Play games smoothly on a solid system.
Play games smoothly on a solid system.
Hi, I’ve been playing games with my setup for about a year now and done a lot of maintenance and upgrades. Still, I’m experiencing frequent stutters in certain titles. I checked this issue across four different games—Halo Infinite, Plants vs Zombies GW2, The Finals, and Destiny 2. In Halo and Plants vs Zombies the problems vary: some games show minor stutters only at higher settings, while others drop to 5 fps and 60ms frame times suddenly. In The Finals, stuttering shifts from around 110 fps to just 40 fps, regardless of settings. Destiny 2 seems almost free of these issues. My PC specs are: Intel i5 12400, B660, DDR4, RTX 2070, 32GB G.Skill Ripjaw, Corsair CX 750m PSU, two SSDs, one M.2 from SKhynix, and an internal SATA 2.5” drive. I’ve noticed a red light on my motherboard sometimes, possibly linked to the boot drive, but I’m not sure it’s the cause. Another thing I’ve observed is that I can’t boot into BIOS at all—even after trying everything else, no other hardware seems to be the reason.
Some games lag even with powerful hardware. I’m not very experienced with the ones mentioned, but PvZ seems unusually tough. It’s important to monitor CPU and GPU usage, as well as temperatures during play. The CPU cooler looks underwhelming, and if CPU temperatures stay below throttling limits, manual access might be blocked. There appears to be a specific key you need to press, though I’m not sure what it is. In Windows, you can try running the command "shutdown /r /fw /t 0" as an administrator—this forces a reboot and restarts BIOS (time = 0), which may help if you’re unsure.
Gpu temperature around 70°C while cpu stays near 50-60°C. In PvZ the gpu isn’t at full capacity but the cpu reaches maximum usage at 100%. I haven’t run long tests on cpu heat, though it appears manageable. It could get warmer in some cases. I didn’t check midway but after shutting down games, the cpu seems pushed to its limit even with older PvZ titles. The cooler I used is a Thermaltake Contac 9 SE—it’s decent compared to the original, though not ideal. I’m unsure if upgrading is necessary. The game isn’t very demanding, which explains the confusion. I think the stuttering in the finale might be due to settings I’m uncertain about. My system keeps trying to apply 1440p Quality DLSS and top settings, but it still lags a lot. The stutter in the older game is much worse and more bothersome. There are many reports of PvZ stuttering, but the issue here seems distinct. I tried suggested fixes and didn’t think a 12400 should be overwhelmed by such a lightweight title from 2016. Still, it’s possible this is the cause. Also, quick boot is enabled—maybe the BIOS is the culprit.
You can begin here. It’s not a sure solution—more like we should eliminate as many factors as we can.
I started trying new things and the problem seems to have disappeared after updating the motherboard drivers. Still, I plan to wait a day or two before contacting support because the system stopped stuttering and restarted afterward. By the way, here are my settings for those stuttering games: PvZ - 1440p (not ultra wide) at ultra settings; The Finals - 1440p with DLSS Quality, Epic settings at their highest; Raytracing on Epic also at its maximum. These aggressive options match what Nvidia recommends, and despite the occasional stutters, the frame rate stayed decent around 70-80.