My PC started lagging and stuttering about two weeks ago. It happens both while playing games and while watching YouTube, where videos may become choppy or buffer unexpectedly. Every other device in the house works normally, and my internet provider confirmed that the connection appears fine. My system has an NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super and an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so it should easily handle these tasks. I already reinstalled the NVIDIA graphics driver, but that did not help, and I haven't knowingly changed anything significant. What should I check to determine whether a process, malware, Windows issue, or hardware problem is causing the slowdown?
2 Answers
Run a malware scan in addition to checking resource usage. Download Malwarebytes from its official website, decline the optional extended trial if you don’t want it, install it, and run a one-time threat scan. Unwanted software can sometimes consume resources or interfere with browsers, games, and graphics components. If the scan is clean, continue by checking recent Windows updates, recently installed programs, temperatures, and whether disk usage is unusually high.
Start by opening Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc while the stuttering is happening. Check the Processes and Performance tabs for anything using unusually high CPU, memory, disk, or GPU resources. Sort each column from highest to lowest and look for a program that spikes when a game or video starts. Also check the Startup apps tab for anything unfamiliar or recently added. The fact that other devices work normally makes a local PC process or system issue more likely than an internet problem.
I checked Task Manager and captured what was running. I’ll compare the CPU, memory, disk, and GPU usage while the stuttering is actually happening rather than only checking when the PC seems normal.