Fix FPS Drops, Stutter, Input Delay and Game Crashes on PC

Your PC isn’t “just old.” Most of the time, it’s set up wrong.

I’ve optimized 3,000+ gaming PCs since 2021, mostly for Warzone and Call of Duty players. The same five problems show up again and again: low FPS, stutter, input delay, screen tearing and crashes. The good news is that most of them are fixable without spending a dollar.

Here’s what I check first, in the order I check it.

1. Game crashing? Start with your GPU driver

If a game crashes to desktop, freezes, or gives you a black screen, a bad driver is the cause more often than anything else.

Here’s the clean way to do it:

1. Go to nvidia.com/drivers (or AMD’s site) and download the Game Ready driver for your exact GPU.

2. During install, pick drivers only. Skip the Nvidia app. I’ve had clients get a black screen right after installing it, so I don’t recommend it.

3. Still crashing? Do a clean install with DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode, then reinstall the driver.

This alone fixes most game crashes I see.

If it keeps crashing after that, check three more things:

• RAM profile: an unstable XMP/EXPO profile causes random crashes. Test it at a lower speed to see if the crashes stop.

• Temps: if your CPU or GPU is thermal throttling, the game will stutter first and crash later.

• Game files: run Verify Integrity in Steam or Scan and Repair in Battle.net.

2. Stutter and lag spikes

Stutter is not the same as low FPS. Your average can look great while the game still feels awful because of bad frame times.

The usual causes:

• Background apps. Browsers, overlays, RGB software and launchers all eat CPU time. Close them before you play.

• Wrong power plan. Set Windows to High performance or Ultimate Performance. Laptops should be plugged in.

• CPU bottleneck. If your CPU is pinned at 100% while your GPU sits at 60%, your GPU is waiting on your CPU. Lowering graphics settings won’t fix that.

• Slow or full storage. Games installed on a nearly full drive stutter when they load assets. Keep them on an SSD with free space.

• Shader cache. After a driver update, the first game launch can stutter while shaders rebuild. Give it a few minutes before you judge it.

3. Input delay (the one nobody notices until it’s fixed)

Input delay doesn’t show up in an FPS counter. You just feel like you’re losing fights you should win.

What I look at:

• Frame generation. It makes your FPS number bigger, but it adds latency. For competitive shooters, I turn it off. In my testing, it’s one of the most common causes of delay on high-end PCs.

• Nvidia Reflex. Turn it on in-game. In Warzone, On + Boost is the setting I use.

• V-Sync. Off in-game for the lowest latency, unless you’re fixing tearing (see below).

• Mouse settings. Set polling to 1000Hz or higher, and turn off Enhance Pointer Precision in Windows.

• Uncapped FPS. A GPU at 100% usage adds render queue latency. A sensible FPS cap can feel smoother.

4. Screen tearing

Tearing is when the image looks split across the screen. It happens when your FPS and your monitor’s refresh rate don’t line up.

The fix:

1. Turn on G-Sync or FreeSync in your driver settings (your monitor needs to support it).

2. Cap your FPS a few frames below your refresh rate (for example, 141 on a 144Hz monitor).

3. Only use V-Sync if tearing is still there. It fixes tearing but can add delay.

5. Low FPS

Before you touch a single setting, check your hardware is doing its job:

• Is your monitor actually running at its full refresh rate? Check Windows display settings.

• Is your RAM running at its rated speed, or stuck at the default?

• Is your GPU in the right PCIe slot, with the power cables fully seated?

For reference, on a properly tuned Ryzen 9800X3D with an RTX 5080, I get 300+ real FPS in Warzone without frame generation. In CS2, I’ve taken systems from around 150 FPS to 500. Settings matter that much.

Also, a quick myth check: I’ve tested Fullscreen Optimizations on Windows 11 myself, and it doesn’t help. Skip the “tweak” videos that tell you otherwise.

A real example

A client came to me with an RTX 5090 and a Ryzen 9950X3D. Top-tier hardware. He still had serious input delay in Warzone.

The cause wasn’t his hardware. A previous technician had left Frame Generation turned on. Once I turned it off and tuned the rest of his setup, the delay was gone.

That’s the pattern. The more expensive the PC, the more likely it is that a wrong setting is holding it back, not a missing part.

Still not fixed? Get a free PC check first

If you’ve tried all of this and your game still lags, stutters or crashes, send me your specs and I’ll look at your PC for free.

Why free? Because sometimes the real problem is hardware, like a failing drive, bad RAM or an overheating GPU. If that’s the case, I’ll tell you straight, and you won’t spend a cent on optimization that won’t help.

If it is a software or settings problem, that’s where I can help. PC Optimization is $75, Windows Optimization is $35, and the bundle is $100. Either way, the check comes first.

[Get your free PC check at asbgaming.com]