Davinci Studio choppy playback (Not because of improper hard

Hi guys, I am in dire need of help as I can't work without Davinci.

I've recently encountered this problem out of no where. In fact, my software was open when it was still working, took a break (without closing it or touching it or any update to anything occuring) and when I came back, Davinci has been unable to playback anything without choppy performance.
As you'll see on the attachment, my footage is cached and it's far from any beefy footage.
I've edited far more beefy footage without hassle, I've used studio Davinci for more than 2 years now without this issue, but I am absolutely stumped.

*Please note, I haven't changed anything at all with regards to Davinci itself, my pc or my source of footage - it's completely out of the blue.

A few things I've tried:

- Software and all hardware up to date and running the latest versions, I've even rolled back Davinci and my GPU to a few different versions just to confirm but my issue still happens consistently.
- Individually unplugged and tested any and all potentially funny hardware (internal and external), HDD's included, no difference made.
- Close any and all other unnecessary programs.
- Uninstalled and reinstalled Davinci completely, on different drives, including internal and external.
- Tried different footage that's worked flawlessly before and the issue occurs on that footage too - on completely fresh footage, i.e. imported directly from source to software and I still get choppy playback without any editing. Audio is also choppy (not shown in the attachment).
- Deleted any previously Cached footage.
- Removed any and all proxies.
- Renders work perfectly still, just actual in software editing that's choppy.
- Restarting pc doesn't help, restarting software doesn't help.
- Importing footage from different locations doesn't help.
- Researched my issue and I may have found a few sources in which people have had the same issue has me, however none produced a solution.
- Also worth mentioning, I use this pc for games and other activities too - every other single program I run that I am used to running, including high end games work perfectly fine as they always have.
- Tried deactiving Studio license, doesn't work.
That's all I can think of right now that I've tested, I may have tested more things but I don't have the recollection atm.

Please if anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Can you detail, the source clip res and frame rate, timeline res and frame rate?
You also look to have a speed change on the first clip. With a new fresh project and that same clip with no speed change is it better?