GTX 770 stuttering and frame dips

[CyberneticTitan]

So my GTX 770 for some reason has been stuttering in games and stress tests and dipping in frames every 10 seconds or so.  It runs Titanfall and Battlefield at 45 degrees Celcius or lower.

 

I've tried removing all traces of Nvidia drivers and re-installing them, even reverting back to an old driver but no dice. I also cleaned any dust particles on the PCI Express lane.

 

I'm not sure what's the problem  :huh:

[TheTacoSniper]

Updating my bios and installing windows updates fixed all of my problems

[D2ultima]

 

So my GTX 770 for some reason has been stuttering in games and stress tests and dipping in frames every 10 seconds or so.  It runs Titanfall and Battlefield at 45 degrees Celcius or lower.

 

I've tried removing all traces of Nvidia drivers and re-installing them, even reverting back to an old driver but no dice. I also cleaned any dust particles on the PCI Express lane.

 

I'm not sure what's the problem  :huh:

 

If no games work well, you could try tacosniper's suggestion of BIOS updates and windows updates, but otherwise your card might be broken. UNLESS you only get stutters online... because that is a thing. SP games don't give me stutters and online games will; it's actually related to your internet connection. Get some high jitter or a little packetloss and you might get tons of framedrops without knowing why.

[Spev]

If no games work well, you could try tacosniper's suggestion of BIOS updates and windows updates, but otherwise your card might be broken. UNLESS you only get stutters online... because that is a thing. SP games don't give me stutters and online games will; it's actually related to your internet connection. Get some high jitter or a little packetloss and you might get tons of framedrops without knowing why.

That's interesting. It might explain some skips I've noticed on some online games lately, and I assumed maybe it was my PC's fault.

[D2ultima]

That's interesting. It might explain some skips I've noticed on some online games lately, and I assumed maybe it was my PC's fault.

Nope! If it only happens online, you should yell at your ISP a little to see if they make it more stable (unless you need to buy a new router/modem/etc). 

[CyberneticTitan]

It seems to be happening offline as well, but it doesn't seem to be as frequent.

 

I played 5 minutes on a Battlefield 3 campaign, and was stable at around 95FPS and it would dip to 80FPS every 45 seconds or so. Will update everything that I could and report back. Any more ideas? I just really doubt that it's a hardware failure, because my 770 has been sitting in my case for over a year. I've only taken it out to clean it every few months. 

[D2ultima]

If it happens frequently in single player games (not say... once every few hours) then it's probably some sort of failure. Is your card stock or overclocked? I don't understand why it would do that, honestly. Your CPU is more than strong enough; it's faster than mine and my GPUs are faster than yours, so it's definitely not a CPU or RAM bottleneck of any kind. Something is wrong, and if reinstalling your drivers with a full clean install doesn't fix it, we have to start looking elsewhere.

 

What happens to your GPU utilization? And to your clock speeds? Do they go down when your FPS goes down? If your util remains at 99% or so but your FPS drops (and your clocks remain the same) then it'll be the game... but then why would it happen if you say... stood still for 5 minutes in a SP campaign? It's not a vRAM bottleneck unless you're using high MSAA at above 1440p resolution and you recently disabled your paging file so there's no virtual memory to take from; and even THEN it shouldn't happen in BF3. BF4 I'd believe it.

[CyberneticTitan]

 

If it happens frequently in single player games (not say... once every few hours) then it's probably some sort of failure. Is your card stock or overclocked? I don't understand why it would do that, honestly. Your CPU is more than strong enough; it's faster than mine and my GPUs are faster than yours, so it's definitely not a CPU or RAM bottleneck of any kind. Something is wrong, and if reinstalling your drivers with a full clean install doesn't fix it, we have to start looking elsewhere.

 

What happens to your GPU utilization? And to your clock speeds? Do they go down when your FPS goes down? If your util remains at 99% or so but your FPS drops (and your clocks remain the same) then it'll be the game... but then why would it happen if you say... stood still for 5 minutes in a SP campaign? It's not a vRAM bottleneck unless you're using high MSAA at above 1440p resolution and you recently disabled your paging file so there's no virtual memory to take from; and even THEN it shouldn't happen in BF3. BF4 I'd believe it.

 

It appears to happen every time I enter play an intensive game. (Pretty broad, but yeah.) Card is stock. 

 

Looking at MSI Afterburner, every time there is a frame dip, GPU usage will drop from 98/99% to 72-65% and power will also drop a few percentages (around 10%, variable)

 

There are still frame dips even when standing still. Playing Ultra @ 1080p.

 

Also, thanks for taking time time to help man

[D2ultima]

<snip>

Gonna quote myself. Try the steps and show me the results

 

 

Hey OP, can you do me a favour? Can you download this program called Throttlestop here, install, run and take a screenshot of the main window for me? Link: https://www.sendspace.com/file/oquhg3 

 

It should look something like this (pic below). You don't need to do anything but show me a picture of what your throttlestop window looks like yet.

 

[CyberneticTitan]

Gonna quote myself. Try the steps and show me the results

 

 

 Alright here's my screenie: 

 

 

Chrome with 5 tabs open in the foreground plus this.

[Spev]

Nope! If it only happens online, you should yell at your ISP a little to see if they make it more stable (unless you need to buy a new router/modem/etc). 

I have very low ping on League games, like 15, hence why I didn't think it was a connection issue. My GPU is pretty damn choppy/skippy on Far Cry 4, but I guess that game is just shit. If I ride a vehicle or run really fast it skips.

[D2ultima]

 Alright here's my screenie: 

 

 

Chrome with 5 tabs open in the foreground plus this.

That's a LOT of CPU usage for just 5 tabs in chrome... what. Are you watching a livestream or anything? Your CPU otherwise appears to be working fine, excepting that high usage. My screenshot was from 26 tabs in chrome, with a video playing in the background (in one of the tabs), music running, me in teamspeak, steam open, tweetdeck open, logitech game software running, playclaw 5 running. Can you tell me if your CPU usage spikes unnaturally in your games? Please note: at the time of my screenshot, my CPU was using 20% of a 2.9GHz i7. Yours is using 42% of a 4.3GHz i7.

 

I have very low ping on League games, like 15, hence why I didn't think it was a connection issue. My GPU is pretty damn choppy/skippy on Far Cry 4, but I guess that game is just shit. If I ride a vehicle or run really fast it skips.

You might not notice it so easy, because the spike happens near-instantly and causes... sort of a de-sync in information with the game? That's the best way I can describe it. You know how when you drop connection everything freezes but you can move? It's like you have a small break in the connection (due to the instantaneous burst in time taken to transfer data; it's like your game kind of hangs and waits for more info in a supposed-to-be steady flow).

 

You know what's a good way to test? If you have CoD: Black Ops 1, you could use its lagometer. If you ever freeze up or get a huge framedrop for a sec and your lagometer shows a solid red spike, then it's your internet. Used to happen to me all the time.

 

And yes, Far Cry 4 tends to do that.

[CyberneticTitan]

That's a LOT of CPU usage for just 5 tabs in chrome... what. Are you watching a livestream or anything? Your CPU otherwise appears to be working fine, excepting that high usage. My screenshot was from 26 tabs in chrome, with a video playing in the background (in one of the tabs), music running, me in teamspeak, steam open, tweetdeck open, logitech game software running, playclaw 5 running. Can you tell me if your CPU usage spikes unnaturally in your games? Please note: at the time of my screenshot, my CPU was using 20% of a 2.9GHz i7. Yours is using 42% of a 4.3GHz i7.

 

Really? I don't see anything out of place in there.

 

Tabs I had open:

Facebook

Outlook

LTT

Google Search

AVSForum

 

Shows normal CPU utilization during a mission at 45%ish or less. Pagefile usage seems to be maxed out at 8GB when running the game, at 5GBs right now idle. Doesn't seem normal.

 

Maybe I should just re-install Windows. I had a problem with the E2200 NIC awhile back that was using a ton of RAM.

[D2ultima]

words

 

Edit: never mind, that's the frequency. It's like 6am, forgive me. What's your CPU usage at?

[CyberneticTitan]

Something is DEFINITELY wrong with that CPU usage, unless outlook devours CPU like a hungry child at a buffet.

For reference, my system right now (please note clock speed of CPU and usage):

 

Like, the only difference from mine and yours was CO% and FID.

 

My CO% was lower, so I assume that's fine. But FID was higher because my multiplier is higher than yours.

[D2ultima]

Like, the only difference from mine and yours was CO% and FID.

 

My CO% was lower, so I assume that's fine. But FID was higher because my multiplier is higher than yours.

Sorry, I made a mistake there. Your C0% is how much time it's spending idle, essentially. Your number is fine. I forgot what the FID meant for a bit.

[D2ultima]

I've exhausted everything I can think of, OP. Your CPU seems to be working fine. Your RAM might be a bit overboard (5GB with just 5 chrome tabs?) but I guess you know the fix already...

 

If windows reinstall works, let us know. I'm too tired to think up any reasons anymore. 

[vlkn´]

This is a general problems with higher gpu´s.

 

How to fix: Disable steamoverlay in every non steam game, MSI afterburner DISABLED. No apps running in the background.

Desktop *rightklick*-> Nvidia control center ->3D settings ->Global settings -> search for "Shadercache" set it to "DISABLE"->search for "maximal limit of prerendered images" set it to "1". If you have cpu hungry games, you can specify that game in the nvidia control panel right to the global settings tab and search your game.

 

If that does not help, activate v sync

[CyberneticTitan]

I've exhausted everything I can think of, OP. Your CPU seems to be working fine. Your RAM might be a bit overboard (5GB with just 5 chrome tabs?) but I guess you know the fix already...

 

If windows reinstall works, let us know. I'm too tired to think up any reasons anymore. 

 

 

This is a general problems with higher gpu´s.

 

How to fix: Disable steamoverlay in every non steam game, MSI afterburner DISABLED. No apps running in the background.

Desktop *rightklick*-> Nvidia control center ->3D settings ->Global settings -> search for "Shadercache" set it to "DISABLE"->search for "maximal limit of prerendered images" set it to "1". If you have cpu hungry games, you can specify that game in the nvidia control panel right to the global settings tab and search your game.

 

If that does not help, activate v sync

 

Thanks for both of your guy's help. vlkn's advice only works temporarily. Either the same 45 seconds (ish) or to a minute now. I'll most likely re-install sometime later this week.

[i_build_nanosuits]

you are running out of video memory (VRAM) And this is the reason for your stuttering and frame dips...lower texture quality settings.

[CyberneticTitan]

you are running out of video memory (VRAM) And this is the reason for your stuttering and frame dips...lower texture quality settings.

 

Doesn't make sense, considering that I've played BF3 for over a year with my 770 with no problems up 'till recently. 

 

Will try with High and will edit.

 

Edit: Dips in Ultra, Ultra with no AA, and High.

[D2ultima]

you are running out of video memory (VRAM) And this is the reason for your stuttering and frame dips...lower texture quality settings.

His problem appears to be recent, so vRAM isn't the issue.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Doesn't make sense, considering that I've played BF3 for over a year with my 770 with no problems up 'till recently. 

 

Will try with High and will edit.

 

Edit: Dips in Ultra, Ultra with no AA, and High.

 

His problem appears to be recent, so vRAM isn't the issue.

ahh yeah i see...it looked like it from the symptoms...

[That Norwegian Guy]

you are running out of video memory (VRAM) And this is the reason for your stuttering and frame dips...lower texture quality settings.

 

Lower AA first.

 

If you're using MSAA, stop it. MSAA is an idiotic technique. Use SMAA or FXAA, if the game has neither, force FXAA in Nvidia control panel.

 

You could also create a custom resolution in the Nvidia control panel 150% the res of your native res, which amounts to 0.5x MSAA - much lighter and along with FXAA makes for good results with near zero hit.

 

Textures, shadows and AA all take up VRAM, so decide what is more important to you. But if it was me, AA would be the first to get nuked.

[vlkn´]

Hey, I forgot to add, that you need to remove your overclock before testing.

 

-

 

How to fix: Disable steamoverlay in every non steam game, MSI afterburner DISABLED. No apps running in the background.

Desktop *rightklick*-> Nvidia control center ->3D settings ->Global settings -> search for "Shadercache" set it to "DISABLE"->search for "maximal limit of prerendered images" set it to "1". If you have cpu hungry games, you can specify that game in the nvidia control panel right to the global settings tab and search your game.

 

If that does not help, activate v sync