TROUBLESHOOTING: Extremely annoying stutter in every game on multiple operating systems

[EpicNinjaCheese]

The issue:

So i've noticed some really annoying stutter with my video and audio output. Its like the system hangs for a fraction of a second then resumes its normal function.

It seems that it happens on a loop, but not entirely. The system will carry on as usual for a random period of time (about 1 - 5 seconds) and then stutter exactly 3 times with about a half second interval between then and then resume.

In some games it seems to be a lot worse than others, Rocket league just constantly skips every second or so and it is literally unplayable.

I have also noticed a weird performance drop in games and although the system says it's outputting a clean 200fps to my monitor i'm not convinced as the experience is nothing but smooth.

 

Either it doesn't happen as much when i am inside the windows desktop and web browsing etc, or i don't notice it as much. With that said i seem to find that it stutters a great deal when scrolling etc while using Chrome and youtube videos do the same thing as well.

 

The issue persists across operating systems as i get the same issue when using SteamOS which is installed on a separate hard drive to my games and windows os. This leads me to believe that it is a hardware issue which is kinda crappy

I should add that i tried using multiple video / audio outputs, even switching displays over but to no avail

 

My Specs:

- I5-4460

- 8gb ddr3 ram

- GA-H97-D3H mobo

- GTX 980ti G1

- 1200W PSU

- SSD boot drive - Windows 10 Pro

- 500gb WD Blue - SteamOS

- 2tb WD Black - Game drive

 

I have tried:

- Re-installing all Nividia drivers (which was a pain in the ass to do, thanks win10 )

- Clean / Fresh install of Nividia drivers ( i should add that i opted not to install Geforce Expierence and any of the 3D drivers )

- Cleaned Registry

- Unplugging all non-essential devices from pc

- Re-Seating ram, gpu and wiggling all power connectors

- Cleaning out dust from pc (there was a little bit on the cpu heat sync)

- Getting less frustrated (didn't work to well thx to win10)

 

Any input will be greatly appreciated, thinking i might have to RMA my (almost) brand new 980TI

[Snickerzz]

Are you sure the graphics device your games are using is the 980Ti and not the Intel integrated graphics? 

[STRMfrmXMN]

Have you actually plugged your monitors into your 980ti? Is the 980ti actually plugged into your PSU?

[ARikozuM]

You guys are being ruthless to this poor guy. What did he do to get this kind of tech support?

 

Put the display cable into the 980 Ti.

 

Can you verify the cache for the games and do a health check on the WD Black?

[LabRat]

could be a multiple sound driver conflicts

does the power supply support the cpu?

what 1200 watt specifically?

could be a heat issue somewhere.

[EpicNinjaCheese]

1 hour ago, Snickerzz said:

Are you sure the graphics device your games are using is the 980Ti and not the Intel integrated graphics? 

Yes, integrated graphics are disabled in the bios

[EpicNinjaCheese]

1 hour ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Have you actually plugged your monitors into your 980ti? Is the 980ti actually plugged into your PSU?

Yes and yes

[EpicNinjaCheese]

1 hour ago, ARikozuM said:

You guys are being ruthless to this poor guy. What did he do to get this kind of tech support?

 

Put the display cable into the 980 Ti.

 

Can you verify the cache for the games and do a health check on the WD Black?

Can do, problem is that there are games installed on the WD Blue as well which do the same thing

 

Thanks for sticking up for me, I'm no dummy and I know you need to actually plug the display into the gpu to use it. When did this forum get so hostile damn

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, EpicNinjaCheese said:

Can do, problem is that there are games installed on the WD Blue as well which do the same thing

 

Thanks for sticking up for me, I'm no dummy and I know you need to actually plug the display into the gpu to use it. When did this forum get so hostile damn

It's always the first step. Avoid the easy stuff by not avoiding it.

 

I would also ask that you run Kombuster(?) from MSI Afterburner and monitoring if it skips and seeing what exactly goes down at those moments.

 

After no success with either, I would take a stick or channel of RAM out and see what happens.

[EpicNinjaCheese]

44 minutes ago, LabRat said:

could be a multiple sound driver conflicts

does the power supply support the cpu?

what 1200 watt specifically?

could be a heat issue somewhere.

EDIT: 

i forgot to add that I have since uninstalled the nividia sound drver and just used my Realtek drivers for my motherboard

 

Yes, it is a seasonic XP-1200

i did a deep clean of the system and cleared as much dust out as I could, cpu and gpu temps are nominal under load

[EpicNinjaCheese]

19 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

It's always the first step. Avoid the easy stuff by not avoiding it.

 

I would also ask that you run Kombuster(?) from MSI Afterburner and monitoring if it skips and seeing what exactly goes down at those moments.

 

After no success with either, I would take a stick or channel of RAM out and see what happens.

I shall do so later as I am out at the moment, although I have my doubts because this problem seems to persist across drives and operating systems, the WD Black is only 5 months old I think so I also have my doubts on that

 

i should add that this problem has shown itself after some 5-6 months of the system working flawlessly after some upgrades I did to the psu and gpu, normally I would blame Windows 10 but it seems that it is hardware specific because of the fact that the issue still persists across multiple games, drives and operating systems. nonetheless I will run your tests to see if they show anything when I can and report back. 

Thanks

[Poohl]

Is your GPU plugged into the top PCI-E x16 slot?

 

Is your Ram/Cpu/Hdd at 99% load when playing?

 

[Taoshi]

Have you tried using LatancyMon to see what drivers that causes your problem?

 

link: http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

[LabRat]

these games are internet related?

did you run malware and anti-virus scans?

sounds like something is constantly trying to connect to the internet ..........

maybe you should also check what apps are running and disable the unneeded for a while to test system..??

Windows10 should be banned from the planet......... just my personal opinion.

[EpicNinjaCheese]

12 hours ago, Poohl said:

Is your GPU plugged into the top PCI-E x16 slot?

 

Is your Ram/Cpu/Hdd at 99% load when playing?

 

Yes it is, although i do have a small wireless card plugged into the bottom pcie-4x slot, could try removing it and see what happens.

Also my cpu sometimes gets high in the usage percentage when i monitor it, sometimes maxing out but it hovers around 85% for core 0 and 2 and at about 75% for core 1 and 3 when playing intensive games, star citizen maxes it out 100% but that is normal as this game is extremely cpu bound right now

 

Ram is well within limits at around 80% when playing some games and it idles at around 1.5gb when using windows desktop

 

I actually went through the trouble to move cs:go to my ssd to test hdd speeds but to no luck.

[EpicNinjaCheese]

9 hours ago, LabRat said:

these games are internet related?

did you run malware and anti-virus scans?

sounds like something is constantly trying to connect to the internet ..........

maybe you should also check what apps are running and disable the unneeded for a while to test system..??

Windows10 should be banned from the planet......... just my personal opinion.

Most of my games are online but i have been playing grid a lot on steamos which has the same issues, you do have a good point though.

I have not run any malware / anti virus scans yet, oops. Will have a look when i get home

I actually went through task manager and killed all the unnessisary processes in one of my tests to see if that had any effect but fkn windows 10 just started half of them right back up

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, EpicNinjaCheese said:

Yes it is, although i do have a small wireless card plugged into the bottom pcie-4x slot, could try removing it and see what happens.

Also my cpu sometimes gets high in the usage percentage when i monitor it, sometimes maxing out but it hovers around 85% for core 0 and 2 and at about 75% for core 1 and 3 when playing intensive games, star citizen maxes it out 100% but that is normal as this game is extremely cpu bound right now

 

Ram is well within limits at around 80% when playing some games and it idles at around 1.5gb when using windows desktop

 

I actually went through the trouble to move cs:go to my ssd to test hdd speeds but to no luck.

That may be the issue since your RAM has a reserved portion in addition to what is being used. You could try adding more RAM and see if it helps.

Have you looked into booting Linux and trying CS:GO from there?

[EpicNinjaCheese]

44 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

That may be the issue since your RAM has a reserved portion in addition to what is being used. You could try adding more RAM and see if it helps.

Have you looked into booting Linux and trying CS:GO from there?

I have always had my suspicions on my ram as it is not the top tier product i could buy, but i actually ran an intel burn test (or memtest, cant remember the name) on them not that long ago to see how they were going and nothing was out of order.

The other thing that i am a little unsure about is the fact that the machine ran fine for a good few months in this config with literally no problems, it was great. Really frustrating that it's happening now without any warning or easy solution.

For example i was playing rocket league with four of my mates on splitscreen and it stayed almost locked at a buttery smooth 200fps but now it is unplayable and to be quite honest it is a really shitty expierence.

 

Might just send my 980TI back to PC Case Gear and see what they think. I can also go to a computer store around me and get everything tested as i do not have the equipment with me to do so right now. Not sure if it will cost me anything though

[Poohl]

 

10 hours ago, EpicNinjaCheese said:

Might just send my 980TI back to PC Case Gear and see what they think.

Try the igpu. if that fixes the stuttering, the problem is your 980Ti.

[EpicNinjaCheese]

So I just gathered the effort to pull the case apart again and tried a few tests you guys suggested.

Pulled one of the sticks of ram out, nope

Tried the IGPU, couldn't tell wether it was the 60hz refresh rate or the chopping so it didn't help.

Unplugged EVERYTHING in the case: drives, cd drawers etc, nope

Was about to give up and had almost put the whole thing back together when I removed the wireless card ---- SUCCESS!

 

It clicked in my head when I saw it there, I've recently moved and I have switched from using Ethernet to WiFi, chewing up pcie bandwidth on my cpu. All the time the card was sitting there idle and me using it was the difference between it interfering with my gpu and it working fine.

 

I cant remember who made it click in my head but it was someone in this thread mentioning something about the gpu and pcie lanes I think, so thanks for your advice (whoever actually helped).

 

HOWEVER - Now that I am back trying to use the machine, I have noticed that the audio output to my monitor has ceased to work. Any ideas?

It's no biggie as I can plug speakers in but I will have to wait until I get into my next house so it would really help me as that will most likely be in a couple months from now.

[LabRat]

are the speakers enabled in the monitors control panel?

[EpicNinjaCheese]

yep, set as default, recognises in nividia control panel but no sound out of the actual speakers

[EpicNinjaCheese]

15 hours ago, LabRat said:

are the speakers enabled in the monitors control panel?

Just had a brain wave, unplugged the monitor from the wall and plugged it back in again... Works fine ffs. Thanks for your help bro

[LabRat]

almost sounds crazy....... LOL. keep your eye on it.