... stuttering was brutal so i'm trying not to spend my full weekend wasting time to get the game to play properly ...
MBD: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING
Which bios version? A friend of mine could not play PES 2018 on his new Ryzen 1500, ASUS 350 PRO MB;
There was an old bios installed, installed the new one and everything was smooth.
These microstutters are still present but not as you described.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z170-PRO-GAMING/HelpDesk_BIOS/