Frame rate strobing

[Persnoody]

Solved, at least for now, I'm 99% sure it was the Fraps fps overlay I had on (left on from a previous game, I know this game already has an fps option), the only reason I'm so sure is because it just happened to me again, but in a different game. Just an oversight on my part for not considering an outside source that I haven't used in this game for a couple months.

 

When this first happened it almost felt like it was lag, but I noticed my ping was like 130ms and my fps didn't ever go under 100, so that wasn't the issue, when I got back to my orbiter the issue was persisting, so I did the first thing anyone should do, restart the game, it worked and the game went back to normal. This happened during Prime Time today, so shortly after the patch was pushed out (this has never happened before this patch).

About an hour later it happened again, my ping was about 83ms and for the most part my fps was between 100 and 130, only sometimes in combat dropping to 55 (I like particles, sue me), I noticed that the higher my fps the faster the frames strobed, if I had to explain it it would be like a frame freezes for a second while the game is still normally responding (kinda like if you have ever seen people move in front of a strobe light in the dark). While I'm writing this my game is still strobing, I wanted to see if time would cure it, but doesn't look like it, I'll do a restart before I submit this to see if it doesn't fix it like it did the first time.

The tile set doesn't appear to matter, the first time was on a Grineer ship and the most recent was on the new Gas City tileset, so far has only happened during missions with a group, I'm unsure if this would happen in solo/host missions or in either of the open world maps.

I was just about to restart the game, when I thought I should look at how my hardware is responding to this strobing and I noticed a pattern, when I stand still the frames don't strobe and my core usage for both my cpu and gpu go up to their normal usage levels while I have the game open and my fps is sitting around 200 to 240. When I start moving around and strafing the mouse a lot my fps was cut by half and same with the usage on both my cpu and gpu, memory levels were uneffected, the strobing only happens when I'm moving in game or moving the mouse around (while stationary).

I never really payed any attention to the Time value displayed in game, but it's idling at just under 5ms, and when I move around it goes up to over 10ms, like I said I'm unsure this is normal since I don't normally look at it.

Okay, game is restarted and like before everything is fixed. From the looks of it the Time value doesn't change now, I should have just assumed this would happen since it's displayed with the fps. I'll update with occurrences if they happen under different conditions than I have explained.

 

Hardware:

i7 3770k

GTX 980 SC

32gb of CAS9 ram

and the game is on an SSD

Edited June 7, 2019 by Persnoody

[taiiat]

so, sounds like microstuttering.
the first few steps is a clean install of Video Drivers, temporarily removing any Injection Software/Overlays, Et Cetera and looking for anything that then improves.

oh, later in this Post you say giving input is causing a performance problem. it's not the clearest as to who to blame there, whether it's Windows, or whatever sort of bloatware that your Keyboard/Mouse may be relying on. or a Software conflict somewhere, but that's kinda the worst problem to try and diagnose in computing, as Software conflicts could be literally anything.
(mentioning only Multiplayer does perhaps suggest that there's an implication there)

 

soooo from the information given it is to be assumed as either Windows or the software for Input hardware is sending data through is to blame. where somebody is not doing there job right (metaphorically).

Edited June 7, 2019 by taiiat

[Persnoody]

56 minutes ago, taiiat said:

so, sounds like microstuttering.
the first few steps is a clean install of Video Drivers, temporarily removing any Injection Software/Overlays, Et Cetera and looking for anything that then improves.

oh, later in this Post you say giving input is causing a performance problem. it's not the clearest as to who to blame there, whether it's Windows, or whatever sort of bloatware that your Keyboard/Mouse may be relying on. or a Software conflict somewhere, but that's kinda the worst problem to try and diagnose in computing, as Software conflicts could be literally anything.
(mentioning only Multiplayer does perhaps suggest that there's an implication there)

 

soooo from the information given it is to be assumed as either Windows or the software for Input hardware is sending data through is to blame. where somebody is not doing there job right (metaphorically).

Welp looks like it was just an overlay issue, since the same thing happened to me in a different game, while using the same overlay software (odd cause I didn't update it recently and it hasn't done this before), so all just a coincidence as far as the game is concerned. I'll update the op to reflect the conclusion.

Once I stop using the overlay I doubt it will happen again, but I'll post if it does.

[taiiat]

odd that Fraps would be causing an issue for you - unless maybe perhaps you were accidentally recording with it? 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Persnoody]

Yeah I found that odd too, but I don't care enough about fraps to try and fix it haha