System Stuttering on MSI GS63VR GTX 1060 Laptop

[Emberstone]

Hello folks, let me clarify my issue a bit further. The stuttering is not present in any games that I know of, but rather when working on the desktop. What I mean by "stutter" is that the system locks up for a brief moment, usually 1-2 seconds, when I do something like change my wallpaper or open something that prompts UAC. The mouse is unresponsive during this time. It's just a hiccup in the system. Function resumes as normal after the 1-2 seconds, so it isn't detrimental to everyday use, but sometimes it occurs randomly when working (like when typing a paper for school) and as such it can get really annoying to have my mouse lock up.

 

I have narrowed the issue down to either the GTX 1060 in my laptop or the drivers associated with it. After uninstalling the Nvidia drivers using DDU and only relying on the integrated HD Graphics 530, the system hiccups disappear completely. Conversely, with the drivers installed the stuttering is also gone as long as there is a 3D load on the GPU. I noticed this when using Waifu2X, a program that relies on CUDA processing to upscale and denoise drawings. If I started an upscale, as long as the program remains open there will be no system hiccups of any kind. I have so far tried three different driver versions to see if they fix the stuttering, and none have. For those who are curious, their versions are 368.79 (OEM driver from MSI website), 372.54, and 372.70.

 

I also noticed in GPU-Z that, every second or so, my sensor/clock readings would go blank for a split second and then return, but this was only when the card was idle. Under load the readings are 100% normal. Gaming confirms this, as I have zero issues playing something like Overwatch on maxed settings with no dropped frames, so I'm fairly certain the video card isn't to blame here, but something going on with the drivers or Optimus that is causing my stuttering/hiccups in Windows.

 

If anyone can help me get to the bottom of this so my system hiccups can be fixed, that would be totally awesome.

[Emberstone]

I have even more information now.

 

I opened GeForce Experience and just left it. That more or less stops the clocks and sensors from blanking out in GPU-Z and keeps my idle clock constant at 139 MHz for the most part. There's still a blank or two every 15-30 seconds, but it isn't enough to create that system hiccup. As long as GeForce Experience is open (I.E. occupying a space on my taskbar), the system hiccups are gone. So the issue stems from whatever is causing the card to "blank out" periodically according to GPU-Z.

 

Anyone have any idea on what might be causing this, or how to "force-on" the graphics card in my laptop? Setting the global Power Management option to Prefer Maximum Performance doesn't do anything.

[Emberstone]

Anyone have any ideas? Is there an option I can tick in Nvidia Inspector that always keeps the card on, or something?

[ODUBB]

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer, but chiming in to help attract some attention from others that might have made some progress towards a fix. I am also experiencing brief lockups, which do not occur while gaming, but while using the desktop/windows explorer, etc. I had started to lean towards an association with the graphics card - possibly something to do with switching from integrated to discrete, or vise versa, when not needing to do so. Hopefully someone else will jump on here with some suggestions.

[TheRandomness]

What temps are you both reaching? Is the GPU evidently thermal throttling? Are you choking the intakes? Do you have the latest drivers installed?

[ODUBB]

Temps are nothing to consider - 60C max. This issue, at least in my case, has nothing to do with throttling, maxed out CPU/GPU/Memory etc.

 

It is an odd pause in windows, like it is "calculating" for a split second, and can't multitask. Seems to be tied to loading something, anything, in windows explorer, whether it be a folder, menu, contextual menu, etc.\

 

Now, I wouldn't think anything of it, if it were just a delay while the menu opens, but the whole system pauses for a split second, as in freezes completely, but then immediately resumes normal operation. 

[Emberstone]

On 9/12/2016 at 6:06 PM, TheRandomness said:

What temps are you both reaching? Is the GPU evidently thermal throttling? Are you choking the intakes? Do you have the latest drivers installed?

This only occurs when the card is idling (core clock at 139 MHz, memory clock at 202.5 MHz), and the temps on both my CPU and GPU remain around 30-35 C when the lockups would be occurring. The airflow isn't choked either.

 

Driver version is 372.70, latest from Nvidia installed after running DDU. My original post mentions this.

 

This isn't a matter of throttling, but rather something causing the card to turn off periodically on idle.

 

I've managed to "fix" it with a workaround. I force several background programs like MSI Dragon Center and Battle.Net to run using the GTX 1060 through the Nvidia control panel. It costs a little battery life having all these programs constantly running on the graphics card, but I no longer have the system lockup and can now use wallpaper slideshows without a issue. An actual fix would be nice, though.

[SL2]

I have this same issue too, and it's quite annoying.  It has nothing to do with CPU or GPU temperatures - I experience the stuttering even when I start the computer after it's been off overnight.

 

Emberstone - the Nvidia control panel trick doesn't seem to work for me.  What other background programs did you add to Nvidia control panel? 

 

Searching around the internet, I come to the conclusion that this is definitely an issue, although it seems like there are no reliable solutions.  Are we certain that this is a software issue - is exchanging the machine likely to make a difference?

 

Thank you

[Emberstone]

On 9/27/2016 at 10:29 AM, SL2 said:

I have this same issue too, and it's quite annoying.  It has nothing to do with CPU or GPU temperatures - I experience the stuttering even when I start the computer after it's been off overnight.

 

Emberstone - the Nvidia control panel trick doesn't seem to work for me.  What other background programs did you add to Nvidia control panel? 

 

Searching around the internet, I come to the conclusion that this is definitely an issue, although it seems like there are no reliable solutions.  Are we certain that this is a software issue - is exchanging the machine likely to make a difference?

 

Thank you

Make sure to reboot your computer after setting the background processes to run on the Nvidia GPU. Also, try going into the Nvidia Control Panel's 3D settings, and in the Global Settings tab change your preferred graphics processor to the "High-performance Nvidia processor." After doing that, reboot your computer.

That will force everything that is capable of using your graphics card to use it, and hopefully force it to stay on. That way we wont have to cherry pick individual programs to run on the graphics card. Let me know how that goes.

[DeadPixel81]

Have you tried modifying the APM of your drives to FEh? I had issues with my drives entering power saving mode after inactivity; causing a very short freeze like the one you are describing. I used Crystal Disk Info to increase the APM level to FEh. Here are a couple of screenshots showing what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/PfPkaIM.png

http://i.imgur.com/tMEa96C.png

[Emberstone]

39 minutes ago, DeadPixel81 said:

Have you tried modifying the APM of your drives to FEh? I had issues with my drives entering power saving mode after inactivity; causing a very short freeze like the one you are describing. I used Crystal Disk Info to increase the APM level to FEh. Here are a couple of screenshots showing what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/PfPkaIM.png

http://i.imgur.com/tMEa96C.png

This wasn't the problem in my case as making background programs force the GPU to always be on is what seemed to fix my issue, or at least allow me to get around it. Your solution might help SL2 though.

[flinh]

I had the same stuttering problem. The mouse would lag half a second to 1 second. Same with the keyboard sometimes. Solved it by disabling the power saving feature on the Intel Storage Management. The HDD was being put into sleep mode after a very short period of inactivity. As most of your activities would be loaded into RAM there's no access to the HDD. When the HDD needs to be accessed it comes out of sleep ... which is the lag. Have not had a lag since disabling it.

[JBeni]

Hi Emberstone,

 

I have experienced this exact issue with my brand new MSI GS63VR laptop freezing (stuttering) when I'm using applications and moving about in Windows 10. Try the following settings/config change (fix).

 

Go to "device manager"
Expand "display adapters"
and right click on the "Intel HD Graphics 530"
select "disable"

Then, reboot your laptop.

 

This will force the OS to use your NVidia 1060GTX video card. There have been a lot of bugs reported with "freezing" with these new laptops.

 

Let me know if this helps!

 

UPDATE: Looks like for some games the "Intel HD Graphics 530" display adapter will have to be enabled. I will end up creating a script (batch file) that I can easily execute to disable/enable the "Intel HD Graphics 530" display adapter.

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by JBeni

[sgsm]

Hi, i had the same problem, and i solved it by doing the following:

 

- Go to NVIDIA control panel

 

- Select "Manage 3D Settings"

 

- On "Global configuration" there should be an option called "Preferred graphics processor". It will have selected "Automatic Selection". Change it to "Nvidia High performance processor".

 

That's it. The stuttering should be gone.

 

Let me know if it helps!

 

Regards.

[Emberstone]

3 hours ago, sgsm said:

Hi, i had the same problem, and i solved it by doing the following:

 

- Go to NVIDIA control panel

 

- Select "Manage 3D Settings"

 

- On "Global configuration" there should be an option called "Preferred graphics processor". It will have selected "Automatic Selection". Change it to "Nvidia High performance processor".

 

That's it. The stuttering should be gone.

 

Let me know if it helps!

 

Regards.

I've already explained this above. Thanks though.

[exklim]

Hi everyone. 

 

I came here just to crlirify things out. 

 

That "issue" is actually not an issue. 

Eveytime nvidia realeases a new architecture an AI receives data from our computers that has "Optimus" to gather windows behavior information. 

This is good for nvidia (but not for us users). 

They do this to smooth Optimus technology as fast as posible and chose what programs are meant to be used with GFX. 

 

Instead of of having a team of testers and test thousands of programs individually, they have us testing them for them. 

 

This is usually last about 7 to 8 months after the first mobile chip is engaged with the public.

 

unfortunately there's no way to solve this for those that doesn't have switchable graphics.

 

Solution: (if aplicable)

use NVIDIA GPU as main graphics processor. (Disable Optimus) 

 

at this point i know only alienware 13 r3/ 15 r3/ 17 r4 and some MSI laptops has Switchable graphics (I/D GFX). 

 

 

Ps: i have all Gaming Laptops you can think of, and the only that doesn't have this "issue" is the new razer blades GTX 1060, it doesn't seem to under nvidia's test.... weird  

the only thing I notice with the razer blades GTX 1060 is that is 20% slower GPU performance than the other mobile chips (asus,alienware,msi)

 

((((((just by any chance))))))

Try this to solve this "issue", it works in some laptops. 

1-unplug the AC Adapter from the laptop. 

2-install drivers while the laptop is unplugged (clean install)

2-restart and plug it back. 

Somehow the drivers automatically detects that the unit is a mobile notebook and removes the "issue". But this didn't work in some of my GTX 10xx laptops. 

It did only worked in my Razer Blade 1060. 

 

Please try it and let me know ASP to keep record of your unit. 

 

Good luck

 

 

(you can add me in Facebook as exklim or Edgar Eliseo)

[Emberstone]

4 hours ago, exklim said:

Hi everyone. 

 

I came here just to crlirify things out. 

 

That "issue" is actually not an issue. 

Eveytime nvidia realeases a new architecture an AI receives data from our computers that has "Optimus" to gather windows behavior information. 

This is good for nvidia (but not for us users). 

They do this to smooth Optimus technology as fast as posible and chose what programs are meant to be used with GFX. 

 

Instead of of having a team of testers and test thousands of programs individually, they have us testing them for them. 

 

This is usually last about 7 to 8 months after the first mobile chip is engaged with the public.

 

unfortunately there's no way to solve this for those that doesn't have switchable graphics.

 

Solution: (if aplicable)

use NVIDIA GPU as main graphics processor. (Disable Optimus) 

 

at this point i know only alienware 13 r3/ 15 r3/ 17 r4 and some MSI laptops has Switchable graphics (I/D GFX). 

 

 

Ps: i have all Gaming Laptops you can think of, and the only that doesn't have this "issue" is the new razer blades GTX 1060, it doesn't seem to under nvidia's test.... weird  

the only thing I notice with the razer blades GTX 1060 is that is 20% slower GPU performance than the other mobile chips (asus,alienware,msi)

 

((((((just by any chance))))))

Try this to solve this "issue", it works in some laptops. 

1-unplug the AC Adapter from the laptop. 

2-install drivers while the laptop is unplugged (clean install)

2-restart and plug it back. 

Somehow the drivers automatically detects that the unit is a mobile notebook and removes the "issue". But this didn't work in some of my GTX 10xx laptops. 

It did only worked in my Razer Blade 1060. 

 

Please try it and let me know ASP to keep record of your unit. 

 

Good luck

 

 

(you can add me in Facebook as exklim or Edgar Eliseo)

I'm knee-deep in the middle of another school semester right now, so clean-installing my drivers will have to wait until I get some free time, but I'll give it a shot. On my machine in particular, Optimus cannot be disabled through the BIOS. I can tell the Nvidia control panel to always use the dedicated GPU, but that causes issues in some applications for me that I would rather have running on integrated graphics and doesn't really turn off Optimus anyway (if Optimus didn't exist and there were no iGPU to begin with, those issues also wouldn't exist [like diagonal screen tearing in some games/apps]... but whatever).

 

I'll give it a shot sometime this week. Thanks for the heads up. This could really be something if installing drivers on battery fixes it somehow.

[cool_recep]

Hi, we also have the same problem. Have you found any actual solution? I have also created this topic here:

 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=288483.0

[Emberstone]

5 hours ago, cool_recep said:

Hi, we also have the same problem. Have you found any actual solution? I have also created this topic here:

 

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=288483.0

No actual solutions. I just tell the Nvidia Control Panel to run Steam, MSI Dragon Center, and the Blizzard Battle.Net App on the Nvidia GPU at all times. Doing so keeps the stuttering nonexistent or to a minimum.

[cool_recep]

OK. I have contacted MSI and NVIDIA and waiting for their feedback. In the meantime, please comment on this topic on Microsoft forums an click "Me Too":

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/mobile-gtx-1060-freeze-problem/93e7004a-62b1-4211-8e37-4c136608865e

[vishal_shiva]

Hello,
I finally got rid of this issue ... I have gs43vr phatom pro (GTX 1060)
first I upgraded all my drivers...once you buy MSI laptop make sure to update all the drivers
I don't know why MSI did this but in an older version of these drivers, there was no auto update option...
all the drivers can be found on
https://us.msi.com/service/download
just search for your laptop name and download
NOTE: - some of the drivers listed on official site are old drivers ..make sure to download new drivers by going to
an official website like intel rapid storage or Nahimic
next step
download BIOS update ..follow the steps mentioned in the pdf which come along with the download
download Utility update .. if you want to keep all the bloatware make sure it is updated by downloading respective drivers
***IMPORTANT**************
most of the people give up after this step
you must update your firmware
it is placed in same site msi downloads ....head to firmware section and download EC firmware
you must also download killer network manager or you can just update the drivers by downloading it from its official site
http://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads
The EC firmware update and killer drivers are the most essential for removing mouse pointer freeze and lags
*******************************
once this is done you can test by downloading a 1080p60fps video and looking for any frame freeze
or you can also watch a youtube video which is 1080p60fps and look for any stutter
you can also try latency mon ...to look for any freeze or stutter