This happens with every game that I play on this computer, including games that I play on emulators. This computer is one that I’m proud of, but something I notice about it is this strange stuttering issue. The issue can be recreated very consistently…

I’ll start playing a game, play for five minutes, or an hour, doesn’t matter, there’s no stuttering. If I keep the game running but I’m not actually playing it for more than ten? Fifteen minutes? For example browsing Lemmy, when I come back to the game there will be stuttering, and while the stuttering happens I can hear a kind of rumbling sound coming from the tower. The stuttering doesn’t seem to properly resolve even after long periods of playing and my current way of fixing this is to close the game and open the game again. This computer is old but I do remember this happening when it was new and I’m wondering if this is normal/what the issue is? I tried Googling this, but the results I got were about a computer stuttering in general, the issue I’m experiencing is limited to games.

Just in case, here’s my specs!

  • 16 GB RAM

  • Intel Core i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60 GHz

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (11 GB)

  • Windows 10 64-bit

  • 2 HDD’s (2 TB total space)

Thanks!

  • Elaine Cortez@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    6·
    3 months ago

    Had a hunch that my old HDD’s were at least partially related to the issue. Thanks for the explanation! 😃 Looks like SSD’s and more RAM are the way to go!

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      This is the correct answer and the function is called Virtual Memory in Windows but is commonly known as the pagefile or swap. Adding more RAM won’t save you from this, as Windows will automatically move memory files into virtual memory if they’re idle for awhile, regardless of how much RAM is currently in use. In fact adding more RAM will probably increase the size of the virtual memory which may make the problem worse for you.

      Here is a more complete explanation: Swap file in Windows 10 & Windows 11: How to use it to optimize PC performance (increase, adjust, deactivate swap)?

      The pagefile is configurable. You can change which hard drive it gets stored on, how big it can be, and even turn it off completely. Turning it off has risks though, and may lead to system crashes (see the warnings in the article).

      You could add an SSD specifically to serve as a pagefile location and nothing else, in which case you could just get a small cheap one (a 32GB SSD would be more than enough for 16GB of RAM) - assuming that you have a place to plug it in to your motherboard, and then turn off the pagefile storage on all other drives in your system. That would be an easy change as you wouldn’t have to reinstall Windows onto a new hard drive.

      Ultimately though, the easiest and cheapest fix is to just change your behavior - close the game if you’re not using it for awhile and relaunch it when you want to play again.

      • SolOrion@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        3 months ago

        You could add an SSD specifically to serve as a pagefile location and nothing else, in which case you could just get a small cheap one (a 32GB SSD would be more than enough for 16GB of RAM)

        Honestly, assuming OP isn’t somewhere that the market for PC parts is extremely wonky compared to the US, if you’re going to get an SSD you might as well go ahead and get one big enough to serve as a boot drive. A 256gb SATA SSD is ~$20, and should be fine for that purpose. It probably won’t have DRAM at that price point, but realistically it’s not really necessary and still going to be a night and day upgrade over an HDD.