Tips for a smoother experience?

So I just changed out my 28in 4K 60hz freesync monitor for a 35in ultra wide screen 1440 12ohz Gsync monitor.

When playing in 4K, using Vsync and FPS capped at 60 FPS all was smooth, except for the odd frame drop at the beginning of a race

Now, despite having a faster refresh rate, pushing less pixels and having a potentially higher FPS, I am plagued by micro stutter, I've tried combinations Gsync/Vsync FPS caps and I cannot get it consistently smooth. My GPU is working less hard than it used to, and my CPU is running fine....the only thing that has changed is the monitor and I cannot get it running anything like as smoothly.

Any tips on what to try next? I'm really stuck (ironically, I've now got AMS2 running like butter which was previously a mass of stutter and screen tear on the old monitor!)

 

when you play with vsync off try to set off TAA/KTAA because the chuggy/choppy experience probably it's caused by tearing and that kind of AA method based on previous frames which destroy the image.
regarding fps cap: i think it's not as smooth as vsync in your case because at the same average framerate you can get different frametimes (time for processing/rendering the frame) so tearing occur even at 120 fps on a 120 Hz and it's possible for the monitor to output the framebuffer when gpu update it, probably on a very fast monitor with great response time an little or no ghosting that it's not as noticeable as your case.

 

Do you experience those micro stutters even at a fps cap of 60 or only at 120fps cap?

There are multiple possibilities to limit your fps:

1. Vsync on (sort of)
   
2. ingame fps limiter
3. driver level "max framerate" in Nvidia Control Panel - Application settings
4. Nvidia Inspector (same as in Control Panel)
5. RTSS (Rivatuner Statistics Server)

For me the most stable frame limit I experienced was letting RTSS impose the limit and getting a nice benefit of reduced input latency alongside.

By chance do you use RTSS (MSI Afterburner)?
With this tool you can monitor the frametimes in a log or even display a frametime graph on screen for direct confirmation if there was a slight hiccup/micro stutter...

Here are some screenshots with various types of limiter, watch closely the yellow line in the lower part of the picture,this is the frametime graph.

No limit: You can clearly see the jagged line. No stable frame times


Ingame limit 120fps: already better but still jagged. Not very stable


Driver level limit 120fps: almost a straight line, very good. Just ever so often a little hiccup...


RTSS limit 120fps (8333 microseconds): no hiccups, perfect straight line



And if 120Hertz is your monitor refresh rate and you want guaranteed no tearing and no input lag, in RTSS you can switch from framerate limit (fps) to frametime limit and set a frametime limit in microseconds, e.g. 8354 which is just beneath the 120fps (119.7fps).
You have the full control up to a microsecond and frametimes are rock stable (if no other software causes a drop...)

If you want to download RTSS, I recommend to get the latest 7.3.0 beta.
Guru3D RTSS Rivatuner Statistics Server 7.3.0 Beta 6

 

Thanks Guys

@AndyK70 I get the micro stutter at both 60 and 120 FPS Cap. Yes I have RTSS on my PC, but never really used it, I'll try that...thanks for your help

 

Very interesting.
So this is not about your computer at it's limit but something else.
I'm curious to see if there are still micro stutter with RTSS limiting fps.

 

I don't know how many fps you have ACC running, but if it's near 120fps, then you could be needing a hdmi 2.1 cable, which you didn't need before.

 

or a DisplayPort cable 1.3/1.4, which typically is cheaper due to no licence fee

 

I'm using a DP cable, that should be better than HDMI 2.1 yes?

Using RTSS to limit frames to 60 seems to have made things a bit better....generally driving is smoother now and only a bit stuttery when I move my head L/R (I use trackIR). My track IR profile has pretty subtle movement though so I can probably live with that.

If I don't limit the frames, my rig generally runs ACC around 85-90FPS. I got it up to 120 FPS by turning down all of the graphic settings, but it looked awful and wasn't actually any smoother.

 

I believe it should be atleast a DP v1.4 cable in your case.

Just out of curiousity, why would you cap your fps at 60 or use v-sync, while you have a 120Hz G-Sync monitor? That doesn't seem right to me.

 

Capping FPS at 60 seems to make the trackir movement smoother for some reason (trackir works at 120hz I think) than if I cap it at 12o (or don't cap it) and have the game running at around 85-90. Vsync, again seemed to make the game the smoother, I know that goes against conventional wisdom, so maybe just placebo! TBH honest I've just been trying everything I can think of the iron out the stutter. It's frustrating as my PC is strong enough to run AC and AMS2 at 120FPS and I've seen huge benefits in these games from changing from the 4K 60hz monitor, but ACC I'm struggling with, was definitely smoother on the old 4K monitor (except when FPS dipped to <60).

 

Without the use of G-Sync, it would actually makes sense for games running at 120fps on a 120Hz monitor (or 60Hz for that matter) to be smoother then a game running at 85fps on that same monitor. Are you sure you enabled G-Sync in your NVIDIA control panel and in Windows?