Why does my Blood Waves combat feel sluggish with frame generation delays jumping from 8ms to 18ms?

Combat in Blood Waves felt sluggish when frame generation delays jumped from 8ms to 18ms, making dodges feel late. I first tried lowering graphics quality, which reduced bandwidth pressure but compromised visual quality significantly. I used the GamePP Hardware Sensor Page to change the I/O priority from Auto to Manual Highest and switched the power plan to High Performance. I/O speed stabilized at 3200MB/s as tested by CrystalDiskMark, and frame generation time converged to 9-11ms per GamePP Frame Time Analysis, verifying the responsiveness.