New motherboard, Ryzen 7800X3D and RAM - momentary stutter and frame time spikes?
New motherboard, Ryzen 7800X3D and RAM - momentary stutter and frame time spikes?
Hello
I recently upgraded my computer to fix microstutter in certain games. Usually everything ran well, but occasionally I noticed brief pauses of about one second. To clarify: when the game operated without an FPS lock at around 120 frames per second, adjusting the FPS to 80 resolved the issue, but lowering it to 60 or 59 caused another stutter. I had a Ryzen 5600, 32GB RAM (3600 cl 16), and a Gigabyte B450 Gaming X motherboard. To resolve the problem, I replaced the GPU with a 7800x3d model featuring 32GB DDR5 6000 cl 30 and upgraded to a Gigabyte B650 Gaming X V2 board, but the issue persisted.
After installing new parts, I tested *The Last of Us Part II* and found similar behavior—sometimes dropping to 79 FPS with shader loading, which made me give up. When I tried *Cyberpunk 2077* at high settings without RT, the game still stuttered when entering certain activities like robbery in progress, causing noticeable frame drops.
I also checked using HWInfo monitoring; it showed increased frame times and FPS reductions (from 13ms to 15ms) during intense moments, leading to stutter. Overall, about 95% of the games ran smoothly, though the brief stutters were bothersome.
I experimented with BIOS settings—toggling Expo, Re Bar, PBO, and curve optimizer—but none improved the situation. I also tried changing display refresh rates and adjusting other parameters, yet the problem remained.
In summary, it seems the hardware might be struggling under these conditions, or the games are not optimized well for my system. I’m questioning whether this upgrade was worthwhile.
The frame drops themselves aren't an issue for me. They only matter if they lead to visible stuttering. In my situation, they do
Almost every game experiences occasional stutters, varying in severity; even with powerful systems, you might notice this behavior unexpectedly.
When encountering problems in certain titles, it’s usually best to look for help on its official forum, Steam page, or Reddit community. It’s rare that the issue stems from hardware, more likely from game settings or Windows configuration (though some minor irregularities are considered normal). Those communities have the expertise to address such questions, and you might find a solution simply by exploring the discussion. I’ve encountered this situation several times.
Have you explored games that run smoothly without stuttering? Do you experience more stuttering than usual? As mentioned by others, mild stuttering in games is typical. If you notice frequent stutters—more than once per minute—or longer pauses exceeding a fifth of a second, it might indicate a problem.
I don't always have stutter in every game. When it happens, it's occasional and lasts only a second. It doesn't stop the game from running, though it's noticeable. On newer systems, I only tested TLoU 2 and Cyberpunk from recent titles. In older games, I played FIFA 16 and RE 6 without any stutter. Cyberpunk has been available for a while, with many updates, so I assumed it was optimized well and suitable for testing new hardware.
Do you observe that the stutter might occur during the loading of game assets? This process can temporarily shift CPU resources from the game to the storage device for the task. Cyberpunk is known for being a demanding CPU game, needing extensive loading from storage. You've likely noticed the frequent loading screens.
Yes, fresh installation. Latest bios, chipset and drivers available. GPU driver rollback to version 566. In TLoU 2 possibly yes, stutters occur mainly when entering new areas. In Cyberpunk they appear mostly when I find quest activity on the street and game display info about it on the screen, though not consistently. I also found something interesting during testing. When I navigated through the city for two minutes and arrived at an activity area like "robbery in progress," a brief frame delay and stutter happened. However, after saving the game near that spot and running the test again, no issues occurred—smooth performance with no stutter. Maybe it’s connected to resource loading in certain zones...
NVMe storage has become incredibly fast now, causing the CPU to temporarily adjust priorities when major data loads. The assets need to be loaded first before the CPU can process more frames, since they depend partly on those assets for the GPU. This results in a stutter during loading. I've observed this usually only occurs when CPU cores are already moderately busy, such as during gameplay.