Confused about Asus’s MCE + Microstutters in all games

[Omie]

Should I enable Asus’s MCE (multi core enhancement) if I have a i7 7700k? When I turn XMP on it gives me a prompt if I want to enable MCE, if I say no it sets MCE to “auto” which is confusing and doesn’t disable it. I’m getting a lot of stutters and noticing my cpu clocks down and fluctuates a lot when gaming.

 

Also have my 7700k paired with an RTX 3070 and play on 1440p. All games experience microstutters and I’m wondering if my CPU is the issue.

[WoodenMarker]

MCE at Auto means that's it's enabled. It's basically and auto-oc. It can be enabled for more performance but will require enough cooling.

What cooler are you using and what are load temps?

[Omie]

3 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

MCE at Auto means that's it's enabled. It's basically and auto-oc. It can be enabled for more performance but will require enough cooling.

What cooler are you using and what are load temps?

So that’s the confusing part, if I turn on XMP it comes up with a prompt saying: “Do you want to apply all core enhancement with xmp settings for improved performance, yes or no?”

 

If I say no, it still sets Asus’s MCE to “auto” and not “disabled”. I can disable it manually, but it’s just weird that it gets set to “auto” by default even though I say no to the all core enhancement.

 

And I’m using an H115i. I tested temps with MCE enabled and I was getting around mid 70’s at most.

[WoodenMarker]

13 minutes ago, Omie said:

And I’m using an H115i. I tested temps with MCE enabled and I was getting around mid 70’s at most.

Those are good temps. Feel free to leave MCE on if you want the extra performance and don't mind the extra noise / power draw. 

 

Are you using Vsync?

 

Moved to Troubleshooting. 

[Omie]

1 minute ago, WoodenMarker said:

Those are good temps. Feel free to leave MCE on if you want the extra performance and don't mind the extra noise / power draw. 

 

Are you using Vsync?

 

Moved to Troubleshooting. 

Yeah I actually have a Gsync display so I use Gsync + Vsync and cap my fps to -3 of my monitor’s refresh rate, so 141Hz.

 

It’s really weird though, in every game I play, I get microstutters every few seconds whenever I move. It almost feels like a slight “skip” or “hitch”. Not sure what it causing it, and I was thinking maybe it could be my CPU since it’s pretty outdated.

[WoodenMarker]

Just now, Omie said:

Yeah I actually have a Gsync display so I use Gsync + Vsync and cap my fps to -3 of my monitor’s refresh rate, so 141Hz.

 

It’s really weird though, in every game I play, I get microstutters every few seconds whenever I move. It almost feels like a slight “skip” or “hitch”. Not sure what it causing it, and I was thinking maybe it could be my CPU since it’s pretty outdated.

I see that you're using blurbusters' recommended g-sync settings. https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/14

Do you encounter the same microstutters with default settings?

[Omie]

36 minutes ago, WoodenMarker said:

I see that you're using blurbusters' recommended g-sync settings. https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/14

Do you encounter the same microstutters with default settings?

Yup, but I actually just enabled Asus's MCE and chose "yes" to that prompt in order to sync all cores. Now when I play Valorant my CPU stays at 4.5GHz constantly and I experience no stutters at all. Before (when I had MCE disabled), my CPU speeds would fluctuate rapidly. I also made sure that when my PC is idle, the CPU speeds don't stay locked at 4.5GHz, they drop to like 800Mhz and spike to 3.6Ghz, etc., which I think is normal?

 

I also set individual settings for all my games in Nvidia Control Panel to set my power management mode for my GPU to max performance. Doing all this seemed to have gotten rid of the stutters.

 

Hopefully all the changes I made are safe for my CPU/GPU.

[WoodenMarker]

14 minutes ago, Omie said:

when my PC is idle, the CPU speeds don't stay locked at 4.5GHz, they drop to like 800Mhz and spike to 3.6Ghz, etc., which I think is normal?

That's normal. 

Quote

Hopefully all the changes I made are safe for my CPU/GPU.

MCE is effectively oc'ing and raises the core voltage / power so that will wear the cpu down more than at stock settings but it's generally not enough to worry about as long as the core voltage isn't very high and temps are fine. 

[Omie]

2 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

That's normal. 

MCE is effectively oc'ing and raises the core voltage / power so that will wear the cpu down more than at stock settings but it's generally not enough to worry about as long as the core voltage isn't very high and temps are fine. 

Gotcha. I was monitoring temps and when gaming low 70’s were the max it reached. And voltage was around 1.25 when running at 4.5GHz.

[WoodenMarker]

7 hours ago, Omie said:

Gotcha. I was monitoring temps and when gaming low 70’s were the max it reached. And voltage was around 1.25 when running at 4.5GHz.

1.25v is perfectly fine albeit a bit high for 4.5ghz. 1.2v or less would probably be enough. 

[Omie]

3 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

1.25v is perfectly fine albeit a bit high for 4.5ghz. 1.2v or less would probably be enough. 

Thanks, I’m also looking into overclocking myself rather than use Asus’s MCE. I think I was running stable at 5GHz when overclocking in the past at around 1.3V but I’ll see if I can do a minor overclock (maybe 4.7-4.8Ghz).

 

I’ll also monitor HWInfo before just to see what the max voltage is when using Asus’s MCE. I think it was 1.25V but not sure if it goes higher.