Nitro AN515-42 stuttering randomly when gaming

Hi, I've been having this problem for a while now and at the moment I don't know what to do.
Basically the laptop randomly stutters, this is especially when gaming, most other times it doesn't happen. But it's not performance related since mostly any game more complicated than the basic stuff, stutters, even graphical adventure. When it happens, it's like the hard disk (or the pc) is loading and it usually happens before a sound is meant to be played.
Like you ask someone a question and everything pauses for a second or two while it loads. But it's not supposed to happen of course.
I've already been trying to enlarge my swap files for both hard disk but to no avail. I haven't yet tried to install all games only on the SSD but that wouldn't be a long term solution cause it's not big enough for more than 3-4 titles.
Any suggestions? There's nothing much running in the background, except the usual stuff. No Ccleaner or antirvirus or anything.
Thanks

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andylb

Please follow my walkthrough below

Firstly your BIOS version should be 1.16 go here to update
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7605?b=1

The new AMD Adrenalin 2020 Control Center is designed to give support for your hardware and contains Mobile Driver support for this exact model, the Graphics Drivers on the Acer site are only base drivers. If you haven't already downloaded and installed it then click the link below to download it. If you get a failure installing the new Control Center then download and run DDU https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html for a clean uninstall of your current AMD Center and Drivers then try to install again

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-1-3

Most of the problems I have encountered answering questions similar to yours are that users do not have the GPU set up correctly in the Control Center and are gaming on their Dedicated Vega 8 GPU which gives poor performance and is not designed for gaming. I have your exact model and my gaming experience using the AMD 2020 Control Center is good, Follow these instructions

First make sure you game with your battery charged to 100% BEFORE gaming and KEEP plugged into the main AC power while gaming. Make sure "High Performance when on AC", is selected in your Windows Power Plan and in Nitrosense. If you fail to do this your CPU will run at around 50% of capacity and you will experience poor game performance

Open the New AMD 2020 Control Center and click the GAMING tab then click the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and select ADD A GAME, navigate to your games .exe file and double click it to add it, or you can select SCAN FOR GAMES and let the Control Center search your harddrive for games to add. After successfully adding the game click on the game and you will be taken to another window and click the LAUNCH GAME tab.
Only in this way will your games use the Discrete Rx560x GPU, NEVER launch your game through a desktop shortcut or any other way, do it in the manner I have described.

Please remember that online gaming may experience low fps and stutter due to the games servers and bottlenecking and that has nothing to do with your GPU.

PLEASE CLICK YES IF I HAVE ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION, THANKYOU

MDMaster

Yeah I already saw this and I've tried just now and nope, it doesn't work. Still stutters.
As I said, it's not a graphical problem, it's something that is slowing down the system. I also hear something getting "revved up", like powered up (not the fans of course) every once in a while this happens.

MDMaster

And yes, pc is updated, both Adrenaline and Bios are at the latest version

andylb

Sounds like your HDD is glitching mate. There are a few alternatives but I would use the HDD for storage only and install a 1tb 2.5" SATA SSD for your games. Your model has one M2 expansion slot for SATA only. Acer have only tested up to 500 gb SSD's but many users have successfully installed 1tb with zero problems. Link below is to Crucial and they guarantee compatibility for your exact model. I write down the part number and buy from Amazon, it's cheaper and faster delivery
https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Acer/nitro-5-an515-42#SSDFilters

Please click YES if I have answered your question

MDMaster

That's a cheap solution that I could try, thanks. But still, I've checked the hard drive and it says status is "ok" both on SMART and on Acer care center.
Before buying a SSD I'll have to make sure. I'll try to install games on the SSD and see if the problem stays the same.

andylb

Good idea, just install one game on the SSD and run it. Let me know how it goes mate

GAMING6698

MDMaster said:

Hi, I've been having this problem for a while now and at the moment I don't know what to do.
Basically the laptop randomly stutters, this is especially when gaming, most other times it doesn't happen. But it's not performance related since mostly any game more complicated than the basic stuff, stutters, even graphical adventure. When it happens, it's like the hard disk (or the pc) is loading and it usually happens before a sound is meant to be played.
Like you ask someone a question and everything pauses for a second or two while it loads. But it's not supposed to happen of course.
I've already been trying to enlarge my swap files for both hard disk but to no avail. I haven't yet tried to install all games only on the SSD but that wouldn't be a long term solution cause it's not big enough for more than 3-4 titles.
Any suggestions? There's nothing much running in the background, except the usual stuff. No Ccleaner or antirvirus or anything.
Thanks

As i am pc gamer i suggest you to install 1 game one time or maximum 2.otherwise your system gets slow down.i suggest you to rest your laptop or pc from settings and then update drivers after that install single game when your complete that game uninstall and install new one.

MDMaster

andylb said:

Good idea, just install one game on the SSD and run it. Let me know how it goes mate

So I installed the same game I had on my other hard drive on the SSD and the problems are basically the same.

I've also noticed that if I run the games as soon as I restart the PC, then there's no stuttering regardless on the hard disk where I run the game from.

Point is, the only program I've been running is Firefox and even if I close it altogether, the game STILL stutters. It needs a reboot of the pc otherwise it still stutters.
So I don't really think it's a hard drive issue at this point.