Sped up Control on PC by turning one setting off in windows 10.

I was still having problems with Control (Stuttering and slow on DX12) even though i fixed some by using Compactor
https://forums.hexus.net/pc/414973-g...ace-usage.html

And then i found these posts

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/po...us-bf5.425353/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGRO...proved_my_fps/

Which basically say that windows defender has an option called "Control flow guard"
which interferes with DX calls in 11 & 12 it seems.

I turned "Control flow guard off" and immediately the difference was amazing Control now works very fast like i've had a major GPU upgrade!

I turned it off globally but you can do it per .exe file if you want to as it is a security risk turning it off, but i put a separate Anti-virus guard on to protect my PC.

Give it a try i'm well happy with the results myself.:

I'd be interested in seeing some proper benchmarking on this as I get terrible frame stutter in FM7, also interested in results for Quantum Break both DX11 and 12.

Initial difficulty i could find is its hard work to add any apps from the MS Store as individual exes, FM7 being one example.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Terbinator

I'd be interested in seeing some proper benchmarking on this as I get terrible frame stutter in FM7, also interested in results for Quantum Break both DX11 and 12.

Initial difficulty i could find is its hard work to add any apps from the MS Store as individual exes, FM7 being one example.

---

Yes a benchmark would be good, I don't have any MS store games on my PC so I'm not sure what you can do in that scenario sadly :(

The only benchmark i have is how it felt to me after I did it.
I Played Control normally in DX12 then I turned Control flow guard off globally then restarted the PC, ran Control it was a huge amount better, the next day I thought is it a placebo so turned it back on again the game became very slow and juddered badly turned it off restarted the PC it felt great and felt like it was running at 60fps!!

I tried it on GTA V that seemed very smooth, I only have a 6600K, 1tb Crucial 500 SSD, 16GB 3200 DDR4 ram and a Nvidia 970

Thanks to gerardfraser at Guru3d for these instructions..

1) Go to the button Search and type Exploit Protection
2) Open Exploit Protection.
3) Open Program Settings
4) Press the + "Add Program To Customize"
5) Click on "Choose Exact File Path"
6) Look for the folder of your game.exe file and press Open
7) Scroll Down To Control Flow Guard (CFG)
8) Tick Override System Settings And Turn OFF then Apply.
9) Restart the PC.

Just make sure you have decent Antivirus protection first..

When you say decent antivirus, I'm using standard windows defender on my gaming PC, but have nothing valuable or important stored on there - it's only for gaming, is it a risk I should avoid or should I get something like avira?

Been having a few random stutter/lag spikes in borderlands 3 will give this a try to see if it stops them. Many thanks

Just use a good free one, like avira. Personally I wouldn't rely on Windows defender on its own.

Windows Defender is a capable antivirus solution itself - installing an additional freeware AV suite will disable Defender, not run alongside it. Although Defender used to be the name of Windows' Antispyware utility this is not what it is now. MS later released Security Essentials which disabled the old Defender when installed. In Windows 10, Defender is basically an evolution of Security Essentials rather than the old Defender package. Be sure that you would be replacing it with something better if you wish to disable it.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus...r-4.18-204017/

Good bit of advice in the OP though, I know people who play Control and have complained of performance issues so I'll direct them here.

Does this affect other games and will turning this off have any effect on running other games too?

Random stuttering is not uncommon in many games and applications. I was wondering if it affects them too? And is it worth turning it off ;)

I'm pretty careful when I download /browse and use on my pc so antivirus and defenders in any form are pretty useless for myself. I really should remove it all at some point and just game on my pc like I always intend to to :mrgreen:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wazzickle

When you say decent antivirus, I'm using standard windows defender on my gaming PC, but have nothing valuable or important stored on there - it's only for gaming, is it a risk I should avoid or should I get something like avira?

---

The best form of antivirus is the user just being careful. You can have all the protection in the world on your computer but if you go around downloading and running random executables, you're going to have a bad time eventually no matter what you run; and antivirus software, no matter how good its' detection is, is unlikely to stop a zero day exploit. In my opinion standard Windows 10 antivirus should be good enough for the majority of users, unless you are a power user who knows what they need and how to configure it correctly for their usage.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by T1Cybernetic

Does this affect other games and will turning this off have any effect on running other games too?

Random stuttering is not uncommon in many games and applications. I was wondering if it affects them too? And is it worth turning it off ;)

I'm pretty careful when I download /browse and use on my pc so antivirus and defenders in any form are pretty useless for myself. I really should remove it all at some point and just game on my pc like I always intend to to :mrgreen:

---

I've certainly seen people reporting that this has helped stutter in other games but haven't seen any detailed analysis of how much it affects those games; I would advise against turning off antivirus security features unless it is absolutely necessary and affecting your gameplay in a big way, and definitely don't turn it off on a global level (per executable only).

I have a minor problem where I get a momentary pause playing any game :( I tried this setting just earlier but it was still the same for me so it's now turned back on. I've tried a full windows 10 install and various driver combinations over the months but as soon as I run a game I get a strange few milliseconds of lag, Almost a pause and then the game comes back and runs fine again for a while.

Not sure what causes it or how to remedy it but I've had the problem for some time now. I can certainly live with it but fixing the problem would be 100% better ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by T1Cybernetic

I have a minor problem where I get a momentary pause playing any game :( I tried this setting just earlier but it was still the same for me so it's now turned back on. I've tried a full windows 10 install and various driver combinations over the months but as soon as I run a game I get a strange few milliseconds of lag, Almost a pause and then the game comes back and runs fine again for a while.

Not sure what causes it or how to remedy it but I've had the problem for some time now. I can certainly live with it but fixing the problem would be 100% better ;)

---

Is this with specific games, or just most games in general? Issues like these could be for any number of reasons and can be very difficult to track down. Has this been something you have experienced since you had this PC, did it start after a hardware change, or only started with more modern games?

I'm only able to test a couple of games right now but yes it does it in all games. Hard to explain but it's almost like an almost total freeze for a few milliseconds and then it goes back to normal gameplay. I can't remember how long it's been doing it to be honest. Just a long time :( For example, Right now I have a fresh install of windows 10 pro and I've just put the minimum drivers and software to get The Witcher 3, Guild Wars, Minecraft and Fortnight running so my daughter an I could play with a few friends and it's already doing it when playing.


Spec = Ryzen 7 2700x - MSI B450 GAMING PLUS MAX - Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8 GB 3200MHz and currently an AMD R9 290x which is a power hungry beast but it plays those games fine.

I found a tool to show you the difference between having HPET on or not as it might cause micro-stuttering, this program called Timerbench 1.5 is another way you can turn this OFF or ON worth a try to see the difference.

You can get the download from the link below..
https://www.overclockers.at/articles...-windows-timer

They discuss it in the thread below.
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1...s/?cmpredirect

Also make sure your on your latest drivers for AMD R9 290.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/graph...-radeon-r9-290

And use DDU Display driver uninstaller to have a clean driver install.
https://www.guru3d.com/files-details...-download.html

Also here's a video of some tweaks you can do on your R9 290 settings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Gf...hannel=50Fifty

What helps for me with stuttering is setting a cap on your frame rate depending on how many FPS the game you are playing can display.
https://www.gamingpcbuilder.com/how-...w-fps-counter/

You can set this sometimes via the game (Better in game if you can) or in the AMD Adrenalin driver software via AMD Chill (On my Nvidia its in control panel manage 3d settings/Max frame rate, I set it to 58fps)

I know when I had a R9 280 it stuttered noticeably vs the Nvidia 970 I got afterwards (I know the 290 is comparable in performance to my 970, its just what I noticed when I upgraded.)

I found this Youtube video quite useful to do with input lag I got some good tips from there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msOW...%28non%29sense

I've also found running control in dx11 mode helps with stuttering

Thanks for the help ;) I've been having a toy around with HPET enabled and disabled but it didn't make the problem any better or worse, Although the PC does feel /seem better with it turned on so for now I will be leaving it turned on.

I'm still troubleshooting but I'm not finding anything obvious as of yet but I did find a video of the very similar freeze /millisecond pause that someone was having which is almost the same symptom I am having although less frequent then his freeze.

Streaming is not my thing and I don't have that hardware /software so I know it's not the same problem or fix but it's sort of an example of what's happening to my PC.



Example stutter /freeze -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttP7XjrjpsQ

well the first thing I'd try to do is monitor your pc when it happens.

do all games stutter? non-games?
try and keep an eye on cpu, gpu, ram and drive access/load when it happens, see if anything is getting overloaded.
Also depending on your cpu & gpu you need to keep an eye on the clocks (the speed it's boosting too) you might be thermal or current limited and are throttling (more likely current for micro stutters)

gpu-z is a great tool for monitoring gpu load + temperature + clocks + current/thermal limits

cpu is more tricky in terms of boost characteristics, disable any overclocks, including motherboard manufacture tweeks, many bump up the all core boost performance which can cause issues.

Well after much testing and tweaking the problem still exists :surprised:

It's definitely not my old GPU causing the problem (R9 290x) Because I now have my new GPU, A beastly Sapphire 6800 XT Nitro + and yep, The problem still exists with this GPU too!

Sooo I totally cleaned out my system, Took it all apart, Cleaned, Dusted, Polished and then put it all back together again, Fresh water in the loop and thermal paste on the CPU. Fresh install of windows, New drivers, Even got myself another new Tecknet gaming mouse and I even watered the plants and cut the grass...

Minecraft bedrock /windows 10 edition is the only game I currently have installed just as a tester game but you guessed it. The problem still exists :O_o1:

Actually the PC lag /slow down I suffer is system wide, Not just a gaming problem so I shouldn't have hijacked this thread specifically and I really should have posted my own thread so I apologise for that :stupid:

In the meantime I don't have much time lately to troubleshoot and I would rather just be using my PC even with the problem when I do have time so I'm going to go at troubleshooting things slowly, One step at a time and if I figure anything out I will post an update, Hopefully with good news!

Quote:

---

Yeah it's definitely all games from what I've noticed. A reboot definitely makes it much better for a while but it comes back in time.

As for monitoring. I have monitored much of the PC with things like GPUZ, Task Manager, CPUZ, HWMonitor and a couple of others which I can't remember off the top of my head but the strange pause /freeze glitch is a mystery to me :D

The first thing I tried was new thermal pads and paste on my trusty old GPU which only quietened the fan down. They were getting noisy sometimes (That's why I though it was the GPU) thermal throttling but I never hit the limit then or now and it's running cooler now.

It has occurred to me it might be a hard drive issue but I only had task manager to monitor that and I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary.

It's definitely difficult to pinpoint the cause. I'm secretly hoping that it's just because the GPU is old and if /when I get my new one the problem will be gone :p Otherwise I will have to start some more serious troubleshooting.

---