Machine stutter

[Old Dog]

Hi there,



As the title suggests, I'm trying to find the cause of the machine stutter that occurs during gaming.
It's possible it's happening during youtube/twitch viewing but it's just not as noticeable.

It happens almost immediately after a game loads, seemingly any game, at any graphic settings or resolution. It's a consistent stutter, every 10 seconds give or take.

The machine is recently built and the issue has been there from the beginning.

I've been in contact with the company that built the machine and they are confident the issue is software related and really don't want me to send it back to them. Given the current pandemic restrictions, the turn around would be about a month to get the machine back and if the issue is software and not hardware, I will be footing all of the shipping fees there and back again.



I'm not sure how to read the logs of Hwinfo to identify what the issue might be.

I've tried a lot of remedies I've found online but nothing has worked so far(latest drivers, driver rollbacks, setting changes, performance setting, power setting, Hpet edit, fan curves, wattage edits, vsync/freesync settings, anti aliasing, disabling amd hdcp...the list goes on)
FPS Benchmark tools don't seem to register the stutter(possible I am using/reading data incorrectly)
I had a BSOD just recently so ran a memory check diagnostic but found no error. Event viewer says bugcheck crash, crash happened while a game was running and I was logging for hwinfo.

Something that struck me as odd is that the gpu seems to draw an irregular amount of power, fluctuating constantly. The stuttering seems to occur at these times.
The GPU Engine Clock and Memory Clock seem to drop at same time. FPS plummets.
In the back of my mind I'm thinking that something is telling the machine to let off the gas, then pick up the speed again. Over and over.
In task manager at one point a game status was intermittently going 'not responding' then to normal and back again.


I started the log with Hwinfo, opened up the game and then ran it for a little bit. Once the stuttering happened I ran it for a few minutes more and then halted the logging.

Any help would be appreciated and if you need any extra info I haven't included, please ask. Have to get this fixed before I lose my sh1t.

Desktop Machine:
OS - Windows 10 Pro (Build 19042)
System manufacturer - Asus
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics, 3700 Mhz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical Processors
Board - Asus Prime A520M-K
RAM - 16GB DDR4 3200 Mhz (2x 8gb) Crucial
Processor Cooling - AMD WRAITH STEALTH LOW PROFILE CPU COOLER
Graphics Card - AMD Radeon RX580 8GB
SSD - ADATA 512GB 2.5" READ 560 / WRITE 520 MB/s (where windows is installed as well as some games)
Hard Disk - Seagate VM 1 Terabyte 64MB Cache 6GB/S 5900 RPM
Power supply - CIT FX 500W 80+

 

[Zach]

From a quick look on your 2 logs the CPU seems that doesn't boost at all. It always stayed at 2.3GHz and not even achieve the base frequency of 3.7GHz, let alone the max boost of 4.2GHz.
Maybe you should look that first of all.
Your RAM also doent run at 3200MHz (1600MHz) but at 2933MHz (1466MHz) but I doubt that this is causing the stutters.
The GPU is responding as it should but if the CPU cant feed it with data on time there is a big bottleneck and the GPU waits and games stutter. Look at the GPU utilization(%) on your second longer log how it goes to 99~100% but frequently drops to 30%, 20%, 15%.

This is looking like a CPU bottleneck and the fact that the CPU doesnt boost at all and staying at minimum speed, it seems that is the culprit to your stuttering issues.

 

[Zach]

Check the BIOS for CPU settings. Also CPU power settings. ECO mode and all that stuff.
Check windows power plan on advanced power settings.
Check inside the case if the board has all the power connectors plugged. The 8-pin EPS on the upper left side of the board.

 

[Old Dog]

I feel like I'm getting nowhere.
5am here now, I'll write something more concise tomorrow lol
One thing to note is that I can't open the case or my warranty will be void, so I am currently going at this as if all connections etc are good.
The side of case is transparent and it all looks neat and tidy.

 

[Old Dog]

Memory is blurry of all the things I tried.

First I tried to find a controller program for setting CPU speeds. None of the programs I found seem to work with my hardware.

I then went with a 'gut' feeling approach, tinkering with settings in the bios based on my limited knowledge, minor changes to begin with.
When no results came, I started looking up every setting individually and reading up about them - their purpose etc.
Then I made some more changes. This caused the computer to crash before getting to desktop with a BSOD.
So I reset bios to default once again.

Then I approached the RAM issue instead finding a cool program called Ryzen DRAM Calculator. I used Thaiphoon Burner to find out more about the machine memory.
My hardware feels like it's a bit obscure so it's been difficult to find the right settings, so I suppose this part of the journey is unfinished. The RAM as you said probably isn't as big a deal as the CPU not firing at even baseline speed.

Right now I feel like picking up a hatchet and smashing the thing to bits.
Not sure I have the patience to try at fixing the issues today.

 

[Zach]

I don’t know if you log a HWiNFO debug file if @Martin can identify what’s preventing the CPU to raise clock above minimum.

IMPORTANT - Read this before submitting a report

In order to submit a bug report, please include the following information: HWiNFO32/64 Report File (HTM or TXT preferred) HWiNFO32/64 Debug File (HWiNFO32.DBG or HWiNFO64.DBG) In case the application crashes or you are not able to create a Report File, please submit only the Debug File. This...

www.hwinfo.com

Also can you post a full screen screenshot of HWiNFO sensors window during any benchmark? Cinebench R20 and UnigineHeaven4.0 are nice and can be run windowed.

 

[Old Dog]

I did a full reset of the machine earlier on the off chance that it might change something but no luck.

I'm not sure what you mean by full screen screenshot, Hwinfo doesn't seem to fill the screen, I have to scroll down through it.
I've compiled multiple shots but obviously this is not a snapshot, they are multiple screenshots a few seconds apart, taken while the Cinebench R20 is running. Hope it's useful.

As for the Debug file, I think that's a log file taken in same way as usual but with the debug selections ticked as shown in your link?
Should I be making a new thread in the debug forum section?

 

[Zach]

It just occur to me...
I may have cross a line here proposing that @Martin can examine the debug file to find maybe what's preventing the CPU to raise clocks. As this is an issue not HWiNFO related apparently.
I'm sure he has his hands full already solving other HWiNFO related matters.

I apologize for this to both of you. To Martin for implying that he would do this "out of his scope" and usual investigation and to @Old Dog for raising his expectations on the matter.

I did a full reset of the machine earlier on the off chance that it might change something but no luck.

I'm not sure what you mean by full screen screenshot, Hwinfo doesn't seem to fill the screen, I have to scroll down through it.
I've compiled multiple shots but obviously this is not a snapshot, they are multiple screenshots a few seconds apart, taken while the Cinebench R20 is running. Hope it's useful.

As for the Debug file, I think that's a log file taken in same way as usual but with the debug selections ticked as shown in your link?
Should I be making a new thread in the debug forum section?

Just FYI
Sensors window can be full screen. Use the blue arrows down left to expand columns like this

 

[Zach]

I did a full reset of the machine earlier on the off chance that it might change something but no luck.

I'm not sure what you mean by full screen screenshot, Hwinfo doesn't seem to fill the screen, I have to scroll down through it.
I've compiled multiple shots but obviously this is not a snapshot, they are multiple screenshots a few seconds apart, taken while the Cinebench R20 is running. Hope it's useful.

As for the Debug file, I think that's a log file taken in same way as usual but with the debug selections ticked as shown in your link?
Should I be making a new thread in the debug forum section?

I did see this screenshot and the CPU seem to boost to 4+GHz now...

 

[Old Dog]

I noticed the core figures were higher too.
I ran another test and took a screenshot toward the end of the bench.

The stutter in games is still the same with all the same signs though ;(
Maybe the reset did help in some regard.

I saw someone mention that core parking can be an issue. I think it's to do with C-states which is something that pinged on my radar before.
Seems like there's an infinite amount of things to research and try.

Old Dog just wants to game dammit!

 

[Zach]

I wonder how your very first logs (CSVs) show that CPU doesnt boost...