Question Why can't I run games smoothly despite having high FPS?

Reroller1

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First of all I would like to thank you for reading this thread! I have been struggling with a problem ever since I have built this new PC and I have no idea how to fix it even though I've tried lots of things.

The problem is that in any game that I play despite having large amounts of FPS (100+) I get stuttering, it happens in older games like Runescape/Doom or newer titles like Bioshock Infinite or World of Warcraft. The stuttering feels like the game constantly freezes for 0.1 sec when I'm moving my camera around. This experience results in a non smooth gaming experience which is really frustrating. I have to point out that what I'm seeing is def not screen tearing but a form of stuttering/micro stuttering and none of the components are overclocked!

Because I'm struggling with this issue for such a long time I even went and bought new 2 RAM sticks, new power supply, new monitor and I even upgraded my OS from Windows 7 to Windows 10 but the issue is still there. There are only 4 components left that could be causing this: HDD, GPU, MOBO or the CPU but I have no clue how to find which one is the culprit for this problem. It could also be some sort of a setting that I need to enable/disable in order to fix this issue but again I have no clue what that settings could be.

Would really appreciate if you guys could help me out, I have no clue what to do anymore and I am down to literally try anything you guys suggest...

PC SPECS:
- Asus GTX 970 STRIX 4GB OC edition
- i5 4690k 3.5 Ghz quad core with a stock cooler
- Z97 MSI Gaming 5
- WD 1TB HDD
- Samsung CFG73 144Hz 1ms
- 2x 8GB HyperX Fury 1866 Mhz
- Corsair CX600W
 
Have you checked DPC latency?

Which Motherboard BIOS are you on? If it's not the newest then it's worth considering an update.

Was the Windows 10 swap an in place upgrade or a clean install?

Have you checked clockspeeds on your CPU and Graphics card to make sure they're not throttling?
 
Is your HDD running in SATA 3 mode?
 
Have you checked DPC latency?

Which Motherboard BIOS are you on? If it's not the newest then it's worth considering an update.

Was the Windows 10 swap an in place upgrade or a clean install?

Have you checked clockspeeds on your CPU and Graphics card to make sure they're not throttling?

I have checked DPC latency and this is what I got Imgur. When I turned on GPU-Z and CPU-Z to check core clocks the DPC latency skyrocketed to 4000 though Imgur.

Launched MSI Live Update and it says that the version of the bios is 1.D which according to their website is the latest bios for this board.

The Windows 10 swap was a full clean install.

I booted up World of Warcraft which is one of many games where the issue appears and this is the core clock for CPU and the GPU. I don't know if they are throttling though. Imgur
 
Is your HDD running in SATA 3 mode?

Why would that affect framerate across games? Those with dynamic loading like an MMO maybe, but others won't be using the disk much once loaded.

@Reroller1 I'm not familiar with that utility but those values look a little high. It appears to be this one which doesn't mention Windows 10 support so the values may not be correct. Are you seeing any spikes when you get the pausing in game?

I would doublecheck with LatencyMon and if the figures are the same then see what they both say is the most likely cause.

Your GPU isn't throttling, there are no dips in the clock and memory speed graphs. You don't show the CPU clockspeed history, but as it's Turbo'd to 3.8Ghz it's unlikely to be having issues.
 
Had this issue recently on my Brother's computer. Changed the hard drive to an SSD and the issue went away. Didn't check the spec of the hard drive but it might have been on the way out as the computer was salvaged from a school.
 
First of all I would like to thank you for reading this thread! I have been struggling with a problem ever since I have built this new PC and I have no idea how to fix it even though I've tried lots of things.

The problem is that in any game that I play despite having large amounts of FPS (100+) I get stuttering, it happens in older games like Runescape/Doom or newer titles like Bioshock Infinite or World of Warcraft. The stuttering feels like the game constantly freezes for 0.1 sec when I'm moving my camera around. This experience results in a non smooth gaming experience which is really frustrating. I have to point out that what I'm seeing is def not screen tearing but a form of stuttering/micro stuttering and none of the components are overclocked!

Because I'm struggling with this issue for such a long time I even went and bought new 2 RAM sticks, new power supply, new monitor and I even upgraded my OS from Windows 7 to Windows 10 but the issue is still there. There are only 4 components left that could be causing this: HDD, GPU, MOBO or the CPU but I have no clue how to find which one is the culprit for this problem. It could also be some sort of a setting that I need to enable/disable in order to fix this issue but again I have no clue what that settings could be.

Would really appreciate if you guys could help me out, I have no clue what to do anymore and I am down to literally try anything you guys suggest...

PC SPECS:
- Asus GTX 970 STRIX 4GB OC edition
- i5 4690k 3.5 Ghz quad core with a stock cooler
- Z97 MSI Gaming 5
- WD 1TB HDD
- Samsung CFG73 144Hz 1ms
- 2x 8GB HyperX Fury 1866 Mhz
- Corsair CX600W
You have probably already done this but have you tried running the games in all the other modes, windowed, borderless windowed and fullscreen? I have seen twitch streamers complain about games feel like they are running at low fps even though they are getting 100+ and they changed the display mode which fixed the issue. Although this was only for certain games, not all.
 
Why would that affect framerate across games? Those with dynamic loading like an MMO maybe, but others won't be using the disk much once loaded.

@Reroller1 I'm not familiar with that utility but those values look a little high. It appears to be this one which doesn't mention Windows 10 support so the values may not be correct. Are you seeing any spikes when you get the pausing in game?

I would doublecheck with LatencyMon and if the figures are the same then see what they both say is the most likely cause.

Your GPU isn't throttling, there are no dips in the clock and memory speed graphs. You don't show the CPU clockspeed history, but as it's Turbo'd to 3.8Ghz it's unlikely to be having issues.

Just did a fresh install of Windows 10 once again just to be sure. I did a clean install of all the drivers and used the tool that you recommended. Now I'm getting around 50-100 DPC latency. When in game and I launch the software again I do notice the spikes that skyrocket the DPC latency to 500 sometimes even 1000+. Also when my PC is idle the DPC latency is 50-100 and everything is fine but as soon as I open something the DPC latency spikes to 160-400+. Tried messing around with some settings in BIOS and in general that this user from another forum recommended but sadly nothing helped. https://www.overclock.net/forum/6-i...os-optimization-guide-modern-pc-hardware.html

PS: Here is the snapshot I took for the "Drivers" tab in the tool that you recommended. Note that Firefox was open at that time as well and I was watching a video before this snapshot was taken just to test out what happens and the DPC latency jumped maximum of 730. Imgur
 
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Had this issue recently on my Brother's computer. Changed the hard drive to an SSD and the issue went away. Didn't check the spec of the hard drive but it might have been on the way out as the computer was salvaged from a school.

I mean I could get an SSD next week but I really don't want to waste money if I don't have to. I ran a few tests on my HDD with 3 different tools which are HDTune, Crystaldiskinfo and H2Testw but it seems like my HDD should be fine. Here are the results of the tests Imgur
 
You have probably already done this but have you tried running the games in all the other modes, windowed, borderless windowed and fullscreen? I have seen twitch streamers complain about games feel like they are running at low fps even though they are getting 100+ and they changed the display mode which fixed the issue. Although this was only for certain games, not all.

Yep tried it in a few games but still nothing and in some cases I feel like the windowed mode makes it even worse.
 
Be careful of old optimisation guides written for different platforms. Unless there's an obvious difference when changing a setting it's best to leave it at default. These changes can easily come back to bite you in the form of strange errors in future.

Now I'm getting around 50-100 DPC latency. When in game and I launch the software again I do notice the spikes that skyrocket the DPC latency to 500 sometimes even 1000+. Also when my PC is idle the DPC latency is 50-100 and everything is fine but as soon as I open something the DPC latency spikes to 160-400+.

I'm not an expert in the subject but 160-400 for normal use seem acceptable. Those values do seem to be a little on the high side in games though. Which drives does LatencyMon list after the highest execution times lines on the main screen?

Also, did you check CPU clockspeed was remaining at 3.5Ghz or above?

Did you try running a game as soon as you'd reinstalled Windows 10? Before you installed anything else or configured any settings?

Your system does have integrated graphics, so you could check whether it's a GPU-related issue by removing it and using those.
 
Stutter or tearing is normally caused by a huge change in FPS i.e. going from 200fps to 20fps and back again, looks horrible.

First thing I would do is get an FPS monitor (World of Warcraft - lagbar) and see if the FPS is bouncing around a lot.

In WOW specifically you can limit the FPS (foreground and background) which should stop the tearing (there are some other settings).

You can also enable vsync (for WOW and other games) which in your case would limit the FPS to 144 which should smooth things out a bit depending on games and settings.

Looking at our kit you have a feesync monitor (according to my google) but a Nvidia card - which supports gsync. If you get a gsync monitor or an AMD card you could enable one of the technologies and your issues should disappear.
 
A long shot but a quick check: try turning sounds off in both software and hardware.
 
Also suggest checking your graphics card software settings tally up with your monitor settings. I had a mismatch between the two in the Radeon control centre and it caused micro stuttering.
 
Also suggest checking your graphics card software settings tally up with your monitor settings. I had a mismatch between the two in the Radeon control centre and it caused micro stuttering.

OP has an Nvidia card not a AMD
 

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