Stuttery/Choppy gameplay despite a new decent rig and good FPS !

[Nebrok]

I just bought a new computer 2 weeks ago and I have been dealing with this extremely annoying issue that makes the games almost unplayable. I have tried many fixes but nothing worked so far and it just fills me with sadness that I spent 800$ on a PC that can't run properly

When I play games like Bioshock infinite, Killing Floor, Dishonored 1 etc... the gameplay is stuttery and not smooth like it should've been. I experience this issue even in really old games like Runescape and Call of duty 2 etc... I always have FRAPS running and it reports that ALL of the games I've played and mentioned so far run with 70+ and even with 100+ FPS but I still somehow get this issue where the gameplay appears jittery/stuttery and not smooth at all.

A thing to note is that under load my graphics card does produce weird buzzing/beeping noise which is most likely coil whine that should not affect the performance of the card.

I ran Heaven benchmark today and some of the scenes were very smooth with 60+ FPS and some of the scenes were choppy and it seemed like the animation was rubber banding/going back a litle bit like in games where the player is jumping back a bit due to server or network problem, that is the best way I can describe what I saw.

I've also noticed that almost 60% of the time when the scene switched to the other one there was a slight 0.5/1 sec freeze and the FPS jumped down from example 100 to 60 and then it went straight back up again. This happened also in the middle of the scenes. The score was pretty decent when I compared it to other scores that people posted on the web with the same PC build. Here are the results though http://imgur.com/a/79qqg

I am experiencing this "freezes" in all of the games I've mentioned as well. I also experience the "rubber banding" in games but it is kinda mixed with stuttering/jittering.

I've come to this forum since my friend told me you guys are amazing at solving difficult problems like this one. You even helped my friend getting a really annoying problem fixed which he is really grateful for.

If you guys know how can I fix this annoying issue or if you can tell me what is wrong with my PC I would really appreciate it !

SPECS:

- Asus GTX 970 STRIX 4GB OC Edition
- Intel i5 4690k quad core 3.5 ghz
- 1 stick of 8 GB Hyperx Fury RAM
- MSI Z97 Gaming 5 MOBO
- 1 TB WD HDD
- Corsair CX600 PSU

 

[beers]

Did you build it yourself or buy it put together? What OS are you using? Did you manually install all of the driver packs for each component?

Did you use an XMP profile on your RAM? What temperatures is your CPU getting to? What temperatures is your GPU getting to?

 

[johnb35]

Replace the card, only logical explanation I think if it has noise. Other things may be wrong with it besides coil whine.

 

[Nebrok]

Did you build it yourself or buy it put together? What OS are you using? Did you manually install all of the driver packs for each component?

Did you use an XMP profile on your RAM? What temperatures is your CPU getting to? What temperatures is your GPU getting to?

Yes I built it myself. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit SP1. Yes I went to every manufacturers website and downloaded the appropriete drivers by using their software (Nvidia Experience, MSI Live Update), some of the drivers I got directly from their website and I didn't use any of their utilities. I don't think I used XMP profile since I don't even know what that is... The CPU is getting to max 65 degrees when gaming and the GPU temps don't go above 65 degrees (the fans are set to auto so that they turn on and increase in speed when that is needed) but all of this really depends on the game I'm playing. Thank you for the fast response and right now I'm at a point where I'm ready to try anything to fix this horrible issue !

 

[Nebrok]

Replace the card, only logical explanation I think if it has noise. Other things may be wrong with it besides coil whine.

Will def look into that if I cannot find a possible fix for this.

 

[beers]

I don't think I used XMP profile since I don't even know what that is

It's in your BIOS. It sets the speed of the RAM automatically to what it should be.

You'll also gain a bit of performance by using two sticks for dual channel memory, however it shouldn't have awful game breaking slowdowns by just using one stick.

 

[Nebrok]

It's in your BIOS. It sets the speed of the RAM automatically to what it should be.

You'll also gain a bit of performance by using two sticks for dual channel memory, however it shouldn't have awful game breaking slowdowns by just using one stick.

Turned on Extreme memory profile in BIOS and it is def the same. Nothing has changed Thanks for the response though !

 

[AlienMenace]

Is it 65 in degrees or is it Celsius. If Celsius, that is awfully high. And the cpu might be getting way to hot that might be causing a problem. Just a thought.

 

[Intel_man]

Is it 65 in degrees or is it Celsius.

.... Celsius is measured in degrees.

 

[AlienMenace]

.... Celsius is measured in degrees.

So, if his computer is 65 degrees. Don't you think it is running hot, and could be the problem he might have.

 

[Nebrok]

So, if his computer is 65 degrees. Don't you think it is running hot, and could be the problem he might have.

I mean I think that is quite normal for a stock cooler. But it really depends on the game that I'm playing. In some games the temps are not that high but in some CPU demanding games the temps increase. Some of my friends are running a stock cooler as well and when they play with me they usually get around the same temps when they check speccy. I don't think that 65 degrees should cause any thermal throttling but def correct me if I'm wrong...

EDIT: When I'm browsing on chrome the CPU stays around 37-44 degrees which I think its def too much now that I think about it since the CPU is not doing that much.

 

[Laquer Head]

I used to own a 4690K with a hefty overclock and no..65 degrees is not unreasonable, the max on that CPU is way higher than that.

Unless your crashing out, games are going all choppy, and you experience throttling..I wouldn't worry about a CPU doing what a CPU does...especially a K-series which is designed to be run over it's stock configuration and expected to run significantly warmer.

However, if this is 65 at idle, then yeah thats no good.. you'd need a better cooler and new paste.

As mentioned, the likely culprit for your performance issues is that 970 graphics card. Its either dying, overheating or a combo of both.

You likely need to replace the fans...minimum...but more likely it might be a full replacement unfortunately.

 

[beers]

Thanks for the response though !

No worries, any troubleshooting is trying things in an attempt to isolate the culprit. If you're pretty certain on the software side you can start swapping out parts.

 

[Intel_man]

So, if his computer is 65 degrees. Don't you think it is running hot, and could be the problem he might have.

No. 65 degrees celsius is still below the Tcase value specified by Intel.

@Nebrok have you fiddled in the BIOS with the PCIE bus speed?

Also, turn on v-sync if your getting fps values above your monitor's refresh rate.

 

[Nebrok]

No. 65 degrees celsius is still below the Tcase value specified by Intel.

@Nebrok have you fiddled in the BIOS with the PCIE bus speed?

Also, turn on v-sync if your getting fps values above your monitor's refresh rate.

I haven't messed around with anything in the bios except a couple of boot options 1 year ago and when I tried setting up XMP profile. The v-sync does help a little bit but the problem is still noticeable. The problem is when I enable v-sync I get this really annoying latency/delay between when I move my mouse and when the camera in moved on the screen. Basically the input lag from my mouse makes the controls become extremely late and floaty when vsync is enabled.

 

[Intel_man]

Did you buy your parts brand new or bought them used?

 

[Nebrok]

I used to own a 4690K with a hefty overclock and no..65 degrees is not unreasonable, the max on that CPU is way higher than that.

Unless your crashing out, games are going all choppy, and you experience throttling..I wouldn't worry about a CPU doing what a CPU does...especially a K-series which is designed to be run over it's stock configuration and expected to run significantly warmer.

However, if this is 65 at idle, then yeah thats no good.. you'd need a better cooler and new paste.

As mentioned, the likely culprit for your performance issues is that 970 graphics card. Its either dying, overheating or a combo of both.

You likely need to replace the fans...minimum...but more likely it might be a full replacement unfortunately.

When I'm just browsing the web with chrome and maybe discord and steam running in the background the temps are at around 40 degrees but when literally almost nothing is running the CPU temps are at 30-35 degrees. I'm going to re-apply the thermal paste since its been a while from the last time I did it.

The graphics card fans are set to auto which means that they increase in speed when that is needed. I can turn the option off in program called GPU Tweak and set the fan speed manually but I'm worried that will decrease the life span of the fans. I'm really worried about my computer since it costed a lot of money, that's why I'm paranoid about every single little thing :/

 

[Nebrok]

Did you buy your parts brand new or bought them used?

They are def brand new.

 

[Nebrok]

Just increased the fan speed manually since the card was idling at 50 degrees. Now it went down to 35 degrees and when I hit up PUBG its at 45-50 degrees. Is it safe if I leave the fan speed on auto so they kick in when the temps reach 60 degrees ? Its normal that the card is idling at 50 degrees right ? since I don't want the fans to run all the time when I'm just browsing the web.


EDIT : I also set the power options to balanced since I had it on high performance and the GPU and CPU temps now reduced even more so I think we are kinda good

EDIT : Just ran the cinebench r15 test for CPU and I got a score of 578 cb. The usage reached 100% on all of the cores. Temperatures reached 77 degrees max. The L2 Hit Ratio went up to 70% and the l3 hit ratio also went up to 70%.

I ran OpenGL after that as well and I got 130 fps. The CPU usage reached 45%.Temperatures reached 63 degrees max. The L2 and L3 hit ratio went up to 40 %

When I ran OpenGL again and checked out how graphics card performed. The temps went up to max 65 degrees and the GPU usage went up to max 44% GPU clock was at 1304 Mhz, memory clock at7012 Mhz and the memory usage went up to max 412 MB.

When the fans of the GPU are set to auto and when the CPU and GPU are idle and nothing is running the CPU temps are at 38 degrees and GPU temps are at 53 degrees. I believe that the K series of this processor is designed to bear 90+ degrees until it starts throttling.