How to decrease stutters?

[Dekuuz]

I've made a post a while back in regards to my stuttering problem as I've now upgraded to an NVMe drive but I'm still encountering stutters in some games. Most noticeably in Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remake. I'm under the assumption it's the game engine but I'm not too sure. My only thought is maybe it's my RAM speed? As it's only 2666MHZ but I'm not too sure. Any help? Thanks in advance!

 

My specs:

CPU - Intel Core i5-9600k

Motherboard - MSI Z390-A Pro

RAM - 2x8gb Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2666MHZ

Storage - 1TB WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD and 2TB and 1TB Seagate HDD

Graphics card - MSI GTX 1660 Super 6GB (slightly overclocked)

Power Supply - Corsair CX650M

Cooling - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition

Case - Corsair Carbide Series 270R

[Tech87]

4 minutes ago, Dekuuz said:

I've made a post a while back in regards to my stuttering problem as I've now upgraded to an NVMe drive but I'm still encountering stutters in some games. Most noticeably in Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remake. I'm under the assumption it's the game engine but I'm not too sure. My only thought is maybe it's my RAM speed? As it's only 2666MHZ but I'm not too sure. Any help? Thanks in advance!

 

My specs:

CPU - Intel Core i5-9600k

Motherboard - MSI Z390-A Pro

RAM - 16gb Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2666MHZ

Storage - 1TB WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD and 2TB and 1TB Seagate HDD

Graphics card - MSI GTX 1660 Super 6GB (slightly overclocked)

Power Supply - Corsair CX650M

Cooling - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition

Case - Corsair Carbide Series 270R

Try to clean boot your system and then start up a game and see if the stuttering persists.

 

You can also run hwinfo and monitor the graph to see if anything jumps out as an issue (thermal throttle, temps etc)

[Chris Pratt]

NVMe drive has no impact here. DirectStorage isn't out in the wild yet, so games don't stream assets in during gameplay. Fast storage just helps load times, but has no impact once you're in game. Even then, SATA is plenty fast enough for quick load times.

 

Stuttering is almost invariably a CPU bottleneck, and slow RAM can definitely be contributing to that. Is it one stick or two? Single channel would definitely be an issue.

[Dekuuz]

1 minute ago, Chris Pratt said:

NVMe drive has no impact here. DirectStorage isn't out in the wild yet, so games don't stream assets in during gameplay. Fast storage just helps load times, but has no impact once you're in game. Even then, SATA is plenty fast enough for quick load times.

 

Stuttering is almost invariably a CPU bottleneck, and slow RAM can definitely be contributing to that. Is it one stick or two? Single channel would definitely be an issue.

Oh forgot to mention! My bad. It's 2x8 GB sticks in dual channel

[Dekuuz]

19 minutes ago, Tech87 said:

Try to clean boot your system and then start up a game and see if the stuttering persists.

 

You can also run hwinfo and monitor the graph to see if anything jumps out as an issue (thermal throttle, temps etc)

I don't know if Task Manager is a reliable source but it seems to me my GPU spikes to 100% usage everytime a stutter happens. But sometimes it stutters without jumping to 100%

[PDifolco]

Your rig shouldn't stutter, CPU is strong enough to not bottleneck in any except maybe the most demanding games like 128 players BF42 !!

 

What could happen is imho this :

CPU stutters because background software or bloatware is running and eats CPU from time to time, so disable anything in start programs, all antivirus discord etc, and close all apps before playing  and check

Linked to this your 16GB RAM may saturate because of other programs, and then you get stuttering. Chrome for example stays in RAM even closed unless you tell it to not do it...

Getting more RAM can help then

[Tech87]

22 minutes ago, Dekuuz said:

I don't know if Task Manager is a reliable source but it seems to me my GPU spikes to 100% usage everytime a stutter happens. But sometimes it stutters without jumping to 100%

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-2f8a-a97a1807f3dd

[Dekuuz]

On 1/8/2022 at 3:47 PM, PDifolco said:

Your rig shouldn't stutter, CPU is strong enough to not bottleneck in any except maybe the most demanding games like 128 players BF42 !!

 

What could happen is imho this :

CPU stutters because background software or bloatware is running and eats CPU from time to time, so disable anything in start programs, all antivirus discord etc, and close all apps before playing  and check

Linked to this your 16GB RAM may saturate because of other programs, and then you get stuttering. Chrome for example stays in RAM even closed unless you tell it to not do it...

Getting more RAM can help then

Is the RAM speed okay??

[PDifolco]

On 1/10/2022 at 11:34 PM, Dekuuz said:

Is the RAM speed okay??

Don't think RAM speed can cause stutters, I was thinking about RAM size : if ever it fills up Windows will use storage as RAM, and it's waaaay slower (even on a top end NVMe drive)

[Dekuuz]

On 1/11/2022 at 4:29 PM, PDifolco said:

Don't think RAM speed can cause stutters, I was thinking about RAM size : if ever it fills up Windows will use storage as RAM, and it's waaaay slower (even on a top end NVMe drive)

Yeah I think that might be it! Using Afterburner's OSD RE3 remake takes up to 11GB ram and in addition to Windows and other programs using ram it's probably too much. Thank you! I will make sure to get more ram!

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/8/2022 at 11:21 PM, Chris Pratt said:

so games don't stream assets in during gameplay.

actually most games stream assets during gameplay, not sure where you got the idea they wouldn't... you can even hear that with a conventional harddrive. The opposite is true, games that *dont* stream assets during gameplay are very rare due to the vast amounts of VRAM required. MHW is such a game, 6gb minimum and 8gb minimum for the hd texture pack. And its glorious, although obviously limited by many "modern" gpus due to their anemic vram, the game at max settings requires far more than 8gb vram...

 

Also some games are near unplayable on a hdd due to their heavy asset streaming and a SSD is recommended (Naraka Bladepoint for example)

 

On 1/8/2022 at 11:15 PM, Dekuuz said:

Most noticeably in Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remake

Funny enough i have thousands of hours in those games, they're far more demanding than people think.

Generally RE games like to be on the OS drive and while a SSD is not required i would definetely recommend it.

So just install those games on the OS drive and otherwise i can only suggest not to overdo it with the settings, volumetric lighting and similar low or off and try to not use more than 4GB for textures as other things obviously will need vram too.

 

 

Here are my settings for RE3 for example (r5 3600 rtx 3070)

 

 

VSYNC on (just for comparisons sake)

 

 

Unlocked framerate, same settings otherwise:

 

 

 

 

As you can see Im always well below the theoretical max Vram usage (8gb) and there are no stutters (however there are when i use something like 6 or 7 gb "dedicated" which in this case means anything but "medium" textures are out of the question…)

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dekuuz said:

RE3 remake takes up to 11GB

for me, games usually use 14gb ram (out of 16), so thats not it, its Vram and more specifically your settings probably (as per above)

 

also might be a cpu bottleneck indeed, id check this for each core/thread with either afterburner or hwinfo64 , which btw can also use the Riva Tuner overlay. 

 

in which case more ram is even less likely to help, you'd need more cpu instead = )

 

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, Communist_Empire said:

The guy who made Display Driver Uninstaller also made Intelligent Standby List Cleaner. It just clears out your RAM which reduces stuttering.

I agree, that can help. With RE games (RE2 RE3) perhaps too, but in my experience not much, the issue is it really loads a lot of stuff, enemies, new areas, during gameplay and also just uses too much Vram for no good reason, i mean "high" doesnt even look much different than "medium" yet uses like double the Vram, same for "volumetric lighting" which can tank performance a lot.

[Error 52]

I've been playing Resident Evil 7 recently, and it is stuttery as shit on high/very high texture settings even though my RX 6600 XT should be able to crush that game. Setting it to medium fixed it. Since that game is pretty similar under the hood to the 2 & 3 remakes, I'd suggest maybe doing the same thing and seeing how you get on.

 

PCGamingWiki's article also lists stuttering as a known issue, and suggests a couple of janky fixes you can maybe try. That article also states that the game is compatable with both DirectX 11 & DirectX 12, the latter of which is known to be very stuttery in some cases. So maybe try setting it to DX11 if you haven't and seeing what happens.

[Dekuuz]

On 1/21/2022 at 11:16 AM, Mark Kaine said:

actually most games stream assets during gameplay, not sure where you got the idea they wouldn't... you can even hear that with a conventional harddrive. The opposite is true, games that *dont* stream assets during gameplay are very rare due to the vast amounts of VRAM required. MHW is such a game, 6gb minimum and 8gb minimum for the hd texture pack. And its glorious, although obviously limited by many "modern" gpus due to their anemic vram, the game at max settings requires far more than 8gb vram...

 

Also some games are near unplayable on a hdd due to their heavy asset streaming and a SSD is recommended (Naraka Bladepoint for example)

 

Funny enough i have thousands of hours in those games, they're far more demanding than people think.

Generally RE games like to be on the OS drive and while a SSD is not required i would definetely recommend it.

So just install those games on the OS drive and otherwise i can only suggest not to overdo it with the settings, volumetric lighting and similar low or off and try to not use more than 4GB for textures as other things obviously will need vram too.

 

 

Here are my settings for RE3 for example (r5 3600 rtx 3070)

 

 

VSYNC on (just for comparisons sake)

 

 

Unlocked framerate, same settings otherwise:

 

 

 

 

As you can see Im always well below the theoretical max Vram usage (8gb) and there are no stutters (however there are when i use something like 6 or 7 gb "dedicated" which in this case means anything but "medium" textures are out of the question…)

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

for me, games usually use 14gb ram (out of 16), so thats not it, its Vram and more specifically your settings probably (as per above)

 

also might be a cpu bottleneck indeed, id check this for each core/thread with either afterburner or hwinfo64 , which btw can also use the Riva Tuner overlay. 

 

in which case more ram is even less likely to help, you'd need more cpu instead = )

 

I have both RE2, RE3 and OS all installed on my SSD. Though I will see what I can do with in-game settings! Thank you!

[Dekuuz]

On 1/21/2022 at 11:16 AM, Mark Kaine said:

actually most games stream assets during gameplay, not sure where you got the idea they wouldn't... you can even hear that with a conventional harddrive. The opposite is true, games that *dont* stream assets during gameplay are very rare due to the vast amounts of VRAM required. MHW is such a game, 6gb minimum and 8gb minimum for the hd texture pack. And its glorious, although obviously limited by many "modern" gpus due to their anemic vram, the game at max settings requires far more than 8gb vram...

 

Also some games are near unplayable on a hdd due to their heavy asset streaming and a SSD is recommended (Naraka Bladepoint for example)

 

Funny enough i have thousands of hours in those games, they're far more demanding than people think.

Generally RE games like to be on the OS drive and while a SSD is not required i would definetely recommend it.

So just install those games on the OS drive and otherwise i can only suggest not to overdo it with the settings, volumetric lighting and similar low or off and try to not use more than 4GB for textures as other things obviously will need vram too.

 

 

Here are my settings for RE3 for example (r5 3600 rtx 3070)

 

 

VSYNC on (just for comparisons sake)

 

 

Unlocked framerate, same settings otherwise:

 

 

 

 

As you can see Im always well below the theoretical max Vram usage (8gb) and there are no stutters (however there are when i use something like 6 or 7 gb "dedicated" which in this case means anything but "medium" textures are out of the question…)

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

for me, games usually use 14gb ram (out of 16), so thats not it, its Vram and more specifically your settings probably (as per above)

 

also might be a cpu bottleneck indeed, id check this for each core/thread with either afterburner or hwinfo64 , which btw can also use the Riva Tuner overlay. 

 

in which case more ram is even less likely to help, you'd need more cpu instead = )

 

Here are my settings and OSD for RE3

 

 

 

[Dekuuz]

On 1/22/2022 at 2:10 AM, Communist_Empire said:

The guy who made Display Driver Uninstaller also made Intelligent Standby List Cleaner. It just clears out your RAM which reduces stuttering.

 

I know when the Windows 10 Creators update came out a few years ago, stuttering was more of a problem than before for users.

 

Just curious how much background processes do you have running when playing games?

 

I turn Windows Defender/Security when playing games and I disable full screen optimizations for games as well!

I disable full screen optimizations for all my games and usually have Discord, Brave with around 1-4 tabs open, Spotify and Steam open when playing games. With ISLC, how do I set this up? I don't really understand haha

[Mark Kaine]

On 1/30/2022 at 9:40 PM, Dekuuz said:

how do I set this up? I don't really understand haha

leave everything at default. make sure its running, so minimize, not close.  

 

 

Btw, your settings and stats look ok to me, there doesnt seem to be.a Vram bottleneck, gpu has plenty headroom, cpu probably too, but that can be tricky to know for sure without actually checking each core/thread seperately. System ram looks also ok.

 

Looks almost like ISLC is your best bet though (despite memory looking ok, cause if its stuck in "standby list" it still counts a "used" even though its actually super *not* useful there.

 

Other than that i really cant say but u should still check cpu/core usage, the game is actually quite heavy and re enginge blows (MT Framework is far superior, Capcoms previous inhouse engine)  

 

Spoiler

MT Framework is a game engine created by Capcom. "MT" stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". While initially MT Framework was intended to power 2006's Dead Rising and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition only, Capcom later decided for their internal development divisions to adopt it as their default engine. As a result, the vast majority of their internally developed video games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms were created on it, including four new titles and three remastered ports of past titles in the Resident Evil series, Capcom's biggest franchise.^[1] The visuals of the first games built with the engine were well received, and MT Framework has also won a CEDEC award.^[2]

 

 

Too bad we never got Panta Rhei , the goat engine. : D

Spoiler

Additionally, the engine introduced improved physical modeling of fluids and emphasis on global illumination rendering.^[2] Development of a new engine began in summer 2011. Features of the new development engine included: in-engine management of shader (GPU) programs; an engine virtual machine allowing game scripting to be written initially in C#; changes in organization of the workflow/content meant that backwards compatibility with the MT Framework engine was lost.^[3] The engine corresponds to DirectX 11 level of technology.^[4]

The initial game to be developed with Panta Rhei was Deep Down,^[1] whose team provided feedback on the engine development;^[2] development of the game and engine were carried out in parallel.^[5] A trailer for Deep Down and the Panta Rhei engine were publicly demonstrated by Yoshinori Ono at the PlayStation 4 unveiling event in February 2013.,^[6][7] the Deep Down technology demo used ~3GB of textures, with 30 shaders, running at approximately 30 frames per second. Graphics techniques used in the Deep Down demo included tessellation (actors cloak); with deferred rendering implementing dynamic lightsources; and surfaces rendered including diffuse and specular light reflections with surface roughness implemented by the Oren–Nayar reflectance model; global illumination calculations (such as light from a dragon's fiery breath) were estimated using the 'voxel cone tracing.

I believe they're still working on it, or something similar, or at least  i hope so, because man, did it look "next gen"…

 

(sorry but yeah…)

 

 

 

21 hours ago, Communist_Empire said:

Those are the settings that I use above.

might work (for u) but u set it higher than ur actual memory, not recommended.

 

 

it also says times purged: "0"  that means it literally does nothing, at least in ur screenshot. : p

 

plus ur standby list is huge and you have almost no memory free, only 940mb, exactly  what a standby list cleaner is supposed to avoid

 

heres mine for comparison(not that i use it, theres no need since i turned off windows updates no memory issues whatsoever )

 

 

 

[Dekuuz]

17 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

leave everything at default. make sure its running, so minimize, not close.  

 

 

Btw, your settings and stats look ok to me, there doesnt seem to be.a Vram bottleneck, gpu has plenty headroom, cpu probably too, but that can be tricky to know for sure without actually checking each core/thread seperately. System ram looks also ok.

 

Looks almost like ISLC is your best bet though (despite memory looking ok, cause if its stuck in "standby list" it still counts a "used" even though its actually super *not* useful there.

 

Other than that i really cant say but u should still check cpu/core usage, the game is actually quite heavy and re enginge blows (MT Framework is far superior, Capcoms previous inhouse engine)  

 

  Reveal hidden contents

MT Framework is a game engine created by Capcom. "MT" stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". While initially MT Framework was intended to power 2006's Dead Rising and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition only, Capcom later decided for their internal development divisions to adopt it as their default engine. As a result, the vast majority of their internally developed video games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms were created on it, including four new titles and three remastered ports of past titles in the Resident Evil series, Capcom's biggest franchise.^[1] The visuals of the first games built with the engine were well received, and MT Framework has also won a CEDEC award.^[2]

 

 

Too bad we never got Panta Rhei , the goat engine. : D

  Reveal hidden contents

Additionally, the engine introduced improved physical modeling of fluids and emphasis on global illumination rendering.^[2] Development of a new engine began in summer 2011. Features of the new development engine included: in-engine management of shader (GPU) programs; an engine virtual machine allowing game scripting to be written initially in C#; changes in organization of the workflow/content meant that backwards compatibility with the MT Framework engine was lost.^[3] The engine corresponds to DirectX 11 level of technology.^[4]

The initial game to be developed with Panta Rhei was Deep Down,^[1] whose team provided feedback on the engine development;^[2] development of the game and engine were carried out in parallel.^[5] A trailer for Deep Down and the Panta Rhei engine were publicly demonstrated by Yoshinori Ono at the PlayStation 4 unveiling event in February 2013.,^[6][7] the Deep Down technology demo used ~3GB of textures, with 30 shaders, running at approximately 30 frames per second. Graphics techniques used in the Deep Down demo included tessellation (actors cloak); with deferred rendering implementing dynamic lightsources; and surfaces rendered including diffuse and specular light reflections with surface roughness implemented by the Oren–Nayar reflectance model; global illumination calculations (such as light from a dragon's fiery breath) were estimated using the 'voxel cone tracing.

I believe they're still working on it, or something similar, or at least  i hope so, because man, did it look "next gen"…

 

(sorry but yeah…)

 

 

 

might work (for u) but u set it higher than ur actual memory, not recommended.

 

 

it also says times purged: "0"  that means it literally does nothing, at least in ur screenshot. : p

 

plus ur standby list is huge and you have almost no memory free, only 940mb, exactly  what a standby list cleaner is supposed to avoid

 

heres mine for comparison(not that i use it, theres no need since i turned off windows updates no memory issues whatsoever )

 

 

 

These are the settings I used and they seem to be doing the job. I searched up a guide for 16GB ram but I'll see if the default settings help as well! I also increased virtual memory as I saw it was a fix for RE2 remake and it seems to help as well! I can't really tell if it's ISLC doing the work or increasing the virtual memory.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Dekuuz said:

These are the settings I used and they seem to be doing the job. I searched up a guide for 16GB ram but I'll see if the default settings help as well! I also increased virtual memory as I saw it was a fix for RE2 remake and it seems to help as well! I can't really tell if it's ISLC doing the work or increasing the virtual memory.

nice, and yeah, it at least seems to.do something, theres a lot of purges… funny enough when i had a 1060 that program also helped me a lot, especially in Capcom games…