There’s A Fix For Frame Rate Stuttering In Windows 10

If you’ve wondered why your games don’t seem to be running as well lately, there’s a reason. It’s Windows 10, and it’s been around for a while. But finally, Microsoft has issued a fix..

It all kicked off with a post in July the Microsoft Answers forum, which was first picked up by DSO Gaming.

Back then, a user complained that their frame rates in League of Legends and start up boot times were noticeably affected after installing the latest Creator’s Update, with even Task Manager causing uncannily large spikes in CPU usage.

Paul Aaron, a support engineer at Microsoft, replied that the OS maker’s engineering team was “aware of the problem” and that they’re reaching out to users to understand why:

Engineering is aware of the problem and I previously posted asking people to submit a trace so that we could dig into the issue and figure out what’s going on. To date, we only have three submissions (and we appreciate those that submitted) but that is not a large enough sample to work with.

Keep in mind, the Creator’s Update was issued in April.

Wind the clock forward to today. After receiving enough feedback, Aaron wrote that they “identified an issue that we believe is the cause of stuttering” in some of the cases mentioned. Not all, but at least some of them, which is nice.

A fix was rolled out to the “fast” ring of the Windows Insider program a fortnight ago, which is basically the beta branch for future OS updates. (Here’s how you can get in on that, if you’re interested.) If you’re not part of the Windows Insider program, you’ll have to wait until the update is rolled out publicly, which could take a while (emphasis mine):

Again, If its works, let us know here – if it doesn’t submit another Feedback item using the same steps as above. You’re feedback on this change and the Insiders build will help us evaluate the fix so we that can decide if it should be released for the current version of Windows 10.

It’s worth noting that a lot of users with FPS issues, stuttering or otherwise, have gotten some respite by disabling the Xbox DVR. To do that, go to Game DVR in your Windows settings:

Note that if you want to change the folder Game DVR saves in, you’ll have to do that through the Xbox app. Why the hell it’s not all in the one location baffles me, but if you’re going to record you should be using OBS/Shadowplay anyway.

So if you’ve wondered why your Windows 10 PC wasn’t running quite as smooth in games over the last few months, don’t worry. You’re not crazy. There is a problem. The fix might not resolve your specific problem, but there was a problem.