Here is video evidence of the stutter I'm referring to when Rainmeter is open. The upper yellow graph that shows the white pillars is fps response time consistency; notice how every time it spikes (every 1.5 seconds), the in-game fps meter drops and the game freezes for a split second.
I realize going from 150 fps to 120 fps is not much to complain about, but it's not the fps drops that is worrisome, but rather the nature of the stutter, the split-second freezes that interfere with smooth video response. Normally, the game has no issue keeping right at the 150 fps mark consistently when Rainmeter is not open.
If you compare the two videos, you'll notice not just the severe 1.5-second stutter, but also how in-between the stuttering, the game still has issues keeping at 150fps, dropping down to mid-to-low-140s as I look around. Again, as per the video showing normal behavior, the game normally has no issue whatsoever even when looking around and moving.
I'm using tjmarkham's Win10 Widgets, and my active skins are:
- Weather exLarge
Date/time Large
Hard drive Large
Volume Small
Performance - CPU Tiny
Performance - Network Tiny
I installed Rainmeter about two weeks ago when I discovered the Win10 Widgets theme; I have not used any other themes, so I am unsure if the performance issues are related to this theme, other themes, or only Rainmeter in general. I am unsure if this issue had been occuring since install and I hadn't noticed it, or if it only started occuring a couple days ago. I've used both the most recent 4.2 beta at the time, the current 4.2 beta (r3040), and 4.1 final (r2989). By disabling the individual skins one-by-one, I learned the Date/time skin in the used theme is the one that causes the severe stuttering (split-second freezing), but Rainmeter in general, while open, causes the in-between fps drop (where the fps drops to the mid-to-low-140s).
Unfortunately, this means that I will have to stop using Rainmeter, as it interferes with my gameplay. I had not seen anything like this reported when I searched, so forgive me if this is a known issue.