Wrong resolution for first 30seconds after boot.

Hi tjbramwell,
That does sound annoying. Since it survived a GPU upgrade and a DDU + reinstall, I would not blame the new RTX 4070 SUPER first.

What I think is happening​

You probably have two separate but possibly related issues:

1. The wrong resolution for the first 20–30 seconds looks more like a display handshake / EDID / refresh negotiation problem than a dead GPU.
2. The scroll stutter stopping when Armoury Crate is open strongly points to an ASUS service / power-state / overlay / background software conflict.

Do these in this order​

1. Test the display path first​

1. Shut the PC down fully.
2. Disconnect the secondary monitor.
3. Boot with only the main monitor connected.
4. If possible, try a different cable.
5. Try a different GPU port.
6. If you are on DisplayPort, test HDMI once. If you are on HDMI, test DP once.
7. In the monitor OSD, disable anything like Deep Sleep, Eco Mode, Auto Input, or similar if your AOC has it.

Why: if the problem disappears with one monitor, a different cable, or a different input type, that usually means the issue is in the monitor/cable/handshake chain, not the card itself.

2. Force a simpler display mode as a test​

1. Go to Settings > System > Display > Advanced display.
2. Confirm the monitor is set to its native resolution.
3. Temporarily set the refresh rate to 60 Hz just for testing.
4. Reboot a few times.
5. If that fixes the delayed resolution switch, move up to 120 Hz or your normal rate and test again. Microsoft documents the refresh-rate path here.
6. Also temporarily turn HDR off and, if enabled, turn G-SYNC / FreeSync / VRR off for testing.

3. Disable Fast Startup​

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to Power Options.
3. Click Choose what the power buttons do.
4. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
5. Untick Turn on fast startup.
6. Shut down fully and test again.

This is a safe test and is worth doing for odd boot-time hardware initialization problems.

4. Do a clean boot​

Microsoft’s clean boot process starts Windows with only essential drivers and startup programs, which is exactly what you want here to isolate a background conflict.

1. Press Win + R, type msconfig, and press Enter.
2. On the Services tab, tick Hide all Microsoft services.
3. Click Disable all.
4. Open Task Manager > Startup apps.
5. Disable all non-essential startup items.
6. Reboot and test both:
   • the boot resolution issue
   • the scroll stutter

If both issues improve in a clean boot, the cause is almost certainly software/services, not hardware.

5. Focus on Armoury Crate next​

The fact that leaving Armoury Crate open stops the stutter is a big clue.
ASUS provides an official Armoury Crate Uninstall Tool and specifically recommends using that tool for a complete removal before reinstalling.

1. Use the official Armoury Crate Uninstall Tool.
2. Reboot.
3. Test the PC without Armoury Crate installed at all.
4. If the stutter disappears, either leave it off or reinstall the latest version later.

I would also temporarily disable any ASUS extras such as Aura, ROG Live Service, Sonic Studio, or similar if present.

6. Update the motherboard side, not just the GPU side​

Your screenshot shows BIOS 1621. ASUS currently lists that BIOS as 2021-11-23, and the current BIOS page for the PRIME Z490-P shows version 1806 Beta dated 2026-01-15. ASUS also lists Intel ME updates on that page. (asus.com)

1. Install the latest Intel chipset drivers from the ASUS support page for your board.
2. Install the latest Intel ME package from ASUS.
3. Consider a BIOS update only after the simpler tests above.

Important: BIOS 1806 is marked Beta by ASUS. (asus.com)
If you are not comfortable flashing a beta BIOS, do the cable / single-monitor / clean-boot / Armoury Crate tests first.
Before any BIOS update:

1. Back up important files.
2. Create a restore point.
3. Do not interrupt power during the flash.

7. If the stutter remains, test NVIDIA’s MPO workaround​

NVIDIA has an official support article for some desktop-app flicker/stutter issues and provides an mpo_disable.reg workaround.

1. Create a restore point first.
2. Apply the NVIDIA MPO disable workaround.
3. Reboot.
4. Test scrolling in the apps that stutter.

If it helps, you’ve narrowed it down to a Windows compositor / overlay path issue.

Most likely outcome​

If I had to rank the suspects from most likely to least likely, I’d go:

1. Monitor cable / port / DP handshake
2. Dual-monitor enumeration issue
3. Armoury Crate / ASUS background service conflict
4. Old motherboard BIOS / chipset / ME stack
5. Actual GPU fault

Given your history, GPU fault is low on the list.

Please reply with these 4 details​

1. Is the main monitor connected by DisplayPort or HDMI?
2. What is the exact AOC monitor model?
3. Does the wrong resolution still happen with only the main monitor connected?
4. After a clean boot, does the scroll stutter still happen?

If you want, I can turn this into a shortest-possible test plan so you can work through it in 10 minutes.