Computer Stuttering While Gaming

[teddyweddy]

This is my first post and I hope it's in the correct area.
I recently purchased a new GPU to replace one in an aging gaming pc, and in a majority of modern games I play I am experiencing minor to severe stuttering due to very erratic frame time variance. I'm not sure what information I need to provide aside from system specs which are as follows.
CPU: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 290
(This replaced a 560 Ti)
RAM: 16 GB DDR3
PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
OS: Windows 10(I have had the same issues in windows 7 and 8.1)

If I had to guess I'd say my CPU was throttling my gpu and causing issues but I can't be sure.

 

[smitbret]

The CPU could cause a bottleneck with that card but it would take some pretty serious settings to do it. Did the stuttering prompt you to upgrade the GPU or did you just get the stuttering after the upgrade? If it's only happening post-Upgrade then I would guess driver issues going from nVidia to AMD.

Just a guess, though.

 

[fralexandr]

did you try running task manager in the background set to the performance tab?
it should help narrow down the culprit.

It might be the change from nvidia 560 ti to amd 290
did you make sure to remove the 560 ti/nvidia drivers before installing the catalyst drivers?

newer games/gameworks/etc have greatly increased both cpu and gpu requirements
if the CPU hits 100% load at those spikes it might also be because amd supposedly has more cpu overhead requirements than nvidia for dx11. DX12 games should help with this.

You might need to look into overclocking or replacing your CPU. Do you have an aftermarket CPU HSF? or are you using the stock AMD one.

 

[Ketchup]

If the game is CPU limited, that could be the culprit. What games?

If you look at the games compared at the bottom of this page, your CPU game still do a decent job:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/88?vs=288

 

[fralexandr]

If the game is CPU limited, that could be the culprit. What games?

If you look at the games compared at the bottom of this page, your CPU game still do a decent job:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/88?vs=288

I wouldn't exactly call those modern games (crysis warhead, farcry 2, fallout 3, left 4 dead; those games are all from 2008)

 

[teddyweddy]

If I had to list off specific titles I'd say MGS V, Dying Light, Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 3. I have a video of Grand Theft Auto doing it, and it does it the most by far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EQtYbC2MlY

"if the CPU hits 100% load at those spikes it might also be because amd supposedly has more cpu overhead requirements than nvidia for dx11. DX12 games should help with this.

You might need to look into overclocking or replacing your CPU. Do you have an aftermarket CPU HSF? or are you using the stock AMD one."


some games do hit 99-100% CPU usage yeah, I have a non stock cooler and my 955 is clocked at 4.0 GHz at present, and it doesn't really seem to be any different from stock speed.

"It might be the change from nvidia 560 ti to amd 290
did you make sure to remove the 560 ti/nvidia drivers before installing the catalyst drivers?"

I've experienced the same stuttering from 7 to 8.1 to 10, also I tried putting my 290 in a friends computer that has an fx 6300 and it seemed to run a little better but that doesn't really rule out any other components in my own pc.

 

[Ketchup]

Well, BF3 would not be CPU dependent, but GTA5 would.

Does vsync make any difference?

I have heard from many that it is a pain to switch from Nvidia to AMD (and vice versa). You may want to try a clean install and see if that makes a diff.

 

[TheELF]

Does vsync make any difference?

This!

Or straight up use riva tuner to limit the FPS to something your CPU can handle.

There is also the possibility of textures being the problem,high quality textures need a really fast disk to stream from otherwise you get stutter until all the data (the huge texture file) is read,so try lowering texture quality and see if that helps.

 

[teddyweddy]

This!

Or straight up use riva tuner to limit the FPS to something your CPU can handle.

There is also the possibility of textures being the problem,high quality textures need a really fast disk to stream from otherwise you get stutter until all the data (the huge texture file) is read,so try lowering texture quality and see if that helps.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give this a shot when I get home. *fingers crossed*