OT: PC with Win 11 was stuttering - DPC latency - potential solution
I had my PC set up freshly after replacing faulty hardware. It got a fesh BIOS, CPU microcode and a new Windows 11 install and so on.
Even though it worked fine, I noticed a stuttering behaviour. E.g. mouse movement showed delays, stable diffusion image generation had short stalls and very short flickering, opening a menu felt delayed etc.. All of this was always only a part of a second but it happened continuously. It started within the first minutes after starting the PC.
As I knew this from another PC in the past, I checked the DPC latency and, yes, something was wrong there.
How Latency should look:
How it looked on my PC:
Normally those issues are caused by badly written drivers, faulty hardware, messed up bios settings or loose or broken cables. But this time it was the "Core Parking" (hardware feature to shut down individual CPU cores to save energy).
Seems so, the combination of Intel 13700K, MSI motherboard, bios version, ram sticks, the Windows version and what not, might have an issue with core parking.
Disabling core parking solved the issue for me. The latency is fine again (only the nvidia driver shows spikes sporadically, but they are still in the green range and Nvidia drivers are known for this).
Core parking in power plan:
Anyway: I thought this might be of interest for others who also have a stuttering PC.
Tools / articles (free):
- LatencyMonitor: https://www.resplendence.com/main
- Article about IRQ issues and tool to optimise: https://www.igorslab.de/en/interrupt-problems-read-message-signaled-interrupts-msi/
- Article about latency in general and how to add core parking setting to the power plan (very interesting because it is for musicians who need a real time audio PC - lots of tips in there): https://gigperformer.com/docs/ultimate-guide-to-optimize-windows-for-stage/index.html
Comments
I have yet to buy a CPU with those efficiency core / screamer core combos that runs Windows, but I do have a 2020 M1 MacBook Air that has such an efficiency/screamer core combo and is similarly sluggish and nothing of note is even installed!
seems so issues can be everywhere.
Excellent, thanks for posting! Pointer to some good tools, too.
....the new Intel CPU structure seems more geared to portable/mobile units to reduce battery drain. I don't see the necessity for a desktop system that is always plugged into an external source
I'll be sticking with my update plan that is built on the Ryzen7 5800X.
I've had a 12600k-based system for the past couple years. It's been fine. Granted, it's still on Win10. So, who knows? Disabling core parking seems a sensible solution, though. I would do that first thing!
Great post. Good to know for tracking issues in Windows 11.