Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Why is my PC stuttering while gaming and streaming?

Mar 29, 2020 2:42PM PDT

I have a Windows 10 64 Home hand built PC (Intel Core i7 4790K (not OC'd), 16 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600 Mhz (XMP enabled), MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X, 250GB SSD, 500GB HDD & 1TB HDD, 650W EVGA Supernova G2 PSU) and it has run great for me for a long time until the past few months. Now i suffer from stuttering while gaming and streaming games.

Here is my Speccy: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/UnpmvO2KPacOsFFjotD2zav

Hopefully someone can help me out here, thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
First
Mar 29, 2020 4:12PM PDT

Let's cover the fact that Internet speeds and ping times have skyrocketed for many. Your PC looks to be in good shape as to the Speccy. I had to dig around to find anything to write about and they are a stretch.

If your stuttering is when you are on the Internet then you and so many others are complaining. I have no cure.

That aside.

1. Google Killer e2200 memory leak. I had that happen and it created a lot of stutters and more. Fix? On the web but I had to uninstall their drivers and such then get their latests.

2. Is there anyone that used Slimware, IOBit or other optimizers? These tend to break things. But no I have no fix. I defer to the optimizer makers.

3. Try other DNS entries. Test with DNSBENCH to find better ones. Google DNSBENCH if you never heard of this.

- Collapse -
No internet issues
Mar 30, 2020 7:05AM PDT

I have not had any issues with my connection speed or ISP. I use cable as well.
Worth noting is that my CPU usage is really low when i am playing games and when i'm streaming.

I have disabled all CPU throttling in bios and windows but that issue still persists along with the stuttering.

- Collapse -
So this happens with games that are
Mar 30, 2020 7:29AM PDT

Not using the Internet? Remember I'm getting a lot of reports and complaints about games that rely on the Internet.

Let's hear about said game and see the test results from USERBENCHMARK.COM

If this is an Internet based game, I currently have few suggestions. I take it you did try DNSBENCH and changed to the better DNS.

- Collapse -
They are using the internet
Mar 30, 2020 8:33AM PDT

They are using the internet, but the stuttering issue is not in the connection itself.
It is in the gameplay even though i can get frame rates over 300 FPS.

The games i play are CS:GO and TrackMania.

Which makes me wonder if there is something wrong with my hardware.
Hence mentioning the really low CPU usage when playing & streaming which is definitely not normal as far as i know.
It's like my CPU is not being used fully even though i've set it up to be.

Anyway, here is my USERBENCHMARK: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/26015976

Post was last edited on March 30, 2020 8:34 AM PDT

- Collapse -
Not much new in that report.
Mar 30, 2020 8:54AM PDT

Until the Internet is removed from the picture I can't tell if there is a PC issue. Mind you that such reports do not tell us if the user has tinkered with settings. I have yet to find a tool to report those areas.

The WD HDD did come in on the low side. As a test I'd
1. Disconnect from the Internet.
2. Disconnect the WD HDD.
Test.

As to the CPU, nothing in the reports tell us there is an issue there. But as noted there are settings that can cause this and I repeat here we must not be on the Internet for testing since it's creating far too many complaints. We must test without to see if the PC is OK or not.

-> ALL THAT ASIDE I can't tell if you addressed the concerns above with the Killer memory leak, Slimwire or such and changing to a better DNS. Sometimes folk dismiss items without testing and we find it's what we covered in the first encounter.

- Collapse -
Here we go
Mar 31, 2020 9:22AM PDT

I did try to reinstall the Killer driver, no difference after that.
I got no optimizers installed and the DNS change made no difference either.

I also tried the disconnection of the WD HDD and to disconnect from the internet and the stuttering issue is still there.

- Collapse -
You've stumped me.
Mar 31, 2020 9:28AM PDT

Sounds like the clean install of the OS and drivers is next. Thanks for the reports but this time it didn't show much to work with.

- Collapse -
Solved it
May 12, 2020 10:21AM PDT

I had a closer look in my Speccy and CPU-Z and found that it said that my GPU was using link width x8 instead of x16 (v3) which made me think that maybe i had my graphics card in the wrong slot.
So i had a look in my PC and my graphics card was apparently not placed in the slot on the motherboard that it should be placed in, so i moved it to the correct slot (the one closest to the CPU) and my PC's performance is waaay more stable now.

/Lundstrm

Post was last edited on May 12, 2020 10:23 AM PDT

- Collapse -
Very nice!
May 12, 2020 10:47AM PDT

Thanks for sharing the solution. I don't catch them all.