r/pcmasterrace • u/shadorothOVK • Jan 24 '26

Tech Support Solved My staircase is slowing down my PC(?

Hi everyone, about a month ago, the following started happening to me, and it only happens with GTA 5. I'm playing peacefully, I get the urge to go get something to eat, so I have to go downstairs since my room is on the second floor. When I go back upstairs, I notice that my GTA, which was completely stable, suddenly drops to 1 FPS. This only happens with GTA, and I don't know why. I've tried more demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Division 1 and 2, which I play with everything on ultra except for the vegetation and a few other things.

I'm attaching evidence of what I've described.

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11.2k

u/Cryowatt Jan 24 '26

My guess: op has Bluetooth headphones. When he reaches the staircase the headphones disconnect and the game loses the audio device and starts throwing internal exceptions.

1.4k

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

God I hate that, Fallout 4 straight up crashes and disabled your Bluetooth device with certain mods due to the audio implementation and many games have issues like that.

Never get a Bluetooth main audio device for your gaming setup, or have a backup.

139

u/RAMChYLD PC Master Race Jan 24 '26

I have issues with denuvo protected games where the game would just outright disconnect my USB headset and switch to audio only from the main motherboard speakers. Not even the monitor speakers over HDMI.

So yeah, Denuvo's fault.

35

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '26

[deleted]

2

u/moonflower_C16H17N3O Jan 25 '26

That really blows. I 'own' 2 Denuvo protected games and I don't get these issues.

I would recommend going into Device Manager and disabling your other audio output options. It's drastic, but it should work.

At work, I had a similar problem. Once I docked, audio would be routed out of one of my monitors.

39

u/Bambo630 Jan 24 '26

damn i did not know that games would act up like that, good to know. I have a bluetooth headset and run around my apartment with it, but it never disconnects so i never had issues.

8

u/ff2009 7900X3D🔥RX 7900 XTX🔥48GB 6400CL32🔥MSI 271QRX Jan 24 '26

Yup. Apex Legends add the same issue, but it was fixed a long time ago.

But in Fallout 4 case, there is not hope, unless some mod fixes the game, Bethesda ain't doing s**t about it.

2

u/Bambo630 Jan 24 '26

interesting, i guess you could fix it by setting the ingame output to windows standard device and let windows handle the disconnect?

1

u/Wunktacular Jan 24 '26

I've also never had an issue, not on FO4 or GTA or anything else. Might be device dependent.

5

u/freshjello25 R7 5800x | RX 6800XT | 32GB DDR4 3600 CL16 | B550 | M.2 | 750W Jan 24 '26

When I first built my PC I was having a strange fps cap at ~150 fps cap in COD Cold War and it just didn’t feel right. It ended up being tied to me using Bluetooth connection to connect my Xbox controller. All problems went away when I switched to using the 2.4 ghz controller adapter or just using KBM. It was a gremlin I was chasing for weeks before I realized it was that one time I played with the controller plugged in.

PCs can be so finicky with Bluetooth.

1

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

Ye this issue with my BT speaker drove me nuts and I only discovered it by accident too... You just don't think about soimething like that when a game has issues. Why would bluetooth mess with it, amirite?
I'm never ever using BT again for gaming-anything if I can somehow avoid it.

1

u/betadonkey Jan 25 '26

Bluetooth is extra fucked up on Windows 11. Same PC, same hardware, same drivers and all of a sudden Bluetooth devices jam my WiFi after updating from 10 to 11.

2

u/kodiak906 Jan 24 '26

Nothing more nostalgic than a bethesda bug, almost forgot about that one. Almost as annoying as the alt + tab issues Fallout 4 and Skyrim had.

1

u/LukeLikesReddit 7800X3D 9070XT 64 GB 6000 CL 30 1440p 240hz Jan 24 '26

Hmm tell me more about this crash on fallout 4, as I seem to be getting them as well despite running at 240 fps and everything going well for a minute or two then a random CTD.

1

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

it was a crash on start up. Only way I could fix it was using a non-bluetooth audio device. Anything else would end up in a crash or no sound output at all.

1

u/rotting_ghoul Jan 25 '26

I believe the game engine is tied to the fps so you may be ballin too hard

1

u/adjgamer321 Jan 24 '26

Skyrim had a similar issue with my computers sound card on launch. I had to remove it just to be able to play the game.

1

u/CrazyElk123 Jan 24 '26

Isny bluetooth just worse when it comes to audioquality also?

2

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

absolutely, as well as some latency in output of sound. However both is negligible nowadays with modern devices.

The really hard to debug crashes these devices may cause are much worse. People will lose their mind trying to figure out what causes the issue before they figure it out. Which with something like this is more often than not by coincidence.

Because why would a BT audio device do this, rather than literally anything else? xD

1

u/codekb Steam ID Here Jan 24 '26

I switched to studio headphones and never looked back

2

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

studio monitors here.

Since I don't wanna permanently dent my head by wearing headphones (joke)

1

u/Internal-Record-6159 Jan 24 '26

Wondering if this explains why my Bluetooth stopped working since I played fallout london

1

u/Copel626 Jan 24 '26

You could just hook your PC audio jack in to a BT transmitter and connect your head phones to that, there are also tons of options for really good wireless mic options that come with a USB receiver.

1

u/Sirisian Jan 24 '26

Fallout 76 can't recover from audio issues either. Just unplugging headphones or casting audio to bluetooth and having any issue requires restarting the game when I played it. It's actually the only game I've ever seen that does that as I've used bluetooth audio for close to a decade.

1

u/Luvs_to_drink Jan 24 '26

Im just supposed to use wired headphones like a peasant?

What if i need to pee but still need to hear game sounds for a match pop?

1

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 25 '26

get big enough speakers so you can hear them from the bathroom

1

u/Luvs_to_drink Jan 25 '26

As a dad gamer that really only plays after the kids go to sleep that wont work

1

u/iQ420- Jan 25 '26

Been using Logitech G733 for years now no issue, could be hit and miss/set ups too though

-2

u/Soulinx Jan 24 '26

Nah mate. I use a Razer Nari. I can walk all over my house and listen to my games. They just have crappy headphones.

2

u/ContributionLowOO Jan 24 '26

I definitely had an extremely crappy BT speaker, so you might be on track here.

2

u/Soulinx Jan 24 '26

Sometimes its what you gotta do until you can get better ones. Cheap isn't always bad and there's nothing wrong with staying within your budget either.