Strange gaming stuttering issue after switching ssd

[B@Th*nG]

Got a bit of a weird problem. So I had a WD770 (or something like that) PCIe 3 nvme that was installed in my primary m2 slot as my boot drive. I also had 2 sata 1tb HDDs that I used for storage, but they were loud and annoying. So I bought a 2tb Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4 nvme drive, cloned the WD onto the Kingston and put the Kingston in my primary m2 slot. This all seemed to be working well so I formatted the WD to use as storage and put it in slot 2.

However, I started to play Elden Ring (which used to be on the WD but it now on the Kingston) and it began suffering 1-3 second hangups. I tried disabling steam and Radeon overlays; I updated chipset drivers; Verified game files and totally reinstalled it; I even ran chkdsk but I still had the same issue. I figured I'd try moving the install location from the Kingston to the old WD and it's running fine.

What gives? I thought the quicker drive would have less issues, not more. I'm using the mobo heatsink supplied and the SSD temperature tops out at about 58c when gaming. Could it be a problem with the drive - is it possible to test it? I know elden ring is notoriously badly optimised but the slower SSD is fine so it seems counter intuitive, but I can't rule it out.

 

[B@Th*nG]

Check for firmware update on the Kingston and you could also play around with the m2 speed see if stable at lower speed.

An excellent suggestion but it looks like it's on the lastest firmware.

How can I adjust the M2 speed? Just change the slot to pcie3 in the bios?

 

[B@Th*nG]

Yes.

Another option is to update your bios , is it just one game or all games on that drive ?

I did some more testing and found that, while other games were better, they still had a stutter. I also felt that the game wasn't running PERFECTLY on the WD drive either, and occcasionally had a stutter but less pronounced.

So I tried switching to PCIE3, as you suggested, and that resolved the problem immediately. I did some more reading and the solution was surprising! I found that x570 motherboards sometimes have a stuttering problem when you've got the usb front panel header plugged into the board AND are using PCIe4. So I switched back to PCIe4 and the problem was still there, then I unplugged the front panel's USB header (while playing) and BOOM immediately fine. Super weird but I'll take it! It would probably be resolved by doing a BIOS upgrade too, as you've gotta assume it's been fixed, but I've got all my RAM timings loaded in and, tbh, can't be arsed! i'll live like this for now.

It was an MSI x570 Gaming Edge Wifi btw, on the "1G" BIOS from 22-12-2021.

thanks for your help

Further details about stutters and other possible solutions in this thread:

[SOLVED] Frametime spikes/Stutters/FPS drops in all games.

same problem here. been dealing with it for almost 2 years. ive actually tried two computers and its about the same ??? ive played dozens of games, they all have frametime stuttering and hitching. most recent is sniper ghost warrior 3. i use rivatuner to look at the frame graph, and it will...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[B@Th*nG]

Did you have to unplug the header or would simply just not using the ports whilst gaming work too?

there was nothing plugged into the ports, so you have to remove the header, yep. I would say that the stutter is not 100% gone either, having played a bit today, but it is 95% better after removing the header. I'm tracking down the last of the stutter, that i think is related to FanControl or Afterburner, but the jury is still out on that. Again, a BIOS update might resolve the problem - if you haven't got lots of RAM timings etc.. then i'd do that first.

 

[B@Th*nG]

having disabled FanControl and uninstalled Afterburner I don't seem to be getting stutters at all any more, though I haven't tested at great length. At some stage I'll figure out which might have been the problem, assuming it's fully solved, but thought I'd update here at least.

 

[B@Th*nG]

having disabled FanControl and uninstalled Afterburner I don't seem to be getting stutters at all any more, though I haven't tested at great length. At some stage I'll figure out which might have been the problem, assuming it's fully solved, but thought I'd update here at least.

played again for another hour or so. seems good so far