Computer Freezing When Launching Games

[Wolsk]

Hi, been having this issue for a long time and figured I'd finally ask about it in a place where people hopefully know more about it than I do.

 

Whenever I launch a game that hasn't been run on my computer before, it freezes somewhat and makes everything run sluggishly for a few seconds.  In general, that's not too big of an issue, but I am a streamer who plays a lot of different games.  Every time a game freezes my computer on startup, it increases the delay just a little bit more until it is a good 15-20 seconds by the end of a stream (which is incredibly annoying to deal with).  I've had this problem for years and only know one other person who streams and has this issue.  According to them, it is related to using displayport for multiple monitors on Windows 10, and from my Googling, other people have similar but not quite the same issue.  I considered buying a DVI-D dual link cable to use instead, and while it'd possibly work, I'd lose out on Freesync (unless there is some way to still enable it).  So I'm wondering if there are possibly displayport-related drivers that fix the lag issue I'm having, if there is some other solution unrelated to drivers, or if I will just have to give DVI a go and see if that stops the lag.  Any advice would be much appreciated!

Monitor 1: ASUS MG248Q (displayport, 1080p, 144Hz, 1ms, Freesync)

Monitor 2: Acer K212HQL (DVI, 1080p, 60Hz, 5ms)

 

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Version 1709, Build 16299.611)

CPU: i7-6700K (base clock)

GPU: Radeon RX 580 NITRO+ (base clock)

PSU: Corsair CX750M

RAM: Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400

MOBO: Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 7

BIOS: 05.0000B

 

Note: It is not related to my antivirus.  I have the same issue even with it uninstalled entirely.

[Jurrunio]

check the temperatures (CPU and GPU). what motherboard is this?

[Wolsk]

Whoops, forgot to include the motherboard.  Added it to the original post.

CPU temp is currently 29°C, and GPU temp is currently 48°C.

[Stefan Payne]

2 hours ago, Wolsk said:

Whenever I launch a game that hasn't been run on my computer before, it freezes somewhat and makes everything run sluggishly for a few seconds.

That sounds like either your CPU is at 100% load or there might be a Problem with your Harddrive or Cable or chipset.

 

Its not normal behaviour and has nothing to do with the Graphics card but everything between the CPU, Board and Drive. Even RAM is possible.

[ZacoAttaco]

2 hours ago, Wolsk said:

Whenever I launch a game that hasn't been run on my computer before, it freezes somewhat and makes everything run sluggishly for a few seconds.

So it's only on initialization that the lag or freezing occurs. Like when a game would initialize DirectX 12 or something similar to that?

 

[Wolsk]

3 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

So it's only on initialization that the lag or freezing occurs. Like when a game would initialize DirectX 12 or something similar to that?

It is literally only on the first launch of any game.  Like for example, DOOM 2016 would never lag my computer when I open it now because I have opened it before, and that behavior even persists through computer restarts and game re-installs.

 

3 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

That sounds like either your CPU is at 100% load or there might be a Problem with your Harddrive or Cable or chipset.

 

Its not normal behaviour and has nothing to do with the Graphics card but everything between the CPU, Board and Drive. Even RAM is possible.

My CPU does appear to be spiking when I open games (with the specific one I tested going from 5% to 20% and then back down to 5%), but it does that even when the game has been launched before.  The only difference with the first launch is that it stays at 20% for a bit longer, presumably because my computer freezes.  I also did a test and put different games on each drive, and it had the same initial launch spike for all 3 of them.  One drive is an internal bulk storage HDD, one drive is an internal SSD, and one drive is an external HDD.

[ZacoAttaco]

17 hours ago, Wolsk said:

My CPU does appear to be spiking when I open games (with the specific one I tested going from 5% to 20% and then back down to 5%), but it does that even when the game has been launched before.  The only difference with the first launch is that it stays at 20% for a bit longer, presumably because my computer freezes.  I also did a test and put different games on each drive, and it had the same initial launch spike for all 3 of them.  One drive is an internal bulk storage HDD, one drive is an internal SSD, and one drive is an external HDD.

So it's not a hard drive or storage issue because it's occurring on both an SSD and HDD. Maybe try downloading Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and stress testing the CPU and seeing how it holds up. It sounds like it could be a CPU related issue.

[Wolsk]

On 8/19/2018 at 6:32 PM, ZacoAttaco said:

So it's not a hard drive or storage issue because it's occurring on both an SSD and HDD. Maybe try downloading Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and stress testing the CPU and seeing how it holds up. It sounds like it could be a CPU related issue.

Quick update: I did a 3 hour stress test with IXTU and passed.  I also discovered that 2 other streamers I know use multi-monitor setups with displayport, and they have almost the same lag issue when opening games.  However, it seems to be every time they launch a game rather than just being on the first launch, but they all use dual PC stream setups which makes it not affect them as much.

[ZacoAttaco]

17 hours ago, Wolsk said:

Quick update: I did a 3 hour stress test with IXTU and passed.  I also discovered that 2 other streamers I know use multi-monitor setups with displayport, and they have almost the same lag issue when opening games.  However, it seems to be every time they launch a game rather than just being on the first launch, but they all use dual PC stream setups which makes it not affect them as much.

From what I've found it could be related to the DisplayPort technology, people have swapped to HDMI and not experienced problems. If you can I'd suggest trying to run HDMI to your main monitor and also only have one monitor running at a time and then please let us know how you go. Saw some threads that said it was too much load for the GPU to have two displays running (don't 100% buy it but it's worth testing).

[Wolsk]

On 8/22/2018 at 5:13 PM, ZacoAttaco said:

From what I've found it could be related to the DisplayPort technology, people have swapped to HDMI and not experienced problems. If you can I'd suggest trying to run HDMI to your main monitor and also only have one monitor running at a time and then please let us know how you go. Saw some threads that said it was too much load for the GPU to have two displays running (don't 100% buy it but it's worth testing).

I tested with only my 144Hz monitor using displayport plugged in and had no lag issues.  Then I tested with my second monitor using a VGA cable instead of the usual DVI, and the lag issues returned.  I tried going into my BIOS and disabling my internal GPU entirely instead of leaving it on "auto," and that didn't fix the issue either.  Then I went with my original idea and bought a DVI-D dual-link cable, and that fixed the lag like I was somewhat expecting it would (I can't use HDMI because that wouldn't allow for 144Hz).  Only problem is that it means I can't use Freesync at all which is unfortunate (unless there is some workaround for DVI), but just having the lag fixed is nice.  That confirms that it is, in fact, an issue with using multiple monitors through displayport (possibly exclusive to Windows 10).  So I'm back to the original question of if there is some kind of driver to make it work with displayport or if I'm gonna be stuck with DVI and no Freesync.

 

*EDIT* Been playing around with it a bit, and DVI still did not fix the issue.  That sucks.