How to check for screen stutter on your screen

Screen stutter, when it’s bad, is really obvious. You won’t need a tool to tell you that your screen is lagging or not refreshing at the correct rate. When it’s small and subtle though, it’s hard to detect but it can still cause problems. Out of the box, you can’t check whether or not your screen is stuttering but UFO test is an app that can detect screen stutter no matter how low it is.

Check screen stutter

Visit the UFO test app and it will start the test automatically. It will run the test on the current screen so if you have a multi-monitor setup, you should move your browser window to the screen that you want to run the stutter test on.

Screen stutter doesn’t happen on all screens. It may occur on just one screen while the other works perfectly fine. The stutter may not be the same on all your screens either. One might stutter more than the other.

If your screen is stuttering, the app will tell you so though the reason it cites for the stutter may not be correct.

As for understanding the results, screen stutter is basically when the frame rate or the refresh rate for your screen drops below the standard rate for your monitor. It’s something more common in games but even when there’s nothing ‘playing’ on your screen, it is still being refreshed.

The app will give you your screen’s refresh rate and it will tell you what the current rate is. The difference between the two, if there is one, indicates that there is stuttering on the current screen

Fixing stutter

If you’re running apps that are taking up too much of your RAM, it may be one reason why your screen is stuttering. Outside of games, users don’t notice or care much about small stuttering but if it’s become a problem or its causing other problems, make sure you aren’t overburdening your system.

Games will almost always be handled by the GPU but if the app in question that is causing stutter isn’t a game, it might just be using the on-board graphics card. To work around this, you can force an app to run with the GPU instead of the on-board graphics card.

As far as software solutions are concerned, the above two are the only ones at your disposal.

For hardware solutions, check if the connection to your monitor is damaged. If it’s an internal display i.e., that of your laptop, you might need to take it in for a check up. If it’s an external display, check the cable that connects your system to your monitor, and try using a different one to see if it helps.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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