This happens to everyone once in a lifetime. Having been saving your money for months, you finally buy the latest and most advanced GPU. When you start playing the most demanding video games like Cyberpunk 2077 and see that beautiful frame rate counter on the right side of your screen reading 120 FPS, you realize that you have just experienced the ultimate gaming experience ever. This, however, is far from reality. In addition to feeling that the game is quite slow and the image is shaky, you clearly feel that your movements on the mouse cause stuttering. You check your frame rate counter again – yes, it still shows 120 FPS. But how come playing the game is so laggy when you have such a high FPS?
What we want to say is that a frame rate counter doesn't tell you the whole story. It provides you with partial information only. To fully grasp the reason behind the poor performance of your gaming rig in spite of its good FPS, you need to know something about the 1% Lows and the issue of frame time variance.
The Illusion of Average FPS
If you monitor the FPS using tools such as MSI Afterburner or the Xbox Game Bar, then it is the Average frame rate that will be displayed. This is because the tool will merely calculate the number of frames generated by your graphics card within the last second.
The thing is that the human brain does not perceive the game as the "average" of anything. The perception occurs at each frame separately.
Consider it as driving a car on a highway. With the perfect frame rate, for instance, 120 FPS, there would be 120 cars passing you by per second, each equally spaced from one another. However, this is hardly the case when it comes to PC gaming – the first 0.5 seconds, your computer might generate 150 frames,s while during the other half-second it can generate only 90 frames.
As you can see, the average is 120 F, PS, but those 90 frames – that is the hiccup you notice.
What Are 1% Lows and 0.1% Lows?
Here’s when we enter the realm of "1% Lows". When it comes to truly knowing how well a game runs, you need to stop thinking about average FPS and start considering 1% Lows. In layman's terms, 1% Lows are the average frame rates from the 1% of the frames rendered most slowly during your gaming experience.
For example, let's say that you played a certain game for 100 seconds. The software takes the absolute worst 1 second out of those 100 seconds (which are the slowest in terms of rendering) and calculates the average frame rate of those frames. This is your 1% Low.
- Good Situation: The FPS Average is 100 FPS, and the 1% Low FPS is 85 FPS. The gameplay will be smooth since even the lowest FPS is still good.
- Bad Situation: Your average FPS is 100, while 1% Lows go down to 45 FPS. In this case,e the game will seem to be stuttering. Even though your statistics show you 100 FPS, your eyes will keep experiencing micro-freezes of 45 FPS.
There are 0.1% Lows. This is the absolute worst of the worst, the very bottom. It is an average of the slowest 0.1% of the frames. When your 0.1% lows fall under 30 FPS, then you will experience a huge and jarring hitch that happens just for a split-second. That’s the one that makes your game “jump.”
The Real Culprits: Why Do Stutters Happen?
With your new GPU capable of running at 120 FPS, why does the performance suddenly drop to 40 FPS in the 1% lows? The following are some of the main causes.
1. Shader Compilation Stutter (The Problem in the Unreal Engine 5)
It is hard not to notice this effect if you have recently been playing a game developed based on the latest Unreal Engine 5. At the moment when you enter a new environment or see a new visual effect for the very first time, the game freezes for a brief second.
The reason why it happens is that the game translates the code right at the moment of your gameplay, depending on your particular graphics card. In other words, your GPU waits for instructions from the CPU, resulting in a violent jump in frame time.
2. Traversal Stutter
This problem is very dangerous for the performance of open-world games. When you sprint around the map in such games as GTA V or Spider-Man, the engine of the game fails to load the necessary assets (textures, buildings, NPCs) from the SSD to the RAM fast enough. Despite the fast NVMe SSD, an improperly optimized game engine will freeze the rendering process to load data, thus causing stutter every few seconds.
3. The Single Channel RAM Conundrum
I cannot stress this enough for budget gamers in India. You would go to a local store and buy a PC with just one stick of 8GB RAM, and your 1% lows would get absolutely wrecked.
The more RAM you have, the more highway you have connecting your processing unit to the storage device. Havingdual-channell RAM (2 sticks of 4GB/8GB) effectively increases the size of the road. While dual channel RAM usually results in a marginal increase in average FPS (about 10%), it can result in a huge boost to your 1% lows (30%-40%). With a single stick of RAM, your CPU is stuck in a traffic jam.
4. CPU Bottlenecks
Your games run almost exclusively off a single core in your CPU to make Draw Calls to your GPU. An older CPU and a brand-new RTX 4060 will likely leave your GPU twiddling its thumbs and idle since the CPU would not be able to keep up with it.
How to Fix Stuttering and Improve Frame Pacing
Sometimes you do not have to empty your pockets on expensive hardware to solve problems with stuttering and low frame rates. A few small software changes can save you from a gaming catastrophe.
Limit the Frame Rate
It is one of the easiest ways to solve the problem of bad 1% low. When your frame rate fluctuates between 90 and 140, your game engine does not cope with frame pacing. Enter the settings of your game and limit the frame rate to a stable one. In case your 1% lows equal 80, set the cap of your game to 90 FPS. Stable 90 FPS is much more comfortable to play than fluctuating 120 FPS.
Activate DLSS or FSR
Technologies of upscaling, such as DLSS or FS, will allow you not only to increase your average FPS but also to solve the problem of inconsistent frame rate. Thanks to these technologies, the burden on your GPU is significantly reduced.
Check Your RAM Slots
With two pieces of RAM installed, they should be in the right slots (generally slots 2 and 4, which are the second and fourth closest to the processor) to operate on dual-channel technology. I have known some people to lose up to 30% of their performance due to having their RAM in the wrong slots.
Enable ReBAR
If you have a good GPU and motherboard, you should enable Resizable BAR (ReBAR) from your BIOS settings. This lets your CPU use all of your GPU’s VRAM at once, eliminating any stuttering in heavy games that constantly stream many textures.
Closing Thoughts: Smoothness Over Raw Numbers
Through marketing hype, we've been trained to strive for the maximum FPS possible. However, PC gaming isn't about numbers; it's about quality. Consistent 60 FPS that runs butter smooth with good frame pacing will provide a far better experience than 120 FPS with horrendous 1% lows.
Next time you are experiencing choppiness in your game, forget the large white number on the right side of your screen. Instead, take a look at the frametimes graph. If it resembles a mountain range, then it's clear that you have a problem with stutters, no matter how many FPS your game provides.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good 1% low for gaming?
Your 1% low FPS would ideally be at least 70% of the average FPS. In case your FPS is around 100 on average, then your 1% low FPS should not go below 70. Below 40 to 50, there will be stutters.
Does V-Sync fix stuttering?
The use of V-Sync can solve the problem of screen tearing, although it will make the problem of stuttering even worse. This is because it requires the GPU to wait until the screen refreshes itself.
Why do PC games stutter but consoles do not?
Consoles have fixed hardware. Developers optimize the game engine specifically for one CPU and one GPU, ensuring perfect frame pacing. On PC, there are millions of hardware combinations, making perfect optimization almost impossible.
