Micro Stuttering While Gaming

[Dark-ace]

First time poster, sorry if this has been posted and beaten to death. I am well aware and have been through most forums and posts at this point trying to find a fix for my issue. 

 

I built this pc myself two years ago, and have not been able to fully enjoy it.  I am confident I built it correctly.

 

While gaming ( I mostly game online ) I get what I describe as a micro stutter.  The game will slow down and speed up every thirty seconds or so, essentially skipping a frame or two sometimes even "deleting a bullet or two I've shot" like what I just did didn't happen.  I have high FPS and maintain the same FPS during these stutters, but as you can imagine, it makes tracking enemies in games like Apex Legends, COD, and EFT impossible.  I had a cheap HP prebuilt before this computer, and as long as I played a game within my specs, I didn't have this issue.

 

System Specs:

Asus z370-e Gaming ( Drivers up to date )

Intel I7-8700k XMP profile

H7 Quad Lumi Cooler

G. Skill 16x2 ( 32GB ) Ram at 3200hz XMP running in dual channel

Founders RTX 2070 ( not super ) No OC

Samsung 870 EVO 1TB ssd 700GB free space left

EVGA 850w Gold rated

Windows 10

Acer Predator 1440p G-sync 165hz display

 

I'm on wifi and have been gaming on wifi for 13 years with no issues like this

 

Things I've tried.

 

Playing on wired connection instead of wifi ( made no difference ) I have fiber internet and get 200+ down 20+ upload.  Ping never goes above 30ms no packet loss

Complete fresh install of windows 10 twice 

Downloading all up to date drivers 

Changing polling rate of my Razer mouse 

Using V- sync in control panel 

Turning on and off G-Sync 

Trying different sound drivers 

Monitored temps of CPU, GPU etc.  All normal and not throttling.

Changed power management to high performance

Used different headset and mouse 

Turning Game Mode on and off in Windows 10

Turning XMP profiles on and off

Turning off CPU overclock, default bios settings etc

 

Someone please help me.  I'm pretty much at a loss at this point.

 

Thank you.

 

SOLVED:  Changing the drivers controlling my sata fixed my issue.  Thank you everyone.

 

 

 

 

[CommanderAlex]

Welcome to the forums!!!

 

What are your frame times like in game? Are they consistent? If they spike every couple seconds in a rhythm, try lowering your graphics settings if not done already. Have you tried enabling low latency mode under Nvidia Control Panel in "Manage 3D Settings". Set power management in Nvidia Control Panel to "Prefer maximum performance". 

[Dark-ace]

Thank you for the reply. How do I double check my frame times? And as far as FPS goes, I usually tweak every game I play to get well above 100fps when possible.  I'm not playing demanding games on ultra or anything.  Apex I have everything turned down basically except character models. I get 85-150fps.  Tarkov holds 70-120. I like frames over eye candy.

 

Low latency has been tried on and off, no difference.  I have also tried every different power option in the control panel.  Makes no difference for my stutters, so I leave it on maximum.

[TehDwonz]

20 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

Thank you for the reply. How do I double check my frame times? And as far as FPS goes, I usually tweak every game I play to get well above 100fps when possible.  I'm not playing demanding games on ultra or anything.  Apex I have everything turned down basically except character models. I get 85-150fps.  Tarkov holds 70-120. I like frames over eye candy.

 

Low latency has been tried on and off, no difference.  I have also tried every different power option in the control panel.  Makes no difference for my stutters, so I leave it on maximum.

Explore this?

 

[Dark-ace]

32 minutes ago, TehDwonz said:

Explore this?

 

Looked into this.  IRQ 16 is being shared by High Definition Audio Controller and my RTX 2070.  Is that an issue?  Browsing that thread I dont believe it should be.  I also ran LatencyMon and it says my system is good.

[TehDwonz]

3 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

Looked into this.  IRQ 16 is being shared by High Definition Audio Controller and my RTX 2070.  Is that an issue?  Browsing that thread I dont believe it should be.  I also ran LatencyMon and it says my system is good.

Yeah the HD audio is likely the HDMI audio on the GFX card so that's fine. As long as it's not USB that's sharing. If latencymon is ok, it's unlikely to be that issue at all - thought I'd best check though!

That said, micro-stuttering can often be a driver issue. As it's a regular stutter, maybe check or change your SATA drivers? Might be worth switching between the m/b manufacturer drivers and the basic Microsoft ones (just flip from whichever you have atm to the other). 

[Dark-ace]

3 minutes ago, TehDwonz said:

Yeah the HD audio is likely the HDMI audio on the GFX card so that's fine. As long as it's not USB that's sharing. If latencymon is ok, it's unlikely to be that issue at all - thought I'd best check though!

That said, micro-stuttering can often be a driver issue. As it's a regular stutter, maybe check or change your SATA drivers? Might be worth switching between the m/b manufacturer drivers and the basic Microsoft ones (just flip from whichever you have atm to the other). 

Tried that with the drivers, no dice.  But in my device manager I did run into this oddly enough.  Before my fresh install of windows this wasn't popping up as an issue.  

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Dark-ace said:

While gaming ( I mostly game online ) I get what I describe as a micro stutter.

you have described the issue well, however this isn't micro stutter, "micro" mean very small... and what it really is is bad frame pacing and happens *constantly* not every 30 seconds or so... 

 

it's quite annoying but usually games are still playable fine, whereas what you described, frame rate drops, is much more "game breaking" to be fair.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dark-ace said:

Acer Predator 1440p G-sync 165hz display

So did you recently update drivers? 

 

new drivers seem to break Gsync for a lot of people and it could be that's what happening to you... 

 

so try to play with Gsync off, and also alternatively try with Vsync to confirm if the issue goes away. 

[Dark-ace]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

you have described the issue well, however this isn't micro stutter, "micro" mean very small... and what it really is is bad frame pacing and happens *constantly* not every 30 seconds or so... 

 

it's quite annoying but usually games are still playable fine, whereas what you described, frame rate drops, is much more "game breaking" to be fair.

 

 

So did you recently update drivers? 

 

new drivers seem to break Gsync for a lot of people and it could be that's what happening to you... 

 

so try to play with Gsync off, and also alternatively try with Vsync to confirm if the issue goes away. 

That's the thing, my frames never seem to drop during these stutters.  I can tell what's frame related, say going from 130ish down to 80, and then theres this.  Where the game will stutter and totally break my movement and animations.  Like say I'm reloading and I get a stutter.  The animation will slow down and speed up, sometimes even looking like I reloaded twice.  Or if I'm running towards a gun on the ground in Apex and get a stutter. It totally breaks my movement speed, causing me to sometimes completely run passed the gun.

 

I've had these stutters since the day I built the computer, regardless of which drivers I've downloaded since then.  None seem to fix or make the problem worse.

 

I've also tried playing around with G-sync on and off and V-sync and neither one seems to make any difference besides screen tearing with G-sync off obviously.

 

I play with multiple people, my main friend rocking an i7-7700k (stock clocks) 16GB ram, and a GTX1080, both weaker components than my system, same Nvidia and Windows drivers as me, and he does not experience the issues I have while playing together on the same graphic setttings.

[TehDwonz]

27 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

Tried that with the drivers, no dice.  But in my device manager I did run into this oddly enough.  Before my fresh install of windows this wasn't popping up as an issue.  

 

Ok, you should fix the AsMedia driver issue and whatever the other one is. But what have you got under "IDE/ATAPI controllers"?

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

That's the thing, my frames never seem to drop during these stutters.  I can tell what's frame related, say going from 130ish down to 80, and then theres this.  Where the game will stutter and totally break my movement and animations.  Like say I'm reloading and I get a stutter.  The animation will slow down and speed up, sometimes even looking like I reloaded twice.  Or if I'm running towards a gun on the ground in Apex and get a stutter. It totally breaks my movement speed, causing me to sometimes completely run passed the gun.

 

I've had these stutters since the day I built the computer, regardless of which drivers I've downloaded since then.  None seem to fix or make the problem worse.

 

I've also tried playing around with G-sync on and off and V-sync and neither one seems to make any difference besides screen tearing with G-sync off obviously.

 

I play with multiple people, my main friend rocking an i7-7700k (stock clocks) 16GB ram, and a GTX1080, both weaker components than my system, same Nvidia and Windows drivers as me, and he does not experience the issues I have while playing together on the same graphic setttings.

And it also happens with plain Vsync on? 

 

(as that should restrict your framerates it should kinda not stutter at all, but if it still does its likely something else) 

 

And you did confirm with a framerate counter you aren't dropping frames at that very moment? (because I get what you're saying but it still sounds like framerate drops to me) 

[Dark-ace]

2 minutes ago, TehDwonz said:

Ok, you should fix the AsMedia driver issue and whatever the other one is. But what have you got under "IDE/ATAPI controllers"?

I'll be honest, not sure how to fix those drivers.  Here's a screen shot 

[Dark-ace]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

And it also happens with plain Vsync on? 

 

(as that should restrict your framerates it should kinda not stutter at all, but if it still does its likely something else) 

 

And you did confirm with a framerate counter you aren't dropping frames at that very moment? (because I get what you're saying but it still sounds like framerate drops to me) 

That is correct.  Happens no matter what V-sync is used.  Control panel or in game.  And I have stared down my in game fps counter during these stutters, its not fps related.

[TehDwonz]

5 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

I'll be honest, not sure how to fix those drivers.  Here's a screen shot 

Right, if you open the properties for this, what's on the drivers tab?

 

As for the AsMedia and the other unknown, my personal preference is to use SDI driver tool and see what it suggests.  http://sdi-tool.org/releases/SDI_R2009.zip

 

[Dark-ace]

Just now, TehDwonz said:

Right, if you open the properties for this, what's on the drivers tab?

 

As for the AsMedia and the other unknown, my personal preference is to use SDI driver tool and see what it suggests.  http://sdi-tool.org/releases/SDI_R2009.zip

 

I'll try using your driver updater you posted in a second.  Here's a new screen shot.

 

Appreciate the help so far.  It's just so frustrating spending all this money two years ago to build this pc, and having it perform worse than my PS4 sitting two feet away.  Yes I get 4x the FPS, but it doesn't matter if I constantly stutter.

[Dark-ace]

I'm on their website now and clicking download does nothing.  Nothing happens.

 

Edit:  Got it to work.  Only drivers out of date were those USB ones I was completely missing. I now remember I've used this program in the past on this PC to update all other drivers.

[TehDwonz]

19 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

I'm on their website now and clicking download does nothing.  Nothing happens.

 

Edit:  Got it to work.  Only drivers out of date were those USB ones I was completely missing.

Glad it found those for you.

For the SATA drivers, you have the Intel drivers. If you select to update them, then "Browse my computer" followed by "Let me pick", what options are there? Any other compatible drivers listed?

[Dark-ace]

2 minutes ago, TehDwonz said:

Glad it found those for you.

For the SATA drivers, you have the Intel drivers. If you select to update them, then "Browse my computer" followed by "Let me pick", what options are there? Any other compatible drivers listed?

These two files, which I can't even find on my computer, so I didn't do anything.

[TehDwonz]

1 minute ago, Dark-ace said:

These two files, which I can't even find on my computer, so I didn't do anything.

 

No, this option - "Let me pick": 

[Dark-ace]

1 minute ago, TehDwonz said:

No, this option - "Let me pick": 

Apologies. 

[TehDwonz]

Just now, Dark-ace said:

Apologies. 

No worries  

Yes, try the Standard one. You can always revert it.

[Dark-ace]

Just now, TehDwonz said:

No worries  

Yes, try the Standard one. You can always revert it.

Ok, I'll give that a shot now and report back.  Should take < 10 minutes

[TehDwonz]

11 minutes ago, Dark-ace said:

Ok, I'll give that a shot now and report back.  Should take < 10 minutes

uh oh... 

[Dark-ace]

10 minutes ago, TehDwonz said:

uh oh... 

Sorry, ended up playing an entire match just to make sure.  Honestly?  I think they're gone.  That might have fixed it.  I'll report back tomorrow when I know for sure.

 

For now, thank you very much!

[TehDwonz]

Just now, Dark-ace said:

Sorry, ended up playing an entire match just to make sure.  Honestly?  I think they're gone.  That might have fixed it.  I'll report back tomorrow when I know for sure.

 

For now, thank you very much!

haha, that's exactly what I suspected had happened, no worries. Hope it's gone for good!