How to find source of stuttering in games

[Bic]

I need a method to locate the source of the stutters that happen every now and then. They are small stutters for a fraction of a second maybe split-second, reading around some people call them "hitches". The only way to pick them up is through Fraps Bench Viewer where I can see the frame times jump up during these anomalies, but it doesn't give the source (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage drive, etc... ).

 

[Jaydip]

I need a method to locate the source of the stutters that happen every now and then. They are small stutters for a fraction of a second maybe split-second, reading around some people call them "hitches". The only way to pick them up is through Fraps Bench Viewer where I can see the frame times jump up during these anomalies, but it doesn't give the source (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage drive, etc... ).

Your system specs and the game you are running?

 

[Bic]

Your system specs and the game you are running?

How is either of those relevant to the question? I'm asking about a global method to locate the source of stutters.

 

[Jaydip]

How is either of those relevant to the question? I'm asking about a global method to locate the source of stutters.

Relevant because we should not be chasing ghosts.There are many utilities down there which can do it gpu-z,msi ab,evga precision etc etc.

 

[Bic]

It is a question that isn't specific to any hardware configuration nor any game.
If you do not know please just say so, I don't want this thread to get filled with off-topic posts.

 

[Jaydip]

It is a question that isn't specific to any hardware configuration nor any game.
If you do not know please just say so, I don't want this thread to get filled with off-topic posts.

You have problems understanding the last part of my reply?

 

[Bic]

You have problems understanding the last part of my reply?

Those programs do not indicate the source of the stutters.

 

[Jaydip]

Those programs do not indicate the source of the stutters.

Sure they do, you just have to interpret it.When the dip happens if your gpu load is not ~100% it may be due to CPU bottleneck.Stutter due to hdd is rare unless it is continuously loading levels.Most of the time the culprit is GPU if you have a decent enough processor.There are couple of professional tools out there, perfhud for NV gpus prior to Kepler family, nsight for later generations.They are typically used during game development.

 

[Bic]

Sure they do, you just have to interpret it.When the dip happens if your gpu load is not ~100% it may be due to CPU bottleneck.Stutter due to hdd is rare unless it is continuously loading levels.Most of the time the culprit is GPU if you have a decent enough processor.There are couple of professional tools out there, perfhud for NV gpus prior to Kepler family, nsight for later generations.They are typically used during game development.

Stutters happen regardless whether the GPU can handle the game or not, what you are referring leads to low framerate not stuttering. Watching GPU usage won't indicate anything.
And I would still need to know which other hardware is responsible for the stutter even if your method did work.

 

[Essence_of_War]

They don't post a neon sign on your box that says "I'M THE REASON WHY YOUR FPS IS STUTTERING KTHXBAI" but that doesn't mean they're not helpful.

If MSI AB shows GPU workload spiking to 100% at the same time that you see a frame-time spike in FRAPS, I'd say that's certainly a clue. Or similarly with any CPU monitoring program. You can try to eliminate disk i/o as a factor by putting the game onto an SSD. Multi-gpu set-ups can also cause stutters. If it's happening in multiplayer games but not single player your internet connection could be suspect. You could be paging pretty hard if you're only running with 4 gigs of RAM and having a ton of other applications open in the background.

Unless you give more details, like your hardware configuration, the games you're seeing it in, and the situations where it occurs, that's basically all anyone can say about the topic.

So do you actually want help chasing down your stuttering issues, or not?

 

[Jaydip]

Stutters happen regardless whether the GPU can handle the game or not, what you are referring leads to low framerate not stuttering. Watching GPU usage won't indicate anything.
And I would still need to know which other hardware is responsible for the stutter even if your method did work.

My method works you are basically looking at individual frames and I only know of two programs which can trace a frame life cycle.

 

[Bic]

My method works you are basically looking at individual frames and I only know of two programs which can trace a frame life cycle.

No they only give the average usage. And when I've experienced stutters in any game I never noticed any anomaly in the GPU usage, the only place I could see the stutter was in Fraps Bench Viewer where the render time of a frame would jump high and look out of place.
Process Explorer is a global monitoring tool, it reports usage of GPU, CPU, RAM, and disk I/O at the same time, and I never noticed any anomalies or spikes in the usage of any particular hardware at the time of stutters.

 

[Jaydip]

No they only give the average usage. And when I've experienced stutters in any game I never noticed any anomaly in the GPU usage, the only place I could see the stutter was in Fraps Bench Viewer where the render time of a frame would jump high and look out of place.
Process Explorer is a global monitoring tool, it reports usage of GPU, CPU, RAM, and disk I/O at the same time, and I never noticed any anomalies or spikes in the usage of any particular hardware at the time of stutters.

The usage is very important, it doesn't stutter on it's own.It happens in fraction of a second so the log files are most important in diagnosing the issue.

 

[Essence_of_War]

So to be clear, you're still not interested in presenting us with any details of your hardware configuration, the games you're playing, the situations you're seeing stutter in.

 

[Bic]

The usage is very important, it doesn't stutter on it's own.It happens in fraction of a second so the log files are most important in diagnosing the issue.

If this is true, where would you get something as precise as Fraps Bench Viewer but for the hardware usage (the usage every fraction of a second instead of the average over one second as displayed in graphs)? Does Process Explorer have these log files?

 

[Jaydip]

If this is true, where would you get something as precise as Fraps Bench Viewer but for the hardware usage (the usage every fraction of a second instead of the average over one second as displayed in graphs)? Does Process Explorer have these log files?

Nope we need something way more sophisticated like PerfHUD or Nsight.

 

[Bic]

Nope we need something way more sophisticated like PerfHUD or Nsight.

Do you know how to use these programs for this specific purpose?

 

[Jaydip]

Do you know how to use these programs for this specific purpose?

I do but you need to know a bit more about D3D programming before one can proceed.

 

[Bic]

I do but you need to know a bit more about D3D programming before one can proceed.

What for? I thought I just needed to know the usage in a fraction of a second instead of a one-second average?

 

[Jaydip]

What for? I thought I just needed to know the usage in a fraction of a second instead of a one-second average?

You see these tools were not created for end users but for developers, so they have a learning curve

 

[Bic]

You see these tools were not created for end users but for developers, so they have a learning curve

Then I need other tools.

 

[ViRGE]

Then I need other tools.

Unfortunately that's as good as it gets. If you're serious about pursuing this then you need developer level profiling tools, and the time it takes to learn them. For the level of analysis you want, there isn't a shortcut.

 

[mfenn]

So let me get this straight: the OP posts an extremely general problem, proceeds to insult everybody who tries to help, belittles alternatives, and refuses to put forth any of his own effort. Is that a fair summary?

 

[Jaydip]

So let me get this straight: the OP posts an extremely general problem, proceeds to insult everybody who tries to help, belittles alternatives, and refuses to put forth any of his own effort. Is that a fair summary?

Pretty much :biggrin:

 

[Bic]

So let me get this straight: the OP posts an extremely general problem, proceeds to insult everybody who tries to help, belittles alternatives, and refuses to put forth any of his own effort. Is that a fair summary?

I did not insult or belittle anyone.
And supposedly having to commit years to learning about game development to use some programs that might or might not find an answer to this simple question is being more logical rather than "refusal to put forth any of my own effort".
And I'm still waiting for an answer to the question.