Significant drop occurs during play of Atomic Heart and various other titles unexpectedly
Significant drop occurs during play of Atomic Heart and various other titles unexpectedly
Hi everyone,
I’m new here and seeking some assistance. So far, I’ve played games without any issues for three years. I work at a game development company and have been using my own PC for testing. Everything was working smoothly until recently. At the beginning of this month, when I tried to start Atomic Heart with GamePass, everything ran perfectly—no lag, no problems. But once I attempted to launch it again, it started stuttering. For about a month now, I’ve been unable to play because the game became unresponsive. It felt like I couldn’t move or fight, and there were frequent freezes lasting a few seconds.
I ran diagnostics using Prime95 for CPU and memory stress tests, Furmark for GPU performance, Windows built-in tools, and performed repairs with Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool and sfc /scannow. I updated all my drivers and tested both HDD and SSD. The only issue was during the Furmark process, where I noticed occasional stutters on the video sides—usually every 15 seconds. When I checked the GPU in MSI’s monitoring tool, it showed drops in usage. While the GPU was at full or high percentages (like 100% or 70%), it would suddenly drop to near zero. We’re still trying to figure out what’s causing this.
Here’s a quick overview of my system:
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (temperature maxes around 60°C)
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600x with stock fan (temperature reaches 95°C during stress tests, but no stutters)
- Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200 MHz 2x8 GB
- B550-A PRO motherboard (no problems)
- Corsair 750 W PSU
- Windows 10
The frustrating part is that I’ve never had any issues for three years now. The only noticeable problem is a significant drop in FPS, and my monitors—Samsung 27" G7 1440p and LG Ultragear 1080p 27"—both have a 144 Hz refresh rate. I no longer use Gsync because it would cause the monitors to restart every few minutes.
Another observation is that sometimes when background games are running and I move files around, the system stutters and takes a few milliseconds to switch. This makes me wonder what might be behind these sudden drops. Could it be my GPU? Or could something else—like power consumption dropping to zero—be responsible? How can I better identify the cause?
To see what issues might exist, visit userbenchmark.com and share the link of your result, such as https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/28977730. Restore BIOS via jumper settings like clrCMOS or JBAT (later you’ll need to adjust boot priority). Verify Windows integrity. Launch the command prompt with admin rights and execute DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. Follow the guide on lifewire for opening an elevated prompt. Refer to Microsoft Answers for more details. Test memory with memtest.org using a bootable USB, run RAM at 2133MHz, inspect the hard drive with manufacturer tools, and update firmware if needed. Use ddu uninstaller to reinstall graphics drivers.
These user benchmark results indicate my PC is underperforming compared to similar systems, but the reasons aren't clear.
I also tried another one in case some programs were draining the pc, so I shared this link:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/64622275
I checked the Windows integrity using "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"
Now I'm going to enable BIOS XMP.
Enabled XMP still works for a few reasons, but FPS drops to 14 during CPU testing.
Drivers are all current. The remaining tasks seem to be memtest, BIOS reset, or a clean boot. This is the final benchmark after turning XMP on:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/64622918
UserBenchmarks: Game 147%, Desk 105%, Work 131%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 101.9%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070 - 144.9%
SSD: Samsung 980 NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB - 169.4%
SSD: Samsung 860 Evo 1TB - 133.8%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 73.2%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB - 94.7%
MBD: MSI B550-A PRO (MS-7C56)
Which drive hosts the game installation? I'm also curious about the 980 drive since it seems to be underperforming compared to what it should be. It's not advised to use more than 85% of its capacity. Concerning the GPU, which is also lagging, have you been keeping an eye on its temperatures and usage during gameplay? You can track this using MSI Afterburner to display these metrics in real-time.
The game was installed on an SSD, while I also have games on HDDs, but performance remains consistent. It might be full—only about 110 GB remain on the SSD, which is roughly 10% of its capacity. I should clear it. Apart from that, I've recently updated another Furmark and noticed significant lag. In a 1440p test, the frame rate was at most 57 FPS. Normally I get around 60 with RTX enabled and Ultra settings. Checking the GPU in some apps showed usage dropping to zero intermittently, which causes stuttering and lag. The graphics card is running fine, but this sudden drop is worrying. The temperature is normal, yet the zero usage is unusual. Could my GPU be faulty?
The drive is definitely too full. A 1TB drive is more like 931 GB ACTUAL space, which is why you must go by what This PC lists it's total space as. 15% of 931 is 140 GB free space you should have.
Clear up space until you have the recommended 15% for things like defragging, TRIM, and file transfers, then I would run a diagnostic on any drive which has been running too full, as it can be hard on them.
Also, I would not go by synthetic bench tools like Furmark, as they are unrealistically hard on GPUs compared to games.
The usage issue could be caused by the GPU waiting for the drive in games where textures are streamed by the drive, as it's unlikely to be caused by the CPU's health, and there's no bottleneck CPU to GPU either.
I'll attempt to free up some space on my SSD. I'm hoping this will boost my PC's speed. It seems like it has gotten worse lately, with a lot of lag now. After running another test with userbenchmark, even at the end of the test, the FPS drops to 1. Thanks for your response!