When do frame-time spikes happen at 144 FPS in this shooter?

[JeffreyJ]

I’ve been trying to get a stable 144 FPS in the new shooter I’m playing, but my frame times keep spiking during intense firefights even though my average framerate looks fine. It makes the action feel really inconsistent and jarring, and I’m not sure if this is more of a CPU bottleneck issue or something wrong with my in-game settings.

[George.R]

I know the problem. The average FPS can look smooth while the spikes show up during heavy firefights. For me it happened when muzzle flashes and explosions filled the screen. I closed Spotify and a backup cloud sync, and trimmed a couple background tasks, and the spikes eased a bit.

[Layla_W]

In my case it felt CPU bound at times; one core would spike during bursts. I dropped a couple CPU-heavy settings and watched a bit of improvement, but it wasn't a cure.

[Aurora_R]

I tried capping the frame to 144 and turning on VSync; it made the stutters more predictable, but they didn’t go away.

[Dennis25]

Maybe the real issue is the engine's asset streaming; big textures loading during a rush can cause little pauses, not just raw power.

[AriaXL]

I measured with a frame timer and saw spikes when there were heavy particle effects; lowering some post effects and shadow quality reduced the jitter a bit.

[TimothyYP]

Have you checked if it only happens on a particular map or mode? For me the issue was worse on crowded maps.