Experience difficulty speaking only during gaming sessions.
Experience difficulty speaking only during gaming sessions.
Good evening, everyone. How are you all? I’m facing serious FPS drops lately. It’s not a gradual decline from 60 to 58, but sudden pauses lasting just a microsecond. I didn’t have this before when using integrated graphics and a weaker motherboard. I’ve run numerous tests and will detail everything I’ve tried below. Please review everything—I’ve even attempted the obvious fixes. Here’s my setup: CPU – Ryzen 5 4600G, GPU – RX 6600, ASRock Challenger, MSI B450M Pro VDH Max RAM 2x8GB, T-Force 3000MHz, PSU – Corsair CV650, SSD – Crucial BX500 (System + Minecraft), NVMe SSD – Lexar MN620 512GB M.2 (Games). Monitor – LG Ultragear 144Hz FreeSync.
For some reason, not all games behave the same. Just Cause 3 and The Witcher 3 work fine, but titles like Left 4 Dead 2, GTA V/Online, and Minecraft 1.8.9 cause FPS fluctuations. Minecraft 1.8.9: Opening inventory drops my FPS by roughly -10, sometimes more, sometimes less. Hitting mobs, entering water, unlocking achievements like collecting wood also lead to sudden drops. This ruins the experience since my PC should handle a game from 10+ years old.
Optfine: GTA V shows random drops; cutscenes trigger steep FPS cuts and stutters even at lower settings. Left 4 Dead 2: Random freezes during matches, especially early on. I’ve tried countless solutions—no idea how much time I’ve invested.
Below is a summary of what I’ve tested:
What I tried:
- Swapped PSU with a friend’s working unit
- Ran MemTest – no errors found
- Tested RAM sticks one by one
- Enabled/Disabled XMP, Dual Channel, RAM clock specs
- Lowered RAM to JEDEC standards below 3000MHz
- Restored old motherboard + fresh Windows
- Bought a new mouse, lowered DPI
- Undervolted CPU
- Enabled/Disabled PBO, fTPM, Virtualization
- Set temps below 70°C
- Installed fresh Windows without RX 6600
- Used DDU for driver updates
- Ran GPU stress tests
- Reduced latency with LatencyMon
- Changed graphics settings in games
- Enabled/Disabled V-Sync / Enhanced Sync
- Disabled background programs
- Turned off overlays (Discord, Adrenalin, Steam, etc.)
- Disabled Steam Cloud
- Limited FPS to 60/70/144...
- Increased pagefile size
- Updated and downgraded BIOS multiple times
- Tested different RX 6600 drivers (each time DDU)
- Enabled/Disabled FreeSync
- Enabled/Disabled 4G Decoding & Resizable BAR
- Installed only GPU driver without Adrenalin Software “Optimized”
- Windows 11 on another SSD and NVMe M.2
- Switched HPET, MPO, Core Isolation in Windows 11
- Disabled Windows Firewall
- Removed all unnecessary services
Monitored RAM/Disk usage, updated drivers, checked chipset, audio, network. Ran Java versions, tried newer Minecraft builds, different Java versions, and even newer Minecraft builds. Still stuck.
Honestly, I’m exhausted. This isn’t normal. I didn’t have these problems before, even with integrated graphics. If this happens in every game, it should make more sense—but the fact that Minecraft is affected suggests something serious is wrong. I’m at my limit. Any tips or experiences from others would mean a lot. Every failed attempt only adds to my frustration.
Changed from RX 6600 to GTX 1050 Ti (used DDU) and then back to my original motherboard with a fresh Windows setup. Both times the system still experienced stuttering. Did you verify both GPUs with the same motherboard? Were you using the identical CPU on your old motherboard?