I'm not very experienced with PC hardware and I'm trying to figure out what's causing stutters in Diablo 4. The game tends to hitch when many enemies or animals are visible, during teleport loading screens, and sometimes when opening my inventory. My FPS drops at the same time.
While playing, system RAM usage is usually around 95%, but my GPU usage is only about 14%. Would replacing my current 2x8GB kit with 2x16GB for 32GB total make the game smoother, or is the problem more likely related to my CPU, graphics card, or storage?
My specifications are:
- GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER with 6GB VRAM
- Motherboard: MSI Z490-A PRO
- CPU: Intel Core i5 at 2.60GHz, though I don't know the exact model
- RAM: 16GB, currently 2x8GB
- Storage: One SSD
The system is around five or six years old. I generally only have Chrome and normal background processes running while I play.
3 Answers
Low GPU usage suggests the graphics card may be waiting on something else, such as the CPU, storage, or memory management. Monitor RAM usage, committed memory, disk activity, CPU-per-core usage, temperatures, and clock speeds while the hitch occurs. Since the game is installed on an SSD, storage is less suspicious, but a nearly full drive or background paging can still cause pauses. Also make sure the graphics driver and game are current and try lowering CPU-heavy settings, such as crowd density, if available.
The exact CPU model matters a lot here. “Intel Core i5 at 2.60GHz” isn’t enough to identify its performance. Also check CPU usage per core rather than only the overall percentage. A game can heavily load one core while the total CPU usage looks moderate, especially when it is processing lots of enemies, physics, and AI. That could explain the stutters even with low GPU usage.
16GB should generally be enough for Diablo 4, so I wouldn’t buy more RAM based only on the percentage shown. First check what is actually using the memory in Task Manager, including Chrome and background applications. If the game plus Windows are genuinely running out of available memory and causing paging, 32GB could help, but otherwise it may not change the stuttering.
I usually only have Chrome open besides the game, and I’m not seeing anything obviously huge in the taskbar. I’ll check the detailed memory list in Task Manager before upgrading.
I made a mistake when describing the numbers: CPU usage is closer to 70% and GPU usage is around 14%. I’ll find the full CPU model and check the individual cores.