PC Stuttering and FreeSync Issues

[Minuto]

Parts List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FGnmhk

 

I just built this PC 2 weeks ago, and I've been having stuttering issues ever since. I've been able to significantly improve my stuttering issues, but my games still stutter every now and then randomly. Also, I've noticed that there are times when my game seems to stutter even though my MSI Afterburner frametime graph shows a straight line. I thought that I was just seeing things, but I decided to enable my monitor's refresh rate display. These "fake stutters" seemed to match up to times where my monitor's refresh rate would randomly decrease even though my FPS and frametime were both consistently 140 FPS and 7.1 ms. Should it be changing if my FPS is constant then? I was testing this with Arkham Origins. It is generally at 144 Hz but then jumps to 138 to 135 to 140 and sometimes even lower. I'm using RTSS to set my FPS to 140 Hz, so shouldn't my refresh rate generally be 140 Hz instead of 144 Hz? For whatever reason, the intro sequence with all of the logos is only at 26 FPS for me and is horribly laggy. My FreeSync range is 48 to 144 Hz, so I expected my refresh rate to reset to 144Hz. However, it only went down to the 70s. 

 

In Neon White, these changes in refresh rate seemed to eat some of my inputs. I was playing a level and noticed that I was often not jumping even when I was trying to jump. I noticed that my refresh rate dipped every time this happened even though my FPS and frametime were consistently at 140FPS and 7.1 ms. There was also one time where I was looking at a still white picture to check for dead pixels. I noticed that my refresh rate dropped to the 70s and was constantly changing. Obviously, I wouldn't have been able to notice that without the overlay, but that seemed weird to me. I mean, I don't know, it's possible that RTSS' or my monitor's overlays are just completely wrong. I'm very confused about how to fix this though if this is indeed a problem with my monitor's refresh rate not being synced up properly. 

This is what I've done to diagnose or fix the problem. 

 

I'm using RTSS to set my FPS cap to 140 FPS, replaced my 3200MHz RAM with the Corsair 3600MHz RAM in my parts list, globally changed the minimum frequency to 2259 MHz, which is 100 MHz less than my default maximum frequency, experimented with Enhanced Sync and V-Sync, replaced my DisplayPort cable with another one, saw temps which maxed out at only 70 degrees Celsius, disabled some Windows services and such like the High Precision Event Timer, ran commands like sfc /scannow, enabled Smart Access Memory, changed my RAM to 3600 MHz in the BIOS, changed my fan curves, updated all my drivers, updated my BIOS, and more. 
 

Build Picture: https://imgur.com/a/4KfAzHc

[zipspence]

12 minutes ago, Minuto said:

Parts List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FGnmhk

 

I just built this PC 2 weeks ago, and I've been having stuttering issues ever since. I've been able to significantly improve my stuttering issues, but my games still stutter every now and then randomly. Also, I've noticed that there are times when my game seems to stutter even though my MSI Afterburner frametime graph shows a straight line. I thought that I was just seeing things, but I decided to enable my monitor's refresh rate display. These "fake stutters" seemed to match up to times where my monitor's refresh rate would randomly decrease even though my FPS and frametime were both consistently 140 FPS and 7.1 ms. Should it be changing if my FPS is constant then? I was testing this with Arkham Origins. It is generally at 144 Hz but then jumps to 138 to 135 to 140 and sometimes even lower. I'm using RTSS to set my FPS to 140 Hz, so shouldn't my refresh rate generally be 140 Hz instead of 144 Hz? For whatever reason, the intro sequence with all of the logos is only at 26 FPS for me and is horribly laggy. My FreeSync range is 48 to 144 Hz, so I expected my refresh rate to reset to 144Hz. However, it only went down to the 70s. 

 

In Neon White, these changes in refresh rate seemed to eat some of my inputs. I was playing a level and noticed that I was often not jumping even when I was trying to jump. I noticed that my refresh rate dipped every time this happened even though my FPS and frametime were consistently at 140FPS and 7.1 ms. There was also one time where I was looking at a still white picture to check for dead pixels. I noticed that my refresh rate dropped to the 70s and was constantly changing. Obviously, I wouldn't have been able to notice that without the overlay, but that seemed weird to me. I mean, I don't know, it's possible that RTSS' or my monitor's overlays are just completely wrong. I'm very confused about how to fix this though if this is indeed a problem with my monitor's refresh rate not being synced up properly. 

This is what I've done to diagnose or fix the problem. 

 

I'm using RTSS to set my FPS cap to 140 FPS, replaced my 3200MHz RAM with the Corsair 3600MHz RAM in my parts list, globally changed the minimum frequency to 2259 MHz, which is 100 MHz less than my default maximum frequency, experimented with Enhanced Sync and V-Sync, replaced my DisplayPort cable with another one, saw temps which maxed out at only 70 degrees Celsius, disabled some Windows services and such like the High Precision Event Timer, ran commands like sfc /scannow, enabled Smart Access Memory, changed my RAM to 3600 MHz in the BIOS, changed my fan curves, updated all my drivers, updated my BIOS, and more. 
 

Build Picture: https://imgur.com/a/4KfAzHc

System looks pretty clean, some questions. 
- Are you running wireless and if so what is your net speed

- what is your hard drive setup

-Frame drop while is games is nothing new, but in this instance have you updated bios/drivers

[Minuto]

15 minutes ago, zipspence said:

System looks pretty clean, some questions. 
- Are you running wireless and if so what is your net speed

- what is your hard drive setup

-Frame drop while is games is nothing new, but in this instance have you updated bios/drivers

It’s good to hear that my system looks clean. This is my first build, so I was worried that I messed up stuff. Anyway, 

 

- I am running wireless. My net speed is 100 mbps download and 50 mbps upload. 
- I have one 2 TB SSD. I tried to reinstall Windows and create a partition for only the OS just now, but that didn’t help.

- I updated my chipset, GPU, WiFi, SSD, and monitor drivers as well as my BIOS. Are there any other drivers I could be missing? I didn’t know about my monitor driver for a while to be honest, so I might have missed some…

- Is it normal for some FPS spikes to occur then? I thought I’d be able to play a 10-year old game like Arkham Origins at 144FPS at 1440p upscaled to 4K with RSR. Apparently I can’t since my FPS drops down to about 110 FPS when a new area loads in the city. 

[zipspence]

2 minutes ago, Minuto said:

It’s good to hear that my system looks clean. This is my first build, so I was worried that I messed up stuff. Anyway, 

 

- I am running wireless. My net speed is 100 mbps download and 50 mbps upload. 
- I have one 2 TB SSD. I tried to reinstall Windows and create a partition for only the OS just now, but that didn’t help.

- I updated my chipset, GPU, WiFi, SSD, and monitor drivers as well as my BIOS. Are there any other drivers I could be missing? I didn’t know about my monitor driver for a while to be honest, so I might have missed some…

Well this is just being picky, but most times I dont suggest having your OS drive as your gaming drive as well. Being that you are talking about FreeSync you have an AMD GPU? I am not horribly familiar with AMD GPU software, but one thing you should do. is to "optimize" your games using the AMD GPU software. it should have a list out of the games you play and the setting which they are running for each game. Sometimes its possible that the GPU has some funky settings that are overriding in game stuff and vise versa. 

[Minuto]

8 minutes ago, zipspence said:

Well this is just being picky, but most times I dont suggest having your OS drive as your gaming drive as well. Being that you are talking about FreeSync you have an AMD GPU? I am not horribly familiar with AMD GPU software, but one thing you should do. is to "optimize" your games using the AMD GPU software. it should have a list out of the games you play and the setting which they are running for each game. Sometimes its possible that the GPU has some funky settings that are overriding in game stuff and vise versa. 

Oh okay. I’ll try to buy another SSD just for my OS then. How big should this SSD be? As for the AMD GPU software, I did change the settings for my games in Adrenalin; unfortunately, nothing I did fixed my issues. I’ll try to mess around with them more to see if anything fixes my stuttering issues. 

[zipspence]

3 minutes ago, Minuto said:

Oh okay. I’ll try to buy another SSD just for my OS then. How big should this SSD be? As for the AMD GPU software, I did change the settings for my games in Adrenalin; unfortunately, nothing I did fixed my issues. I’ll try to mess around with them more to see if anything fixes my stuttering issues. 

256 is plenty for an OS drive but I typically go with 512 (prices normally are within a couple bucks) or if you can find a really good deal go for a 1tb. Using the OS drive for MISC stuff like pictures, files, MS office and stuff will be fine. 

For the GPU software, if you can go with MSI afterburner for tuning everything on the card (even if it isnt an MSI card it can still work). But start with nothing running/speeding up the system to get at least a baseline. 

[Minuto]

Thanks! I bought a new SSD, so I’ll see if having my OS on a different drive will fix my stuttering issues. As a baseline, I’m getting stuttering and FreeSync issues even without running anything. I tried to use Afterburner to tune my card, but I’m still running into issues… hopefully, my second SSD will fix these problems.