Performance drops unexpectedly on screen.
Performance drops unexpectedly on screen.
I’m facing unexpected drops in my computer’s performance while playing video games. It occurs across most titles, except for those that aren’t visually intensive—like 2D or lighter games. I often see stuttering and reduced frames per second, with some games feeling sluggish in physics. The issue isn’t severe enough to stop playing, but it’s noticeable. I haven’t run any tests before, so my estimate is around a 30% drop in FPS and occasional stutters, especially in certain games. Keeping the same settings works a bit better, though not much. I don’t know when it started; gaming hasn’t been frequent lately, but it just happened. I tried DDU, updated drivers, and it helped a little in some games like iRacing and American Truck Simulator, but the problem persists. Forza Horizon 5 is particularly affected, with heavy stuttering and slow physics. I attached a screenshot from Task Manager during a playthrough of FH5 today. CPU usage hovers between 38% and about 80%, with spikes up to 100%, though rarely. GPU usage seems low for an AAA title. RAM stays steady at 48%, even with many background apps open. Disk activity is minimal, all games run on SSDs. My hardware specs are: i5-9600K @ 4.9GHz (all cores) with Noctua NH-D14 cooler, 32GB RAM (HyperX Fury DDR4 3200MHz), GTX 1070 Ti SC, PSU Corsair TX650M, and various SSDs including a 2TB Samsung 870 EVO Plus. BIOS version is current, and I’ve installed the latest drivers.
Observed that for games like Forza Horizon 5, GPU usage stays consistently low—typically 10-20% according to Task Manager. Adjusting video settings or closing/relancing the game didn’t affect it. On desktop with Chrome open, usage drops to 1-2%, but with Steam in focus it jumps to 36-40%. Tried changing power mode in Nvidia control panel to maximum performance; no improvement was seen. Recently updated GPU drivers and used DDU within the past two weeks.