CPU Causing Small Lag Spikes/Stutters?

BeadyRoller

BeadyRoller

BeadyRoller

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Hi! So basically I have had this problem for ages! In a lot of games I get a lot of stutters, every two minutes or so I get this tiny lag spike/stutter/freeze that lasts for no more than a second then my FPS shoots back up (sometimes I don't get it for a longer period). The main culprits are:

Arma 3
Miscreated
Rust
COD: Advanced Warfare

I really don't think it's the GPU as I've had two separate ones and the problem occurred with both.

My specs are :

GPU : HIS ICE-Q 7970
CPU: i5-3570k
RAM: 8GB
Windows 10

As I have ruled the GPU out, I believe it may by my CPU? But I'm just guessing as I have no real clue about these sorts of things!

Here is a picture of my CPU utilisation while playing Arma 3:

rcrfx1.png


Is this normal? Nothing is overclocked and the CPU just has the stock cooler that came with it.

While playing Miscreated it got to 100% utilisation and noticed when it did the tiny second freeze it dropped to like 40%

I must say it doesn't happen on all games, when I play on Fifa, Black Ops 2 or H1Z1 I dont get any freezes, very smooth.

I thought about upgrading my GPU lately to a GTX 970 to try and get rid of this small stutter once and for all as it's really starting to frustrate me as I believe my PC specs are more than capable of doing a good job but it's not guaranteed that will fix it, as I said maybe it is actually a CPU problem?

Is anyone able to help me fix this problem once and for all?

Thanks!
 
What are your temps like on the CPU? As I see you are using the stock cooler. It might be throttling causing that slight dip? I'm probably wrong but hey!
 
So I've ran a few temp tests.

On Arma 3 my CPU didn't get higher than 60.
Miscreated reached it's peak at 65
Same for Rust.

So I don't think that's the cause of the problem, here is a picture I took while playing Arma 3:

2m83vch.png


My whole systems specs:

20k426r.png


I am doing no overclocks and Windows is installed on my SSD as well as all my games.
 
It's a 7970, since the R9 series came out though it has fell under that category though according to my PC, I'm guessing they changed it with the latest drivers.
 
1920x1080. I thought it may of been the HDD as I had Windows 7 installed on there and thought it may of been to slow to cope or something but since have done a clean install of Windows 10 on my SSD and the problem still persists. Really frustrating me now.
 
can you have a look at event viewer and see if there any whea errors at roughly the same interval you see the cpu usage drops/stutter?

It would also be worth checking out your dpc latency - run latencymon in the background and check it as you play - see if the stutter corresponds to to latency spikes.

do that and report back, with screenies if you can and possibly export the latency mon report into a .txt, then copy and paste into a post on here with spoiler tags, as it will be massive. I'll take a gander when I get home this eve.
 
Do you have Gaming evolved and raptr installed? they install with the AMD drivers.
I had a problem just like this after removing the 2 named programs the problem was fixed
 
P4Clock said:
Do you have Gaming evolved and raptr installed? they install with the AMD drivers.
I had a problem just like this after removing the 2 named programs the problem was fixed
Click to expand...

Seen something similar with Steam ui + Raptr (Which has its own built in UI)
they seemed to fight and had this odd "Pause" every now and then.

Try maybe disabling anything that integrates with your games, including temperature monitoring etc.

Worth a go at least :)
 
Not sure how to check them things you speak of implosive, sorry, not great with these kind of things! I have a GIGABYTE Z77 D3H motherboard and a 550w PSU.

I have just uninstalled both apps but the problem seems to persist. Been searching for an answer for about a year now :(
 
ok, click start and start typing "even viewer", you'll see it pop up at the top of the list. run it.

Expand "applications and services logs It might take a little time for the folders to populate, so don;t worry.), then scroll to microsoft, then windows and we want to expand "kernel-wer" and "kernel-whea" clcik on Thermal operational under kernel power and see if tehre are any entries. if there are, check what it says and post back here.

Do the same for the "errors" option under kernel whea.

Get latancy mon here, under downloads>free downloads at teh top, then scroll down to system monitoring tools.

run the application in the background while you play something that gives you the stuttering., then check the program to see if you have any red bars - i suspect you will. Then have a look through the program, I think it's under teh file menu) and export the report and post it here if you could.

what slot is your gpu in?
 
Have you tried to Unpark your cpu? I was having similar problems in a game and think this may have helped. Although it can be hard to tell at times, when your trying lots of different solutions. :)

http://www.coderbag.com/Uploads/Unpark-CPU-App.zip

As always virus scan anything you download then unzip or open the folder and run UnparkCPU, click on Check Status and if cpu cores are parked Unpark All. To return it to parked click on Park All.

I recommended trying this last as it may make a small difference whereas other solutions posted may fix a problem causing the lag to start with.
:)
 
That app doesn't work correctly and can lead to permanently parked cores.

If you want to play with core parking do this. Go into Windows Power Options. Select the High Performance profile.
Enter the following two commands at the command prompt (run as administrator) and press enter after each:

Code: 
powercfg -attributes SUB_PROCESSOR 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 -ATTRIB_HIDE 
powercfg -attributes SUB_PROCESSOR ea062031-0e34-4ff1-9b6d-eb1059334028 -ATTRIB_HIDE

Now go to Change Plan Settings for the High Performance profile. Then Change advanced settings.
Scroll down to Processor power management. Set core parking min cores to 100%. Never set min cores to 0. Bad things happen.

I doubt this issue has anything to do with core parking but I can't let people go using that app when there is non destructive Windows setting available.
 
Last edited:
implosiveturnip said:
ok, click start and start typing "even viewer", you'll see it pop up at the top of the list. run it.

Expand "applications and services logs It might take a little time for the folders to populate, so don;t worry.), then scroll to microsoft, then windows and we want to expand "kernel-wer" and "kernel-whea" clcik on Thermal operational under kernel power and see if tehre are any entries. if there are, check what it says and post back here.

Do the same for the "errors" option under kernel whea.

Get latancy mon here, under downloads>free downloads at teh top, then scroll down to system monitoring tools.

run the application in the background while you play something that gives you the stuttering., then check the program to see if you have any red bars - i suspect you will. Then have a look through the program, I think it's under teh file menu) and export the report and post it here if you could.

what slot is your gpu in?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed response mate.

Couldn't find Kernel-Wer, only Kernel WHEA, there were no errors but 12 events in the operational category shown here:

2ugz0ir.png


Don't know if that's any good to you? Thermal power had nothing to report.

I did the latency mon test and here's a screenshot of how it looked while gaming:

66xbgl.png


And here's the report:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:14:35 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: DESKTOP-TA9E8V5
OS version: Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., Z77-D3H
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 8150 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed: 3403 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 6048.592739
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.613052

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 6021.513529
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.887431


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 179.561563
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ataport.SYS - ATAPI Driver Extension, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.204590
Driver with highest ISR total time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.228798

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 2034481
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 3999.311490
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.515436
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 1.146243

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 8124260
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 4
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 4
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 6
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: steam.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 1071
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 678
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 324421.557743
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.152788
Number of processes hit: 18


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 52.075215
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 179.561563
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 7.157585
CPU 0 ISR count: 1826528
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 3999.311490
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 30.950344
CPU 0 DPC count: 6652564
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 18.218363
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 130.148986
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.829515
CPU 1 ISR count: 202217
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 271.600646
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 7.137861
CPU 1 DPC count: 1173465
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 8.973052
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 15.331766
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.020207
CPU 2 ISR count: 5434
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 355.294152
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 1.082850
CPU 2 DPC count: 159126
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 8.991984
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 7.963562
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001053
CPU 3 ISR count: 302
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 227.242433
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.949614
CPU 3 DPC count: 139119
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anything to note there?

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
all that red = bad. just grabbing the manual now, will post again shortly. When I typed "kernel-wer" I meant "kernel-power"; check it out in the meantime just to see if there's anything of note. Long day I tell thee...
 
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