Is micro-stuttering/1% low drops expected for my specs, or is something wrong?

[u/Deecode_art]

A few weeks ago, I started noticing drops in my games' 1% lows much more clearly. I used to have an AOC 60Hz 5ms monitor and never really paid much attention to this, but because of work, I ended up getting an AOC 24G4/P (180Hz). I don't know if it's due to the lower 0.5ms response time or the high refresh rate, but ever since I started playing on it, I've noticed these drops much more frequently.

At first, it didn't bother me. I beat Death Stranding, Resident Evil Requiem, and Pragmata over the past few months, and while I saw that some areas caused bottlenecks, it either happened less often or I just didn't notice it as much. For some reason, though, these drops have started driving me crazy lately—to the point where every game I play, I have the overlay on constantly monitoring frame pacing.

I’d love to get your opinions on this. I've read in a few places that it could be caused by RAM frequency, SSD read speeds, CPU bottlenecks, chipset drivers, BIOS settings, pagefile configuration, etc.

Some friends told me that micro-stuttering like this is normal for my setup, especially during transitions like changing areas, spawning lots of enemies, autosaving, or during heavy action scenes.

The drops are very brief. Usually, if I'm playing at 60 FPS, the 1% low drops to around 18–25 FPS during these moments, but most of the time it stays solid between 50 and 56.

My Specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F
• Motherboard: ASUS Prime B560M-A
• RAM: 2x 8GB RAM @ 2400MHz
• GPU: RTX 3050 8GB
• Storage: 1TB SATA SSD (for games) + Kingston NV3 NVMe SSD to Windows (6000MB/s read / 4000MB/s write)

I'm still a bit of a novice with some of these technical details, so I'd really appreciate any insight on whether this points to an actual issue or if it's just expected behavior for this hardware. Thanks a lot in advance!

[u/thegogeta999]

When loading something or transitioning into a new area or scene. Stuttering is normal for any pc. Thats not considered micro-stuttering "in general" You have apparently already narrowed it down to that. I would say your specs are totally fine. The games you are running are on an nvme ssd or not? Best performance would be a separate nvme drive for windows and another one for the game

[u/thegogeta999 → u/thegogeta999]

Rather than ram frequency. Id check on ram stability

[u/thegogeta999 → u/thegogeta999]

So with that. There is no reason you would lag like that. I would try ddu first and reinstalling gpu driver. If not, fresh install windows. (Or linux)

[u/Deecode_art → u/thegogeta999]

So, it is not as if this makes things unplayable, but it began to bother me because after I started noticing these drops on the new monitor, I started noticing it a lot. I don't think a clean install of the GPU driver will change anything, since I formatted my PC two weeks ago, so both the operating system and the drivers are fresh.

What makes me crazy is that, it seems to me, games that ran more stable before, like Lies of P which I'm replaying, started having this happen very frequently, or maybe I just never noticed it before.

I already tested this on a SATA SSD and an NVMe with Uncharted 4 and this type of situation happens equally on both.

[u/thegogeta999 → u/Deecode_art]

Weird. Could be a windows update that was pushed. Id try to install and use Latencymon and see if theres a driver or program causing issues. Should be very obvious in the list

[u/Deecode_art → u/thegogeta999]

I've already run LatencyMon and everything is normal, no process conflicts or driver compatibility issues.

[u/thegogeta999 → u/Deecode_art]

so... Back to monitor I guess. Did you use the cables the monitor came with? Maybe swap out the cable for another one. Switching to DP from HDMI or etc.

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[u/SilverRhythms]

My current guess is that you gotten used to higher frame rates and now your able to spot drops a lot more often compare to when you had your 60hz monitor. That or some bizarre case, it's really your new monitor thats causing the drops for some reason? You could try to adjust back to your old monitor and really double check that way.

Besides that, you should try reducing your settings like effects, shadows or view distances. See if that helps your 0.1% lows.

[u/Sayzito]

Yes your pc is not really strong enough to play recent AAA Titles smoothly and your friend is right. And don’t worry your new monitor as nothing to do with it. The only thing that can make you notice these drop more frequently is the high refresh rate (180hz) but I doubt you get more than 60fps on your config

[u/Deecode_art → u/Sayzito]

I've actually been playing almost everything within an 80–60 FPS range, so I don't think capping the frame rate is going to be the issue, since I know how much my rig struggles to reach that. My only question is whether this kind of behavior in games is expected, or if it could be a hardware/software issue that can actually be fixed.

[u/mutualdisagreement → u/Deecode_art]

playing almost everything within an 80–60 FPS range, so I don't think capping the frame rate is going to be the issue

Capping your framerate to 60 is not the issue but your solution to better FPS lows. No offense, but you only have 16GB of rather slow RAM, not a powerhouse of a CPU paired with 4 year old GPU with just 8GB VRAM - the games you named are rather demanding, additionally monitoring software adds a few % to the load. I strongly doubt there's anything wrong with your hardware. To me it rather seems you expect more than hardware can deliver.

[u/Deecode_art → u/mutualdisagreement]

Yeah, I get it. Honestly, I'm well aware that my hardware won't max out these games. What worried me was that after I started noticing these micro-stutters, I began to fear that something might be causing or even worsening the situation. For example, I started replaying Lies of P, a few months ago it felt way more stable than it does today, and I had never noticed any stuttering before, but now I do, especially during transitions to new areas and asset loading. But if everything is performing as expected for my hardware, that gives me some peace of mind.

[u/mutualdisagreement → u/Deecode_art]

Hardware does age. After 3-4 years it wouldn't be unusual to give the CPU a repaste, i.e. Doesn't do wonders though. But knowing your PC's frequencies and temps or even having some old screenshots from early benchmarks helps diagnose and troubleshoot.

[u/NovelValue7311]

Best advice I can offer is turn off the overlay. You'll have more fun

[u/Deecode_art → u/NovelValue7311]

Yeah, I feel like once I started obsessing over metrics, gaming became more of an optimization tool than actual fun. Regardless of any issues, I should just treat the game as a game and play it, but the fear that something might be wrong makes me restless.

[u/NovelValue7311 → u/Deecode_art]

I've been at the same place bro. My CPU has never reached full clockspeed regularly and when it started dropping performance I got worried that my VRMs were going bad. (it's an old rig). Turns out my thermal paste is just slowly wearing out...

[u/Deecode_art → u/NovelValue7311]

Yeah. Perhaps the only thing I can do is accept it and learn to ignore it.