Annoying Stuttering

[GrandNoodleLite]

Ever since a few days ago, I've been dealing with some odd stuttering. In games like GTA 5 and Shogun 2: Total War, when I move around, everything seems to slow down or freeze a second, then it moves normally, then it slows down or freezes for another second, then back to normal, and it keeps repeating in an endless cycle. During all of this I stay over 60 FPS, but it hardly looks like it. It's also worth noting that I had played Shogun 2: Total War a few days ago and didn't have any stuttering.

 

In an older game like Team Fortress 2, where my FPS can stay over 100, everything seems to work fine for a few hours till I suddenly get hit with unbearable stuttering which makes the game look like a slideshow. The only way I can get the stuttering to stop then, is to restart TF2, and once it restarts, everything's fine again.

 

I even see this stuttering when I type something fast. If I hold down a random key, let's say to type "sssssssssssssssssssss" I will notice the stuttering. Strangely, I haven't noticed any stuttering in Youtube videos.

 

I have tried rolling back my video card driver, running my monitor at 60Hz, and making sure my graphics card wasn't over heating. Nothing's worked so far and it's really starting to get to my nerves. I can't tell if my FPS is affected. Some times, my FPS drops with the stuttering, sometimes I don't see a difference. I don't remember doing anything that could have made a change like this and I have no malware on my computer.

 

Here are my specs:

Processor: Intel® Core i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz

Graphics Card: EVGA Superclocked Geforce GTX 980

Memory: 32.00 GB RAM (31.97 GB usable)

Sound Card: NVIDIA High Definition Audio

Storage: Samsung SSD

Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

 

Any ideas?

[AstroBenny]

Ever since a few days ago, I've been dealing with some odd stuttering. In games like GTA 5 and Shogun 2: Total War, when I move around, everything seems to slow down or freeze a second, then it moves normally, then it slows down or freezes for another second, then back to normal, and it keeps repeating in an endless cycle. During all of this I stay over 60 FPS, but it hardly looks like it. It's also worth noting that I had played Shogun 2: Total War a few days ago and didn't have any stuttering.

 

In an older game like Team Fortress 2, where my FPS can stay over 100, everything seems to work fine for a few hours till I suddenly get hit with unbearable stuttering which makes the game look like a slideshow. The only way I can get the stuttering to stop then, is to restart TF2, and once it restarts, everything's fine again.

 

I even see this stuttering when I type something fast. If I hold down a random key, let's say to type "sssssssssssssssssssss" I will notice the stuttering. Strangely, I haven't noticed any stuttering in Youtube videos.

 

I have tried rolling back my video card driver, running my monitor at 60Hz, and making sure my graphics card wasn't over heating. Nothing's worked so far and it's really starting to get to my nerves. I can't tell if my FPS is affected. Some times, my FPS drops with the stuttering, sometimes I don't see a difference. I don't remember doing anything that could have made a change like this and I have no malware on my computer.

 

Here are my specs:

Processor: Intel® Core i7-3820 CPU @ 3.60GHz

Graphics Card: EVGA Superclocked Geforce GTX 980

Memory: 32.00 GB RAM (31.97 GB usable)

Sound Card: NVIDIA High Definition Audio

Storage: Samsung SSD

Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

 

Any ideas?

Is it only those games? Are you running an overclock? Have you tried running a game at rock bottom settings to ensure you aren't dropping below the monitor refresh rate?

[GrandNoodleLite]

Bad card?

I've had this card for a few months and I haven't had any problems with it till a few days ago. That's assuming the problem's with my GPU.

 

Is it only those games? Are you running an overclock? Have you tried running a game at rock bottom settings to ensure you aren't dropping below the monitor refresh rate?

Those are the only games I know of so far. I've run XCOM: Enemy Unknown & Star Wars Battlefront 2 with no problems. My GPU is superclocked, not overclocked, and I haven't changed any settings with it. I did try running GTA V at it's rock bottom settings and it didn't help. As far as the refresh rate, my monitor has a 144Hz refresh rate, so really every game runs under that except for the ancient ones like SW:BF2 and TF2. I've never had any issues with my frames being below my refresh rate anyway.

[Gala]

Thats Windows taking a shit right there! 100%

Install Linux, install Steam, install TF2 and try to play.

[GrandNoodleLite]

Maybe try something like razer cortex to optimize the games for you?  See if that helps?

I did try using the "optimized" settings in the Geforce Experience, that didn't work. Besides, as I said in my first post, I wasn't having this problem a few days ago with the same settings. I doubt 3 games just raised their recommended specs at the same time.

 

Thats Windows taking a shit right there! 100%

Install Linux, install Steam, install TF2 and try to play.

GTA 5 and most of my games don't work on linux.

[GrandNoodleLite]

Sounds like the GPU then might be acting up.  I'd contact the maker or seller, and talk to them if this is a known issue.  Could probably RMA it.

Seems pretty unlikely it would just break down after a few months.

[GrandNoodleLite]

It can happen though, and your best bet is to talk to the support of the maker to see if they know this issue or not.  It may or may not be, but it couldn't hurt to ask them.  Some people get cards that are faulty out of the box, a day, minutes, seconds, weeks, months, years, and so on.  It is safer just to check.

With all due respect, your starting to sound like a customer support guy who wants to get someone out of his hair, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Computers tend to work indefinitely unless something changes. I'm just trying to figure out what that change is, so I can fix it. If "talk to their support" is the best you've got, fine, but that doesn't help me at all.

[AstroBenny]

This is interesting. I'm going to retreat to the basics and just recommend that you completely reinstall Windows on your PC. If this doesn't clear the issue then, most likely, nothing will

I assume you still have your installation media so that you can reinstall windows? Also, make sure to install all your drivers in the following order: Once Windows boots up install your mobo drivers ( chipset,lan,usb,audio) whether it be from the disc or the website. Next do windows updates and then install Geforce Experience for your latest drivers. I would also recommend updating the Bios just in case something funny is going on

If the problem persists you might have to get a replacement GPU.

Hope this helps!

[AstroBenny]

I would also like to add that before you RMA your card if my previous post fails, pop Nvidia an email. I'm sure they will be able to help in some shape or form.

[GrandNoodleLite]

I'm not trying to get you out of my hair.  I'm just saying they might have a better answer/know of said issue and have an official fix for it.  I mean did you change anything?  Add any new drivers that might be causing a conflict?  

I didn't install any new drivers. I even tried rolling back my current driver but that did nothing. I haven't installed anything either.

 

This is interesting. I'm going to retreat to the basics and just recommend that you completely reinstall Windows on your PC. If this doesn't clear the issue then, most likely, nothing will

I assume you still have your installation media so that you can reinstall windows? Also, make sure to install all your drivers in the following order: Once Windows boots up install your mobo drivers ( chipset,lan,usb,audio) whether it be from the disc or the website. Next do windows updates and then install Geforce Experience for your latest drivers. I would also recommend updating the Bios just in case something funny is going on

If the problem persists you might have to get a replacement GPU.

Hope this helps!

Why? Is there a problem with my installation? Like I said I really didn't change anything since they were working just fine, so I'm curious as to how windows could have caused it.

[AstroBenny]

I didn't install any new drivers. I even tried rolling back my current driver but that did nothing. I haven't installed anything either.

 

Why? Is there a problem with my installation? Like I said I really didn't change anything since they were working just fine, so I'm curious as to how windows could have caused it.

That's the thing. Two more things I would like to add. Have you tried running some monitoring software such as GPU-Z so when you experience one of the large stutters you can check the graph and see what the card's utilisation is up to?

Secondly, this is quite obvious but I don't believe many people take this into account. Could this be a network issue on your end? If these problems are only occurring when playing games online, see if you experience the same problem when playing games offline.

[GrandNoodleLite]

I highly, highly doubt it's a faulty card. Some users really had problems with drivers they released, I myself included. They're trying to optimize games/drivers for Windows 10 already, more and more problems popped up recently with stuttering/crashes etc. I'd personally try a classic reinstall of windows, if the card really is faulty the problems should persist on a fresh install of windows. If not, there you go... software/driver issues. BTW: GTAV's recent patch broke the game for a ton of people, they changed something about the pagefile. Stuttering galore every few seconds. Every single other game runs fine. 

Well, everyone seems to say that running GTA V in offline mode should fix it, but that didn't work for me. Besides, I'm having this same issue in other games.

 

That's the thing. Two more things I would like to add. Have you tried running some monitoring software such as GPU-Z so when you experience one of the large stutters you can check the graph and see what the card's utilisation is up to?

Secondly, this is quite obvious but I don't believe many people take this into account. Could this be a network issue on your end? If these problems are only occurring when playing games online, see if you experience the same problem when playing games offline.

I'm running most of these games in singleplayer. The only one I wasn't was TF2, and if it was lag everything would freeze, but animations would still play out just fine. I should also say that audio is not affected by this stuttering. And no, I haven't run anything like GPU-Z. I tried task manager, but nothing looked unusual.

 

That's extra weird then.    Also, sometimes some drivers update themselves, and they cause a conflict in the OS.  Razer's audio driver did that to my OS, but you don't seem to have that level of an issue.

I don't have the geforce experience set up to install drivers automatically, either way rolling back the driver did nothing anyway.

[Uwillparish]

Ive had the same problem with gta 5, go into nvidia control panel and change 3d settings for your games, or do it globally, and do maximum pre-rendered frames 1 and power management to perfer maximum performance 

[GrandNoodleLite]

Ive had the same problem with gta 5, go into nvidia control panel and change 3d settings for your games, or do it globally, and do maximum pre-rendered frames 1 and power management to perfer maximum performance 

Tried that, but it didn't work. I think it's a broader issue in my case.

 

Also, I remembered that I did install some drivers, and I am confident that these drivers are what's causing the problem. I've been trying to use a system restore point to fix it, but I keep getting this error. I've tried starting my computer in safe mode and I've tried disabling my anti virus, but neither of those worked. Anyone know how to get past this error?

[BigBird05]

If it were me i would completely uninstall all nvidia drivers and whatever else is on there from nvidia and download something called display driver uninstaller, be careful where you get it and be mindful of what it wants to install and only install the display driver uninstaller only. Restart in safe mode and start up the program and follow the instructions and then after it restarts to regular windows then download the latest nvidia drivers and install them. If this doesnt work than it could be that you need to re-install windows all together.

[GrandNoodleLite]

If it were me i would completely uninstall all nvidia drivers and whatever else is on there from nvidia and download something called display driver uninstaller, be careful where you get it and be mindful of what it wants to install and only install the display driver uninstaller only. Restart in safe mode and start up the program and follow the instructions and then after it restarts to regular windows then download the latest nvidia drivers and install them. If this doesnt work than it could be that you need to re-install windows all together.

I'd like to try using the restore point before I do anything else. Do you know how to get past that error?

[BigBird05]

No sorry my friend if you dont have another restore point before that to try to restore to your kind of screwed.

[GrandNoodleLite]

No sorry my friend if you dont have another restore point before that to try to restore to your kind of screwed.

What if I rolled back the drivers? Would that restore the drivers to what they used to be, or could that just give me a different older version from the net?

[Guest Philosophy]

My guess would be drivers. 

[GrandNoodleLite]

My guess would be drivers.

I know it's drivers, but would it give me the same version I had or just the version before my current one?

[Guest Philosophy]

I know it's drivers, but would it give me the same version I had or just the version before my current one?

If you are running beta drivers go to the last stable version. 

[GrandNoodleLite]

If you are running beta drivers go to the last stable version.

I've never used beta drivers...

[Guest Philosophy]

I've never used beta drivers...

Try going back one version, see if it helps. 

[GrandNoodleLite]

Try going back one version, see if it helps.

But I'm asking if that's what rollback does or if it gives me the last version I had installed.

[Guest Philosophy]

But I'm asking if that's what rollback does or if it gives me the last version I had installed.

The roll back does exactly as it sounds, install a provisos set of drivers. Earlier drivers can sometimes work better, depending on the game, card, etc.