Gameplay suddenly began to lag unexpectedly
Gameplay suddenly began to lag unexpectedly
Here are the details rephrased while keeping the original meaning and tone:
The system runs a Ryzen 5 7500f processor on an ASRock B650M Pro RS Wifi motherboard. The power supply is a Seasonic B12-BC-750 80Plus Bronze 750W unit, and the mainboard supports Windows 11.
Recently, several games began freezing briefly, even when running at low demand. This issue isn’t linked to the GPU, as it occurs in less demanding titles or during PSX emulation, which worked fine before. In certain games like Honkai Star Rail and My Time at Sandrock, FPS drops aren’t present, but audio stutters or loading times seem delayed.
When freezes happen, the SSD usage spikes to 100% for a short time, which is hard to identify in Task Manager. Resource monitoring also shows the game displaying a red "not responding" status briefly.
Trying to diagnose:
- Temperatures are normal (CPU ~50°C, GPU ~70°C, SSD ~40°C).
- SSD health checks via CrystalDiskInfo and CrystalDiskMark show 99% health.
- A Windows restore point was applied after the problem started.
- Running SFC fixed some issues but didn’t resolve stuttering.
- New GPU drivers were installed (without Nvidia’s latest app) after using Safe Mode.
- Chipest drivers from AMD were updated, and BIOS was refreshed.
- Windows was updated to version 24H2.
- A Malwarebytes scan came back clean.
- A clean boot of Windows was attempted, but games still stuttered.
- Running a single game without other programs helped.
- 3D Mark showed no stuttering.
- Reinstalling the games occasionally improved performance, though not always.
I’m running out of options and ideas.