Video stuttering issues on a browser, media player, or streaming application could mean a lot of things. Most users tend to blame the graphics card as it is responsible for displaying everything on your monitor, but that’s not entirely true.
So, what causes video stuttering, and how can it be fixed? Let’s find out!
Before You Begin
Run Video Playback Troubleshooter
You can start by running the video playback troubleshooter. This troubleshooter scans the system for any issues that might be causing your video to stutter.
Once the troubleshooter completes the scan, it will suggest some settings which might fix the problem at hand.
Update GPU drivers
Since the GPU handles anything related to graphical processing, complications with the GPU drivers could also cause the stuttering problem in your videos. To fix this, tryupdating the display driversto their latest version.
For NVIDIA’s GPU
For AMD’s GPU
Now, run the executable file and follow the installation process to install the latest graphics driver. verify that you restart the PC after the installation is complete.
Update Widevine CDM
Widevine Content Decryption Module (CDM) version 06-07-2025.0 had multiple performance issues, especially on systems with multiple monitor setups. This caused videostuttering on streaming websiteslike YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
To fix this, you simply need to update Widevine CDM to the latest version. As of now, the latest version is Widevine CDM 11-06-2025.0.
For Firefox
For Edge
Alternatively, you can also update the entire browser. This will automatically install the latest version of Widevine CDM.
Set Graphics Priority
High-end laptops use the integrated GPU when it is in battery mode. And if it has a higher resolution screen, you might run into video stuttering issues on battery mode. Plug the laptop charger and check if it fixes the problem.
If it does, we recommend that you set the application that is causing the video stutter to high-performance mode.
Update Chipset Driver
Depending on your motherboard, the PCI-e expansion slot either connects directly to the CPU or through the chipset.
An outdated version of thechipset drivermight lower performance and decrease the stability of your system. And in some cases, it might even cause video stuttering issues if the graphics card is connected to the CPU through the chipset.
In such cases updating the chipset driver to the latest version should fix the issue
For Intel
For AMD
Once you download the chipset driver for both AMD and Intel systems, run the executable file and follow the installation process to install the Chipset driver.
Enable/Disable Hardware Acceleration
If the video is stuttering when watching videos through a media player application or browser, make sure that you are not running any graphics-intensive application in the background.
To fix the stuttering issue,enable hardware accelerationon the application which is playing the video and restart the application.
In some cases, even some graphics-intensive applications might stutter when an application has hardware acceleration enabled.
If hardware acceleration is already enabled, it could be that the GPU is unable to handle the two tasks simultaneously. In such cases, try disabling hardware acceleration
End Resource Intensive Task
Check the Task manager to see if the system is takinghigh system resources. High CPU and memory usage will cause your system to lag. And if you are playing a video while running an intensive application, both these processes might stutter.
To close background applications, follow these steps.
Another thing to keep in mind is the background wallpaper. When you set the background to slideshow, it will take slightly higher system resources, which will cause micro stutters. And if you are on a lower-end system, you might notice these stutters.
Here’s how you can disable the slideshow.
Disable Multiplane Overlay
After updating NVIDIA Game Ready Driver to version 461.09 and AMD’s driver to version 22.2.2, numerous users faced issues where the applications stuttered. In some cases, even the entire desktop started to stutter.
If your entire OS is stuttering, especially streaming applications and websites like YouTube and Netflix, you can try disabling Multiplane Overlay.