Sim Racing Stuttering & Freezing | How to DIAGNOSE and FIX!

[@S1Races]

Hey folks, I learnt something else this week which I wasn't aware of when I made this video. If you are running any companion apps (overlays, crew chief, sim hub, etc.), make sure "Game Mode" in Windows is turned off. You can search reddit for the testing others have done but the TLDR version is it can prioritize the game window but at the expense of the other apps you have running. So long as you have a modern CPU with some headroom this setting provides little to no benefit but if it is restricting the performance of your companion apps, that could be another cause of stutters. The rabbit hole deepens...!

[@rynbrndn]

Solid video and effort mate. I too have spent endless hours on this topic, as well as trying to get the most out of the 4090 and 32” 4K triples (and a fourth up top). I’d love to see an updated guide from you on OBS+iRacing+4k, including audio and HDR etc etc. I’m not a creator but I love streaming so my mum and dad can watch back home (they get a kick out of it!). I’m really struggling to get the right incantation to make it look and sound as good as folks like you and Dave Cam etc. I’ve watched your OBS guide as well. Thanks so much for your videos! Extremely helpful.

[@S1Races]

Yeah I think that's a great topic for the next video. My current OBS one is outdated so I'll aim to get something out this month. Appreciate the suggestion!

[@njcdevelopments3765]

Great video. Can relate to all of it trying to fix stuttering in iRacing on my first PC build. Two things I’m currently researching to eliminate random stuttering (one race smooth, next race not, same conditions) is disabling Multi Plane Overlay (MPO) in Windows and Flip Presentation mode (Optimisations for Windowed Games (DX11) in Windows(11). At least one user reports iRacing sim using different flip presentation modes when opening the sim. One flip mode causes stutters.

[@S1Races]

Interesting, I'll need to read up on the flip presentation modes as I'm not particularly knowledgeable about them. The new Windows setting I learnt about this week was to turn off "Game Mode". Always seemed as though that should be on when gaming but with any companion apps running, things should run smoother with this set to off. Where is the discussion on flip presentation modes and iRacing? I'd love to have a read.

[@Jennings1810]

Very thorough. Quick one..if you're running discord, it too has a hardware acceleration option and it likes to default to on..never found a reason for it to be on myself..of course, your mileage may vary

[@S1Races]

Yeah I have it set to off there too. I guess it is there to support the overlay but as you say, hard to notice a difference in discord with it on or off

[@Rene_Bo]

Wow, good amount of work put into this ❤

[@S1Races]

Hopefully there’s a few pointers in there. It’s a frustrating topic…!

[@RedSliceGaming34]

Always have Wheel / Pedals plugged directly into the PC if at all possible. Button Boxes can be plugged into powered usb hubs and be fine. Shifters too sometimes. But I always will direct connect the wheel and pedals into the PC's motherboard usbs

[@S1Races]

Yup, good guidance

[@teamvoidhacks]

You are correct it drives you to absolute madness, I have mostly given up on gaming.

[@RedSliceGaming34]

MSI Tomahawk X870s bios are kind of sketchy at this point for 9800x3d's boot loops, memory errors etc. Still waiting on a stable enough bios as Im still on a bios from factory made in August of 2024. Chipset drivers are also something you should periodically update.

[@S1Races]

Oh the world of bios updates… My last board was gigabyte and they spent months on end with betas before eventually releasing a final build. Only to release the next beta right after as the next microcode update was already on its way… Asrock have actually been pretty decent so far with significant microcode updates coming not too long after AMD releases them and with only a short beta period

[@barryhills7830]

Did you have your 4th monitor plugged into your GPU or the onboard CPU graphics? Very helpful video, thanks.

[@S1Races]

I tried both actually, and struggled with different issues on each port. I’m going to give it another try tonight as it might have been something else going on at the time as i was doing a fresh install of windows as well. Planning to use the board CPU graphics and go from there

[@chrisparry4461]

Evening! So like you I get micro stutters while running my dash, if I unplug it mid race then it’s silky smooth. I did some investigating last night albeit didn’t get very far…BUT if I change my settings to run in windowed mode then I get no stutters!! Why would that be!?

[@S1Races]

I wish I could tell you but on that one I’m not sure. I hate the trial and error approach but sometimes that’s just the only way so I’m glad you found a solution at least! If I was to hazard a guess I’d say maybe windows is prioritizing the full screen app which is impacting the performance of the dash app which in turn might be having an impact on the GPU or CPU. Is the dash plugged into GPU or CPU graphics?

[@chrisparry4461]

So frustrating lol! My dash is plugged via the cpu. I’ve just tried turning v sync on and it gets rid of the micro stutters but gives me one big stutter ever lap or so! 🙄😂

[@chrisparry4461]

Well after all that I’ve seemed to have sorted it. For some reason my antivirus (Norton) had a toggle in the options for optimise gaming experience! Since turning that off all is good!

[@ivanpinheiro9429]

Try Turn of vsync in nvidia control panel and check if u still have fps cap at 70 with 4º monitor

[@S1Races]

That was something I tried at the time but I then had unrestricted frame rates when iracing wasn’t in focus and restricted to 70fps when it was in focus. If I can get my hands on a 5090 I’ll try again but I’m ok without it for now :-)

[@robcrisdale]

Iracing have advised via Microsoft to NOT install or upgrade to 24H2 and to roll back to 24H1 as Microsoft are working on issues relating to 24H2

[@S1Races]

I hadn’t read that actually, do you know what specific issue in the update was causing that guidance from iRacing? I’ve found things to actually be pretty stable on 24H2 and haven’t noticed a big difference from the previous version

[@robcrisdale]

@@S1Races Sorry for delay in response. From Iracing Support " Win 11 24H2 has caused issues for gamers (not isolated to Iracing) incl crashes, glitches and problems with Anti-Cheat like EAC/EOS. Microsoft is working on a fix for EAC Compatibility issues. Microsoft has recommended NOT updating to version 24H2 until these issues have been fixed. Please uninstall 24H2 : goto Settings>/system/recovery> go back to access "rollback" option which will allow you to revert to previous version

[@LarryMcDonald08]

I sent you a message on instagram, I could not send you all I wanted to, but later as I explained in the message, I will.