How an annoying frametime spike ruined my night of gaming

[Nyt Ryda]

So the aircon is cooling the room to a lovely pleasant temperature, I'm sitting comfortably with the controller in hand to relax with a nice slow paced game.

But today my brain decides to pick up on a small irregularity after the first 10minutes of playing.
I notice a slight stutter, and diagnose it to be caused by a framerate drop of 1 fps below my FPS limit which causes a frametime spike.
I peek at the graphs in Afterburner and the frametime stays at around 7ms for a bit, and then spikes to 11ms, then down to 7ms, then up to 14ms and sometimes even 18ms.

And because my brain is wonderful, it decides to ruin my night by making me notice this frametime spike. Every. Single. Time. Thanks bro.

So the troubleshooting begins...
Disable FPS monitoring. Nope it's still there.
Disable all overlays. Nope, it's still there.
Disable low latency mode. Nope.
Enable highest performance mode. Nope.
Close Afterburner. Nope.
Try another game. Nope.
Try googling some things, got some hints on what to go on.
Try without FPS limit. Nope.
Try without VSync. Nope.
Try without VSync+Gsync Compatible+FPS limit, a lot better better but the FPS is crazy high in light games and you get tearing.
Try googling some more things. Maybe it's the driver.
Install latest hotfix driver, game didn't start. Revert back.
I remember I still have Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling turned on.
Disable Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling. Nope.
Start disabling background programs one by one.
Disabling Corsair iCue. Nope.
Disabling Logitech Gaming software. Nope.
Disabling Samsung Magician. Nope.
Disabling ASUS AI Suite. Nope.
Disabling Kaspersky. Nope
Disabling the Wifi. Nope.

And finally I close HWiNFO. Stutter gone.

A lovely constant 140fps and a near-constant frametime of 7.2ms. Smooth as butter and absolute bliss. But now I have to go get some sleep.

Sometimes I just feel like getting a console and avoiding this crap.... But that sweet PC customization and brute performance is just incredible, once you get it working right

 

[Nirv]

Can definitely relate. The relief/joy from finding and resolving this kind of issue is part of the experience

 

[Nyt Ryda]

Just to visualize the issue. A shocking change actually.
I wonder if it's just an issue with HWiNFO and Ampere or if I just never noticed it for months lol.

 

[T3CH 1D10T]

So glad you put this up! HwInfo64 on my system is more a virus then a tool. I cannot open HWINFO64 if my Corsair Icue is open because it causes my commander pro to crash, literally the fans and lights all turn off amd in icue the voltages for the commander are like 0 and then every now and then a small spike but nothing happens. So gotta unplug the commander pro and reconnect.. if I have HwInfo open I suffer random crashes, even just basic browsing. Don’t know why the program is so glitchy but glad to see someone battling with it. So unfortunately now I either use CPUID or I close Icue and anything else unnecessary at the time, open HWINFO64 to do my checks, close the program and restart my Pc... glad you found the problem tho! Was my problem too a few months ago.
Happy smooth gaming bud 👍🏼

 

[TheV]

Sometimes I just feel like getting a console and avoiding this crap.... But that sweet PC customization and brute performance is just incredible, once you get it working right

A console can be a very convenient fire and forget experience (can!).
The problem is when things don't run great, that is it, you are done.
You have no control. There is no tweaking to be done. You get what you get.
Don't get me wrong, the experience is mostly good enough but it is definitely not always perfect.

Just my 2cents... Over the years I've learnt one simple thing (for myself): PC games play better when playing PC games.
The less I bother with constant configuring, adjusting, tweaking and trying to push 99 to 100, the more enjoyable my (gaming) experience has been.
That is not to say tweaking isn't fun in its own right, it certainly is. It just ends up being a different focus all together.
These days I just put hardware together. Give it a "once over, good enough" 24/7 overclock ... and play my games.
No monitoring, no worrying, just gaming.
I've essentially turned my PC into a glorified fire and forget console.

That being said I do completely understand the mandatory tinkering period when buying a new GPU. Can't be avoided

 

[iamgigglz]

Well done in persisting! I didn't realise HWinfo did this.

One thing though; why 140fps and not 144 or 155? I realise your monitor syncs to 140hz but if I can run at the max refresh of my monitor then I do that

 

[goldfritter]

No monitoring, no worrying, just gaming.
I've essentially turned my PC into a glorified fire and forget console.

This is definitely the goal for most of us. But I agree with @Nyt Ryda, if I noticed frametime spikes I would also not have been able to just enjoy gaming.

For me, I can't stand fans ramping up and down while gaming or working, so I have spent countless hours tweaking fan curves just so that I can game and forget.

Well done in persisting! I didn't realise HWinfo did this.

One thing though; why 140fps and not 144 or 155? I realise your monitor syncs to 140hz but if I can run at the max refresh of my monitor then I do that

My understanding is that monitoring programs tend to clash with each other. So HWInfo will cause issues when running simultaneously with Afterburner, iCue, HWMonitor, etc.

 

[Ho3n3r]

What were you diagnosing to begin with? Or do you run HWInfo permanently for some reason?

 

[TheV]

This is definitely the goal for most of us. But I agree with @Nyt Ryda, if I noticed frametime spikes I would also not have been able to just enjoy gaming.

Oh absolutely. Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that I can solve a problem on PC (most of the time) as opposed to a console where I usually just have to deal with it.
My comment was more aimed at the fact that the monitoring and/or tweaking can be responsible for the problem in the first place, as it was in this instance.

For me, I can't stand fans ramping up and down while gaming or working, so I have spent countless hours tweaking fan curves just so that I can game and forget.

I definitely agree on this point as well. I hate fans ramping up and down.
My system fans, including CPU, are all set to 7V just to give me that consistent experience.
My GPU never ramps up to a noticeable level over the noise of the rest of the system and/or room.

This was probably my biggest gripe with the PS4 Pro, that fan constantly going all over the damn place.

 

[Nyt Ryda]

What were you diagnosing to begin with? Or do you run HWInfo permanently for some reason?

I do just leave it running. I find it interesting. I usually check that everything is running normally - Motherboard VRM and PCH temps, RAM temps, NVME temps are all good. Fan speeds are where I expect them. See how much RAM I am using, etc.

The culprit was specifically the ASUS EC sensor (monitors my motherboard VRM and PCH temp, along with the thermal probe that tells me my case ambient temp) in HWiNFO. Disabling it fixes things.

Since everything is running well now I'll not worry about using HWiNFO much, Afterburner shows most of the important stuff anyway.

 

[Nyt Ryda]

Well done in persisting! I didn't realise HWinfo did this.

One thing though; why 140fps and not 144 or 155? I realise your monitor syncs to 140hz but if I can run at the max refresh of my monitor then I do that

Couple reasons :
- 1. Using 155Hz influenced the GSync Compatible threshold. So at 144Hz anything under/around 58-60fps gets Low Framerate Compensation which isn't as smooth. When using 155Hz, that threshold moves up to around 65fps where LFC kicks in. That made it feel slightly worse on a slower card like my 1080Ti that likes to hover around 60-70fps.
- 2. It's hard to tell the difference so it doesn't really matter to me.

And why 140fps instead of 144Hz, because BlurBusters recommends a -3 FPS limit for the best smoothness when using Freesync/GSync Compatible as well as VSync on.
I chose 140 instead of 141 because I like even numbers.

This gave me the smoothest gaming so I'm happy. I'm sure some will say "VSync causes input lag" but BlurBusters says that these settings give "the least amount of input lag possible without tearing.".

 

[iamgigglz]

And why 140fps instead of 144Hz, because BlurBusters recommends a -3 FPS limit for the best smoothness when using Freesync/GSync Compatible as well as VSync on.

Huh, didn't know that. I'll check it out. Having just switched from 1080p to 1440p I'm paying more attention to my framerates - my 1080 is working hard.