CPU activity is low but there are occasional stutters in Dota 2?
CPU activity is low but there are occasional stutters in Dota 2?
I recently upgraded my PC (RTX 5080 + Ryzen 7 9800X3D) with hopes of smooth performance, but I’m experiencing intense freezes in Dota 2.
During major battles or when many illusions appear (like Phantom Lancer or Broodmother spiders), the game freezes or stutters heavily.
Notably, these issues occur even when the action is off-screen, such as during encounters in enemy-controlled black areas of the map.
System details:
- CPU usage remains around 20%
- GPU usage around 50%
- Playing at 4K resolution
- Power plan set to High Performance
- Dota settings: shadows off, medium
- Temperatures are normal, no thermal throttling
- Running on an SSD with 6000mhz RAM and Expo enabled
- Resize bar is active
The stutters feel like engine or frame-time spikes. I expected this configuration to handle Dota 2 easily, but it’s actually more problematic than my previous setup during intense fights.
I wouldn't rely on the ASUS driver hub. Drivers should be downloaded manually from the manufacturer's site and installed by hand. Especially for ASUS products. The ASUS driver hub and Armory Crate are among the worst, but almost all motherboard manufacturer tools for updates and tweaks just create issues and often install outdated or incorrect versions. I'd prefer to go straight to the AMD website, download and install the appropriate driver depending on your Windows version. Also, removing any bundled ASUS applications like the driver hub and Armory Crate is strongly advised if they're still installed. They're not useful.
What are your complete hardware details?
What is the latest BIOS version on your motherboard?
Are the newest AMD chipset and Nvidia graphics drivers present on the official support pages for each part?
Are you running the same Windows version you had prior to upgrading, or did you perform a fresh installation and added all necessary drivers and updates after the hardware upgrade?
MB - ASUS ROG STRIX X870-A
CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
GPU - MSI RTX 5080 GAMING TRIO
SSD - WD Black SN850X M.2 2TB
RAM - Team Group Inc UD5-6000 2x16GB
PSU - Either evga g2 or g3 850 gold
I’ve already updated all drivers directly from Nvidia’s website and used DDU once. I also installed the newest AMD drivers via the ASUS driver hub. I carried out a completely fresh and clean Windows installation and performed a full Windows update after the upgrade. The BIOS has also been fully refreshed to the latest version.
Version 1804.
I wouldn't use the ASUS driver hub. Drivers should be manually downloaded directly from the manufacturers website and installed manually. ESPECIALLY with ASUS products. ASUS driver hub and ASUS Armory Crate are the very worst offenders, but pretty much ALL of the motherboard manufacturer utilities for updating and tweaking do nothing but cause problems and a lot of the time what they install or say is the latest, is not. Or is wrong. I'd go directly to the AMD website, download and install the correct driver based on whether you have Windows 10 or 11. And I'd highly recommend that you get rid of any bundled ASUS apps like driver hub and Armory crate if you have them installed. They are trash.
On the BIOS. After you updated to the latest version, did you do a hard reset and then reconfigure all your BIOS settings? If you did not, I would do that. It is a good idea to do that anytime you update the BIOS because sometimes, especially if there were already problems, some CMOS settings from the previous configuration will "stick" and create problems that didn't exist before because they are incompatible with the new BIOS structure or simply not fix a previously existing problem until you reset. If you should choose to do so, which I'd recommend, this is the procedure I recommend using.
BIOS Hard Reset procedure
Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.
Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.
During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.
If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.
Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.
Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.
In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.
It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.
Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.
As for Windows itself, as I asked before, did you move an existing Windows installation to this new system or did you did a completely new clean install of Windows after you built or bought this system? And what Windows version are you running?
I would attempt a hard reset. It has resolved many problems that other solutions didn’t address.
I’d also consider turning off the resize bar and/or smart access memory, as these can lead to stuttering in certain games without affecting others.
It’s suggested to switch your Windows power plan to Balanced. Open advanced settings for this plan, adjust the Processor power management option, set the minimum to 8% and the maximum to 100%.
In the BIOS, ensure Cool N Quiet is enabled, Core CPPC is active, Advanced/Global C-states are turned on, and disable PBO/PBO2 unless you have premium cooling installed (such as high-end air or liquid coolers). Make sure Precision boost is off. Also, enable XFR2.
I’m guessing you’ve already checked or adjusted settings like Vsync and other tips here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/570/discu...2716546160
Thank you for the assistance!
I performed a reset of the windows drive and reinstalled the drivers correctly, which resolved most of the stuttering. However, some stuttering remained when many illusions or units appeared. Adjusting the launch options made a significant difference, particularly by adding +rate 800000.
I hope this helps others facing similar problems.
Nice. It seems most folks have issues with Dota even though it's not super tough, and the main point is it isn't fully optimized, which causes inconsistency.