hardware issue that causes stuttering in different games

[xMishax]

Good evening everyone

So recently I have arranged my new pc - Intel Core i5-4460, MSI Radeon R9 380 - System Build - PCPartPicker ( HDD is 5years old as I recycled from my old premade pc ). Bought all parts from vendors in my country with all papers and warranties. Put everything together using guides from the internet, doing it carefuly, step by step. Installed windows 7, other software and everything seemed to be okay no hiccups. Installed lates 15.7 Catalyst with latest AMD drivers for R9 380 from AMD site. But when I started playing games sh*t gone wrong...and thats what bothers me.

Right now I have only 5 games installed, because others are still downloading and with my internet speed it will take long >.< but here what happens when I play



GTA V .
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/821x462q90/r/911/PPIs...

Cruised around town in a car. Had some car accidents.
Settings:
Everything on very high, except
Grass quality normal
Post fx high
Reflection quality high
MSAA turned off
FXAA turned on
VSYNC turned on

All advanced graphics are turned off
DirectX 11 1080p Fullscreen
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/821x462q90/r/911/PPIs...


Crysis 3.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/821x462q90/r/901/wA7C...

The beggining of the game. First mission. Ran around, killed some enemies with a bow
Settings:

Everything is on low
AA is turned off
1080p




Witcher 3.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1920x1080q50/r/538/W3...

Cruised around with a Roach, killed some wolves
Settings:

Everything is on high in graphics
Postprocessing elements are turned on

SSAO, Sharpening is on low
AA turned on
Frame limit 60
Guy in forums advised me to set it on borderless window and vsync off, so I did that.
post-81609-0-20873400-1437408167_thumb.p

Skyrim.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/821x462q90/r/911/YYdf...

Right after the attack of Alduin. Hung around in dungeons. Killed some stormcloacks. Picked some locks.
Settings:
Everything is maxed out, except MSAA is only 2x
1080p




Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/821x462q90/r/911/Dp89...

Second mission. Killed some npcs, destroyed a chopper, just ran around.
Settings:
Everything is maxed out, except MSAA is only 2x
1080p


So the story began like that. I installed GTA V first. In first mission when robbing a bank, everything was silky smooth and nice. Then when stealing cars as Franklin, everything was good aswell, but as soon as I started free roaming, stutters started to happen. I started monitoring my game with MSI Afterburner and saw graphs like below... Sometimes game stuttered with fps drop, sometimes not, but most of the time all the stuttering and frametime spike was at the same time when voltages, core clocks, gpu and cpu usage dropped. At first I thought it was patchs fault, as Ive read in forums that patch caused some stuttering...okay with that. I could wait for a new patch to come..

But as soon as I started playing other games same sh*t happened... in Witcher3 frametimes where still spiking causing some microstutters. Skyrim had same story, MGR Revengeance had same story, Crysis 3 aswell. I even tried tweaking my graphics setting, but that didnt work... stutters still were there.
Tried updating MoBo BIOS, everything gone well, but stutters still kept bothering me. Turned off all possible backround problems , set high priority in task manager - nothing helped.

CPU settings in BIOS are all at stock, GPU isnt overclocked aswell ( I tried to overclock it, but I only managed to reach 1020Mhz core clock stable and 1035Mhz clock with +10mV, so I decided to keep it at stock for a while ). I almost always kept monitoring my systems vitals and never seen temps go above 60C on cpu and 65C on gpu.

Maybe its my old HDD causing some stutters, as its pretty old (5years or maybe even 6 ) ???

I thought it may be my monitor that caused stuttering as I use it with DVI-D to VGA adaptor. I connected my full hd TV via HDMI cable to my pc and played witcher 3, crysis 3 and gta V for some time...Unfortunately no luck with that

I also tried disabling vsync, but it didnt help aswell T.T
Also reinstalled fressh version of drivers - still no luck

Maybe anyone has an idea whats happening with my system? What can be wrong? Is there any ways of fixing it? Or I just should RMA one or another part, because its faulty?
It seems like I put all the monitoring information that is commonly asked, but if you need some further information write it down and I will give it.

I bought my last pc premade from the shop and wasnt very concerned about its performance and part. I was just happy that I could play games. And this one is my first self built pc and its kinda sad, that somethings wrong with it...So I hope for community's help in this problems salvation

Any help appreciated
Thank you in advance

 

[SKYMTL]

From everything I am seeing, it looks like something is bottlenecking the GPU. What happens is the GPU is waiting around for information from another system component so it goes to an almost-idle state.

Looking at your configuration, there could be two culprits for this.

First and foremost you are running your memory in single channel mode since you only have 1x 8GB module according to your Part Picker information. This could be causing a bottleneck with buffered draw-call information where a given scene typically generates procedurally, causing a constant stream of information between the CPU and GPU....which is facilitated by the memory interconnect. Without the memory loading and storing information in the quickest manner possible, the CPU may only be partially utilized.

Another distinct possibility is your old HDD for partially the same reason as above. Game assets need to be procedurally loaded to local GPU and in-system memory from your storage device. If that isn't happening in a consistent, speedy manner, everything slows down. This could be why a pre-loaded sequence like the one at the beginning of GTA is perfectly fine while anything that needs to be "streamed" so-to-speak lags like a lazy donkey.

 

[xMishax]

From everything I am seeing, it looks like something is bottlenecking the GPU. What happens is the GPU is waiting around for information from another system component so it goes to an almost-idle state.

Looking at your configuration, there could be two culprits for this.

First and foremost you are running your memory in single channel mode since you only have 1x 8GB module according to your Part Picker information. This could be causing a bottleneck with buffered draw-call information where a given scene typically generates procedurally, causing a constant stream of information between the CPU and GPU....which is facilitated by the memory interconnect. Without the memory loading and storing information in the quickest manner possible, the CPU may only be partially utilized.

Another distinct possibility is your old HDD for partially the same reason as above. Game assets need to be procedurally loaded to local GPU and in-system memory from your storage device. If that isn't happening in a consistent, speedy manner, everything slows down. This could be why a pre-loaded sequence like the one at the beginning of GTA is perfectly fine while anything that needs to be "streamed" so-to-speak lags like a lazy donkey.

Tried putting 2sticks of ram in from my work pc ( 2x2GB DDR3 1333Mhz dual channel). However, games kept stuttering >.<
I guess its something with old hdd, because a friend of mine has r9 270, dual channel memory ram, but old hdd and has similiar issues with games as they stutter for unknown reason

 

[MARSTG]

GTA V has been shown to require 16GB of RAM and the system should make no use of the pagefile, everything less than 16GB will make the system access the pagefile which will be start of the stuttering. Dual-channel ram configuration, be it with 2 or 4 DIMMs is desired all the time. Most probably the stuttering in the other games are traceable to the same issue : insufficient RAM, single channel memory configuration and presence of swap file on slow HDD. So, if no SSD is in the upgrade plans you should get at least some more RAM, 8GB in your case and get rid of the swap file completely. (swap file, page file and Virtual RAM is the same thing on Windows systems)

 

[JABelms]

Stuttering is caused by system memory, it is either your RAM(4GB is not enough for a gaming PC) is not enough or there is a defect with it...Dual Channel is also preferable than having 1 stick of RAM.

I remember GTA V on my friends rig was having RAM problems (virtual memory running low) that it made GTA V crash despite having 8GB of HyperX Blu 2166. We found that the culprit was Firefox as it was open in the background which means GTA V nearly reaches 8GB and paging file was needed for little multi tasking. GTA V requires more RAM, or kill background tasks before playing

 

[clshades]

Set your power profile in windows to high instead of balanced and the CPU won't throttle up and down. Instead it will just run at the current max GHz setting. I do this every time I game and its far more stable if you like to overclock too. I find all games run smoother under the high setting and you may have to click an advanced link to see the higher option.

In fact I put the power setting shortcut on my desktop to make it easier to sawp back and forth from balanced (web browsing) and high (gaming)

If its still stuttering its a ram problem like the others have suggested.

 

[b1lk1]

GTA IV was poorly coded and no doubt GTA V is not better.