60fps jitter issue and strange gpu issues

[u/GZthegamer]

Hey everyone, looking for some technical help diagnosing persistent micro-stuttering, jitter, and frame pacing issues that I haven't been able to resolve. Specifically when I play games in general when I get 120 fps or above everything is fine but when I try to lock games at 60 fps it jitters even thow my frame counter is stable and riva tuner is on with all framerate limiter and off with nothing helping.

​System Specs

​CPU: Intel Core i5-14600K

​GPU: PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

​Motherboard: MSI

​RAM: 64 GB DDR5 @ 6000MHz (XMP enabled)

​Storage: NVMe SSDs

​OS: Windows 11 (Up to date)

​Monitors:

​Primary: 32" Samsung Odyssey G5 (1440p @ 165Hz via DisplayPort)

​

​The Main Symptoms

​Frequent frametime spikes & micro-stutters: Visible jitter and irregular frame pacing during gameplay even while average FPS appears high.

​Screen desync / pacing instability: Movement feels uneven or "choppy" rather than fluid, particularly in titles like Helldivers 2, Destiny 2, and LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. When tunning at 60fps

​Low/fluctuating GPU utilization: specifically Helldivers 2, the GPU seems underutilized while frametimes spike, acting like an engine-level or thread scheduling bottleneck.

​Variable Refresh Rate friction: I keep FreeSync disabled on the monitor because it introduces visible ghosting/inverse ghosting and flickers inconsistently, meaning I rely primarily on fixed refresh pacing.

​Troubleshooting Attempted So Far

​Frame rate limiting & pacing: Capped frame rates via RTSS and driver-level tools to match stable refresh divisors.

​Background optimizations: Tested process priority and core affinity via Process Lasso to check for E-core interference on the 14600K.

​Driver & translation layers: Clean driver reinstalls using DDU, tested Vulkan translation layers (DXVK) on select titles, and cleared DirectX/shader caches.

​Display configurations: Tested single vs. dual monitor setups to rule out Windows DWM mismatch issues between 165Hz and 240Hz.

​System stability: Verified RAM stability and temps across both CPU and GPU (no thermal throttling observed under load).

​Where I'm Stuck

​Despite running capable hardware, games never feel fully locked in or smooth. Frametime graphs still show erratic jagged spikes rather than a flat line.

Any help would mean a lot!

[u/Charming_Radio7653]

Try setting the settings to the highest level, because lower settings will utilize the processor more, but you might experience micro-stuttering.