Stuttering System when using productivity applications

X82

X82

X82

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24 May 2010
Posts
212
This is going to be difficult to show, let alone explain but I will try.

For many many months now, my PC has had this issue with stuttering.
As an example, if I am using Excel and working on a spreadsheet, scrolling, messing with data models etc, Spotify will stutter a bit. I also notice a stutter with the mouse movements.

This can actually be easily replicated inside Photoshop. When I'm editing text it gets a lot worse. I'm happy to take a screen recording if it helps.

I've looked at the resource monitor and task manager, but it's not showing me any thing obvious.
This has been happening for months and the machine has been wiped since and it still does it.

To be clear, I can play games on max settings no problem. No issues there. Just for applications like Excel and Photoshop which seem to cause issues. Possible graphics card issues? I pray not since this card cost me a fortune.

Here is a quick dump from Speccy:


Operating System
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i9 9900KF @ 3.60GHz 54 °C
Coffee Lake 14nm Technology

RAM
32.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1800MHz (18-19-19-39)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z390 AORUS MASTER-CF (U3E1) 39 °C

Graphics
Dell AW3418DW¥A# ƒ (3440x1440@120Hz)
2270W (1920x1080@60Hz)
3071MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Gigabyte) 39 °C

Storage
5589GB Seagate ST6000DM003-2CY186 (SATA ) 41 °C
1397GB SAMSUNG HD154UI (SATA ) 32 °C
953GB Sabrent (Unknown (SSD))
1907GB Sabrent (Unknown (SSD))

Audio
EVGA NU Audio
Click to expand...

Any ideas where to even start?
BIOS is updated to latest and I always update NVidia drivers the moment they are released.

This issue isn't a crippling problem, it's just annoying and would like to find out why it does this.
I don't use any other heavy apps to test, but Excel & Photoshop for sure.
 
RAM checker in windows is always worth a go. As is older drivers in this case.

Possible Win 11 bug?

Are your games on same disk as operating system and/or software? May be some issue there with faulty drive. Or power saving related.
 
I would also have a look at your screen setup - I've heard of people having issues with stutter or with graphics card clocks when using high refresh/adaptive sync monitors alongside regular ones. I'd say it's worth trying your setup with just one screen to rule it out.
 
Hi mate

My last machine started to choke after a while, there was a ton of stuff installed on it from ~4 years of various software development jobs and I had multiple versions of tools, editors services etc

IF you open task manager and look at performance you can see how many processes, threads and handles are running and that might reveal something. I'm thinking that if it's not a problem with your GPU, it might be due to excessive threading and thread management from a lot of apps
 
Check your power saving settings, it might something odd like stuttering with gpu clocks ramping up and down whereas in gaming they will stay at high clocks.
 
Well, I think I might of stumbled onto the problem by mistake here.

I tried a few settings suggested here and no dice. So I wanted to record the issue. I hit the record button which NVidia uses when I record game footage.
This asked me if I wanted to record the desktop, so yes. Whilst recording there were NO issues. Smooth mouth and no stuttering.

I stopped recording and noticed the mouse was lagging again when selecting text in Photoshop (although this time, no audio stuttering from Spotify). NVidia overlay/experience the problem here?

I tried disabling the overlay and closed Geforce Experience, but still the same problem. Only when the thing records the desktop does it smooth out in Photoshop. Very odd.
 
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Interesting that games don't provoke the problem but Excel/Photoshop do. That in combination with you wiping the system and still experiencing it suggests a few places to start:
  1. Use a 60fps monitor to isolate any issues with the monitor or cable. If this works, get a VESA certified replacement cable.
  2. Disable Bluetooth completely. If that works, enable it with only one device connected. Repeat with the other devices to see if any cause the issue.
  3. Check hardware acceleration for Excel and Photoshop, as sometimes it can cause stuttering. Oddly enough I've experienced stuttering with the setting on and off, depending on what system I'm using, so this is a weird one.
  4. Using a scratch disk for Photoshop? Make sure it's an SSD.
Nvidia screen recording as a fix is bizarre, I'll give you that one. Worth an hour googling to see if anyone else has experienced it.
 
It’s possible it could be a high polling rate mouse. Every time you move the mouse, excel and Ps might be trying to update the screen content. For a high frequency polling rate mouse, that could be bogging down the cpu with excessive recalculation leading to the stuttering.

Try dropping the the polling rate of the mouse to 125hz and see if that makes a difference.
 
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