EXPERIENCING MASSIVE STUTTER? Plug a controller in!

[Pinball]

EXPERIENCING MASSIVE STUTTER? Plug a controller in!

This problem affects the Nvidia GTX 970 cards the most. I've documented how bad stutter is to CDPR since patch 1.07 came out. It will seem like every third frame is skipping. It looks something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVfwqdwbOZU

Now, before you blurt out some suggestion that worked for you, consider this:

I have turned every single setting OFF in Witcher 3. AA-OFF, All Post-Processing-OFF
I have even dropped the resolution to 1024x768 - the lowest possible.
I have tried Borderless Window & Full Screen, Vsync On and Off
I have tried setting max prerendered frames set to 1 in Nvidia Control Panel (this helped until patch 1.07 & 1.08.)
I have tried setting PhysX set to CPU.
I have tried turning every Nvidia Control Panel Setting Off
I have tried forcing 30, 60, and Unlimited FPS
I have tried forcing VSync through Nvidia's Control Panel.
I have tried the 353.30 and the newest 353.62 Nvidia drivers.
I have used RTSS to attempt to manage the framerate.

This problem goes much deeper than simply limiting frames or or tweaking settings. I have sent complaints to CDPR but the only response I get is "we're investigating". Fortunately, a fellow YouTuber figured out the problem, simply plug a controller in!

I don't know if all controllers will work, but once I plugged in my Xbox 360 controller and moved around a little bit, the skipping stopped and the frametimes dropped from the 50's-60's down to the 10's and 20's. Try it!

Don't have a controller? Do have a controller, but want your mouse back? Then contact CDPR and tell them! http://en.cdprojektred.com/support/

 

[SigilFey]

Interesting...

This has happened before on other titles. I will test this out tomorrow.

 

[Pinball]

I would be surprised if it works on other titles, but it makes a difference on Witcher 3, particularly for GTX 970 users like me who have been unable to play since patch 1.07.

 

[BetaWitcher]

I never experienced any stutters like in your video and I almost have the same specs as you.
but I always play with a controller anyway maybe thats why.

 

[tommalmm]

I've had exact same stutter like you did... And my controller is always plugged in (actually, I'm always playing with the controller). For me setting the prerendered frames to 1 fixed it (and since update to win10, the stuttering stopped, no need to change anything in my case).

It's possible plugging controller changes some timings and in your case it actually helps. I believe it's true for all the other remedies. They do work for some and not at all for others. I guess this issue is a pain in the ass for them, as it probably doesn't occur when profiling, debugging, etc...

 

[SigilFey]

No difference here. My stutter is entirely due to frame timing. Controller plugged in or not has no effect. Only Frame Limit and Vsync affect it on my rig.

 

[Brogan80]

This seems to affect Maxwell cards the most

Not mine. Never seen any kind of stutter like whats in that vid.

Do not own any kind of controller.

 

[Garrison72]

I experience this exact same problem and I'm glad I'ts a known issue because it seriously detracts from the game. Still experimenting on how to avoid it, but the two things that seem to help are lowering overall settings or turning off hairworks. I only seem to experience it in busy areas, with lots of trees or in villages. And yes my hardware should run this at the highest setting. I hope CDPR really looking into it. Off to try my controllers..

 

[Pinball]

No difference here. My stutter is entirely due to frame timing. Controller plugged in or not has no effect. Only Frame Limit and Vsync affect it on my rig.

To be clear, try moving around for a few seconds with the controller. For me, the frametimes dropped from the 50's and 60's down to the 10's and 20's and stayed there. Also worked for another GTX 970 user I know.

---------- Updated at 08:03 AM ----------

Not mine. Never seen any kind of stutter like whats in that vid.

Do not own any kind of controller.

,,,particularly the GTX 970. You forgot to include that. In fact I'll just edit my post.

 

[SigilFey]

To be clear, try moving around for a few seconds with the controller. For me, the frametimes dropped from the 50's and 60's down to the 10's and 20's and stayed there. Also worked for another GTX 970 user I know.

Yes, I actually tried playing with a controller in the early versions, then again after 1.07 and the new movement system was introduced. There was no difference in FPS either time.

I believe the reason you may be seeing improvement has to do with the slower and more steady input commands that an analog controller stick offers. A mouse, especially a gaming mouse with high DPI settings, will have to update many more times per second, and the rate of those updates can be variable over milliseconds, changing constantly in response to little nuances of movement in the player's hand. It's the main reason why some people prefer keyboard+mouse over controllers -- a mouse responds to tiny, precision movement or gross, wide movement in real-time, a controller is limited to a single sensitivity setting along preset axis. But a mouse requires far more information processing and is therefore far more taxing on a system. This may be wreaking havoc with the way the game tries to procedurally draw certain things on-screen or creating confusion with PhysX, perhaps. It might be an issue unique to 970's. Who knows?

Or, are you saying above that when you play with a controller for a short time, you can then switch back to keyboard+mouse and FPS will remain higher?

 

[Pinball]

Or, are you saying above that when you play with a controller for a short time, you can then switch back to keyboard+mouse and FPS will remain higher?

I couldn't begin to tell you why a controller makes a difference regarding stuttering, but it does. To be clear, plugging a controller in doesn't improve FPS, but it does fix the annoying stuttering many GTX 970 users were having. When using the -displayfps launch command, you can see the "longest frame" results drop from the 60's to a more reasonable 15-25ms once a controller is plugged in. 15-20ms is what you would expect to see in a game normally. I should create a video showing what happens but recording seems to diminish the impact of the results somewhat.

 

[Fallout_Wanderer]

I've only experienced something akin to this while using hairworks and usually in the more demanding locations and scenarios but not consistent nor during normal gameplay. While on this topic I'd like to ask if anyone else has experienced a similar issue however with the finisher moves and stuttering. It's more a frame skip/freeze while decapitating a NPC. Has anyone experienced anything like what I have described?

It's not every time but it happens often enough that it bothers me, had me thinking something was wrong. I have reinstalled/verifying my install and it has still happened. As I said, it's inconsistent however seems to happen during the larger decap animations.

My specs for reference : i5-4670k stock 3.4ghz and OC up to 4.4ghz, GTX 980 super clocked, 8gb ram

 

[SigilFey]

I couldn't begin to tell you why a controller makes a difference regarding stuttering, but it does. To be clear, plugging a controller in doesn't improve FPS, but it does fix the annoying stuttering many GTX 970 users were having. When using the -displayfps launch command, you can see the "longest frame" results drop from the 60's to a more reasonable 15-25ms once a controller is plugged in. 15-20ms is what you would expect to see in a game normally. I should create a video showing what happens but recording seems to diminish the impact of the results somewhat.

Hmmm...I am not sure why that would happen, but huzzah that it fixes the problem for some! And does the lag/stutter return if you unplug the controller during play?

 

[Pinball]

Hmmm...I am not sure why that would happen, but huzzah that it fixes the problem for some! And does the lag/stutter return if you unplug the controller during play?

Yes, it does.

 

[SigilFey]

Yes, it does.

Perhaps the stutter is being caused by the game endlessly searching for a controller. Have you tried going into user.settings and setting all of the controller and touchscreen controls to "False"?