Friezes in games on a powerful PC (Details) | RTX 4080

Hello. I am writing out of desperation, because I don’t know what to do anymore. I will try to describe everything in detail with all the nuances, so that you can better understand the essence of what is happening. I will describe everything objectively and impartially, so that there is a clear picture of what really is.

Configuration:

Motherboard | Gigabyte z390 Aorus Elite
Processor | Intel core i9-9900k (without overclocking)
CPU cooling | be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Graphics card | Asus Rog Strix Gaming OC RTX 4080
RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB Black [2x8GB 3000MHz DDR4 CL15 DIMM]
(memory from Samsung, dual channel)
PSU | be quiet! Power Zone 750W
Monitor | Acer Nitro VG270UPbmiipx 27 (wqhd, 144hz, ips, g-sync, hdr)
OS | Microsoft Windows 11 version 2h22

Drives - HDD 2TB WD RED (For files)
- SSD Samsung 980 M.2 PCIe NVMe 1TB (For games and some programs)
- SSD Samsung 980 M.2 PCIe NVMe 500GB (For system)

All this in a large and well-ventilated housing.
All unnecessary system functions, such as exploit protection, overlay, game mode, etc., are disabled. I don't know if it makes any difference, but the PC is running Norton Security.
A few words about the video card, I came across with whistling chokes (coil whine), when the power is connected, the red light is on when the power is off, but after starting the computer it goes out. According to the tests, everything is fine, but more on that below.

History:

It all started with the fact that my old video card - Gigabyte 2080 super windforce oc stopped working. My eyes fell on the not yet released 4080. On the day of release, I bought one and installed it on a PC. After that, I immediately downloaded the driver and decided to run tests. They passed with a bang, without any problems. However, literally two days later, some misunderstandings with the monitor began. Under load in the face of games, the screen began to flicker if alt tab was placed on any other window. I don’t know what this is connected with, perhaps with the FPS lock in the game when minimizing (30 frames), maybe with something else, but the fact is that the problem was fixed by turning off the G-SYNC function in the Nvidia Control Panel. It is worth canceling that a couple of times it happened that after the game was turned off, the screen continued to flicker (I attribute it to an incompletely completed process). But not the point. Around the same time, I began to notice microfreezes / statters / friezes in games. They appear randomly, not only during saving or moving to another location.
I would like to add that there are also some sort of lags (not often) in both pictures AND SOUND during normal PC usage, i.e. browser, folders, etc.

PS At one of the first launches while using the system, a strong freeze was observed (1 or 2 times), but this did not happen again. (I don’t know for sure whether this happened before installing the driver on the video card or after)

I will describe with specific examples:
All games are on SSD.

1) A Plague Tale: Requiem
Graphics settings as high as possible, disabled chrome. aberration (I don't remember the exact name) and motion blur is turned off. QHD resolution, frame limit 60, DLSS resolution disabled, DLSS frame generation enabled, which resulted in maximum detail and 120 fps thanks to frame generation. I played on this configuration most of the time, and at times without any reloads (the save icon did not appear), there was a microfreeze, quite noticeable, with a drawdown of fps up to 100 and sometimes (less often) up to 80, but after that the counter immediately returned to normal. And that's how it is all the time, regardless of location. It also seemed to me that even in the same location, practically without moving, microfreezes still came across (but this was very rare). To check, I ran it with minimal graphics settings, without lowering the resolution (with all possible combinations of DLSS 3 settings). Friezes as they were, and remain.
A bit of monitoring in the game:
Processor - 60-80 degrees, load on average 80+%. During the test of the entire system (except for the FPU, since it immediately goes into throttling), after a few minutes, 3-4% throttling began, but during the tests in games there seemed to be nothing like this (maybe I'm not reading the monitoring correctly).
Video card - 45-55 degrees on average, loading 65-70%.
I tried to overclock the processor a little - it didn’t help, I raised the RAM from 3000 to 3600 - similarly, but according to my observations, after manipulating the RAM, the friezes became much less (perhaps just lucky, since there is no specific system). Rebooting the PC, according to my observations, does not affect the likelihood of occurrence.

2) CoD Warzone 2
The graphics settings are maximum, motion blur is disabled, DLSS is in quality mode, the limiter is 140 frames. The game gives out from 120 to 140 depending on the location and actions on the screen. But here, just like in the previous game, there were microfreezes with drawdowns of up to 80 frames, and in this one they were more frequent (but only in the very first games after installation).
A bit of monitoring in the game:


After manipulating the RAM, the situation is similar to the last game - the number of freezes has decreased, but after the reboot, it seems like the probability of microfreezes has decreased, unlike plague tale. (However, I do not undertake to say this, because once in a while it is not necessary)

3) Cyberpunk 2077
Settings to maximum, best to highest, DLSS to quality. Once every few benchmarks, microfreezes slip through (according to my observations, a maximum of 1 per test, but I could be wrong). In the game itself, I did not notice sagging / friezes, but perhaps this is because the frequency was kept in the region of 60-70 frames, no more. Unfortunately, we were unable to capture it on video.

4) God of War
Maximum graphics settings, no DLSS. I noticed quite a few friezes and FPS failures.

5) Forza Horizon 5
Maximum graphics settings, no DLSS. There are no significant drawdowns, there are microfreezes, but not so much.

Now for the tests (I'll attach all the screenshots below). In order to identify a weak spot, I began to test all components. The results, although positive, did not please me, since the situation did not become clearer. They gave a tip on raw drivers from both NVIDIA and Microsoft, but unfortunately there is no way to check this, let alone fix it (or I don’t know something).
The video card in Furmark is stable, it does not heat up above 65 degrees, it produces ~ 340 fps in the QHD test mode. 3DMark in the stress test showed 99.1% stability of the video card, all the curves are "smooth", stable (only the temperature jumped a couple of degrees). I immediately tested the CPU, there are no problems either. Disks are fine too. Checking the PCIe slot showed a positive result. I ran the RAM through AIDA, and memtest86. No problems have been identified. The general configuration test showed a positive result. BUT... the friezes remained the same, and to be honest, this is not what I expected when buying a card for almost $ 1800, and I worry about it most of all, is everything okay with it, or maybe it's not too late to go and turn it in / replace it. I don't think I forgot anything, if I remember something I'll add it below.

To those who read to the very end, a huge thank you with a huge request to help me with at least some advice. Even seemingly banal recommendations can completely solve the problem, so please write everything you think about (which may help solve the problem in the future, of course). It may be similar at high fps - the norm is 0_o.
I will gladly answer all questions.

Video at the very bottom

CPU



test: GPU test (RTX ON):



GPU test (RTX OFF, DX 12):



DLSS


test: RAM



test: GPGPU


test: SSD


test: AIDA64



stress test: 3DMARK stress test (20 loops):



Slices from games (pay attention to fps during freezes):

1) A Plague Tale: Requiem
- Both significant and minor friezes were included in the test.


2) God of War
- Both freezes and drawdowns were included in the test. This was not observed on the old video card (although perhaps I was over-praising it and at that time I simply did not notice)


3) Forza Horizon 5
- Only a couple of minor microfreezes got into the test, but to be honest, I did not expect more from this game, since it not very "heavy".


4) Call of Duty Warzone 2
- Basically, all drawdowns and freezes occurred on the plane and during the flight, but they did not disappear on the ground either, although yesterday they were more common.