Question ASUS FX505DT

[S31FER]

About:
I am not much of a gamer anymore except for some "classic" games with a couple of newer titles and dipping my toes into newer games to check them out. So dropping a lot of money on a new gaming rig was out of the question seeing my old gaming system was a lemon out of the box. So I saw a nice ASUS FX505 DT.

Specs:
1.5TB SSD (1tb ssd + 512gb ssd)
Ryzen 5 (3550)
Geforce 1650 (4gb)
16GB ram

The issue:
No matter what I'm gaming, a 90's classic or a modern marvel I get "lag spikes" or "stutters" where my framerate drops to that of a slide show presentation. It seems to happen about every 30 seconds to every 5 minutes for about a good 10 seconds of non stop stuttering. It "feels" like it's a background process doing it but I can't seem to see anything really using any resources that could cause that spike. Temps, despite being a Ryzen system are within their limits.

Operating System:
Windows 10 with the "latest and greatest" updates. I "downgraded" from Windows 11. All drivers are up to date, I went through each one and made sure just to rule anything out.

Bottom line:
This will be my last Asus product, it's been a "desk queen" i.e. never taken anywhere yet despite being treated like royalty the screen has the dreaded "ASUS screen" where the bottom half glitches out and turns black. Performance wise when not stuttering has been fantastic and has surpassed my expectations. I've done everything I personally can to try to resolve this issue. Even running a malware scan.

Would anyone know what else I can try before I give up?

*Edit*
Windows is installed on HD1, games and others on HD2.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I get "lag spikes" or "stutters" where my framerate drops to that of a slide show presentation. It seems to happen about every 30 seconds to every 5 minutes for about a good 10 seconds of non stop stuttering

what exactly are you playing?

and what settings are in use;
resolution, in-game settings, any type of adaptive sync in place, etc..?

 

[S31FER]

The most modern game I'm playing is Warframe. Maxed out, no adaptive sync. Oldest game is Baldurs Gate. Issue happens on both.

 

[S31FER]

Here are two services that seem to pop up to top in task manager when the stuttering happens;

Desktop Windows Manager

Windows Audio Device Graph(...)

Which would lead me to believe there's a driver issue, however all drivers are up to date.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

Desktop Windows Manager

Windows Audio Device Graph

#1 is a natural Windows process, always active.

#2 is probably related to your audio driver(s).
check in Device Manager for any errors related to audio.
but, unless it is using an abnormal amount of resources i wouldn't worry about it.

 

[S31FER]

I know what the processes are, I updated both (again) by completely wiping the old installs. I also moved all games to main HD "C". I also ran the SFC /scannow command which did find some issues. Once it was done I restarted.

Now both AMD and Nvidia is completely updated and old install wiped prior to. Performance has indeed gotten better, but I will STILL get some stutters "out of the blue" for about 5-7 seconds with a minute or two intervals.

I don't have Armory Crate installed, neither do I have Geforce Experience installed, two programs I hear can give issues (especially Asus's Armory Crate). I truly am at a loss with this. Also, indexing is turned off. I have been extremely unfortunate with the last two gaming rigs I have owned. First desktop I dropped about 2k on a few years ago had a "gremlin" in the system. Starting apps and programs would take up to five minutes. However, booting was fine and even fast. Now this laptop which is great performance wise for the games I play is giving me these horrible stutters every minute in games.

I just can't catch a break lol, both in game and in real life. If it's not stuttering, it's literal brain surgery. lol, still recovering from that one and have several more months to go. Would be nice to just sit back and relax in some games but OF.COURSE.NOT.

I do appreciate your help and input John.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

this laptop which is great performance wise for the games I play is giving me these horrible stutters every minute in games

run an overlay like RivaTuner's showing CPU, GPU, disk, etc, all usage statistics in real-time as you're playing these games.

when these "stutters" as you call them happen you'll see what component seems to be affected at that time.


you also haven't mentioned anything related to power management.
make sure you haven't been using any type of "power saver" mode like a lot of laptops default to.

these settings could be located in the BIOS, any laptop manufacturer's control software, a possible physical switch located on the device, or even just the default Windows 'Power Options'.

 

[S31FER]

Yeah, the power savings is one of the things I changed not too long ago. It's on max everything currently. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier. RivaTuner, haven't thought of that will definitely give that a go, thanks!

 

[S31FER]

Ok, now more than ever I am fairly certain it is indeed something to do with my audio drivers as the Windows Audio Device Graph is the only thing that jumps up when it starts to lag. Going to just disable audio completely and see what that does.

 

[S31FER]

Ok, final update. I think I found the issue. Windows was switching to and from the AMD and Nvidia graphics for a few seconds while gaming (ugh, seriously?). I totally disabled the built in graphics (AMD) and the stutters have so far been 100% gone. Let's hope the issue is finally resolved. Been playing now for 20 minutes and I've not once stuttered, usually I would have had stutters ten times by now.

And I could live with the stutter if it only lasted a second or two as I don't play any competitive games anymore (even though I have gotten back into Day of Defeat Source lately). But it's for several seconds and the stuttering is so bad it's like watching a slide show.

If it's not fixed, I'm just to give up gaming for a while.