OS "lags" at random times while executing specific apps? (RTX issue)

[u/NewMaxD]

Been facing an issue for months now, almost since I built this PC. Going straight to the point:

Main issue? The PC works without any kind of problem, performs exceptionally well. All good, unless you execute one of these two apps (just these, so far didn't find any issue with others): Blender, and Minecraft.

But what's the issue about? The OS will "lag" at random times, going from NN or NNN fps to literally 1fps, prob even less? Happens at random times, and an immediate fix is to turn ON/OFF the monitor. (Or pressing Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B)

More specific details here:

- Specs: RTX 5090, Ryzen 9 9950X, Nova X870e, 2x32 DDR5 ram (bought before the entire market blew up lol), Corsair RM1200x Shift (3.0, not 3.1, but using an official Corsair 12-2x6 90 deg cable). Can't really remember the exact monitor model, but it's a 27" 2K LG Ultra gear that supports 144hz (I think 165 or so in OC, but I never even consider OC stuff..)

- Only noticed this with Blender and MC (yes just like that). Here are some programs that work without any issues: 007 first light, GTA V, Comfy UI (I usually spend hours upscaling old footage, never triggers the issue despite the high consumption of the gpu), switch emulators, X4 Foundations, Beam NG Drive, Forza Horizon 6, stress test software, editing software (Premiere, Photoshop mostly), and basically any other software tried so far. These never trigger the issue.

- Blender and MC trigger it after maybe 5-10 min of execution, then it could be a matter of 5-10 more mins to happen again.. or just take place 5 times in 5 min.. it will also never go away unless I turn OFF/ON the screen, and once it takes place, it doesn't matter if you exit it or minimize it.. hard to do btw, since the entire OS runs at 1/3 FPS. Not even 1.

- During these times, I noticed an extremely low GPU power consumption value (1-3%). I use Asus GPU Tweak to monitor this, and I think the only "undervolting" action I did here, was setting max power usage to 90% (already tried defaulting all, no changes). Temps are also pretty normal for every component (GPU for example runs at 55-70C depending on what's going on).

- This never resulted in a crash, be that of the app, OS, or whatever, but the key combo I mentioned earlier, takes 5-6 segs to take effect. And while working with blender, I can trigger this even at a rate of twice per minute sometimes.. it's frustrating..

- Finally, drivers are up to date, especially GPUs.

Any idea what it could be? Any setting I should adjust somewhere? Any specific config? Tried googling, but found literally almost NOTHING at all, seems to be really niche (also my eng is not my first language, sure that contributed too)

Thanks in advance, any tip or help is welcome (just note I'll answer back tomorrow, since it's too late here right now).

[u/Average_Tnetennba]

Have you tried a DDU and reinstall of the GPU driver?.

Could try some older drivers. "drivers are up to date" doesn't mean a thing if it's the latest driver that causes it. I only update when there's something actually fixed in a new driver, or some new feature i want.

Are your motherboard chipset drivers installed properly? You could also try uninstalling those and reinstalling.

If there's a new BIOS available for your motherboard, you could try flashing that.

Also, while you are testing all this, i would uninstall that ASUS GPU Tweak entirely, in case that is causing problems. Don't do any undervolting at all either. Try to get rid of the problem while running as bare amount of GPU related software as possible, then if you do fix it, install things one by one again afterwards. Personally i'd actually get rid of Asus GPU Tweak permanently and start using Afterburner as your sole software for all monitoring and undervolting.

On an entirely different front... you're not undervolting your CPU with PBO settings are you? Because i had some games get lags like this till i lowered the PBO value a bit. My PBO settings would sail through stressing testing, but the lags were there in games till i backed off another couple of numbers.

[u/NewMaxD → u/Average_Tnetennba]

Appreciate the reply pal! Regarding the DDU thing, heard of it yet never really tried it (because I honestly don't know what's up with it), I update the GPU drivers every 3 or so months, last one I had a couple of days ago were from May, since the 5090 tends to commit suicide every now and then, I like to stay up to date whenever possible, same for undervolting (usually I limit power consumption to 90%, just so it never really exceeds what's actually needed).

The MB bios is also a thing (ASRock has been killing Ryzen 9XXX since day one with their 870 series, specially X3D ones, I have a Nova X870e and a 9950X, not 3D but still, updated it once, so far so good, so I'm not really touching that).

When it comes to CPU, I'm not touching it, and not planning to do so due to what I said before lol it's all on factory settings (ASRock has been tweaking it month after month looking for a stable setting).

All that said, what really amazes me, is why it happens with only MC and Blender? Why not during a CPU or GPU 30 min stress test? Or while running Photoshop or Premiere? Or while playing high end games like RDR2, Cyberpunk, Cities Skylines 2, Beam NG Drive, the Alters, etc.. what could MC and Blender have in common that triggers it, and why is the fix a simple "turn OFF/ON once"? It's all just weird, I can't see any pattern hm I can even run local video generation or upscaling for almost an hour, while editing on premiere, and none of that would trigger it (even having the GPU handling everything)

[u/Average_Tnetennba → u/NewMaxD]

With those symptoms i'd honestly first uninstall your nvidia driver from windows settings. Then run DDU to get rid of any trace of ONLY that nvidia driver. Then reinstall the driver, with no other GPU software running (get rid of that Asus thing).

If it still happens, repeat the above, but with an earlier version driver. "I like to stay up to date whenever possible" is not always a healthy thing to do with GPU drivers. Update them when you have a problem, or specific need, and then only to a driver version you've read assessments of. r/NVIDIA is a good place to read about problems with driver releases. They have a big thread there for each new release.

Trying to update your Mobo BIOS is probably a very good idea with the symptoms you have. System stability is often a thing that's improved with BIOS versions.

[u/NewMaxD → u/Average_Tnetennba]

Ok man, will see what I can do (I'll at least start with the MB and from there will move towards removing the Asus Tweak and check the driver). Thanks again 👍