have stuttering/hitching issues with my fairly higher end PC and its driving me crazy!

Question

I recently noticed that dwm.exe has framerate presented in crazy numbers, dont know if it means anything but feels like it does. and I have bad stutters on my pc.

bear with me because this has been a long 7 month journey of troubleshooting. I will try to write in detail perhaps will give a clue to someone that can figure out the issue.

 

PC specs:

intel ultra 7 270k plus

rtx 5080

32gb rams ddr5 6000

850 psu

4th gen nvme

z890m gaming x

180hz AOC monitor plus 2 60hz monitors

a850gl pcie5 PSU

 

Issues, i dont know how much they are related but i feel like they should be.

-planetary annihilation run awful, the stuttering is constant, strangely when i click and drag using middle mouse button the frametime stabilizes, when its idle or i use the keyboard its basically unplayable.

-parkitect there is stuttering when i pan the map and its random and mmb doesnt change anything.

-two point museum stutters horribly when its autosaving and other than that there are random stutters.

-subnautica 2 has random stutters.

-manor lord stutters randomly when i am panning the map.

-zbrush doesnt feel smooth even in low poly models, strangely when i enabled Global timer requests in ISLC it became much better but didnt make any difference in other games.

-when i have two browsers open one stream on the main screen and i do anything in the browser on another screen, the video stutters even when the page isnt downloading anything.

-sometimes a pdf file is stuttery on a browser even when its a light one.

 

 

On the other hand, cyberpunk, doom dark ages and death stranding 2 run well except in death dtranding 2 the map has kind of similar stutter at first when i open it 

 

So here are all the fixes I tried and there are mothe things that i probably forgot:

-disconnected all the monitors except the main one.

-clean installed windows 3 times

-tried installing drivers from intel itself instead of the gigabyte site

-updated bios

-ddu and installed different drivers old and new

-disabled C states in bios

-disable speed step and irst in bios

-basically tinkered with every option in the bios except voltages and stuff like that.

-enabled disabled Gsync and vsync

-did maximum performance in nvidia app and control panel. stopped pcie gen from dropping to 1.1 but didnt make a difference in the stuttering.

-tinkered will all options in nvidia app

-tried process lasso and park control

-tried to make the power high performance and ultimate performance.

-disabled mpo it only stopped krita from getting black srcreens when disabling gsync for the program in nvidia app

-disabled realtek in device manager

-disconnected all usb devices

-latencymon didnt show any issues

-benchmarks of both the gpu and cpu show good results compared to other similar hardware

-tried disabling and uninstalling all the GCC and the led stuff

-tried lowering graphic settings in games but it didnt make a difference.

-tried the hdmi cable instead of the dp cable

-disconnected all the nvme drives except one, tried 2 different ones

-tried different mouse and keyboard

-changed the pcie link to gen 5 and gen 4

-disabled HAGS 

-disabled rebar

-checked the voltages and power usage as well as heat and there are no issues there in hwinfo

• tried making core clocks steady

-installed monitor drivers

 

-I also replaced the PSU that came with the case to a850gl pcie5 PSU 

-replaced my nvme drive to a a 4th gen MSI nvme

-replaced my intel ultra 7 265kf with a intel core ultra 7 270k plus

 

I also went to the PC shop and they tried other GPU(to a 5060), RAMS(other brand) and motherboard(other brand). So basically a whole new PC and the stutter is still there!

 

So after all this, it is probably not a faulty hardware issue, and i think its something related to windows dwm? that basically cannot deal with my specific harware, any help would be appreciated.

 

Answer 1

Hi vano,

Based on everything you've tested, you've already ruled out most of the common hardware causes. Since the issue remained even after replacing major components, reinstalling Windows, testing different drivers, and updating the BIOS, the behavior may be related to how Windows, display composition (DWM), drivers, or background processes are interacting on your specific configuration rather than a single failing component.

At this stage, a few focused checks may help gather more useful data:

1. Perform a Clean Boot and test whether the stuttering persists with only Microsoft services running.
2. Capture a trace using Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) during a stutter event and review it with Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA) to identify whether DWM, storage, interrupts, or another process is causing frametime spikes.
3. Temporarily disable any overlays or monitoring tools (such as RTSS, MSI Afterburner, Discord overlays, RGB utilities, or browser hardware acceleration) and retest.

The unusually high frame rate values reported for dwm.exe are not necessarily an indication of a problem by themselves, as some monitoring tools can report DWM metrics differently. Since you've already eliminated many hardware variables, collecting a performance trace will likely provide more insight than continuing to replace components.

I understand how frustrating it can be after several months of troubleshooting. You've already completed a very thorough investigation, which significantly narrows the possible causes. Hopefully, a detailed performance trace can help identify the remaining bottleneck and point you toward a more definitive solution.

Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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