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Windows 10 intermittent game stutter
- Thread starter Super Rookie
- Start date
This thread is great. I get stuff like this in games as well. Maddening.
Gonna try all the advice.
Gonna try all the advice.
May I ask how you did this? Can't check at the moment on my PC.
Feels like the GeForce Experience game optimization feature is for people that don't know much about PC graphics settings (and don't care to learn). Or people that *hate* tweaking their settings!
Besides that, GeForce Experience is good for ShadowPlay video recording.
If you're not interested in that stuff, you can safely uninstall.
Not really interested un recording or streaming, so I already uninstalled it, too bad I think is the only way to automatically check and install updated NVidia drivers.
OP
OP
Launch GeForce experience -> click on the setting cog near the top right corner -> select "Games" in the left menu and in the section to the left there will be a setting for scan location which for me was populated in random folders and drives I never used for games so removed around ten of those.
This experience has taught me not to start blaming it on "unoptimised PC Ports" as the default reaction XD
I still have it installed just stopped it from scanning every HDD and just pointed it to a couple of folders I've installed all my games on.
I did notice that after installing the latest options with the clean option, it re-added the random locations again. Guessing they must be saved in a registry somewhere.
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OP
OP
No problem, hopefully it helps.
Just found out that you can stop Geforce Experience from scanning altogether by removing all the folder locations, will do that as there doesn't seem to be any settings where you can tell it to scan during certain times and don't want that to interrupt any games I might be playing.
Are the solutions in this thread for exclusive fullscreen or borderless window? Or both?
Stuttering and screentearing is what made me quit pc gaming almost entirely. It took a very long time for me to know that borderless window causes microstutter, and I would have to do fullscreen. But fullscreen has screentearing, and vsync adds A LOT of input delay. Some games have such poor vsync implementations that they literally don't do anything, and activating them from the .ini was my only choice. Not to mention some games have very advanced settings that include things like triple buffering and it just becomes too much for me to fuck with. Frametimes are flatter than the earth, framerate more solid than jupiter, I would ask around and the only answers I got was "lul buy a $500 monitor" like apparently thats how these issues were fixed even 15 years ago!!
Stuttering and screentearing is what made me quit pc gaming almost entirely. It took a very long time for me to know that borderless window causes microstutter, and I would have to do fullscreen. But fullscreen has screentearing, and vsync adds A LOT of input delay. Some games have such poor vsync implementations that they literally don't do anything, and activating them from the .ini was my only choice. Not to mention some games have very advanced settings that include things like triple buffering and it just becomes too much for me to fuck with. Frametimes are flatter than the earth, framerate more solid than jupiter, I would ask around and the only answers I got was "lul buy a $500 monitor" like apparently thats how these issues were fixed even 15 years ago!!
OP
OP
I was experiencing issues in both fullscreen and borderless, but doesn't borderless just enable v-sync regardless?
If your frame times are that flat then give some of these a go.
I never could have imagined network discovery would ever cause stutters for my system but glad I managed to figure it out.
Any particular game you are having issues with?
Lets try with Rocket League as an example.
Turning the camera, moving around, doing anything is stutter central. I have tried the following
Setting my network from public to private.
Turning off network discovery.
Anything related to game bar and xbox have been long turned off
Nvidia geforce experience is not installed
max pre-rendered frames to 1 via Nvidia Control
Power management mode set to maximum performance via Nvidia control
Computer power options set to maximum performance
Connected user experience is completely disabled
Windows defender has the entire steam folder in its ignore list
Ram is not being eaten up by anything, I have 16gigs but I have loads left over even with Chrome open.
Nothing. Vsync helps out, not totally but it does make a noticeable improvement, but the input lag on top makes it a no go from me, cant do it in games like DMC or Doom. Its not every game I have this problem with but it is the vast majority.
OP
OP
So did you find a long term solution for this? Thread's a bit all over the place... lol.
I turned off network discovery yesterday, got no more stutters at all, today I start up the game, stutter is back...?!
Do you have more than one network adapter on your motherboard? This is a while ago so my memory is fuzzy, but I read that 'Killer' brand network adapters have (had) issues, and switching over to the standard Intel one may be better.
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OP
OP
There were two issues I found with SC6, one was network discovery which reduced stutter but not eliminate, and other was Geforce Experience scaning HDDs which I disabled my removing the scanning locations in settings game section, will update first post to reflect this
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Ah, I see. Thanks. I'll try doing that also, because yeah, the stutters did seem to come back after having vanished completely yesterday.
OP
OP
Are all your drivers up to date? (BIOS, Motherboard, GPU, etc), also what Hz is your monitor set to?
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Well, I'm not saying the stutters are back (only very occasionally during the first match) but I removed all folders from GFE scan location and it's still scanning?
Also noticing a lot of artefacts in recordings after the last GFE update.
But yeah, removing those folders doesn't really stop GFE from scanning it seems?
:(
Also noticing a lot of artefacts in recordings after the last GFE update.
But yeah, removing those folders doesn't really stop GFE from scanning it seems?
:(
Necro bump, but Yakuza 0 was finally just annoying me to the point that I recall having same issues with the brief time I played Soul Calibur VI, too! Tried all the usual solutions for Yakuza 0, then I just thought OK, let me try (disconnect) the internet. Briefly tested for about 10-15 minutes and no stutter in Yakuza. I'm too sleepy to try SCVI but I trust it is the issue, or specifically, my blasted wireless printer! Curse you, printer!
Thanks for bumping. I'll try some of the solutions in this thread.
Over the past few years I feel like alot of games started stuttering and having worse frametimes. I can exclude alot of causes for this but I think its either driver or windows related.
Whats even worse is input lag. I'm very sensitive to it. Like I notice the slightest change.
The thing is that sometimes lots shooters feel like I have the most perfect/crisp aiming with almost no input lag. But that changes daily which made me stop playing alot of games because often I felt like my head, eyes and hands were too quick and I had to wait for the crosshair to catch up. I may make it sound like huge input lag but it was very minor. Though because I know how crisp it can be, it made feel so frustrated.
I disabled and enabled so many features and chaged settings with minimal changes.
- changing timer resolutions in W10
- nvidia settings (low latency and so on)
- game mode
- disable fullscreen optimizations
- power plan settingsa
- exclude apps from antivirus
- capping frame rate
- different drivers
- BIOS updates and downgrades
- installed windows on different HDDs and SSds
Basically I build a whole new PC öast year and the issue still was there. Only the PSU is the same.
At some point I found a workaround or a temporary fix:
whenever I alt-tab to desktop and instantly back into the game, it made the game more responsive. Sometimes I had to do it a few times and sometimes it starts to feel delayed again after a few minutes.
I searched the internet for some info about it and apparently even when you enable low latency mode and so on, DWM (Desktop Window Manager) still uses a buffer and my guess is that it flushes the buffer when going to desktop and slowly filling it up again.
So I guess unless MS changes DWM or the buffering I wont be able to have a consistent experience...
Over the past few years I feel like alot of games started stuttering and having worse frametimes. I can exclude alot of causes for this but I think its either driver or windows related.
Whats even worse is input lag. I'm very sensitive to it. Like I notice the slightest change.
The thing is that sometimes lots shooters feel like I have the most perfect/crisp aiming with almost no input lag. But that changes daily which made me stop playing alot of games because often I felt like my head, eyes and hands were too quick and I had to wait for the crosshair to catch up. I may make it sound like huge input lag but it was very minor. Though because I know how crisp it can be, it made feel so frustrated.
I disabled and enabled so many features and chaged settings with minimal changes.
- changing timer resolutions in W10
- nvidia settings (low latency and so on)
- game mode
- disable fullscreen optimizations
- power plan settingsa
- exclude apps from antivirus
- capping frame rate
- different drivers
- BIOS updates and downgrades
- installed windows on different HDDs and SSds
Basically I build a whole new PC öast year and the issue still was there. Only the PSU is the same.
At some point I found a workaround or a temporary fix:
whenever I alt-tab to desktop and instantly back into the game, it made the game more responsive. Sometimes I had to do it a few times and sometimes it starts to feel delayed again after a few minutes.
I searched the internet for some info about it and apparently even when you enable low latency mode and so on, DWM (Desktop Window Manager) still uses a buffer and my guess is that it flushes the buffer when going to desktop and slowly filling it up again.
So I guess unless MS changes DWM or the buffering I wont be able to have a consistent experience...
thanks for the necro. my friends was playing warzone and noticed stuttering he refused to equate to lag. I sent him some of the tips in here and applied a few to my own rig just to be safe. Thank you!
I hate it when people suggest a fresh install of Windows as a troubleshooting tip. Either that or an entire game redownload (I saw this a bunch in RDR2 threads on Steam... for a 150GB game, and it never worked for people).
Anyway, I'm not here to downplay the issues PC gaming can bring forth -- they are innumerable and quite frustrating at times. My biggest annoyance is ironically stuttering and frame-drops that have zero explanation and come up in tons of PC games. Some of it I've been able to tie pretty directly to using a Bluetooth controller, but other times it's just poor optimization/coding. Trying to fix an issue you have with a game can be a soul-crushing experience that makes me want to go running back to consoles. I have a technology professor who refuses to game on PC because of the hassle... that should tell you something.
Anyway, I'm not here to downplay the issues PC gaming can bring forth -- they are innumerable and quite frustrating at times. My biggest annoyance is ironically stuttering and frame-drops that have zero explanation and come up in tons of PC games. Some of it I've been able to tie pretty directly to using a Bluetooth controller, but other times it's just poor optimization/coding. Trying to fix an issue you have with a game can be a soul-crushing experience that makes me want to go running back to consoles. I have a technology professor who refuses to game on PC because of the hassle... that should tell you something.
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A fresh install of windows can help, i have been troubleshooting enough of my family and friends PCs over the years to have seen pretty much most kinds of trojan,malware,spyware,bloatware and every other kind of harmful software. Computer illiterates really just can't help them self but click on every shiny install me popup that comes up.
Windows installs itself can break as well be it because of user error or just a patch or driver install going wrong, often windows itself has been running since it was upgraded from win7/8 (or both) and happily collected trash software for years.
In these cases it's always way easier to just do a clean install then really trying to sort this mess out and if there is any other issue you can at least rule the OS itself out.
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Huh. Good find OP. I'm disabling this option stat! Thanks a million for sharing your findings. cheers!
Forza Horizon 3 is super stuttery no metter what on my end, my i5 3570k (no oc) isn't good enough apparently but I'll try your fix anyway, thanks.
For what it's worth, I fixed all my stuttering issues doing the following:
- Playing my games connecting to an external monitor. My laptop is an Optimus-enabled laptop with no option to disable the intel integrates graphics. This means that, if using the integrated laptop monitor, the nvidia GPU renders stuff and sends it to the intel GPU, which is itself connected to the integrated display, and this causes performance issues. The HDMI connector of the laptop is directly connected to the nVidia GPU and so operates separately from Optimus
- Using my Xbox One controller with the official Xbox Windows 10 adapter. Its connection is WAY stronger and more stable than bluetooth, and any connection hitch when using bluetooth, no matter how small, will cause stutters.
- Playing my games connecting to an external monitor. My laptop is an Optimus-enabled laptop with no option to disable the intel integrates graphics. This means that, if using the integrated laptop monitor, the nvidia GPU renders stuff and sends it to the intel GPU, which is itself connected to the integrated display, and this causes performance issues. The HDMI connector of the laptop is directly connected to the nVidia GPU and so operates separately from Optimus
- Using my Xbox One controller with the official Xbox Windows 10 adapter. Its connection is WAY stronger and more stable than bluetooth, and any connection hitch when using bluetooth, no matter how small, will cause stutters.
What fps is it running it? I've noticed that running that game over 120 fps can lead to stuttering.
Comments like this makes no sense. When this happens on PC you can fix it, when it happens on console (Bloodborne/FFXV PS4) you're stuck with it.
That's not even counting the times a game is stuttery because it has an unlocked and inconsistent framerate. Sekiro on my PS4 Pro is a pretty miserable experience.
I read that too, so I limited it to 120 and when the problem continued I tried 60, still the same stuttering. It drove me crazy
Hmm, that's odd, GTA V is one of the smoothest running games I've ever played. What hardware configuration are you running?
My PC is getting on a bit now, but more than capable.
16GB RAM
I7 6600K
Titan X Pascal
That's really weird, I've run this game on a variety of hardware configurations. Are you using Extended Distance Scaling? That's very demanding.
I installed Redux recently and it made GTA 5 run like an absolute dream at 2160p. Very impressed. Obviously useless info if you play MP!
I have tried everything, lowering settings etc.
Short of reinstalling Windows (which I couldn't be arsed) nothing stops it
Great thread.
Another tip unrelated to network or Windows.
Wired controllers. I find when I play with wired controllers I have far less stutter and latency.
Some games such as Doom Eternal, F12020 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey play dramatically different when I plug in my controller.
Using system monitoring tools I notice the framerate fluctuates less and the game is more responsive.
Troubleshooting is half the fun.
Another tip unrelated to network or Windows.
Wired controllers. I find when I play with wired controllers I have far less stutter and latency.
Some games such as Doom Eternal, F12020 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey play dramatically different when I plug in my controller.
Using system monitoring tools I notice the framerate fluctuates less and the game is more responsive.
Troubleshooting is half the fun.
For me it ended up being Private Internet Access. Even when it wasn't actively connected, it would still do something every couple of minutes, pinging home or whatever, that would use up just a couple percent of CPU and network usage for about half a second. But for whatever reason, despite the low usage, it would seem to catch the system off guard and it would cause stutter. It was even worse when streaming games into the living room because it was also using a smidge of network that would make the stream stutter in addition to the game.
Unfortunately, it would happen so fast that you couldn't see what was actually causing it unless you had Task Manager opened up over the top of the game to see it as it happened. Once I saw it, all I had to do was shut the program down, and boom, problem solved.
The only other time I've had problems recently was in Flight Simulator, but it didn't take long to see what was causing the CPU spikes was Flight Simulator itself, so I had no choice but to wait for them to patch it, which they did.
Unfortunately, it would happen so fast that you couldn't see what was actually causing it unless you had Task Manager opened up over the top of the game to see it as it happened. Once I saw it, all I had to do was shut the program down, and boom, problem solved.
The only other time I've had problems recently was in Flight Simulator, but it didn't take long to see what was causing the CPU spikes was Flight Simulator itself, so I had no choice but to wait for them to patch it, which they did.
DWM is fucking awful. There are workarounds to disable it while you play but stuff will break so no alt-tabbing. But mouse feels way better. Out of curiosity, did you try running latency mon and find out what's really causing the problem? Are you on a ryzen cpu?
