I noticed the same thing long ago. Particularly with some of the older version.Almost like every once in a while it gets tired of being patched or updated and a clean install does a world of good.
The stuttering was caused by a bad download of AH. I tried everything. New Heatsink/fan, deleting programs, Reinstalling VC software, and switching vc cards. I was about to just restore the computer but then thought it couldn't hurt to reload AH. That did the trick.