I'm really frustrated trying to figure out this performance hitching problem that's been bothering me for over six months. It mostly shows up when I'm gaming, but I've noticed it affects other programs too. My games will freeze for about a second, the sound continues fine, but the visuals get all jumbled up and then it returns to normal. This doesn't seem to be a connection issue since it happens even in offline games.
Here's what I've done so far to try to resolve it:
- I've changed BIOS settings, disabling power-saving options to prioritize performance.
- Updated all the drivers I could think of.
- Checked for overheating; my hardware usually stays below 60°C.
- Disabled unnecessary startup programs.
- Tried to find an RGB controller, but I'm not sure if my PC even has one since I see RGB lights in the case.
- Turned off irrelevant audio inputs, aiming to streamline it to just my headset.
- I feel like there's more I've done, but I can't recall everything right now.
For specs, I have an Intel Core i7-14700F running around 2.1GHz with an ASUSTeK PRIME B760M-A AX6 II motherboard. One thing I've noticed is that when these stutters happen, my SSD activity spikes and its latency increases. I ran an SSD health check, and it came back with a health rating of about 95%, so I'm not sure what's going on.
1 Answer
Have you tried using LatencyMon? Run it and trigger the issue to see if it points out any problems. Sometimes, driver updates can introduce issues rather than solve them. Also, while SMART tests are helpful, they can occasionally give misleading results. Your SSD might be having firmware or controller issues. If your SSD has a proprietary diagnostic tool available from the manufacturer, like Samsung's Magician, it might provide more insight. It could also help to test with another disk drive to rule out controller issues across drives.
I was thinking about getting a new 1TB SSD, but I'm waiting until next month when I have a little extra cash to spare.