My PC has felt unsmooth ever since I built it in July 2025. Desktop scrolling, dragging windows, moving the mouse, watching videos, and camera movement in every game look choppy, even though the games do not show obvious lag or unstable frame times. The issue is especially noticeable on my 240 Hz display and can look like faint horizontal or vertical lines, as if synchronization is not working correctly. It also happens with both a mouse and a controller.
My system uses 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 PSU. I have already updated the BIOS and drivers, reinstalled Windows 11 several times, used DDU, tested different FPS caps and G-Sync/V-Sync combinations, tried HAGS and Reflex both on and off, tested one monitor, removed background programs and USB devices, disabled Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, changed BIOS power and CPU settings, and tried different mouse connections. Nothing has fixed it.
What hardware or display setting could cause the entire desktop and every game to look uneven despite stable frame times?
3 Answers
If you use multiple displays, disconnect every extra monitor or TV completely, including any mirrored screen. A secondary display with a different refresh rate can sometimes make desktop compositing and games look uneven. Test with only the main display connected, then reconnect the others one at a time.
The display setup is worth investigating first. Check the monitor's overdrive setting, refresh-rate mode, Display Stream Compression (DSC), black-frame insertion, and any motion-clarity options in the monitor's own menu. Also confirm the cable is connected to the graphics card rather than the motherboard. Try another certified cable and, if possible, another monitor or TV.
Because a clean Windows installation did not change anything, I would test outside Windows before changing more settings. Make a bootable Linux USB and run the desktop directly from it. If scrolling and window movement are still choppy there, that strongly points to the monitor, GPU, cable, motherboard, or another hardware/display-path problem rather than drivers or Windows.
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