Frame rate stuttering. SOLVED

Technical Support
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I found all the keys to the “stuttering” question we all had. This is a two-part fix.

Most of you whom have presented this problem on the forum. Are NOT receiving answers. You can do all the system diagnostics you want. But in the end no testing software will easily show this or reveal a solution without looking through stuff with a “FINE tooth comb”.

FPS Loss symptoms:

  • You load the game in and from time to time your game “stutters” with frame-loss that occurs over a period of time. It mathematically follows a slow but even loss of frames over a period of time that almost seams to be “on the dot”.

  • The shots you are taking at other players are NOT registering. It almost feels as though they are cheating. (my apologies on the MASS cheating reports)

  • You have to restart the game almost every other match because the frame-rates dipped too much.

  • As widowmaker and McCree you will ESPECIALLY notice this issue.

  • It does not matter how expensive your machine is. Good hardware with 1k graphics cards and cheep cards all have this.

  • This problem will occur on Overwatch and ONLY overwatch.

Core Problem #1.

The XMP profile in your system on a custom gaming rig is NOT turned on in YOUR BIOS… Is one of the core focuses we have when it comes to player Frame rate loss. I could go into LOTS of technical details but to bring it into light. The Frame-rates dip and go further down without being recovered until you restart the Overwatch Game application.

To the professional eye. This appears as a “memory leak”. But to be fair, well its NOT. It’s a hardware memory problem. But not with the game itself. But your system’s RAM SETTINGS. . You can go in and enable your RAM to run at any speed you want. But there is a setting that is often missed by MOST people. It is called the "XMP profile". This means you must change it from Auto to XMP profile. This is so the system MATCHES your RAM’s speed. otherwise you can set your ram at whatever speed you want. and the problem will still persist. Even running factory recommended ram speeds present this issue!!.

Note:
In order to Fix this issue. You MUSt access your system’s BIOS settings and Look in the “overclocking” or “performance” section of the ADVANCED BIOS settings.

It will be LOCATED in the “DRAM” section. :slight_smile:

Custom gaming-rig motherboards are OFTEN faced with this problem. Because the motherboard has its OWN set of BIOS tweaks.

** Problem #2**

SHADER CACHE.
_The shader cache IMPROVES frame rates by CONSIDERABLE margins. BUT if you have your C: Drive as a mechanical hard drive. You are going to find that the Shader Cache causes UNPLEASANT operational lag-spikes in video performance.

Let’s discuss the outlying factors.

The default shader cache file is located in your Temp file directory on Widows. This directory is stored on whatever drive that your operating system is located on. Which is default “C: drive”. I DO NOT RECOMMEND relocating this file. I tried it and things do NOT work well. AT ALL. So just leave your Shader cache file ALONE.

"shader cache" ideal performance:

For a system user that has an SSD as their Default, Main “C drive”. It will work well. This means that shader cache isn’t going to be a big issue as data transfers extremely fast and the I/O is NOT bottle necked by mechanical read/write/seak, provided the SATA buss and sata controller are large enough. This means that older boards might not do so well.

Where shader cache isn’t so great:

If you are like me, and use a Spindle hard drive as your Primary O/S harbor. It’s not going to be so pleasant. This is because there is mechanic parts and you are at the mercy of “seak, read and write times”. it is highly inefficient.

Why is this happening ?

Because Driver programmers for Graphics cards chose to not make a flexible program which can be used to assign files that should not be stored on media which has HIGH latency within the computer itself. (such as a SPINDLE HARD DRIVE).

Summary for the Shader Cache.

You could perhaps try and mess around with Intel Rapid Storage technology and INtel OPTANE. To see if that would mitigate Shader Cache issues on a Spindle Hard disk drive.

Part III.

FIXES THAT DO NOT WORK.

There are lots of “theories” as to how to fix this. So let’s go over some of them.

  • Should I disable “super fetch”? NOPE. It makes the problem WORSE.

  • Should I Run the game as “highest priority”? NOPE. It seams to cause issues with everything else that is happening on the PC. This could interfere with drivers that really do need EVEN priority.

  • Should I patch windows? NO. Trust me. Patches really don’t fix anything. Often they tend to BREAK the programs MORE than they help.

  • Should I dissable windows firewall, windows defender or my Antivirus? NO. I tried that too. It doesn’t really do much. Unless you are running BULKY anti-virus software such as McAffee or Norton (symantec) products.

There you go, 12 months of research pretty much condensed down as far as I can take it.

:slight_smile:

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I love you, you solved what the rest of us couldn’t

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NO PROBLEM!! :slight_smile:

I am PLEASED to have solved the issues here! and help a fellow community member out! I ALWAYS believe there is an “underlying cause” and knew there WAS an answer!

Yes, I use to work in computers as a person whom plugged away in the after hours of working in the College computer rooms as their prized “troubleshooting” tech. I wasn’t employed by the college because my uncle’s Father was the dean at the time, and I didn’t want a conflict of interest there.

So I had LOTS of time on my hands to play with computer hardware, as well as troubleshooting Viruses WITHOUT the use of Anti-virus software, learning what did or did NOT work in computer security systems, as well as I worked with Data Silo’s (The huge robotic Optical storage libraries from Plasmon and HP. Magneto-optical), The IBM blade centers and tape libraries. Including bits of IBM Z/os, and some into CRAY computer systems. Just alone In my free time for my studies. (im still paying on the equipment from outrageous bank loans). My success rate is NEARLY 100%.

I learned what would break the easiest, and what stood the test of Time. I dont claim to know it all, but I know enough to get myself in some trouble :wink:

I believe that Tenacity in troubleshooting a problem is paramount. Despite someone may feel that it is a “task they want to avoid”. I REALLY wanted to test and see what this Frame rate loss was, and that proper speculation, often uncovers the rest of the answer!

It is quite intriguing to come across a game. to see that Overwatch is a game that presents this problem in such a way that it intrigues me. It means that it must run a “hybrid” type engine which of course, is only proprietary to Blizzard. I applaud them for being their own “in house” programmers. I’d say they have LOTS of software training that would exceed mine for miles, if not eons. But sometimes I have to be the “squeeky wheel” that breaths down the necks of programmers. I did it in college and they didn’t like me much either. Infact one of them was my room mate! (we still talk every day though!)

But in the end, it’s all about “checks and balances” in the computer world. We have hardware support+ operating system support, and then we have programmers. HA, it was always the running joke. The programmers didn’t like us hardware support people much, because we gave them limits, BUT when it came to setting them straight. That sometimes a person has to slow down a bit, to ALLOW more people “to the party” it’s what makes the world work!

I’d like to say that XMP profile and everything i spoke about in my LONG+lengthy reply clearly outlines something that even I can’t believe, which would directly effect that. NO other program I know of would EVER be effected by something so in-depth, as to be something that faults due to a BIOS level issue.

That blows my mind, clear into the 4th dimension of computer support. It also could be something more DANGEROUS, as programmers can figure out new ways to build software which might not be with “good intentions”.

So am I working some insanely, amazing computer systems job? NOPE. Infact I’ve turned down some VERY nice contracts.

You’d never guess this, but I run honeybees. I’d take nasty bee stings all day, vs dealing with people. It’s difficult to find a good team of kind-hearted people, that can work with a person, yet at the same time, go into a “boiler room” type of situation, bounce THOUSANDS of ideas off of each other, while sitting in an office room, and NOT take it personally. (Which is what I use to do “back in the day”), and generate results.

I kinda chuckle when I talked to my friends back in college about this, and my uncle whom works a VERY prestigious computer support job at a big Pharama company. , With HIS statement as to the fact that nobody could even remotely handle my style of “Tech support”.

Just for FUN, he had me come to his work place the one day and provide my “level of support” I was asked to come in and fix a problem at a place, (cant say where, because of a privacy agreement. But… in the end I got the issue fixed. (which they spent nearly 6 days, no results, 4 guys with REALLY nice computer degrees from well-recognized institutions ) and within 2 hours I had the problem SAID, solved and DONE. My uncle felt it put HIS support staff “in their place” and that it was comical at the same time.

When I told him I was 'back n fourth" troubleshooting this issue on the Blizzard forum. He’s just like “dont get banned” :slight_smile: and he felt SORRY for the staff members that had to read my stuff.

CHEERS, GL happy to help!

-Das

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Sorry, has not fixed my issue. Every symptom you have described is basically what I’m experiencing: increasingly occurs over a period of time on high end systems w/ lowest settings, requires system restart, wtc… I haven’t been able to rid myself of this stupid problem with either stock, XMP, or OC with timings from Ryzen DRAM calculator. I’m also using Samsung NVME SSD with superfetch off. Any ideas?

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Yeah the problem continues to surface and cause issues. I will give you my settings here, this is about as good as I will get for dialing this game in.

I have the 16GB of RAM (it made a big difference up from 8GB I had earlier).

I went up to the RTX 2060 Founders (Up from a GTX 1050, 1060, 1060FTW, 1060SSC) all which I have tried on this game.

Notes:

1 ) GPU: I found not much, if any change from the 1060 to the 2060.

2 ) RAM: Speed of the RAM made a difference. However, the i5-7600k is awful at handling much more of an increase above the 2400mhz. BUT it did fix drops.

3 ) CPU, 6c v 4c: I have tried the 6 core version of this CPU in the next generation on a 300 series board and the game actually played WORSE than the 4 core I am on now.

4 ) Drivers. The RTX drivers after August of 2019 have stuttering issues in all games, and micro stutters. Before this date, patches ran better on all games including Overwatch. After this date. Issues are much worse.

HERE are MY game settings.

Display mode: FULL (Very important)
Target Display: Monitor 1
Resolution: 1920x1080 (144hz)

Field of View: 103
Aspect Ratio: 16 : 9
VSYNC: ON

Triple Buffering: OFF
Reduce Buffering: ON
Display Performance stats: ON

LIMIT FPS : CUSTOM
Frame Rate Cap: 300
Graphics Quality: MEDIUM

—advanced

Render scale: 100%
Texture Quality: MEDIUM
Texture filtering Quality: Medium 2x
Local Fog Detail: LOW
Dynamic Reflections: OFF

Shadow DETAIL: OFF
Model Detail: MEDIUM
Effects Detail: LOW
Lighting Quality: MEDIUM

ANTI-Alias QUALITY: Medium SMAA LOW
Refraction: LOW
Screen shot: 1x resolution

LOCAL Reflections: OFF
Ambient Occlusion: OFF

GPU SETTINGS. (I am using a GPU driver from July/August of 2019) works better than anything else, after this date. I saw an 11fps LOSS across all games with stuttering on all games. I reverted and the issue went away on all. and Overwatch ran better PRIOR to this Driver-patch date.

Configure SURROUND, PhysX - PROCESSOR RTX 2060 (GPU you are using)
This fixed quite a bit of stuttering for me.

Manage 3D settings MENU.

    • Select overwatch.

Low latency mode: ON

    • max Frame rate : 148 FPS - I set this.

OPEN GL RENDERING GPU:

    • GeForce RTX 2060

Power management mode:

    • Prefer maximum performance

Preferred Refresh Rate:

    • Highest available.

Shader Cache

    • OFF

Texture filtering Anisotropic sample

    • ON

Texture Filtering:

    • QUALITY

texture filtering Trilinear Optimization

    • ON

(EVERYTHING ELSE LISTED) - Was left “Default” in this menu. Except what I listed above.

Adjust desktop size position MENU:

Select Scaling mode:

    • Aspect Ratio - (VERY IMPORTANT).

perform scaling on

    • display

About everything else listed is all I can help with here. This game requires a load of attention to detail to make it run correct.

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Thanks. I followed some of your suggestions… and a handful of them at once. So, I’m not sure which actually made the most improvement. However, it was when you had mentioned an August or July driver that worked well… I found out that Microsoft started requiring Nvidia to have these universal versions of the drivers. Anyway, so instead of downloading the one that came with Nvidia Experience, I used DDU again and installed the “standard” version (as opposed to this universal "DCH’ version). As far as I understand, they should be identical, but for whatever it works perfectly now. I’m using the standard version of the most recent driver. I was on at least a couple hours today without even the tiniest stutter.

I decided to not use low latency mode or fps limiter in Nvidia settings because it adds additional latency to overwatch. If you press Ctrl + shift +N to pull up the latency graph, you should see lower SIM numbers by not limiting the fps with the graphics settings you’ve provided. Also, I suggest texture filtering set to high performance.

Another thing that seems to help is to set high CPU priority to Overwatch.exe in windows.

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Hey that is good to hear! I will play around with the latency mode and see where it goes too!

I left the Microsoft universal driver and went to Nvidia because I had issues with it. But either way. It is difficult to get this game to work correct! :grinning:

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Thanks! You’re right. There’s some stupid combination of updating, drivers, and settings that makes this game a nightmare to get running well. This used to not be the case.

I was going to ask you if you’ve used DDU throughout your journey to hell?

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