Small Stutter/Lag Spike At Random Times.

[BeadyRoller 10]

Hi all,

Basically I have had this problem since forever! I can't seem to get rid of it, I even upgraded to a 7970 GPU and the problem still persists.

This happens in Arma 3/DayZ/Arma 2, basically anything Arma related. I can play BF and TitanFall for example with no problems at all.

The problem is every 30 seconds or so I will get this tiny little bit of lag/FPS spike which only lasts a milli-second but it's very annoying and noticeable and really ruins my experience, sometimes it can go a couple minutes without it happening but the problem is always there and comes back. I can run them flawlessly besides this little stutter, it will be a steady 50 FPS then quickly drop then shoot back up again.

I have updated all my drivers, messed with the in game settings, turned off Anti Virus and Firewall, set Arma as High Priority in Task Manager, disabled all start up programmes etc but the problem never goes away.

My specs are:

i5 CPU

7970 GPU

8GB RAM

1TB HDD

Windows 7

I've had this problem for a year now and really want to get to the bottom of it, can anyone shed any light on this problem?

Thanks a lot.

[Ezcoo 47]

Based on the frequency of the stutter it indeed could be related to anti-virus or firewall software interfering with the anti-cheat software Battleye, but if it keeps happening despite of turning them off (which I don't recommend at all btw!), it might caused by purely lack of SSD disk.

Arma and DayZ use both Real Virtuality engine. RV has quite unique streaming technology, that renders the huge and detailed maps like Chernarus and Altis possible, but it comes with a small cost: the regular HDD disks are not very suitable and fast enough to handle it. It's not an issue with older PCs, as the players use lower settings that ease the job of HDD too, but with modern high-end PCs like yours (that have higher settings) the sluggishness of the HDDs becomes an issue, and they start to cause stutter. That's why you need to install at least the games, preferrably also OS, on a SSD disk if you wish to have fluent gameplay experience with games that use the RV engine, which are Armas and DayZ basically.

So I'd recommend you to get SSD definitely and install both the games and Win7 on it. The frequency of the stutter is a bit odd though, so I can't promise that the stutter would disappear with SSD, but the overall gameplay experience would be much more solid anyway.

Hope this helps!

[BeadyRoller 10]

Thanks for the reply Ezcoo.

I have read quite a few times that an SSD would greatly improve my situation but I want to make sure it is that before spending over £100. Tbh though I can't think what else it can be? My GPU and CPU are more than capable enough, I have enough RAM so maybe I should just go for it?

[oktyabr 12]

Thanks for the reply Ezcoo.

I have read quite a few times that an SSD would greatly improve my situation but I want to make sure it is that before spending over £100. Tbh though I can't think what else it can be? My GPU and CPU are more than capable enough, I have enough RAM so maybe I should just go for it?

The majority of "spikes" like that, are usually caused by processes other than the game itself, either something you have running besides A3, or a bad script or mod combination. While I imagine an SSD might make a noticeable improvement it might also be a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist, like putting a bandage on your head because you broke your toe. :) The majority of A3 players do *not* use SSDs... I don't, and I've got an older machine than you do.

Tips you should consider, whether you buy an SSD or not:

1) Update your antivirus and antimalware software and give your machine a "thorough" cleaning, overnight is when I choose to do it. While we are on about cleaning when is the last time you opened the case to see how much dust was inside? ;)

2) Make sure your windows, drivers, and software are all up to date. Verify your steam install of A3.

3) Shut off any background processes you don't really need when you are playing. A dozen browser tabs and a music player you aren't even listening to, for example.

4) Find a good process manager and monitor that can tell you what's REALLY going on in your machine. I personally use Process Lasso (google it) and it's "Gaming Mode" is excellent.

5) Optimize your system settings for best performance.

6) Optimize your Arma 3 settings for best performance! Plenty of tutorials around.

7) Finally pay attention to when these lag spikes happen. Suspect *any* mod or script you might have until you have completely discounted them (remove them, see if problem persists, add them back one at a time, test again).

Arma 3 can be made to be playable on a surprising range of hardware. That said even a $10,000 super computer is going to have a problem now and then with everything turned up to "ultra", a ton of different scripts and mods running, and a couple hundred AI moving all over the place.

[BeadyRoller 10]

The thing is I tested that out mate and started my PC with no programmes running and no background interference but the problem still persists, I don't think my system is that dusty either as it's only a year old and I check it regularly. All my drivers are up to date as far as I'm aware? I haven't updated my BIOS though since I've had my PC as I'm scared to do it, looks very technical haha, do you think that could have an impact?

[oktyabr 12]

Do you experience the same thing in single player, just A3, with no mods or addons? What are your graphic settings?

I built my current computer for A2 and A3 actually plays smoother and with more FPS on it :)

[BeadyRoller 10]

I experience it in other games as well such as Borderlands 2, Rust and Arkham Origins which is single player and I get it a little bit. I can run pretty much everything on full, as I said my FPS is smooth apart from the FPS spikes.

[oktyabr 12]

So I take it that that's a "yes" to my question?

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools >>> "Re-run the assessment".

[BeadyRoller 10]

Yeah mate.

5.9 is my score, the HDD is the lowest of all the components.

[ratszo 17]

Oktyabr covered just about all troubleshooting angles.

I'd wonder if the cpu/gpu temps are normal? A dead gpu fan?

Maybe a bad sector on the hard disk causing the read arm to skip? Think there's apps you can d/l to test the hdd.

If it ain't software, it's hardware.

GL!

[oktyabr 12]

Yeah mate.

5.9 is my score, the HDD is the lowest of all the components.

Same score I have, the HDD being the lowest (WD Caviar "Black" edition).

As Ratszo suggested you might want to look deeper into any hardware issues (the reason I asked about dust... heat sinks don't cool if air can't get to them).

I'd start with a disk defragment since the tool is already included with Windows. If you do have bad sectors it should pick them up and isolate them. Then "Verify Integrity of Game Cache" by right clicking on A3 in steam, select properties, select the "local files" tab and click the button.

Then I'd start looking at more hardware/software issues. This is a pretty comprehensive article on it:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-test-your-pc-for-failing-hardware/

[BeadyRoller 10]

I bought an SSD and have installed it today and the problem is still there, so infuriating.

---------- Post added at 18:12 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

Putting DayZ Standalone on the SSD seems to have fixed it? But Arma 3 and Arma 2 I still get the problem.

[Sneakson 1]

Ouch ouch ouch... sorry someone told you to buy an SSD because this is not clearly an HDD issue but hey, congratulations on your SSD.

The moment I hear microstuttering I think of memory issues. You have 8GB, however have you checked your memory utilization while playing games?

I will have to give much of the same advice as Oktyabr though: update motherboard drivers, update graphics card drivers, update any other drivers… bad motherboard drivers made my memories go haywire a few weeks back and I thought they were broken for sure and I had lagging in all games because of a memory leak which caused 98-99% of my 16GB memory to constantly be in used and hard faults was at max constantly (Task Manager, Performance, Resource Manager, Memory, in Windows 8).

If you can remember upgrading your motherboard drivers before this happened try downgrading to old motherboard drivers if you can find any.

What are you complete specs?

Motherboard

CPU

Memories

Graphics card

HDD

SSD

OS

Monitor

Okay, now that we have drivers covered and you have followed Oktyabrs other advice about closing background processes and such let’s start looking a bit more at how your computer is actually doing.

When playing games that stutter, open the Task Manager and view performance. How high is CPU/Memory/Disk utilization? If you click into the Resource Manager can you see anything obviously wrong with the Memories/Disk? Download HW Monitor and check your temps in the system. Also download MSI Afterburner (you don’t need to have an MSI graphics card) and open it to watch your graphics card usage, temps and fan speed while you are playing.

Something I would notice in particular is temperature, using HW Monitor. CPUs should generally stay below 72 degrees at all costs, graphics cards below 80 degrees and the other components below 50 degrees.

Good luck.

Might be your motherboard, CPU, memories, graphics card, HDD, drivers or some software fault (other than the games, if you have the same problem in many games).

I think there's a program called memcheck or something like that to check the health of your memories.

Also ofcourse: what settings are you running? Maybe you're generally using settings that are a bit more than your computer can take in all the games that lag?

[Ezcoo 47]

Ouch ouch ouch... sorry someone told you to buy an SSD because this is not clearly an HDD issue but hey, congratulations on your SSD.

I think there's no need to be butthurt even if we had different opinions about some subjects.

Based on the frequency of the stutter it indeed could be related to anti-virus or firewall software interfering with the anti-cheat software Battleye, but if it keeps happening despite of turning them off (which I don't recommend at all btw!), it might caused by purely lack of SSD disk.

[---]

So I'd recommend you to get SSD definitely and install both the games and Win7 on it. The frequency of the stutter is a bit odd though, so I can't promise that the stutter would disappear with SSD, but the overall gameplay experience would be much more solid anyway.

I stated it quite clearly that it's fully possible that the stutter won't disappear with SSD.

Congrats for the OP for getting SSD, I'm sure that you won't regret it. Install Win7 and the most important / heavy games on it, the speed gain is really nice with OS too! :)

[BeadyRoller 10]

Ouch ouch ouch... sorry someone told you to buy an SSD because this is not clearly an HDD issue but hey, congratulations on your SSD.

The moment I hear microstuttering I think of memory issues. You have 8GB, however have you checked your memory utilization while playing games?

I will have to give much of the same advice as Oktyabr though: update motherboard drivers, update graphics card drivers, update any other drivers… bad motherboard drivers made my memories go haywire a few weeks back and I thought they were broken for sure and I had lagging in all games because of a memory leak which caused 98-99% of my 16GB memory to constantly be in used and hard faults was at max constantly (Task Manager, Performance, Resource Manager, Memory, in Windows 8).

If you can remember upgrading your motherboard drivers before this happened try downgrading to old motherboard drivers if you can find any.

What are you complete specs?

Motherboard

CPU

Memories

Graphics card

HDD

SSD

OS

Monitor

Okay, now that we have drivers covered and you have followed Oktyabrs other advice about closing background processes and such let’s start looking a bit more at how your computer is actually doing.

When playing games that stutter, open the Task Manager and view performance. How high is CPU/Memory/Disk utilization? If you click into the Resource Manager can you see anything obviously wrong with the Memories/Disk? Download HW Monitor and check your temps in the system. Also download MSI Afterburner (you don’t need to have an MSI graphics card) and open it to watch your graphics card usage, temps and fan speed while you are playing.

Something I would notice in particular is temperature, using HW Monitor. CPUs should generally stay below 72 degrees at all costs, graphics cards below 80 degrees and the other components below 50 degrees.

Good luck.

Might be your motherboard, CPU, memories, graphics card, HDD, drivers or some software fault (other than the games, if you have the same problem in many games).

I think there's a program called memcheck or something like that to check the health of your memories.

Also ofcourse: what settings are you running? Maybe you're generally using settings that are a bit more than your computer can take in all the games that lag?

Thanks for the reply mate.

My full specs are:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

RAM: Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Graphics Card: 7970

HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive - HDD

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive

OS: Windows 7 64Bit

Monitor: Asus VN247H 23.6-inch Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) ATX Motherboard

The SSD seems to have fixed the stutter on DayZ standalone but like I said the problem still persists on Arma and the DayZ Mod on Arma 2?

I did what you said but I don't really know what is normal and what isn't? Shall I take a screenshot of Afterburner while I am in game?

All my drivers are up to date and the problem has always been here since I first built my computer so I don't think it's a driver problem. I did mention if I should update my BIOS as I haven't done that, could that be a problem? it's always seemed to much of a daunting task so I have left it haha. Could there maybe be a setting in the CCC (AMD software) that is making this occur?

What seems to happen is I'll get a steady frame rate of 60 FPS and then it will drop to about 45 causing a stutter, it's only a millisecond but it happens quite a lot and it's so frustrating, once you notice it, that's all you focus on.

When it comes to in game settings, I've tried having them really low and really high but it doesn't change anything.

It is worth noting this does not happen on games like Titanfall and BF4.

[jumbobreakfast 13]

running the game with -nologs in the launch parameters should help if you havent done it already especially if you don't have an ssd. Also, the video autodetect settings are usually about as good as you'll get so don't change them (although I turn off most AA & PP settings after running autodetect to help seeing enemies a bit more clearly). Arma is weird in that low settings are not always the best setting to use

[Sneakson 1]

Thanks for the reply mate.

My full specs are:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivy Bridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

RAM: Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Graphics Card: 7970

HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive - HDD

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5 inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive

OS: Windows 7 64Bit

Monitor: Asus VN247H 23.6-inch Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) ATX Motherboard

The SSD seems to have fixed the stutter on DayZ standalone but like I said the problem still persists on Arma and the DayZ Mod on Arma 2?

I did what you said but I don't really know what is normal and what isn't? Shall I take a screenshot of Afterburner while I am in game?

All my drivers are up to date and the problem has always been here since I first built my computer so I don't think it's a driver problem. I did mention if I should update my BIOS as I haven't done that, could that be a problem? it's always seemed to much of a daunting task so I have left it haha. Could there maybe be a setting in the CCC (AMD software) that is making this occur?

What seems to happen is I'll get a steady frame rate of 60 FPS and then it will drop to about 45 causing a stutter, it's only a millisecond but it happens quite a lot and it's so frustrating, once you notice it, that's all you focus on.

When it comes to in game settings, I've tried having them really low and really high but it doesn't change anything.

It is worth noting this does not happen on games like Titanfall and BF4.

Nice specs. Nothing wrong there.

In Afterburner check GPU usage % (should be about 99%), GPU temperature (should be 50-80 degrees Celsius) and the Fan speed % which I think should be about 30% or something... if it's 0% or close to 100% that would indicate something is wrong.

Also in the Resource Monitor check Used Physical Memory under the Memory tab and Hard Faults/sec.

These program both log your values for a few minutes so alt+tab out of ARMA to see the values then look what they were before you tabbed out.

Basically this is no advanced troubleshooting but if the Task Manager shows something strange like CPU usage 100% or only 20% while playing ARMA, a very high memory use or a very high disk use those would be obvious signs something is wrong.

By the way do you have the problems in singleplayer? Otherwise it could be a connection issue. What games does it happen in currently? ARMA 2 and 3?

And again: what settings do you use? Check out my settings in my signature to see what some reasonable settings are. High view distance can cause massive lags when turning around.

Oh and try CPUIDs HWMonitor: (same guys that made CPU-Z and GPU-Z)

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Start it, clear the min/max values then play the game for a while and tab out to see what your max values have been.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Sneakson

[Sterlingarcherz101 15]

I have come across a similar problem , it turned out to be bad Gpu. Was overheating. But you said you upgraded gpu because of this problem is that correct?

[mamasan8 11]

Yesterday while playing Domination I drove 11 km to an objective. I monitored GPU VRAM usage. Suddenly 4-5km from objective my screen froze for a second, no new render. I noticed that GPU VRAM went from 1300+ megs to 800 megs (I have a 2 gig card so it wasn't getting 'full'). Seemed like a flush of VRAM. I'm wondering if that is what you experience.

But I also notice the FPS in Arma 3 being very inconsistent. Going from 30 to 45 every few seconds, sometimes. I can be standing still, looking at same direction but still, FPS goes up and down like a rollercoaster.

I'm thinking it could also be frame time variance. How long it takes to draw a frame. When it takes too long, you get stutter, every time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering

Traditionally in Arma-series, lowering shader quality also lowers the floaty feeling (and in my experience, stutter). I don't use any blur, bloom or any of those.

What I would try is to set graphics at "Standard" and turn up certain settings, like textures = high, FXAA and Aniso = high but leave the rest at defaults. Also, comparing between Vsync on and off.

Edited March 8, 2014 by mamasan8

[pawelkpl 29]

I got every 5s., 1s. freeze with last dev update, I reverted to non-dev and everything is OK. I always use same missions, same mods for comparing.

[BeadyRoller 10]

I have come across a similar problem , it turned out to be bad Gpu. Was overheating. But you said you upgraded gpu because of this problem is that correct?

It isn't the GPU as I upgraded and the problem was still there.

---------- Post added at 18:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:06 ----------

g

Nice specs. Nothing wrong there.

In Afterburner check GPU usage % (should be about 99%), GPU temperature (should be 50-80 degrees Celsius) and the Fan speed % which I think should be about 30% or something... if it's 0% or close to 100% that would indicate something is wrong.

Also in the Resource Monitor check Used Physical Memory under the Memory tab and Hard Faults/sec.

These program both log your values for a few minutes so alt+tab out of ARMA to see the values then look what they were before you tabbed out.

Basically this is no advanced troubleshooting but if the Task Manager shows something strange like CPU usage 100% or only 20% while playing ARMA, a very high memory use or a very high disk use those would be obvious signs something is wrong.

By the way do you have the problems in singleplayer? Otherwise it could be a connection issue. What games does it happen in currently? ARMA 2 and 3?

And again: what settings do you use? Check out my settings in my signature to see what some reasonable settings are. High view distance can cause massive lags when turning around.

Oh and try CPUIDs HWMonitor: (same guys that made CPU-Z and GPU-Z)

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Start it, clear the min/max values then play the game for a while and tab out to see what your max values have been.

Here are some screenshots:

Is there anything there that you can see that might be causing this? This is while playing the DayZ Mod on Arma 2. I played Arkham Origins single player the other day and there was a slight stutter at times as well.

[Sneakson 1]

Can't see anything wrong there.

60 is a very safe temperature. A lot RAM and VRAM left over.

What about other temperatures? The CPU could be overheating and therefore throttling (basically underclocking itself to stop overheating damage) maybe.

If that's not the issue then I have no idea. Motherboards rarely cause trouble in my experience so in that case it's probably some quirky software setting... some sort of dumping, flushing, logging, parking.

By the way are these screenshots from when stutter was happening?

[jumbobreakfast 13]

did you try the -nologs launch parameter? Also, I used the DPC latency checker a few years ago to find out that a dodgy bundled motherboard utility was causing problems. The page here says that latencymon is better: http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/solving-dpc-latency-issues/

edit: dpc latency checker doesnt give accurate results with windoews 8 apparently but latencymon is supposed to work

[BeadyRoller 10]

Can't see anything wrong there.

60 is a very safe temperature. A lot RAM and VRAM left over.

What about other temperatures? The CPU could be overheating and therefore throttling (basically underclocking itself to stop overheating damage) maybe.

If that's not the issue then I have no idea. Motherboards rarely cause trouble in my experience so in that case it's probably some quirky software setting... some sort of dumping, flushing, logging, parking.

By the way are these screenshots from when stutter was happening?

This is so frustrating, I just can't seem to get to the bottom of it, I think it may be some setting somewhere like you say that is causing it, maybe I can tinker with the AMD Catalyst settings but I'm unsure on what to change. How would I find out my CPU temp?

A few stutters happened yes but it happened to run quite smooth, i'll try get another set when it's at it's worst.

---------- Post added at 11:49 ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 ----------

did you try the -nologs launch parameter? Also, I used the DPC latency checker a few years ago to find out that a dodgy bundled motherboard utility was causing problems. The page here says that latencymon is better: http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/solving-dpc-latency-issues/

edit: dpc latency checker doesnt give accurate results with windoews 8 apparently but latencymon is supposed to work

Yeah, tried the no logs parameter, I've tried a whole bunch of different launch options but nothing works. I'll give that a go, cheers.

[BeadyRoller 10]

Someone must of had this problem in the past and fixed it? Thanks.