Is playing a video in the background leading to performance issues while gaming?
Is playing a video in the background leading to performance issues while gaming?
Hi everyone,
I'm facing a strange problem with my latest build. The specifications are as follows:
CPU: Ryzen 7800X3D
RAM: 64GB 6000Mhz Corsair Dominator Platinum [CMT64GX5M2B6000C40]
Mobo: MSI X670E Tomahawk
GPU: 7900XTX
PSU: Corsair 850w RME
Under regular use everything works well, and performance is smooth. But when I play a video in the background—whether on YouTube or Twitch—the game freezes intermittently. It only restarts when I close the video window, and it runs perfectly afterward. When using Apple Music to play audio, there’s no stuttering, which suggests the problem is tied to video playback.
I’m using a single 27-inch monitor and have a stable 940Mbps connection. The issue occurs whether I’m playing online or single-player games (tested with CS2, Apex Legends, and Witcher 3).
I’ve tried various solutions:
- Switching browsers (Chrome and Firefox)
- Disabling HW acceleration
- Enabling/disabling game mode in Windows
- Ensuring drivers are updated and BIOS is current
- Reinstalling drivers with DDU
- Uninstalling/reinstalling audio drivers
- Using an external DAC from iFi
- Reinstalling Windows
- Booting with the older 2070 system
I also ran Prime95 and Memtest64, but found no problems after 45 minutes.
No fix has worked so far, except when I don’t play any video. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks.
Hi Dale,
Thank you for your response. I wonder if a completely new system with those specifications could handle streaming a 1080p video while playing Apex Legends? I think it would work fine on my previous setup (the 2070 super with the Ryzen 3900).
I just started the game and watched a video—there didn’t seem to be any major jumps in the task manager during the freezing moments. The CPU was at 18% and the GPU at 27%, which is lower than what I experienced on the 7900xtx.
No spikes were detected during disk access or memory usage; both metrics remain stable. When streaming video in the background, there is no stuttering observed, which suggests the issue only occurs with streaming video. Previously owned memory was a Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 3200MHz. The new SSD is a Western Digital SN850X 2TB.
This problem is very frequent with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. It occurs because the GPU has to handle two tasks simultaneously—rendering your video game and encoding/decoding your video. You might try disabling GPU acceleration in your browser to see if it stops the stuttering. Also, ensure the game is running in borderless windowed mode.
Hi - I've attempted to disable GPU acceleration in Chrome and used full screen with a windowed view in CS2 or Borderless Window in Apex Legends, but the stutter persists.
Do you currently have any software for monitoring CPU or GPU in-game? Would you like to turn them off and restart the game to see if that helps? Have you attempted a clean boot to remove third-party services that might be causing the problem? Are there many browser extensions installed? You could try running the browser without them or with none installed. Do you use any kind of VRR technology? This would be free-sync and g-sync.
It doesn't occur because the video source is not being accessed through a streaming service or online platform.