I'm seeing the same strange behavior across several games. Lowering the graphics settings from high to low barely changes my FPS, and the biggest stutters happen when I quickly spin around or move the camera. The frame rate fluctuates during those turns, making the games feel especially choppy. Oddly, some games seem to run more smoothly at 1440p than at 1080p. My system has an RX 7600, a 12th-generation Core i3, and 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory. Could this be a CPU or main-thread bottleneck, a mouse polling-rate issue, RAM configuration, drivers, or a frame-pacing problem?
2 Answers
This sounds more like a CPU or main-thread bottleneck than a graphics-card limit. Most visual settings mainly change GPU workload, so lowering them will not improve performance much if the processor is limiting the game. A CPU can also be bottlenecked on one busy main thread without showing 100% total CPU usage. The smoother performance at 1440p can happen because the GPU is doing more work and the frame rate is lower and steadier. Spinning the camera can also load new objects and textures, exposing CPU or streaming-related stutters. Check that the memory is running in dual-channel mode, and try temporarily lowering your mouse polling rate if it is set very high.
A four-core, eight-thread 12th-generation i3 can still perform well, but newer games may run into limits from its core count, especially if background tasks are active. Before replacing it, monitor per-core CPU usage, GPU utilization, frametimes, and VRAM while turning. If GPU usage drops during the stutter while one CPU thread is busy, that confirms the bottleneck. Also try updating chipset and graphics drivers, enabling a sensible frame cap, and checking whether the games are installed on a fast SSD.
It would be a major performance upgrade, but make sure your motherboard supports that processor and has the required BIOS update. You may also need a much stronger cooler, and the total cost could make a newer platform more sensible. Confirm the bottleneck with frametime and per-core monitoring first rather than upgrading based only on overall CPU usage.
Would an i5-14600KF be a good upgrade for this kind of problem?