Windows is Laggy AF Playing an RTX Game (3080 Ti)

[Emberstone]

Started playing RTX-enabled games for the first time having upgraded from a GTX 1070 to an RTX 3080 Ti a few days ago, and is it normal for Windows to be extremely laggy while the game is running? I use multiple monitors and often want to have a YouTube video or something playing on the other screen while playing Minecraft or whatever, and with raytracing enabled, anything running on my other screens is just unusably hitchy and laggy. Even dragging windows themselves around will lag and hitch; even typing in Discord is noticeably not-smooth. I have to disable RTX to make anything on the other screens usable. So far, the only RTX game I own is Minecraft (the GPU upgrade was just for FPS boosts at 1440p).

 

Is Windows being laggy with RTX enabled normal behavior? Or is something jacked up?

[bmx6454]

i have no issues with rtx games causing lag, or any other issues. did you ddu when you changed cards?

[Emberstone]

8 minutes ago, bmx6454 said:

i have no issues with rtx games causing lag, or any other issues. did you ddu when you changed cards?

No, I didn't. I was lazy and let GeForce Experience uninstall/reinstall the driver after putting the new card in. I'll do that next.

Kind of a crappy video, but here's an example of what's going on. I had to set the video on my other screen to 360p. It was frozen completely otherwise (with sound still playing):

 

[SomeRandomNerd]

30 minutes ago, Emberstone said:

Is Windows being laggy with RTX enabled normal behavior? Or is something jacked up?

I do not think enabling RTX on Minecraft would lag out the entire system. I am assuming you set the monitors refresh rate to whatever the maximum is, even then that shouldn't be the problem. Did you install video drivers for the RTX 3080 Ti yet? The only other thing I could think of is the motherboard. You listed it as an Asus Prime Z370-A, which only has PCIe gen 3, so it could be limiting the bandwidth.

[Emberstone]

Just now, SomeRandomNerd said:

I do not think enabling RTX on Minecraft would lag out the entire system. I am assuming you set the monitors refresh rate to whatever the maximum is, even then that shouldn't be the problem. Did you install video drivers for the RTX 3080 Ti yet? The only other thing I could think of is the motherboard. You listed it as an Asus Prime Z370-A, which only has PCIe gen 3, so it could be limiting the bandwidth.

I ran synthetic benchmarks like Superposition and I score right where the 3080 Ti should, so bandwidth limitations don't seem likely.

Going to run DDU next. See yall on the other side.

[Emberstone]

One other note: I just ran Doom Eternal with that same video I showed in my demonstration set to 4k60, and Doom Eternal spitting out 300+ FPS at ultra doesn't cause the video to hitch at all, so something else is going on.

 

Ok, DDU time for real.

[Emberstone]

Just finished reinstalling the drivers with DDU and the same behavior still occurs: Windows is still terribly laggy with Minecraft RTX running.

 

Not sure if it's relevant but I've also uncapped Minecraft's framerate. I don't run it with Vsync enabled due to microstutter the game can exhibit as it switches from 72 FPS to 144 FPS locked.

[Emberstone]

1 hour ago, bmx6454 said:

i have no issues with rtx games causing lag, or any other issues. did you ddu when you changed cards?

 

58 minutes ago, SomeRandomNerd said:

I do not think enabling RTX on Minecraft would lag out the entire system. I am assuming you set the monitors refresh rate to whatever the maximum is, even then that shouldn't be the problem. Did you install video drivers for the RTX 3080 Ti yet? The only other thing I could think of is the motherboard. You listed it as an Asus Prime Z370-A, which only has PCIe gen 3, so it could be limiting the bandwidth.

Quoting both of you so you know that I think I might've found the culprit: I think it's Minecraft itself.

I re-enabled Vsync in the game's config file, and Windows is no longer laggy. I wonder if this has something to do with its interaction with the DWM process since it's a UWP-based game. I ran an RTX benchmark I found on Steam and disabled DLSS so the GPU was pegged as hard as it could be at 100%, and my example video wasn't lagging at all during that benchmark.

 

The shitty part about Minecraft's Vsync is it "latches" to multiples of your refresh rate. If I'm ever below 144 FPS (which is most of the time in the realm my friends and I play on), it will lock to 72 FPS.

 

Guess that's just how it has to be. Really, really disappointing.