

DaVinci Resolve

World of Warcraft

DayZ

War Thunder

Borderlands 3

WarFrame

IL-2

Shadowrun Series HBS

PUBG

The Division

Generation Zero

Men of War

OBS Studio

Core Temp

GPU-Z

Elgato

Discord

Audacity

Team Speak

University proprietary software that can't be named due to contract (However, the only software that does not have issues, computer built to meet medium specs recommended by manufacturer)

 

Streaming and 3D rendering are my only sources of income right now due to medical issues forcing me to remain home and the inability to meet my streaming and design schedules make fixing this PC the most important things currently.  I have tried everything under the sun on my own and local tech support is beyond a joke.  I have been working on fixing this since April and have spent almost $3K USD trying to resolve my issues.  One of the GPUs has been RMA'd no issues found, MOBO 3 times, twice no issues found 1 time corrupted bios MOBO was replaced, RAM has been RMA'd twice, RAM replaced once, CPU has been RMA'd once no issues found.  Finally, Windows install has been found corrupted 3 times and repaired each time using the following steps:

run cmd in admin mode

1. sfc /scannow

2. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

3. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:repairSource\install.wim

 

I have removed and reseated every component.  I have replaced power cables, checked power draw at the plug.  I have contacted Intel, ROG (ASUS), Corsair, Microsoft, 4 local tech companies, and a plethora of online sources.  The Windows fix works forks for a time, but Windows becomes recorrupted within hours.  3 different virus/Malware scanners have found nothing, but the problem has been present since before being plugged into the internet.  HDDs and SSDs have been removed and PC tested without them to check for corruptions.  Nothing I can do or have found to do helps diagnose the real issue and all tech support companies just charge me an arm and a leg to tell me nothing is wrong with the PC they can find.

 

Streaming and gaming is where the issues are most prevalent.  No matter what I set bitrate at or what encoding I use, (I have tried all three encoders available through OBS Studio, Intel h264, NVidia h264, and the third one I can't remember right now), or what quality I use (even 720p, stream is still photographs any higher) streams are slide shows.  During gaming, no matter the video quality, I can't sustain 60 FPS, games are usually in the area of 30-40 with dips below 10 FPS.  This combine with streaming and rendering issues means I have an $8K USD Youtube watching machine.  Again, thank you for any and all help provided.

[TheWiseGuy]

Download CAM and find out what temps you are running at. 

[Ridingwolf]

Temps are posted.  At full saturation I never go above 55C on 20 min R20 loops.

 

[Ridingwolf]

May I have help please?

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Ridingwolf said:

May I have help please?

Ok as this seems, obviously, rather difficult and kinda convoluted - complete shot in the dark and bear with me OK 

 

I don't even know why you need 2 high end GPUs - but it also doesn't really matter, so here it goes:

 

Remove one GPU from your system. 

Also install only one hard-drive for now, best the WD black - no m2 or similar...

 

Reinstall Windows fresh (yes, I know you did this a million times already probably but still it's important so do it) 

 

After installation of Windows let it update, do not install any software just yet. 

 

Install GPU driver from Nvidia website. 

 

Install Steam. 

 

Test some games. 

 

 

Post your results / experience here afterwards. 

 

 

 

Because honestly I think that's the only (and how it usually goes) way to even begin trying to figure out what is wrong with your system. 

 

 

Do *not* install any other software besides STEAM,  some games and maybe some monitoring program like HWmonitor before posting your results. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ridingwolf]

Mark,

 

Thank you.  I have done this over the last couple of days.

 

Just to answer about 2 GPUs, I use the second one in my University's proprietary software for rendering 3D videos of research results.

 

Now to the results:

Removed every component.  Added in each drive individually along with only 1 GPU.  Same issue, regardless of HDD, SSD, or Optane.  I did not test OBS.  Each time, I found Windows corruption and it was repaired via the steps in OP.  Corruption only took 1-6 hours to return each time.  While repaired, system ran fine in games with fr above 120.

 

[Touch My Hamm]

As someone who uses SLI for years stuttering can be commonplace and difficult to troubleshoot. Make sure that if you are using 1 gpu to have the most up to date driver. I would recommend clean reinstall of drivers. Reinstall and games and make sure that default settings dont stutter. 

 

Are there certain settings in the game causing the stuttering? Test Test Test. Is it happening to Full screen games or window mode games? If its in Window mode is the background of Windows stuttering? (can be tested by having looping gifs play in the background. 

 

My issue was that some settings where being utilized by the 2nd GPU which caused slight miscommunication between the GPU's Even after taking 2nd GPU out it was still happening till I did a clean reinstall. 

 

Also to confirm studdering you are getting drops in FPS in games where randomly the game looks to freeze and come back almost instantly causing a disruption and the FPS tracker goes to almost 0? Or are you getting FPD drops where it feels like a car breaks then speeds back up? 

 

Check out the settings for the Motherboard. Is there one of those "1 button OVERCLOCKS" active? Is the Ram setting set to XML? 

 

A PC with those specs are a dream machine and it really sucks to hear you are having issues. (kinda wanna see those pics of the machine) Hope some of this helps. Please feel free to @ tag me for information or troubleshooting. 

 

Good Luck and hope it gets fixed asap. 

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Ridingwolf said:

Mark,

 

Thank you.  I have done this over the last couple of days.

 

Just to answer about 2 GPUs, I use the second one in my University's proprietary software for rendering 3D videos of research results.

 

Now to the results:

Removed every component.  Added in each drive individually along with only 1 GPU.  Same issue, regardless of HDD, SSD, or Optane.  I did not test OBS.  Each time, I found Windows corruption and it was repaired via the steps in OP.  Corruption only took 1-6 hours to return each time.  While repaired, system ran fine in games with fr above 120.

 

You're welcome! And I see, it's certainly difficult,  but you may also see why it's necessary to really just have minimal installation of hardware and software when trouble shooting,  especially 2 GPUs makes it needlessly complicated.

 

So we kinda narrowed it down to "system corruption"...

 

What kind of errors do you get if any and can you check event viewer and post the event logs prior repair, aka when the system is actually corrupted? 

 

That should bring us a bit further I suppose. 

 

 

 

 

[Ridingwolf]

Thanks again to you both.  The only time the NVlink and 2nd GPU are being used is on rendering projects, otherwise the second GPU is actually removed from the case.  Drivers for 1/2 are redone each time but the change out happens only 1-2 times per month and only when I have a project to work on.  Drivers are removed and cleaned with a registry cleaner each time.  I have updated and rolled back every driver and MOBO bios multiple times.  Nothing induces any change.  The ONLY time there is a change and the PC runs without hiccups is when both GPUs being used and I am in our graphics program.  This issue has been present since the first power up on the machine, with only 1 GPU.

 

As someone who uses SLI for years stuttering can be commonplace and difficult to troubleshoot. Make sure that if you are using 1 gpu to have the most up to date driver. I would recommend clean reinstall of drivers. Reinstall and games and make sure that default settings dont stutter. 

 

I never game or stream when using both GPUs.  The drivers have been updated and rolled back many times over.  Games have been uninstalled and wiped with registry cleaners several times.  OBS (and all other streaming software) has been uninstalled, wiped, and reinstalled many times.

 

Are there certain settings in the game causing the stuttering? Test Test Test. Is it happening to Full screen games or window mode games? If its in Window mode is the background of Windows stuttering? (can be tested by having looping gifs play in the background. 

 

Nope.  Stutter all the time.  Low settings, max settings, old games, new games.  Gsync on, gsync off, 720-4k.  There is not a setting in any game that doesn't have the stuttering.

 

My issue was that some settings where being utilized by the 2nd GPU which caused slight miscommunication between the GPU's Even after taking 2nd GPU out it was still happening till I did a clean reinstall. 

 

I don't think this applies here as the only time the PC is stable is when the SLI and 2nd GPU are being used, that said, I still have the issue in games/streaming.

 

Also to confirm studdering you are getting drops in FPS in games where randomly the game looks to freeze and come back almost instantly causing a disruption and the FPS tracker goes to almost 0? Or are you getting FPD drops where it feels like a car breaks then speeds back up? 

 

Yes to both.  Each game seems to behave differently, some, it feels like your car analogy and others it is just a constant reduction in frames with very low dips.

 

Check out the settings for the Motherboard. Is there one of those "1 button OVERCLOCKS" active? Is the Ram setting set to XML? 

 

Yes, there is.  No, it is not used.  I did all the OC manually, however, there is no current OC on.  RAM is in XML, but I get the stuttering whether the RAM is in XML or not.

 

A PC with those specs are a dream machine and it really sucks to hear you are having issues. (kinda wanna see those pics of the machine) Hope some of this helps. Please feel free to @ tag me for information or troubleshooting. 

 

Can do.  

 

Good Luck and hope it gets fixed asap

 

Thank you!  Me too!

 

 

You're welcome! And I see, it's certainly difficult,  but you may also see why it's necessary to really just have minimal installation of hardware and software when trouble shooting,  especially 2 GPUs makes it needlessly complicated. 

 

Oh yes.  I have rinsed and repeated these steps now for 7 months, but I don't care what it takes, I need this PC running smoothly.

 

So we kinda narrowed it down to "system corruption"...

 

Yes, and it appears to be hardware, however, having bad hardware on 3 different SSDs and 2 different HDD seems highly unlikely to me or I have beyond the worst luck ever known to human kind.

 

What kind of errors do you get if any and can you check event viewer and post the event logs prior repair, aka when the system is actually corrupted? 

 

I will save you some reading time if you want, however, I will still perform the testing again if you wish.  No errors and nothing showing up in any log files.

 

That should bring us a bit further I suppose. 

 

Thank you again for helping out.  I am really at my wits end and I am about ready to throw this thing off a cliff.

[Mark Kaine]

17 minutes ago, Ridingwolf said:

I will save you some reading time if you want, however, I will still perform the testing again if you wish.  No errors and nothing showing up in any log files.

No,  not logs as in log files. 

Just click on event viewer and check the first couple of entries / overview. 

 

This really doesn't need to be complete or complex as the most critical errors are usually on top. 

Just make Screenshots of each category and first couple of errors (again,  doesn't have to be extensive) 

And especially of the overview,  it's literally the first thing when you open event viewer 

 

There have to be errors (which makes me think you didn't look at the right place)

 

17 minutes ago, Ridingwolf said:

Thank you again for helping out.  I am really at my wits end and I am about ready to throw this thing off a cliff.

No prob...  but really, just wait a few days before the throwing off the clip thing please,  I think we're kinda close tbh!

 

Only need to find out what's causing this corruption,  which might actually isn't that hard (if we're lucky)  

 

 

 

[Ridingwolf]

Windows event log, yes?  

[Mark Kaine]

1 minute ago, Ridingwolf said:

Windows event log, yes?  

Windows Event Viewer 

 

Looks like this,  you see,  "overview" "custom view" (both categories)  just make Screenshots of each of them,  and just the first page each.

 

 

 

[Ridingwolf]

Same screen I have been looking at, I think we are just calling it by different names.

 

I will wait for occurrence to happen again, then take screenie.  Fix it, then take another screenie.  Do you want this for every SSD, HDD or will one suffice?

 

[Ridingwolf]

[Mark Kaine]

52 minutes ago, Ridingwolf said:

Same screen I have been looking at, I think we are just calling it by different names.

 

I will wait for occurrence to happen again, then take screenie.  Fix it, then take another screenie.  Do you want this for every SSD, HDD or will one suffice?

 

 

32 minutes ago, Ridingwolf said:

There really aren't that many errors as I expected, still some... 

 

Yeah, you just have to make the shots when your actually having the issues you described,  not right after fixing them obviously. 

 

And nah, as long you actually have the issues it doesn't matter which drive. 

 

Tbh I'm actually not that great with these windows errors, I'm hoping someone can help out here, and it's also late for me,  but I do know that these errors can actually help to pin point either driver or hardware issues, so I think it's definitely important to check those, when the issues occur. 

 

@Juular could maybe help / have an idea too for example. 

[Ridingwolf]

Awesome.  Thank you again Mark!  I will be waiting here with bells on!

 

EDIT:  Typo

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Ridingwolf
Typo

[Juular]

Quote

I bought as much higher end hardware as possible

Yeah, checks out lol

As of screenshot of Event Viewer, there's some warnings off screen, scroll down please, maybe there's smth relevant.

Quote

Server grade EPS

And what it's powering ?

So, to confirm, any 3D application lags right ? Even relatively simple benchmarks like Unigine Heaven ? That shouldn't happen, and in that case the only causes would be either faulty GPU (but you've RMA'ed one of them and i assume have tried them both to confirm that it lags with either of them), or PSU, there's slight possibilty that it's motherboard too but you've replaced it too already.

All this stuff sounds like a problem with power delivery, coincidentally, the PSU seems to be the only part you didn't try to replace. And i'm curious what's that Corsair 1100W PSU since they're no such things. Maybe you meant Corsair AX1000, it's not exactly a bad one but shit happens so since you've tried everything that i can thing of, try to replace the PSU, this PC with just one GPU will be fine with some good 550\650W PSU if you have any lying around (reply if you really do so we can confirm that it's indeed a good one).

And to confirm, any 3D application lags right ? Even relatively simple benchmarks like Unigine Heaven ? That shouldn't happen, and in that case the only causes would be either faulty GPU (but you've RMA'ed one of them and i assume have tried them both to confirm that it lags with either of them), or PSU, there's slight possibilty that it's motherboard too but you've replaced it too already.

[Mark Kaine]

4 hours ago, Juular said:

And what it's powering

I also thought of PSU and that one made me thinking too, but I wanted to cover the basics first.

 

To me surge protectors and similar are always suspect,  just another part that could cause issues or break...  

 

and he wants to use 2 GPUs but yes, for testing with only 1 GPU a good ~600w PSU should be sufficient of course. 

 

 

[Ridingwolf]

Sorry for the time away, illness happened.

 

This is my psu, I didn't realize I had a typo, I just cut and pasted from my stream specs I typed in., however, it is a 1200, not the 1500 shown in the website.  amazon doesn't seem to have mine in stock right now.

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-AX1500i-Modular-Digital-Titanium/dp/B07DLHTZ6X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Corsair+AX&qid=1576834355&refinements=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A16955321011&rnid=16955315011&s=pc&sr=1-2

 

The server grade EPS/UPS ( have heard it called both, is a server level surge protector and battery backup, 3500 watt 1 hour supply from APC.  It is running my two PCs, this one and my wife's.  The PSU has been checked by 3 of the computer repair places I have been to with voltimeters at the plug for draw and at the cables for delivery.  Max draw was 855 watts, which is why the beefy supply, it is right in the middle of the curve for efficiency.

 

What is lagging is streams, OBS and games.  The 3D applications don't seem to be lagging.  I have tried the PC with an EVGA 1000 watt Titanium PSU as well.  Same issues.  The surge protector has also been removed from the equation, I used 3 different ones and just used the outlet.  Same problems.  House wiring has been checked, albeit not by an electrician, my landlord refused to hire one, he used his maintenance person.  That said, he did monitor power delivery for 24 hours and the events happened but the plug showed even power delivery with no dips or spikes, even during the events.

 

The issue is getting worse, I can't even get Minecraft to go over 40 FPS, everything drops down to 10 or less FPS during streams.  OBS shows no frames or packet loss.  My internet pings (traceroute and such) also show no packet loss to explain the streaming difficulty.  At this point I have spent $8000 on this PC and I am ready to throw it out of a window.