I'm running a 4090 with drivers 527.56 on Windows 11 21H2 and using a Valve Index kit, and I'm still getting stuttering when MSI Afterburner is open and monitoring hardware. Upon closing the program out completely, all pink lines in the SteamVR performance graph and stuttering disappear. I thought this was fixed by Nvidia a year or two ago but it seems to not be the case. The funny thing is, my 1080 Ti does not have this problem with MSI Afterburner and SteamVR. I can run both at the same time with no display errors and stuttering. It really seems to be a newer Nvidia series issue. Anyone out there running a 40 series card with MSI Afterburner actively monitoring hardware stats and playing VR without any issues?
Nvidia has only fixed part of that bug a year or so ago and never fixed the second part, AFAIK. Although I personally haven't had any any problems with current drivers (since the first part was fixed) and having Afterburner run in the background when using VR. I'm using a HP Reverb G2 WMR headset, though, not a Valve Index so your issue may be specific to that kit. Do your performance issues go away when you close Afterburner/RTSS? If so, are you using the latest (beta) versions of both? Have you tried wiping your drivers using DDU in safe mode and reinstalling them clean to see if that helps?
@Astyanax I just got into the VR thing. I am currently playing Hellblades Senuas Sacrifice. Its astonishing and very well optimised for VR/PC. Could say more but, if you have VR give it a go.
Yes the issues go away when I close Afterburner (which also closes RTSS for me.) I am on versions 4.6.5 Beta 4 and 7.3.4 Beta 5 respectively. And yes I always DDU before installing new drivers.
Yes I have. It basically comes down to if hardware is being monitored, stutters will occur. And I want to be perfectly clear here: this is not an Afterburner issue. It's an Nvidia issue. The same stutters occur when I run GPU-Z, or HWinfo64, etc. The difference is I have no real desire or need to run those programs in the background while Afterburner provides actual benefit and fan speed control. That's why it's so sad that Nvidia can't figure this problem out.
Have you tried playing with the timing intervals (Hardware polling period) that AB and/or RTSS use to measure data?
I have not. I would imagine reducing polling rate would extend the intervals between stutters but maybe not since it's not 1:1 as is. Polling rate is 1000ms and stutters can happen anywhere from 10 to 50 seconds between.
Afterburner doesn't seem to effect anything for me on a quest 2 with airlink or virtual desktop. Maybe it's a software issue with the index?
Probably because those aren't direct display connections and instead you're capturing video feeds and sending it over the air. This pink line stutter in SteamVR is called a "Display Error" so I imagine it has more to do with the way you connect to the PC and graphics card than anything.
I know that Valve was working with Nvidia to resolve all the stuttering display errors they have when any hardware monitoring is active (among other things) and now on the most recent update, I'm 99% sure they've come to the realization that this cannot be solved and instead they're just hiding/filtering out the display error pink lines in their frametime graph to suppress awareness of this problem. I see a massive reduction in those pink lines in the graph, and yet the same telltale stutters are happening in the headset when MSI Afterburner, fpsVR, Task Manager etc are all open and monitoring the GPU's hardware statistics. I know this sounds like a conspiracy, but I'm pretty OCD about this problem and noticed a massive difference since the last SteamVR update. Anyone else seeing the same thing? Stuttering visible in the headset but no pink lines in the frametime graph?
If you have GeForce Experience running with Game overly and all the other background stuff its doing it seems to conflict with MSI afterburner. For me I just use the Ge-force built in Temp target which lowers the voltage to 95% but I'm ok with that to prolong my card life. (Nvidia won the battle on that I used MSI afterburner for years) If you really want to use MSI try disabling the game overlay, or completely get rid of Ge force experience (Or RTX experience if you happen to be using a studio card) Oh I forgot this is an old one but the disable the windows gaming overlay, and steam overlay also if you haven't. (Steam overlay can conflict with Ge-force experience also although this was patched some years back)
Hi mate I just made an account on this website to tell you you're not alone and this issue is still not solved. VR may be very niche for gaming but it is still relevant and these microstutters are infuriating. For now the only way I have found to have a reliably smooth VR experience is to disable ALL background software every single thing. Including MSI afterburner.
