Lag Between Programs

I'm a hardcore gamer and I use Windows 8.1. Recently, I've been noticing some unwanted issues, and I was wondering if people who were more experienced with Windows, and with computer hardware in general could help me. I built my computer from scratch, so my specs aren't usual. You can see them here:

Here's the issue. I open Google Chrome first when I start my process, so that I can listen to some music while I'm gaming. I then open Minecraft, and launch it. As Minecraft is launching, the music becomes stuttered, and any video is choppy. This happens for the five to ten seconds that minecraft takes to load. After that it goes back to normal, but occasionally while playing this will happen again. Does anyone have an idea to what causes this? I would like to fix this issue however I can, even buying new hardware. To start however, is there a software/user controlled way to fix this? If not, what hardware could I upgrade to improve this?

David

Posted 2016-03-06T04:45:28.033

Reputation: 233

Answers

By looking at your specs, I'd say the CPU is the problem. Your CPU is a dual core that does not support hyper threading. What's happening is that your CPU can't keep up and its usage is getting maxed out. The high CPU usage is the cause of your intermittent choppy audio and video.

Trying to explain this in layman terms, when your CPU can't keep up with all of the tasks on hand, processes can be paused and forced to wait for its turn to run again. When this happens your music is probably being held back from being able to process and do it's thing. Certain I/O operations have a lower priority than other tasks. Scheduling is very complex and there are many ways to implement it.

If you'd like to read more into it, you can start with a wiki page

DrZoo

Posted 2016-03-06T04:45:28.033

Reputation: 8 101

Okay. I've looked into it, and yes, it seems the CPU is the problem. Could you recommend a CPU that would run with my specs smoothly that could fix this? – David – 2016-03-09T03:50:18.527

Okay, sounds good. I guess the question I have more is which is better bang for my buck as it goes for what I'm going to do with my PC. I was looking at a forum thread about the difference between a quad core and a double core with hyper-threading, and I couldn't really understand it. Do you have any advice on which would be better for running multiple processes at the same time (Google Chrome & Minecraft for example)? Thanks for all your help too! – David – 2016-03-09T14:32:34.220

@DavidCole-GrammarPolice Feel free to ask any questions in chat

– DrZoo – 2016-03-09T15:09:31.100

Currently I am on a school computer on a school network, and stackexchange is blocked (dont ask why, I have no clue) but I will make sure to get on chat later – David – 2016-03-09T15:12:14.503

@DavidCole-GrammarPolice that's fine. I'm adding my comments into the chat now. No hurry. – DrZoo – 2016-03-09T15:12:57.320

I would guess that minecraft is utilizing your hard drive while its loading which is causing chrome to freeze or studder.

If this was happening to me and I wanted to fix it I would purchase an SSD to put my games on.

Something like this. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ5N6I/ref=twister_B00PRDMHLU?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

LethalRose

Posted 2016-03-06T04:45:28.033

Reputation: 56

thanks for the feedback. For now I want to see if there any other ways to fix this, but I will keep this in mind – David – 2016-03-06T17:03:22.593

@DavidCole-GrammarPolice with that socket type, there are a lot of good CPUs. It would mostly depend on your budget. Getting an i5 processor you'd at least have a quad-core with no hyper-threading. If you got an i7 you'd have a quad-core with hyper-threading. A rough price range for these could be $189-$300 ish. – DrZoo – 2016-03-09T04:02:31.913

LethalRose, I have a 3 TB hard drive space with fast receivers and transmitters on each end. With other drives I might think this a possibility, but not anymore. It is most likely what @DrZoo talked about – David – 2016-03-10T12:17:12.077