Game stutter, out of ideas, need help

Technical Support
1

Hi,

I’ve been trying to diagnose my stuttering issue with Diablo 3 for some time now. Diablo 3 has always ran kind of rough, but since Season 22, the hitching and stutter has made the gameplay nearly unplayable.

I’ve recorded a sample to make things easier: Diablo 3 hitching - YouTube
Specifically from 2:05 to 2:20 is particularly bad. The recording has no affect on the severity of the issue.

Full specs of my rig:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/3RkKVc

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  (Purchased For $470.39) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $145.59) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  (Purchased For $250.88) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (Purchased For $128.29) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (Purchased For $128.29) 
Storage: Corsair MP510 960 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 10 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $314.99) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card  (Purchased For $523.00) 
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P500A ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $199.99) 
Power Supply: EVGA G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $33.59) 
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $37.04) 
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $37.04) 
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $37.04) 
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $37.04) 
Monitor: Asus VN279QL 27.0" 1920x1080 Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Monitor: Asus PG279Q ROG Swift 27.0" 2560x1440 165 Hz Monitor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Keyboard: Logitech G513 Silver RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Mouse: Logitech G502 HERO Wired Optical Mouse  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Custom: FiiO K3 DSD USB-C DAC and Headphone Amplifier for Home and Computer(3.5mm Single Ended/2.5mm Balanced/Coaxial and Optical Digital Outs) …  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Custom: Blue Yeti Nano Premium USB Mic for Recording and Streaming-Blackout (1639)  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Custom: CableMod Custom cables Carbon (Purchased For $146.98)
Custom: Sennheiser HD58X Jubilee (Purchased)
Custom: Windows 10 Pro N (Purchased)
Total: $2490.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-09 00:19 EDT-0400

I also have an Intel 82574L PCIe 1x NIC as well, Just another something I could try.
Also A Yamaha RX-V379 Receiver that feeds to a Samsung 1080p 60hz TV and 5.1 speakers.

Another quirk of this issue is if I’m watching YouTube on my 2nd monitor, it seems that the stuttering affects the output to that display as well, as YouTube will automatically reduce the stream quality to reduce dropped frames. Playing YouTube on the second monitor has no affect on this issue, rather it is being affected by it.

Having a firebird wizard in the party makes the issue much worse, but is still present in singleplayer/multiplayer without firebird wizard.

What I’ve tried:

  • Fresh install of windows (multiple times)

  • Latest Windows updates and drivers

  • With and without GeForce experience

  • With and without Gsync

  • @ 60hz, 120hz, 144hz, with and without frame cap (both inside Diablo 3 and through MSI Afterburner)

  • Different settings, including “hardwareclass” in D3Prefs.txt, different combinations of quality settings, “DisableTrilinearFiltering” on/off, etc…

  • Memtest (pass)

  • Trying 32bit and 64bit options (32bit has lots of buffering assets issue because of the memory limitation)

  • Ran with all optional software disabled on bootup through msconfig.

  • Updates latest BIOS.

  • Tried alternate network card, alternate onboard network drivers.

  • Confirmed CPU is Prime95 stable, CPU temp does not exceed 60c.

  • Confirmed GPU is stable through Heaven benchmark, temp does not exceed 78c.

  • Changing sound quality options doesn’t help, or outputting the sound in 5.1 or stereo.

I’m sure I’m missing some other things I haven’t listed, but this should be enough info to hopefully get some insight and inspiration on what to do next.

I also included my dxdiag file:

2

same. stutters sometimes terrible. tested i think 200+ combinations of options. got discussions with blizz support, provider support. 1 way to solve the problem. game and battlenet removed. i want my eyes healthy.
ps. i have another games to play with no any lags and stutters

3

I think I had the same problem you are having in the video. The game would start to have this studded only in grp play while others are near me.
I turned down the in game screen resolution.
I did all the other stuff out there on YouTube to fix the game but it didn’t work. It wasn’t until i did the in game screen resolution I saw a huge improvement.
From what ctrl r told me about my frame rates was 30. Now it’s like almost 80??? Or something haven’t checked in awhile.