How to Calm Down CPU/GPU Spikes on RTX 5090 and Kill Those Annoying One-Off Stutters

Even if your RTX 5090 is showing 90–140 FPS at 4K, you can still get random half-second freezes or tiny hitches when you turn the camera, enter a city or trigger a big explosion. That’s not your card “being weak” – it’s short CPU/GPU spikes blowing up your frametimes. The fix isn’t to nuke all your graphics settings; it’s to calm down a few specific systems (foliage, crowds, volumetrics, RT, FOV, background noise, temps) so the whole pipeline runs smoothly instead of surging.

This article shows you how to calm down CPU/GPU spikes that cause those annoying one-off stutters on an RTX 5090/RTX 50-series rig, without turning your 4K ultra build into a potato.

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1. What a “Spike” Looks Like (and Why FPS Lies About It)

Before you touch any settings, it’s worth understanding what you’re actually chasing.

With any decent overlay running (Afterburner, vendor tool, in-game graph), you’ll see:

• FPS counter: mostly stable (for example 100–120 FPS)
• Frametime graph: lots of flat, calm 8–12 ms lines… and then sudden spikes to 30–50 ms
• CPU/GPU usage: brief moments where either CPU or GPU slam to 100% for a second

You feel that as:

• A one-off hitch when you turn into a busy street
• A freeze just as several effects go off at once
• A judder when the weather changes, a cutscene starts, or you enter a new biome

The aim is not simply “more FPS”. It’s:

Flatter frametime + fewer spikes = fewer hitches, even if your average FPS doesn’t change much.

The RTX 5090 already has the brute force; you’re just making its workload saner.

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2. GPU Spikes: Taming the “Burst-Heavy” Visual Settings

Your 5090 can brute-force a lot of eye candy at 4K, but a few options hit it in short, brutal bursts. Those are the ones that create spikes.

2.1 Foliage, grass and clutter

Dense foliage looks nice, but it’s a performance landmine:

• Thousands of tiny meshes to draw
• Often animated by wind/physics
• Frequently shadowed and lit individually

Every time you spin through a forest or grassy hillside at 4K, the GPU and CPU both get hammered.

What to do:

• Foliage/Grass Quality or Density: drop by one step (Ultra → High, High → Medium)
• Foliage Draw Distance: pull back slightly
• Extra clutter / debris: reduce if the game exposes it

You’re not stripping the world bare; you’re shaving just enough density that the renderer doesn’t choke when you pan quickly.

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2.2 Volumetric fog, clouds and god rays

Volumetrics are some of the heaviest features in modern engines:

• Volumetric fog banks
• Shafts of light through trees and windows
• Thick smoke, dust and storm effects

They can be especially spiky when:

• Weather transitions
• You step into a fog-heavy area
• The sun angle changes and beams suddenly fill the screen

What to do:

• Volumetric Quality / Volumetric Lighting: Ultra → High, or High → Medium
• Lower any separate volumetric resolution sliders one notch
• Disable any “Cinematic Volumetrics” toggle and stick to the normal High preset

You still get atmosphere and depth, but the worst burst loads are trimmed away.

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2.3 Shadows and contact shadows

Shadows touch a lot of pixels and geometry every frame:

• High-resolution shadow maps
• Long shadow distances
• Extra contact shadow passes for tiny detail

They’re a classic frametime spike source whenever lots of dynamic lights or complex geometry enter view.

What to do:

• Shadow Quality: drop one tier (Ultra → High, High → Medium)
• Contact Shadows / Extra shadow passes: reduce or disable if possible

At 4K, you rarely notice the downgrade, but you’ll definitely notice fewer “why did the camera hitch as I stepped into the sun?” moments.

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2.4 Over-the-top ray tracing and path tracing

On a 5090 you absolutely can use ray tracing at 4K – but the very top presets are often overkill for real gameplay:

• Full path tracing / extreme GI
• “Psycho” RT quality modes
• Super-sampled RT reflections on every surface

These settings tend to spike hardest in:

• Dense cities with puddles, glass and neon
• Interiors with lots of small lights and glossy materials
• Weather events (rain, fog, night-time storms)

What to do:

• Turn RT On, but run it one step below maximum
• Disable ultra-extreme RT toggles (“Psycho”, “Cinematic RT”, etc.) unless the game still holds up beautifully
• Combine RT with DLSS Quality so the GPU has breathing room when scenes get complex

You keep the cinematic lighting, but remove the worst hit to frametimes.

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3. CPU Spikes: FOV, Crowds and Simulation

At 4K on a 5090, you’ll often be CPU-limited in open worlds or big hubs. Short CPU spikes matter just as much as GPU spikes.

3.1 Field of View (FOV)

FOV doesn’t just change what you see – it changes how much the CPU and GPU have to simulate and draw:

• Higher FOV = more world visible
• More enemies, physics objects, AI and draw calls in view
• At 4K, that’s a lot of work per frame

Maxing FOV “because pros do it” can quietly increase spike frequency.

What to do:

• Use the lowest FOV that still feels comfortable and gives you decent awareness
• If you’re running max FOV and see spikes in cities or big rooms, drop it a few degrees and re-test your hot spots

Just a small reduction can lighten CPU load without making you feel tunnel-visioned.

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3.2 Crowd density, pedestrians and background AI

Anything labelled:

• Crowd Density / Population Density
• Traffic Density / Ambient NPCs

is heavy on the CPU:

• Each NPC needs AI, animation, physics and sometimes audio
• Cities and hubs become CPU storm zones

What to do:

• Reduce crowd and traffic density by one step
• Turn off or lower any “extra simulation detail” sliders (background AI, ambient life, etc.)

You still get a lively world, but your CPU isn’t spiking every time you walk into a busy plaza.

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3.3 Physics, destruction and “simulation detail”

Some games let you crank:

• Physics quality
• Destructible environment detail
• Ragdoll counts and persistence

It’s fun, but it can absolutely nuke CPU frametimes when lots of things happen at once.

What to do:

• Set physics/destruction sliders to Medium instead of Ultra
• Limit ragdoll count/persistence where options exist

You’ll still get satisfying feedback, just without the hidden CPU bombs.

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4. Temps, Power and Clocks: Stop the Card Punching Its Own Brakes

Another source of spikes: your RTX 5090 or CPU hitting thermal or power limits, then briefly downclocking.

4.1 Watch for thermal and power throttling

Signs this is part of your problem:

• GPU temps climbing into the mid-80s°C and above in heavy scenes
• GPU core clocks dropping by a few hundred MHz when things get intense
• CPU hotspots spiking hard in long sessions

When the hardware slams the brakes, your frametime graph spikes with it.

What to do:

• Make sure the case has:
  • At least one/two intakes at the front
  • One exhaust at the rear/top
  • No glass panel pressed directly against the GPU fans
• Clean dust filters and radiators
• Use your card’s software to set a slightly more aggressive fan curve so temps stabilise in the 60–70s°C rather than flirting with the limit

If you’re comfortable with it, a light undervolt can also help: same performance at lower voltage and heat, which often means steadier clocks and fewer spikes. If that sounds scary, skip it – good airflow and sensible fan behaviour already go a long way.

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5. Storage and Background Noise: Kill “Free” Stutters

Even with perfect settings and thermals, you can still get one-off hitches from:

• Slow or full drives
• Background apps suddenly waking up
• Overlays and launchers doing “quick checks” mid-match

5.1 Storage and streaming

Modern AAA titles stream in:

• High-res textures
• Geometry and animations
• Audio, cinematics, scripts

from disk constantly. If the drive can’t keep up, you get:

• Freeze when turning quickly into a new area
• Texture “popping in” late
• Cutscene or dialogue pauses

What to do:

• Install main games on a fast NVMe SSD
• Keep that drive with plenty of free space, not pinned at 95–99%
• Avoid running big downloads or file operations on the same drive while gaming

5.2 Background apps and overlays

Little things add up:

• Browsers with multiple video tabs
• Game launchers doing background updates
• RGB suites and “hardware dashboards” polling constantly
• Additional performance overlays stacked on top of each other

Each one can cause a tiny CPU/disk spike that lands as a frametime spike.

For serious sessions:

• Close browsers, update launchers before playing, and minimise overlays
• Keep just your launcher + game + one lean performance overlay open

Think of it as “clean boot, clean session” for your RTX 5090.

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6. Sync, VRR and Caps: Frame Pacing That Actually Behaves

Bad sync and sloppy caps can turn small spikes into obvious stutters.

6.1 Use VRR properly

On a 4K G-Sync/FreeSync monitor or TV:

• Enable VRR in display settings and NVIDIA Control Panel
• Make sure the panel is at native 4K and maximum refresh (120/144 Hz)
• Let VRR absorb normal FPS wobble so it doesn’t show as obvious judder

6.2 Don’t stack V-Sync everywhere

Layering V-Sync in:

• The driver
• The game
• Your TV’s motion smoothing / “game smoothing”

is a recipe for extra latency and weird stutter.

Pick one approach:

• Competitive feel: V-Sync Off, VRR On, FPS capped just below refresh
• Smooth cinematic: V-Sync On in driver, Off in-game, VRR On, cap just below refresh

Either way, avoid multiple V-Sync layers and definitely turn off TV motion smoothing – Game Mode only.

6.3 Cap FPS to calm peaks

A good FPS cap:

• Stops the GPU from bouncing up to silly FPS in easy scenes then crashing down in heavy ones
• Keeps you inside your VRR window
• Reduces power spikes and noise

For 4K on a 120/144 Hz panel:

• Cap at 117–118 FPS (120 Hz) or 140–141 FPS (144 Hz) for high-refresh play
• Or 70–90 FPS for a cinematic profile with ultra visuals

Use either the in-game limiter or NVIDIA’s per-game Max Frame Rate – not both.

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7. A Simple Before/After Method to Prove It Worked

You don’t need a full benchmark suite, just a basic routine:

1. Pick a stress spot
   • Busy city street, forest path, or scripted set-piece
2. Run it before changes
   • Record average FPS plus a quick look at the frametime graph
   • Note obvious hitch points (“turning left at the market stalls hitches every time”)
3. Apply targeted tweaks
   • Foliage down one step, volumetrics down one, crowds down one, sync fixed, FPS cap set
4. Run the same spot again
   • Ignore tiny FPS differences, focus on:
     • Are spikes smaller or gone?
     • Does that specific hitch still occur?
     • Does camera movement feel smoother?

If those trouble spots feel better and your frametime graph looks less like a heart monitor, you’ve successfully calmed the CPU/GPU spikes – and your RTX 5090’s raw power is finally showing up as consistently smooth 4K gameplay, not just a pretty FPS number.