Playing your favorite game on a beautiful weekend on your gaming PC! But all your joyful moment is gone in vain after facing some serious stuttering or framerate hitching. Isn’t it enough to spoil your entire weekend?
Still, confused about why is this stuttering happening? Can CPU be the culprit? Don’t be frustrated you are just in the right spot to know all the answers. As a hardware engineer and tech enthusiast, I have faced this problem a lot and solved this. To get rid of this frustration, you can count on me.
As I will go through each and every reason for stuttering and how to avoid it, just read the entire article. I can guarantee, you won’t be disappointed.
Can Faulty CPU Cause Stuttering?
CPU really can cause stuttering if you are using a faulty CPU. While gaming you will face fRAMe rate hitching or in the middle of the work you may face the cursor getting stuck. A damaged CPU or faulty CPU may be the culprit behind this. A faulty CPU can also downgrade overall systems performance.
Stutter means glitch or freezing while doing a regular task or gaming. You will see the display got stuck or the cursor moving slowly or lagging while doing any task, this means you are facing the stuttering issue. When the working flow of the background process got halted then it occurs.
Sometimes CPU got damaged for several reasons but the main reason behind this is the heat problem. If your processor isn’t cooled properly then it will get too much heat. Which is enough to make the system throttle. CPU got degraded over time if it is being used at high temperature always.
Not only the CPU there are other factors that also caused the stuttering issue. Other hardware like Graphics cards, RAM, Motherboards, and also PSU can be the reason behind this.
When does a CPU Stutter?
Except for faulty CPUs, there are other CPU factors that can cause stuttering. You may face fRAMerate hitching or glitches while gaming, but you have recently updated your CPU. This will make you frustrated enough. Try to find the other CPU factors that can also cause this issue.
When you are working on your computer there is a lot going on in your CPU. CPU has to perform lots of calculations, loops, and passing tons of binary data, and all these tasks got a fraction of a second to complete.
While you are gaming your CPU has to handle more workload than running a normal desktop app. All this process needs to run in real-time. Gaming goes through a lot of workloads like graphics rendering, input and output data, and updating sound and graphics at the same time.
When lots of tasks are being loaded into the CPU then it takes a longer time to switch between its running processes. This is the time when your CPU faces high usage. When your CPU is under high usage you will face stutter.
Suppose, you are using an overclockable CPU, to get the full benefit from it overclocking is a must.
While overclocking you will face the heating issue because you are pushing extra voltage into it. When you OC the processor, sometimes it causes stuttering issues. Overclocking produces enough heat to slow down the data execution process.
Your CPU cooler isn’t good enough to cool down your CPU effectively!
Congrats! You just kicked yourself into the world of stuttering. Your processor will heat up in no time when you throw multi-task at it. Which is enough to give you a stuttering experience.
Why does CPU Stuttering Occur?
Stuttering occurs due to a bad CPU or if your CPU is too hot to handle all the tasks. The heating issue causes the CPU to lag which leads to stuttering.
Here are the other reasons behind the stuttering issue:
Only the CPU caused this stuttering issue! If you are thinking this then you are wrong.
- GPU Throttling: Graphics cards can cause this problem while you are gaming. When a heavy workload hits the GPU and if it can’t handle this massive amount of tasks then it will surely cause this problem. You will see lagging, and glitching, and if it goes too bad game can be crashed. Low-end GPUs occurs this problem while playing games which requires a lot of GPU processing power.Optimizing the GPU for gaming helps in such scenarios.
- CPU & GPU Bottleneck: Suppose, you are using an overpowered CPU with an underpowered GPU, this situation will cause a bottleneck. The Same goes for an underpowered CPU with an overpowered GPU.
No matter which scenario caused this bottleneck, you will see framerate hitching. Which will bring nothing but an evil hour. So bottleneck isn’t a good thing for your PC after all.
- Insufficient or Faulty RAM: If the RAM you are using can’t cope with the system or if it got damaged, it will also cause stuttering issues. System memory handles all the real-time data executions and if this process got stuck in the middle of multitasking or gaming then it can cause lag. Not to mention, RAM affects in game FPS.
- Bad HDD or SSD: HDD or SSD problems can also be the reason behind this. All your data storage and installed apps use this storage device. If your SSD or HDD got malfunctioned or any physical damage can cause major problems for your system.
- Software Bug or Malware: Sometimes software bugs caused this problem. The software runs the entire process. A major bug in the software may cause miscommunication in the process. This will cause lagging or glitching.
Malware or viruses can be the reason behind this. Viruses can make the entire system slow and can miss leading the execution tasks. Sometimes viruses can be the reason for GPU or CPU throttling.
How to Overcome Stuttering Problems
This stuttering problem makes you mad as a hornet while playing games, right? To overcome this problem you will need to follow some methods.
Here are some methods to follow to overcome this:
- Try to keep your CPU under a low temperature always. Using a liquid cooler can solve this heating issue for you. A CPU with a low temp never causes a stuttering problem.
- Make sure that your processor can never go beyond 99% because it will overheat if it goes up to 100%. You can set the Maximum processor rate by going to the power management option.
- Always updating your Graphics driver can solve this issue. Driver updates can solve glitching issues or fRAMerate hitching issues.
- Try to turn V-Sync or Free Sync on from your Graphics card settings. It will enhance overall graphical performance.
- Close other heavy applications while gaming. Sometimes heavy apps clogged the RAM and caused a lot of CPU usage. Closing them helps to reduce the chance of stuttering.
- Try to check your RAM and HDD or SSD by using the memory diagnostic tool. Avoid faulty RAM or storage devices if it causes stuttering issues.
By following the above methods you can overcome stuttering issues.
FAQs
Why does your PC Stutter a lot?
Faulty hardware is the main reason behind the stuttering issue. But this problem can also happen due to viruses, outdated drivers, software with bugs, or OS-related problems.
Can RAM cause stuttering?
An insufficient amount of RAM can cause this problem. If you don’t have enough RAM then your system can’t process all the information quickly which leads to stuttering. Games need a lot of RAM and process all the data in real-time. So faulty or insufficient RAM can cause stuttering.
When does stuttering mostly occur?
Stuttering mostly occurs while gaming or performing tasks through heavy applications. Gaming requires tons of heavy tasks to perform at a time. When the CPU or GPU can’t handle all the execution tasks at a time it causes stuttering problems.
Final Thoughts
Stuttering can give you enough pain to ruin your entire day. Bad CPU, faulty RAM, and damaged HDD or SSD can be the culprit behind this. Try not to run your CPU under a high temp for a long time, it will degrade your CPU. An overheating CPU can make the entire system slow or cause lag while gaming.
So, try to avoid all the factors which cause the stuttering issue. If you have read the entire article then you know how to overcome this problem.
Let me know if you have further queries or failed to understand any topics by leaving a comment.
