Is my GPU dying?

superleeds27 · 2026-02-21T10:54:10+0000

Bit of a strange on here.

Over the last month or two, I've had random issues when opening images in affinity and Photoshop. I've also had it once when opening a video in handbrake.

Basically what will happen.is the image will open in affinity, but the PC lags like hell. Things still function, but if I move the mouse, it does staggered movement. Hitting the start button, it appears maybe 5-15 seconds afterwards. Reboot and the system is fine.

Here's the weird thing. This doesn't happen all the time? Just seems totally random? It's hard to try and see what's happening when everything is in go slow mode.

It's also happened once yesterday when after the reboot, I went into the Nvidia control panel settings and it started lagging again, which made me think GPU.

Anyone got any suggestions/advice/thoughts at all?

I know this is feels a bit needle in the haystack! Just wondered if anyone has every experienced the same thing?

Blackjack Davy · 2026-02-21T14:29:51+0000

It could be almost anything at this point. Gfx card hardware failures are usually visual glitches/weirdness in my experience rather than what you're experiencing though.

aaronyuri · 2026-02-21T14:31:44+0000

Sounds like you have something causing stuttering. Have you tried to view task manager at the time the stuttering occurs?

This doesn't sound like a dying GPU to me.

Tetras · 2026-02-21T14:35:10+0000

Bad driver install can do that, also hardware acceleration issues in an app like discord or a browser.

I'd have a look at task manager as suggested above and the event viewer.

Doesn't scream bad graphics to me either, though always possible.

superleeds27 · 2026-02-21T15:35:14+0000

aaronyuri said:
Sounds like you have something causing stuttering. Have you tried to view task manager at the time the stuttering occurs?

This doesn't sound like a dying GPU to me.

Have tried but it's an absolute nightmare. The next time it happens (if it does) I'll try do task manager and see what it's reporting.

Tetras said:
Bad driver install can do that, also hardware acceleration issues in an app like discord or a browser.

I'd have a look at task manager as suggested above and the event viewer.

Doesn't scream bad graphics to me either, though always possible.

Im pretty sure I did get task manager up once when it happened but nothing jumped out as, uh oh. Again, if it happens again, I'll take a better look and investigate.