Games stuttering

[Venn]

So since I've got a gtx 950, i've been able to run mostly all games on high settings anywhere between 30-60 fps. And the games play really good except some.... Dying Light, AC:U, BO3, Shadow of Mordor.

 

All of those games (except black ops 3) run at high settings, anywhere from 30-60 fps. Problem is, every game has a stutter effect, game just freezes for about 1-3 secs for no reason every 30 seconds or so, depending on the game. Older games have no such problem. I've asked myself the question that maybe the GPU isn't powerful enough, but I've seen 760s do way better than me with no stutters.

 

Here are my specs: Phenom ii x4 955, 500w PSU, 8 gigs of ram, and a crappy foxxcon 2a92 mobo.

 

Any suggestions on how to find out why the games stutter?

[Nonco]

760 is slightly better than a 950.

 

Those games you listed are all pretty badly optimized and dont run well on GPU's which arent as high end like a 950. Especially games like Shadow of Mordor requires a stupid amount of VRAM to run properly

[crystal6tak]

snip*

Download and install MSI afterburner. (Probably have to restart once it's installed)

 

Run the program and make sure it's logging stuff like GPU usage, VRAM, CPU usage and what not.

 

Play the game that stutters.

 

After a bit of stuttering, alt tab out and look at the graphs. Feel free to screenshot the graph and put it up here for us to analyze.

 

I'm guessing it's due to VRAM. The GPU running out of VRAM and so it flushes it, causing a sudden drop in FPS. You can confirm this by seeing VRAM max out. drops, and climb back up again in msi afterburner's graph.

[Venn]

Download and install MSI afterburner. (Probably have to restart once it's installed)

 

Run the program and make sure it's logging stuff like GPU usage, VRAM, CPU usage and what not.

 

Play the game that stutters.

 

After a bit of stuttering, alt tab out and look at the graphs. Feel free to screenshot the graph and put it up here for us to analyze.

 

I'm guessing it's due to VRAM. The GPU running out of VRAM and so it flushes it, causing a sudden drop in FPS. You can confirm this by seeing VRAM max out. drops, and climb back up again in msi afterburner's graph.

 

added 3rd graph a bit later

[trag1c]

Yeah it looks like your running out of VRAM. The GPU usage spiking down to zero is because there is no more memory and your graphics card is waiting to get data from RAM which exponentially slower than cache or VRAM.

 

Edit: Fixes:

 

Try these first since they typically use up the most memory. If that doesn't work then reduce everything else further.

Reduce texture sizes.

Eliminate or reduce shadows.

 

Edit 2: Also Follow your posts with the button in the top right. @Venn

[Venn]

Yeah it looks like your running out of VRAM. The GPU usage spiking down to zero is because there is no more memory and your graphics card is waiting to get data from RAM which exponentially slower than cache or VRAM.

 

Edit: Fixes:

 

Try these first since they typically use up the most memory. If that doesn't work then reduce everything else further.

Reduce texture sizes.

Eliminate or reduce shadows.

 

Edit 2: Also Follow your posts with the button in the top right. @Venn

 

alright thanks. i've seen videos (like the potato masher) claiming he can run games on the highest of settings with a 760 and he gets no stutters. i was just wondering why the games did so on my pc.

[crystal6tak]

alright thanks. i've seen videos (like the potato masher) claiming he can run games on the highest of settings with a 760 and he gets no stutters. i was just wondering why the games did so on my pc.

Perhaps he got the 760 variant with more VRAM? A quick search shows there's a 2GB and a 4GB variant of 760. 4GB would be plenty for a 760.

 

Also, the graph doesn't actually show VRAM, the one thing I wanted to check lol. It's fine though, just check yourself, if an FPS drop, GPU usage drop, and VRAM drop at the same time, it's pretty much guaranteed it's VRAM problem. 

 

Although your CPU there looks like it's being maxed out. I doubt a phenom bottlenecks a 950 though.

 

Like trag1c said, reduce some settings to see if it stops the stutter. If no in-game setting can lower it enough, I'm afraid you'll have to lower the resolution of the game. Won't be pretty but will for sure lower VRAM usage.

[Venn]

Perhaps he got the 760 variant with more VRAM? A quick search shows there's a 2GB and a 4GB variant of 760. 4GB would be plenty for a 760.

 

Also, the graph doesn't actually show VRAM, the one thing I wanted to check lol. It's fine though, just check yourself, if an FPS drop, GPU usage drop, and VRAM drop at the same time, it's pretty much guaranteed it's VRAM problem. 

 

Although your CPU there looks like it's being maxed out. I doubt a phenom bottlenecks a 950 though.

 

Like trag1c said, reduce some settings to see if it stops the stutter. If no in-game setting can lower it enough, I'm afraid you'll have to lower the resolution of the game. Won't be pretty but will for sure lower VRAM usage.

 

lowered the settings, and sure enough, the stutter reduced to like 1 0.1 s stutter every 30 sec or so, which is far more tolerable.

 

would overclocking help my gfx card? or is the only solution to buy a 4gb one/reduce the settings?

[crystal6tak]

lowered the settings, and sure enough, the stutter reduced to like 1 0.1 s stutter every 30 sec or so, which is far more tolerable.

 

would overclocking help my gfx card? or is the only solution to buy a 4gb one/reduce the settings?

You...could try overclocking the memory?... I doubt that'l help...eh, use Rivatuner (Comes with MSI Afterburner) and limit the FPS? Rivatuner's FPS limiter isn't V-Sync, it simply limits GPU usage meaning there isn't any input lag (however if there is tearing originally, they will still be present).

 

That might prevent the GPU from using too much VRAM. Put a 30 or 60 FPS cap and see if it helps. Play around with the FPS cap for each game. Rivatuner allows you to easily set different FPS cap for each game so you don't have to switch around manually when you switch games.

 

You use windows 7? Put the theme on classic (not sure if 8.1/10 has something of equivalent). 

 

Other than that...I don't really know what you can do tbh.

[Venn]

You...could try overclocking the memory?... I doubt that'l help...eh, use Rivatuner (Comes with MSI Afterburner) and limit the FPS? Rivatuner's FPS limiter isn't V-Sync, it simply limits GPU usage meaning there isn't any input lag (however if there is tearing originally, they will still be present).

 

That might prevent the GPU from using too much VRAM. Put a 30 or 60 FPS cap and see if it helps. Play around with the FPS cap for each game. Rivatuner allows you to easily set different FPS cap for each game so you don't have to switch around manually when you switch games.

 

You use windows 7? Put the theme on classic (not sure if 8.1/10 has something of equivalent). 

 

Other than that...I don't really know what you can do tbh.

 

Alright. This dosen't happen in every game. AC Syndicate runs well for example even when i put the settings on high and it says i need 3 gb of vram, but stutters are very minimal