Stuttering with v-sync at 60fps

Hello. In a lot of games where I have a solid, locked 60fps at all times with v-sync on, I seem to all too frequently get stuttering and frame-pacing issues like the kind you would normally see when the framerate drops below 60 (or whatever your monitor's refresh rate is).

Thing is, I have a g-sync laptop (a 4K, GTX 1070, 512GB NVMe, i7-6700HQ, HP Omen 17), so such sub-60fps stuttering is nonexistant for me; as long as the framerate stays below 60, g-sync stays enabled and there is no stuttering, but as soon as you get a locked 60 fps, and g-sync switches to v-sync, stuttering frequently occurs in many games (recent cases include HITMAN, Abzu, Far Cry 3, yet games like Skyrim: SE and others don't have the issue), but usually only when I look at something complex, something that would cause a framerate dip, which would make sense why it would cause stuttering if it weren't for the fact that it never comes close to dropping below 60fps. Isn't such stuttering supposed to be such a frequent issue only with variable framerates on non-g-sync displays? Is it normal for a rock solid 60fps to be stuttering so frequently?

I began believing it was just something some games suffer from as a sign of poor optimization and that just setting the graphics options high enough (4K) that I never quite hit 60fps would allow me to dodge the issue in those games. However, recently when messing around with v-sync settings in HITMAN, I ran into some strange, unrepeatable incidents where I suddenly had a stutter-free 60fps locked experience. But I have no idea what was causing it to fix itself, and after I tried testing it by switching it back off and then on again inside the game and in the NVCP, I only succeeded in getting it to happen one more time, and then never again. It's baffling, I can't figure out what combination of changes caused it to come out smooth those 2 times but never again. But it caused me to realize it might not be something you simply have to live with and cannot be fixed.

Anyway, if anyone has any advice or ideas on what might be causing or how to alleviate stuttering in many games at v-synced 60fps, I would appreciate it.

 

Interesting stuff, thanks. However, it doesn't seem any universal fix/conclusion is reached, and they seem to be more concerned about input lag in that thread, which isn't a problem for me. I'm just trying to understand why some games start skipping and stuttering when there is more activity/load even while the framerate stays rock solid at 60 while it stays consistent in other games.

On a broader note venting about Nvidia and PC gaming in general, if this is a universal problem everyone is trying to find a solution to (assuming it bothers them enough) I don't understand why we would need to download additional external software to set framerate limits just to get our games working properly. It's 2017, why is this stuff still not just plain working right out of the box?

And why after fiddling with the in-game v-sync and the NVCP v-sync settings was I able to randomly "glitch" HITMAN into working correctly a few times? It's all very strange and frustrating and it's issues like this that make me consider just playing all my games on PS4 Pro and calling it a day. I mean it can't quite match a gtx 1070 but it comes darn close for nearly a third of the price and you don't have to deal with stuff like this (why is this kind of stuttering almost never a problem on consoles?) ... but then I remember how awesome it is when it is all working, the greatness of Steam, mods, free multiplayer, the portability of having a gaming notebook, etc... but still.

 

Well actually I love g-sync, when it's actually being used, which is at any framerate from 0-59, it makes everything so smooth. It's when it deactivates at 60 that the old problems with v-sync return. It's just weird that with the way things work, I actually sometimes WANT lower framerates just so I can have the stutter-free g-sync experience. Lower framerates = smoother experience. Very counter-intuitive. Guess I will try using a framerate limiter but it just feels silly. If that works so well, why isn't it included in the NVCP and turned on by default?

 

That has been my complaint since the whole thing came to light. You click the "enable G-sync" button, it should offer up a frame limiter option, but it doesn't. You can't rely on in-game frame limiter because they don't always include it. MSI Afterburner/Riva Tuner work great for it though. Also, reason why it's nice to have a G-sync LCD that can run faster than 60Hz. Problem is I can't play without G-sync any more. I never used to be too sensitive to tearing, but now I see it all the time if G-sync isn't engaged.