My PC has felt unsmooth ever since I built it in July 2025. Dragging scroll bars, moving windows, scrolling webpages, panning the camera, and dragging around in-game maps all look jittery. This happens in multiple games, including Rocket League, Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Supermarket Together. The games do not seem to stutter, and frame times appear stable, but motion looks uneven, almost as if variable refresh rate is not working correctly. I can sometimes see faint horizontal or vertical lines during movement, and the problem is still noticeable on a 240 Hz display. It also happens with a controller, so it does not seem limited to my mouse.
My system has an Intel Core i7-14700F, RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, Gigabyte B760 DS3H AX motherboard, 32GB DDR5-5600, Kingston NV3 1TB NVMe SSD, an AIO cooler, and a 700W power supply. I have already updated BIOS, firmware, chipset and other drivers; reinstalled Windows several times; used DDU; tested different FPS limits and G-Sync/V-Sync combinations; changed HAGS and Reflex settings; removed overlays and USB devices; tested one monitor; tried different USB connections; checked BIOS power and CPU settings; and tested with and without XMP. Nothing has fixed it.
What hardware or display setting should I investigate next?
4 Answers
Because a clean Windows installation did not change anything, hardware or the monitor becomes more likely. Boot a Linux live USB and run the desktop from it without installing anything. If scrolling and window movement are still choppy there, focus on the monitor, cable, graphics card, or other hardware instead of Windows drivers. If Linux is smooth, the issue is more likely a Windows configuration or driver interaction.
Try simplifying the display setup as much as possible. Disconnect every other monitor or television physically, not just through display settings, then reboot and test. A second or mirrored display can sometimes interfere with refresh timing, even when the game reports stable frame times. If that helps, reconnect the displays one at a time to identify the conflict.
The faint lines and stable frame times make me suspect the display path rather than game performance. Check the monitor's on-screen settings for Display Stream Compression, black-frame insertion, motion-enhancement modes, and overdrive. Try every overdrive setting, including the normal or medium option, and test at 120 Hz instead of 240 Hz. Also confirm the monitor cable is connected to the graphics card, not the motherboard.
As a quick test, set the display to 120 Hz, enable G-Sync and V-Sync, and cap the game slightly below the refresh rate. If that suddenly looks smooth, the problem may be a high-refresh or variable-refresh compatibility issue rather than unstable game performance. Testing another monitor and a different DisplayPort or HDMI cable would also help isolate it.
I have tested with one monitor enabled, but I will try physically disconnecting the other displays and testing again.