PC Graphics

[Vormundi]

When I am playing a video game on my PC, everything randomly freezes for a couple seconds. My FPS will drop significantly and then recover as soon as the freeze stops. I've seen it happen in Smite, Apex Legends, New World, Overwatch, and others, so it's not localized to just one game. I actually built my current PC to replace my previous one that had been having a similar issue for a while, although less often. Since I custom built this new PC earlier this year, I have seen the freezes steadily increase in frequency up to the point where they happen probably once a minute while gaming. I've also noticed it outside of playing games, but they seem to get worse and more frequent when my PC is under a higher strain like when I'm gaming.

Hardware:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

• GPU: ASRock RX 6700 XT Challenger D

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime X570-Pro

• CPU Cooler: Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix AIO

• Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600

• Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD

• Power Supply: Corsair RM 850x (80 Plus Gold)

• Monitors: Two Acer Nitro XV272U 27" 1440p monitors (I've tested with just 1 monitor, but I still have the same issue)

• Other: Lian Li ATX case with 9 fans total (6 intake on side and top, 3 exhaust on bottom)

Steps I've taken so far:

• Ensured cable connectivity

• Ensured drivers/BIOS/OS were up to date

• Ensured my RAM was running at the right clock speed in BIOS settings

• Applied new thermal paste within my graphics card

• Ran a Windows memory diagnostic

• Replaced Ethernet and DisplayPort cables

• Got a new ISP (for a variety of reasons, but I felt it was worth mentioning)

• Monitored GPU temp and usage with MSI afterburner (usage drops when freezes happen as expected, but temp seems to be at a safe level)

• Replaced old GPU with new GPU (it took a while after building this new PC to get a new graphics card so I used my old one for a while, but the issue happened with both)

Does anyone know what else might be causing these random freezes?

[amdman]

You have a tough one here. At this point you will have to start removing everything, and add one thing at a time until you see the problem. Take it out of the case, add cards in one at a time, carefully or just borrow or use another PC and try to swap things until you can isolate it. It may be a bad connector on your case to the motherboard headers, the motherboard itself, etc. When you say it happens even after you build a new PC then you even have to look at the power coming from the wall. One of the first things you can try that will not be so drastic and having to tear the whole PC apart is to check windows for corruption, if you are OC'ing set it all to default, if you have a multi meter watch youtube for how to safely check the current/voltages on all the components. I hope you get it fixed.