Stuttering / Lagging after 10-15 minutes in all games.

Rexxar

Rexxar

Rexxar

Associate
Joined
13 May 2010
Posts
1,649
Hi,

I've got a strange issue I'm trying to troubleshoot at the moment.

Recently, In the last few days, Any game I play, seems to start lagging and stuttering after 10-15 minutes.

These are games which, until this weekend, ran just fine at reasonable settings.

Frame-Rates drop down to 40-45fps , I also get input lag from my controller (wired or wireless)

I've also noticed the odd audio crackle too.

CPU seems to be OK temp-wise according to Core-Temp (44°c)
GPU temps are between 45-65°c and I am managing the fan curve with afterburner. I tried running GPU fans at 100% just as an experiment and I still get stuttering.

I did consider re-pasting the CPU as it's been 2-3 years but don't want to go randomly doing stuff.

Specs are as per my sig - Ryzen 3600 , 32gb DDR4 , MSI Gaming Trio 2070 Super 8gb.

Drivers have been updated, even went for a clean install today trying to figure this out.

I do wonder if it's a driver / windows update that's caused this as there was a windows update applied last week.

Any suggestions?
 
When were the temps taken, mid game during the stuttering or just on the desktop?

Also, try just one stick of RAM at a time and or run memtest to see if you've got a faulty stick?
 
Rexxar said:
I do wonder if it's a driver / windows update that's caused this as there was a windows update applied last week.
Click to expand...
Can you check the event viewer for events time stamped around the moment that the stuttering starts?

Rexxar said:
Recently, In the last few days, Any game I play, seems to start lagging and stuttering after 10-15 minutes.
Click to expand...
Did you change the order that any of your devices were plugged in, or left an external drive connected?

I'd check your power settings haven't changed and something is going to sleep or a different power state.

hwinfo's sensor tab can run alongside your games and show you the min/max/avg.
 
Was also going to suggest downloading HWInfo : https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

There's a portable version so no need to install. Can then launch sesnsors only and try using the logging option to a csv file. That way if your system ends up crashing, hopefully the data should be there to check after any restart/reboot.
 
Last edited:
Space Monkey said:
When were the temps taken, mid game during the stuttering or just on the desktop?

Also, try just one stick of RAM at a time and or run memtest to see if you've got a faulty stick?
Click to expand...

Temps taken in-game. I'll give memtest a go

Space Monkey said:
After 10-15 minutes sounds like either a temp issue or maybe a PSU?
Click to expand...

I'm having trouble getting the gpu fans to kick in without using something like afterburner to get them going. Even with afterburner running and fans turned up to a high speed, It gets worse and worse until it's unplayable.

Highest temp seen by Hwinfo for GPU was 61.2
Highest temp for CPU was 43.5

It sounds daft, but it almost feels like a cache filling up and once it's full, performance falls off a cliff.

Maybe I need to re-seat stuff, Components haven't been disturbed for over a year though.

Power settings "Ultimate Performance"

Nothing left connected.

Debating a full reinstall of windows to see if it sorts it, My main concern is why my gpu fans don't kick in as it heats up, unless i have afterburner running.
 
Rexxar said:
Debating a full reinstall of windows to see if it sorts it, My main concern is why my gpu fans don't kick in as it heats up, unless i have afterburner running.
Click to expand...
What is the power usage in hwinfo when gaming?

It is normal for fans not to kick in until you reach high temps, some games can reach that point where they straddle it.
 
Rexxar said:
Temps taken in-game. I'll give memtest a go



I'm having trouble getting the gpu fans to kick in without using something like afterburner to get them going. Even with afterburner running and fans turned up to a high speed, It gets worse and worse until it's unplayable.

Highest temp seen by Hwinfo for GPU was 61.2
Highest temp for CPU was 43.5

It sounds daft, but it almost feels like a cache filling up and once it's full, performance falls off a cliff.

Maybe I need to re-seat stuff, Components haven't been disturbed for over a year though.

Power settings "Ultimate Performance"

Nothing left connected.

Debating a full reinstall of windows to see if it sorts it, My main concern is why my gpu fans don't kick in as it heats up, unless i have afterburner running.
Click to expand...
Do you have much free hard drive space left?
 
Space Monkey said:
Do you have much free hard drive space left?
Click to expand...

Yeah running 5 drives in this machine. All have at least 500gb-1tb remaining
2 x M.2 Drives
2 x SSD's
1 x Mechanical


Tetras said:
What is the power usage in hwinfo when gaming?

It is normal for fans not to kick in until you reach high temps, some games can reach that point where they straddle it.
Click to expand...

I've included the Hwinfo sensors I think might be relevant below, Anything jumping out as bad/out of the ordinary?


LKe6qWy.png


zY2thNR.png


d5lHXVD.png


LFlFhIi.png
 
Last edited:
I assume you're running Windows from one of the M2 drives? Have you checked if there is any firmware updates for them? Have you looked at the SMART details

Any chance you can share SMART details from your 2x NVMe drives?

I am starting to think whether it could be some issue with your M2 drive somehow overheating or lagging in some way. Disk performance would basically impact everything kind of like how you described earlier about input lag as well as FPS drop.
 
Some sort of memory leak filling up RAM? Easy to check in task manager.

Like the m.2 drive theory as well. Wasn’t there recently some windows issue with m.2 drives?

Have you tried unplugging any peripherals also to eliminate them as a cause? I’ve heard of USB/IO driver issues causing this type of thing too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sg0
Tetras said:
There's nothing that stands out to me.

Did you check in the event viewer?
Click to expand...

Yes nothing obvious in Event viewer, One game displaying an error but incidentally it is the only one that has not produced lag.

nade said:
I assume you're running Windows from one of the M2 drives? Have you checked if there is any firmware updates for them? Have you looked at the SMART details

Any chance you can share SMART details from your 2x NVMe drives?

I am starting to think whether it could be some issue with your M2 drive somehow overheating or lagging in some way. Disk performance would basically impact everything kind of like how you described earlier about input lag as well as FPS drop.
Click to expand...

Yes running windows from one of the M.2 Drives, I'll get the SMART info and post back.

alex24 said:
Some sort of memory leak filling up RAM? Easy to check in task manager.

Like the m.2 drive theory as well. Wasn’t there recently some windows issue with m.2 drives?

Have you tried unplugging any peripherals also to eliminate them as a cause? I’ve heard of USB/IO driver issues causing this type of thing too.
Click to expand...

It does "feel" like something filling up. I feel like there has been a windows update in the last 2 weeks that could have caused it, there's so many that you lose track!

The Games i've been having issues with are GTA V, Forza Horizon, and Forza Motorsport. All using an xbox controller which i suppose narrows it down a bit. Previously was able to play forza on nearly highest/ultra settings despite not having a lot of GPU memory, but am getting lag even on Med/Low settings now.


I wonder if it's worth a clean install of windows, It's been on the cards for a while, been putting it off because I need to check i have everything offloaded onto other drives before formatting.
 
Normally with systems running fine for years the first thing I always do is look at what changed recently, software/hardware/firmware, mods to windows or apps that tinker with system level changes. BIOS changes. Hardware removed or added or swapped, devices on usb ports swapped around. After 2 decades of solving IT problems 50% of them I tend to figure out by finding out what changed just prior to the problem starting.

If that doesn't help then I'd try and first understand why the performance is degrading, is it because hardware performance is dropping, or is it because something is fighting for resources. Graph clocks and % load while gaming, when you get slowdown check the corresponding times to see what is happening, MSI afterburner graph feature is good for this.
 
Outside chance could be some malware/bot sucking up your resources.

I would definitely consider a windows reinstall or just do new install on another ssd/hdd and disconnect old install. Install drivers etc, let the system settle and then run a game. Compare.
 
Took a while before I could get anything done.

So today, Completed a full windows reinstall (with all other drives disconnected), followed by a couple of play-tests.

First test went fine, played for about 30 minutes, no issues.
Tried again a bit later, about 45-50 minutes this time, started to get a bit of input lag and a few graphical errors (Textures would vanish, then reload, then vanish).
Still nothing over-heating.
Doesn't matter if i have graphics on Ultra, or Lowest, still does it.

Do i start changing out my PSU? Could it be the GPU just not performing? I wouldn't have thought it would degrade over time though?
 
Rexxar said:
First test went fine, played for about 30 minutes, no issues.
Tried again a bit later, about 45-50 minutes this time, started to get a bit of input lag and a few graphical errors (Textures would vanish, then reload, then vanish).
Still nothing over-heating.
Doesn't matter if i have graphics on Ultra, or Lowest, still does it.
Click to expand...
Is that the same game?

Did you restart the PC?

Textures popping can mean running out of VRAM, though I'd expect changing the graphics settings to reduce usage.

Other than RAM/VRAM usage, the only thing I'm aware of that changes over time is temperature.

If you played the same game, is there anything different about the nature of play test 1 (30 mins) and play test 2 (45-50 mins)?
 
Tetras said:
Is that the same game?

Did you restart the PC?

Textures popping can mean running out of VRAM, though I'd expect changing the graphics settings to reduce usage.

Other than RAM/VRAM usage, the only thing I'm aware of that changes over time is temperature.

If you played the same game, is there anything different about the nature of play test 1 (30 mins) and play test 2 (45-50 mins)?
Click to expand...

Yes restarted, well after reinstall shut down for a few hours before testing.

Same game yes (Forza Motorsport) , running out of vram would make sense but I've previously had a pop-up when that has happened (night race, wet track, fireworks going odd next to it...so asking quite a bit)

No really difference except first playtest was single player and second was multiplayer.

Temps are fine, I could just upgrade but would rather get this working since it was fine only a few weeks ago.
 
Could try installing Afterburner and monitor the VRAM usage when playing to see what % it's hitting when you get the stuttering.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom