Stutter is not the same as low FPS. Low FPS feels smooth-but-slow. Stutter feels like tiny freezes. Fix hitching before you buy a new GPU.
Quick eliminations
- Close browser tabs, Discord hardware accel if needed, launchers
- Update GPU drivers cleanly
- Disable recording overlays you are not using
- Check temps — thermal throttle feels like random hitching
In-game
Lower shadows and effects that spike when you turn corners. Cap FPS to a stable number your PC holds. Unstable 300 FPS with dips to 80 feels worse than a flat 180.
Stability beats peak FPS every time in ranked.
Windows side
- Game Mode on (usually)
- Background downloads paused
- Enough free storage — nearly full SSDs hitch
Change one thing per test session. If you change five settings at once, you will never know what fixed it.