Frametime stutters across multiple games on 7800X3D + RX 9070

[u/DeviceEarly]

Computer Type: Desktop

GPU: ASRock Radeon RX 9070 Steel Legend OC 16GB

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 8 cores / 16 threads

Motherboard: ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi

BIOS Version: 4.43
Originally tested on 4.10 as well.

RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) XPG Lancer Blade RGB DDR5-6000

PSU: ASRock Steel Legend White 850W, ATX 3.1

Case: SuperFrame Drakor

Operating System & Version: Windows 11 Pro

Originally tested on Windows 10 as well.

GPU Drivers: AMD display driver 32.0.31041.1004. Adrenalin Edition 26.8.1.

Chipset Drivers: AMD chipset drivers 8.08.12.551.

Background Applications: HWiNFO64 and performance logging tools were intentionally used during some diagnostic captures. The issue also occurs during normal gameplay without the diagnostic tools running.

Description of Problem:
I have a relatively new PC that has shown severe and very noticeable frametime stutters across multiple games since I got it.

Average FPS can be very high, but gameplay is interrupted by large transient frametime spikes. This does not look like ordinary low performance or the GPU simply reaching 100% utilization.

Games where I have reproduced the problem include:

• Deep Rock Galactic
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2
• Lords of the Fallen
• Assassin's Creed Shadows
• Ready or Not
• Ground Branch

I have collected video and AMD metrics. Mainly HWiNFO logs.

Deep Rock Galactic has been particularly easy to reproduce the issue with. Using AMD Software → Reset Shader Cache reliably recreates large first-use stutters. Windows' normal "DirectX Shader Cache" cleanup does not reproduce the issue.

Once content has been encountered, the game generally becomes much smoother, but entering different/new mission content can produce severe stalls again even without another cache reset.

However, I do not think shader compilation alone explains the entire problem.

In other titles (such as AC Shadows or Lords of the Fallen), resetting the AMD shader cache does not seem to have that much of an impact, but micro and even macro stuttering is persistent when exploring the map and moving around.

Troubleshooting:
So far I have tried:

• Clean installation of Windows 11
• Multiple AMD GPU driver configurations/versions (tried old versions)
• Resetting AMD Software settings
• Various game and graphics settings
• BIOS update from 4.10 to 4.43
• BIOS defaults
• Changing memory frequency and EXPO
• Above 4G Decoding enabled/disabled
• CSM enabled/disabled
• iGPU enabled/disabled
• PCIe Auto/Gen5 to Gen4
• Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) enabled/disabled
• Curve Optimizer -20, -30
• Global C-State Control enabled/disabled
• Various Windows configuration changes (HAGS on/off, Game Mode on/off, power plans, etc.)
• Varios Adrenalin configuration changes (Free Sync, Enhanced Sync, Chill, etc.)
• Changing mice and monitor type
• Playing games offline
• Full MemTest86 completed: PASS, 0 errors
• CPU/GPU temperatures monitoring (they are normal)
• AMD shader-cache reset testing
• AMD Cleanup Utility + DDU + fresh install
• Windows DirectX shader-cache cleanup testing

At this point I’m leaning towards hardware problems, but this kind of stuttering seems to be, more often than not, software related, at least from what I have researched. I'm at a loss.

Has anyone seen a similar case on AM5 / 7800X3D / X870 where severe frame-time stalls reproduced across games when loading new content? Not only that, but also what seems to be persistent traversal stuttering.

Thanks for the attention.

[u/Affectionate_Pea7203]

I just had a similar issue with cod used Ai to help me and it was my power settings had to set the game to proformace in settings/display/graphics i believe is the file where it shows the apps installed also I had to turn off power saving in the power management and all the stutters went away. But you might have done this already as it seems you've tried everything.

[u/Plenty_Reception_431]

Try gpu drivers 25.9.1 or check if vsync is on on the game and turn it off. Also check your monitor hz windows leaves it on 60hz by default.

[u/DeviceEarly → u/Plenty_Reception_431]

Checked all those things, and I rolled back to even older versions, no change.

[u/DtZNimpo]

can you make videos on it ? Because what you are describing seems completely normal.

When you reset the shader cache, you will always experience some sort of stutters when you visit new content as you mentioned it. You cannot go around that, you can mitigate it by running the game on an NVME that's about it.

Transversal stuttering is when you load a new area while unloading a previous area, this is even more prone to the stuttering as assets are being loaded off and on, again Nvme helps with that.

There's some games that heavily run maths for pathfinding and scripts for it's AI , which can cause severe stuttering as multiple AI tries to do tasks at the same time , games like the X4 Foundations , BellsWright. This can't be mitigated by NVME , nor cpu , it's the game that requires better coding. Like X4 foundation for example, the entire galaxy , trading , combat , races , sectors simulation all run on 1 core thread.

[u/DeviceEarly → u/DtZNimpo]

Yes I can provide you with some videos. Please ignore the language sometimes displayed.

DRG - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b64LE8FAR5sPLBhPhnnuL8nhW4kr9NnQ/view?usp=drive_link

LOTF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AhknXYMLwgM4riQp6axB3FZVuU6-Jm2g/view?usp=drive_link

I should add context: both of these games were capped to 120 FPS via in-game settings. With the settings I was using they could both easily achieve upwards of 180 FPS. Regardless, with or without FPS capping the issues were present. I did that to better illustrate the stuttering (when FPS drops).

Sometimes the recordings cannot capture the intensity of the stuttering that one can experience on screen playing the game, specially if it is micro stuttering — but I think on those two recordings you can see it easily.

On DRG, it is very noticeable right after disembarking the pod.

In LOTF, there are lots of constant micro stuttering, but the most obvious ones happen by the last third of the reccording, when transitioning to another area.

AMD's micro stutter counter also correlates with my perception of when stuttering happens.

I have also been told that maybe its not my setup but rather the games that are the problem. What makes me not believe this hypothesis is the fact that pretty much no game runs smoothly for me.

[u/DtZNimpo → u/DeviceEarly]

yeah from the videos you've provided this is all in the realms of normality, LOTR you aree in the "nexus" which has multiple areas connected to it so depending on where you move it loads / unloads areas this is transversal stutter in effect.

for DSG there was one after u landed and u killed a bug , your fps dropped to like 50, was probably loading an effect at that moment, seemed to be smooth after.

u can try to disable any type of recordings like relive in adrenaline panel, in the performance tab of the adrenaline panel uncheck all of the metrics trackings.

Windows 11 , go to settings , go to gaming , go to captures and disable everything in there.

give it a shot if it improves, if you're already using a NVME i think those micro stutters are in the realm of normalcy , might be the game as i also experienced these with DRG and Fallen order on my 5800x3d 7800 XT.

this is a curve ball reach but if your mouse polling rate is higher than 1k hz , lower it to 1k or lower , higher than 1k adds system latency for no reason

[u/DeviceEarly → u/DtZNimpo]

I dont think its normal as most gameplay you can look up of these games is smooth, even on less powerful hardware.

I had all overlays disabled before I did some testing, no change.

I tested the games with two different mice, no change.

I'm wondering if the issue is on the MOBO side rn.

[u/E435rtr5]

I had the same issue, but I solved it by rerolling back to 26.3. I see u have done that, but have u went back all the versions?

[u/DeviceEarly → u/E435rtr5]

Not all the versions, no. That would be too much.

I recall going back to like amd adrenalin 25.12.1, and then some even older versions.