PCSX2 micro stutter

[polygonslayer]

Hi all you knowledgeable people :) I got a small problem with PCSX2 that has been bugging me for a while now. It is not a massive deal, and I've tried to tinker with it and read up online, but so far no luck. Basically I get what I can only describe as "micro stutters" in PCSX2. It seems to happen with most games I try on it. The game runs perfectly, no slow down or anything, but every now and again there is a slight stutter. Maybe every 5-10min or so the game will stop for 0.25-0.5 seconds, then resume fine. It's not too bad, but it's jarring. I tried to turn v-sync off and on in the PCSX2 settings, I tried to set my graphics card into performance mode with no result. I tried various revisions of PCSX2 as well. It also happens regardless if I got the game running at 1080p or in native resolution. I got a fairly good computer and don't really have much problem running anything else so I find it kind of baffling. Especially considering the games run perfectly smooth apart from this "micro stutter". Anyone else had this problem? or maybe know what could be causing it? Cheers :)

[SentaiBrad]

I get a similar thing every so often, and I have a decent PC as well. Have you tried searching the PCSX2 forums? My honest guess is that... there is nothing none of us will be able to do saddly, but I hope to be proven wrong. I think this might be... one of those emulation quirks that pops up every now again. Clearly not normal, but something to live with for the time being? That said, are you in Software mode or Hardware Mode? If in either, which one specifically? DirectX 9 or DirectX 11. I also think that it might be RAM or CPU related. Not quite the same thing, but even on a weaker system I got rid of Fallout 3 and Skyrim microstutter with some mods, but primarilly the 64bit 4GB RAM Flag for their exe's did the trick most of all. If I recall, PCSX2 is made 32bit only, and I am unsure how much multi-threading it does. Do you have some of the speed hacks turned on? Generally preset 1 or 2 should be safe for the games and give you decent speed ups or may get rid of the micro stutter. I know there is a multi thread option in one of the Speed Hack menu's, but to be honest I am unsure if that is exactly what it does... In task manager you can also specify that it use more cpu by setting it to high or real time, but this may bog down your system severely, I haven't tested it. Past that without asking a PCSX2 dev, I am honestly unsure what to do.

[polygonslayer]

I've searched on there and google in general yeah, the ones I've found are about general stutter and the ones that I found that I thought might be the issue have not worked :/ It happens in both software and hardware and I tried openGL, Direct 9 and 11. No speedhacks are on and I tried most of the settings in various configurations. I have not tried to apply a 4gb patch though, might try that! :) But yeah, it's not the end of the world and in long gaming sessions I tend to forget about it. It might be one of those weird things that just happens on certain hardware/software configurations and maybe down the line it "fixes itself". :) Cheers

[SentaiBrad]

Make sure to backup your exe before you turn on that 4GB RAM Flag on the exe, cause it can make the program not work. It may not do anything to some games, break others or help others. Try Speedhack Preset 1 or 2 and see if that helps as well.

[orac31]

I had the same problem I found two ways to solve it. 1 run the roms from ssd 2 on the hard dive I used to play the roms(non ssd) I unchecked allow windows to index the files and it put a stop to it. now this could be complete rubbish but it worked for me

[SentaiBrad]

That's pretty interesting. I do have all my roms on a USB3 connection and I did notice they had less issues, but I attributed that to my new beast of a PC. SATa 6GB/s, USB3 and SSD's make sense as to why they can help reduce stutter. The image is being read but the disc can't keep up in certain spots, especially if you have other programs being run from the hard drive.

[polygonslayer]

Hi again, finally been able to try out those tricks. None of them seemed to do anything unfortunately, but it's the HDD for sure. Whenever it happens I get a spike on the read shown in the task manager while RAM, CPU etc are fine and no change. Cheers guys, not sure if there would be a solution to it :/ not the end of the world anyway. :) Cheers

[SentaiBrad]

Well there are a few things you can do depending on your set up. Sorry if you mentioned any of this already, but, if your games are on an External (even USB3), try and internal HDD at either 6GB/s or 3GB/s (depending on your mother board) or more commonly refered to as SATA3 and SATA2. If your using a HDD, what RPM is it? If it's an external, chances are it's a 5200RPM Drive. If it's a case you supplied to the drive to, try buying a 7200RPM drive, or even potentially a 10k RPM Drive, but they can degrade faster than 7200RPM's and you're not getting much much more speed. You can also try Hybrid HDD's, and over time it will learn what you launch the most and read it faster. Of course, all of these drives do best inside of the PC where the connection is more direct. Externals are handy, but are certainly more for storage than speed (though I love USB3 now that I can finally use it). Then of course there are the SSD's, which I picked up a 500GB (what my OS is on), for $110. That's really cheap now, and 1TB SSD's are starting to pop up if money is less of a thing for you. There is also the M.2's, which are signifigantly more expensive for the space, I am looking at a 240GB for.. I think it was just shy of $200? However, these go directly on to your motherboard (natively on mine If I recall, or they potentially have an adapter), but M.2's don't work in all Motherboards, the BIOS needs to support it. It is essentailly a Hard Drive on the same connection as your GPU or Sound Cards, meaning it's blazing fast, even more so than the SSD. I am looking to get the 240GB to throw Fallout 4 and all the other heavy loading games on there when I get one. Hope any of this info helps.