There is an in-game stutter, likely occurring when accessing data from storage?
There is an in-game stutter, likely occurring when accessing data from storage?
It's an old PC, but this isn't a resource problem, as it happens in old games too that aren't even close to maxing my CPU/GPU or RAM. It also happens literally in main menus.
MSI H97 PC MATE
Xeon E3-1240 V3 (i7 4770 equivalent)
16GB RAM 1600Mhz(4x4)
RTX 2060 SUPER
PSU XFX TS 550W (P1-550S-XXB9)
x2 MX500 1 TB SSD
x1 IRDM PRO gen2 512 SSD(system drive)
x1 Toshiba P300 1TB HDD(storage)
x1 Toshiba P300 2TB HDD(storage)
Windows 7
So basically this 2 fps sttuter occurs whenever something isn't already loaded in memory and it needs to be accessed from disk by the look of it.
I'm uploading 3 videos with examples(click direct link beneath). Sorry for phone quality, I recently uninstalled Shadowplay and am just lazy. You won't be really able to "feel" the stutter in this case, but you can clearly see the fps drop and frametime spike.
First video is showcasing pretty much the most ridiculous example. Basically after launching the game, I will get stutter when I open the overlay for the first time, because it needs to be drawn. After that I can open and close it as many times as I want without stutter.
Second video is me scrolling through the save files. Game needs to access each save file on the disk in order to get the thumbnail, and so it stutters each time I move onto new file. Scrolling back up through the same files produces no stutter, as those are already in memory.
Third video is actually in game. Keep looking at the trees in the middle of the screen. You will notice the stutter occurring the moment when new model was being rendered in.
Some things I think we can rule out:
Given that this is Windows 7, I think we can rule out some background processes interference. It's also trimmed down to the maximum perfromance where I have like 50 proccesses running and I know what each one of them does(compared to +100 mess in Win10/11). I just have ESET, Nvidia Panel, Realtek Audio Panel and RTSS with MSI Afterburner in my tray. So unless I actually disabled some important windows service, I think we can rule this out.
-Obviously it's not overheating problem as it happens in menu's too, but still both of my CPU and GPU are around 60C when gaming.
- It's not a dying disk, as it happens on all of my disk's and all of them are healthy too(I use HDTune, CrystalDisk and have HDSentinel running)
- I don't know if this is a hardware problem. The only thing I can rule out is GPU, cuz that was recently swaped from old 1060 3GB(yes I did clean DDU uninstall)
- I tried all Vsync's, framelimiters, max pre rendered frames, none has an effect on this
If I understand correctly how this works... it seems like there's some communication problem between my CPU and disk's?
If I could actually remember and notice when this started to happen at first, it would be easier to narrow down, but alas I have no idea. With this PC I just got used to stutters as you can imagine, but I do rememeber it wasn't that bad some time ago.
Going back to hardware, originally I had ASRock H97 Pro4 with i5 4590. I damaged my MOBO by accident at some point and had to buy new one. I didn't want to do a full switch to Win 10 with new PC yet, so I just bought a cheap replacement with MSI H97 PC MATE and that Xeon. I can't really tell if perhaps this is when it all started, but I think I would have noticed it right away.
All my games are stored on SSDs. These are traditional 500/500 write and read SATA 3 SSDs, which shouldn't be the issue. It's also not related to running new games.
Old games are designed for outdated systems... they are usually single-threaded and every time something needs loading, everything else must pause until it's finished. Because they were made for older hardware, they don't handle large amounts of data when your system is nearly full, but when the average performance of past systems would have been higher, it's referred to as optimization. Also, depending on how old you are talking about, these games weren't always expected to run smoothly at high frame rates, which can also lead to problems. Additionally, your videos aren't working for me, so I'm just making general assumptions without seeing the specific issue.
Execute some benchmark tests with CrystalDiskMark on every drive to verify the output appears typical. Share the findings here for discussion.
Ensure the most recent BIOS and chipset drivers are installed.
After upgrading your motherboard, did you perform a complete fresh installation of Windows? If not, consider doing so immediately.
Videos aren't displaying because I applied the [media] tag, you must click the direct links below.
Spoiler
Pay close attention to what I mentioned earlier and then watch. This isn’t a minor discussion thread about random stuttering during gameplay. It’s completely consistent and always occurs when new data needs to be loaded into memory. In the third video, I have a save where I’m at the beginning. After moving a few steps forward to trigger the stutter, loading that save will clear the model from memory, and once I move again, the stutter will happen again.
This isn’t about optimization—it happens in every game. It actually occurs in the main menu when I first open the Afterburner overlay after launching a game. Irrespective of what needs to be loaded, regardless of the game type or system resources. Essentially, whenever something must be done for the first time, it always triggers this issue.
OS DRIVE: IRDM PRO gen.2
1st Crucial MX 500 1TB
2nd Crucial MX 500 1TB
Toshiba P300 1TB
Toshiba P300 2 TB
It seems my OS SSD has become a bit slower lately. It was supposed to match the write and read speeds of the MX500, but it feels a little outdated. I've had it for several years now. Still, this shouldn't cause such delays.
Both BIOS and chipset drivers are up to date, and I did a fresh Windows installation when I made the switch.
I own multiple i7-4770K units along with some older Xeons and a mix of newer models. I think you probably can't push the E3-1240 beyond its limits (is it V2 or V3?), which is disappointing. I'm running one 4770K at stock speed, another at 3.9GHz and the last at 4.2GHz all with a manual voltage setting of 1.250 Vcore. You could try increasing them further, but I prefer not to run them at 1.4 Vcore. You may want to think about replacing the Xeon with a used 4770K, as they're now quite affordable compared to the 4790K. Even if you boost the CPU speed, it's uncertain whether it will really help. You could experiment with Superfetch—turning it on or off—or adjust caching behavior in RAM, though these are just guesses. The 500MB/s numbers refer mainly to sequential read/write tasks, while random 4K Q1 speeds will be significantly lower.
It's V3. I value the suggestion of a budget upgrade over another vague "just upgrade to win 10 and buy a new pc". Nonetheless, this isn't a resource issue. I want to reiterate:
This isn't a minor discussion thread online about random stuttering at random times while gaming. It's consistently reproducible and always occurs when something new needs to be loaded into memory. Irrespective of what's being loaded, the game type, or CPU/GPU/RAM usage.
Still, some people seem to treat it as another stutter thread caused by a weak PC.
I play an MMO game that can push my CPU to 90% in certain cities during peak player activity. If stuttering happens there, it's just unstable and normal.
It's unusual for me not to be able to open Afterburner overlay without stuttering, as shown in the first video.
Even in the third video from Skyrim, what you're seeing is a LOD model switch. The game changes to a higher detail model when I get close enough. This is referred to as "pop-in" in gaming. There are mods available to reduce or eliminate it for Skyrim, but still... the core problem remains—objects and textures in the distance "pop-in" as I approach them. It shouldn't be linked to stuttering. It should render smoothly into a new model.
I'll experiment with SuperFetch. Caching data in RAM might help. As mentioned before, anything already loaded in memory doesn't cause stutter. Only when something new needs loading does it happen. Still, this seems like a workaround. The real issue appears to be slow disk access or something similar.
I updated my initial upload and added videos on YT to improve accessibility.