What causes frame time spikes when I try to maintain 144 fps?

[Stephen_L]

I’m trying to get a stable 144 FPS in the new competitive shooter I’m playing, but my frame times keep spiking during intense firefights even though my average FPS looks fine. I’ve turned down all the obvious settings, but I can’t figure out what’s causing these hitches or if it’s just something I have to live with.

[Alexander98]

I had the same issue last season. Avg FPS looked fine but those tiny frame time hiccups during fights drove me nuts.

[BrianD]

I started closing background apps like Discord and the Windows overlay before a session. It actually reduced some stutters, though it came back later.

[AndrewFJ]

I tried capping at 144 and toggling VSync, but the hitches just moved around and never disappeared.

[Riley_H]

Sometimes it was just the CPU heating up during long matches, and I could feel it throttling for a second right when the action got dense.

[Brandon83]

I dropped texture quality a notch and preloaded some assets on startup; after that the spikes were less frequent, though not gone.

[AuroraWG]

I logged a few matches and saw spikes align with shader or asset streaming; not a perfect fix, but it pointed to where to look.

[Grace20]

Maybe the real issue is something else like the game’s net code or a driver quirk; I keep thinking I’m missing something obvious but nothing feels certain.