games stutter/lag until i unplug my secondary display

[Clarifiante]

so i've got this peculiar issue with games. every time i wake from sleep or new boot my games will lag like mad on my primary acer xb271hu 1440p 144hz even in menu to the point where its unbearable we're talking about <30fps. this is solved by unplugging my secondary lg 23" 1080p 60hz display and it goes away. i;ve tried changing between single/multi/compatibility display performance in nvidia control panel. doesn't seem to help.

 

is there a less archaic way around this or a fix?

 

my setup:

i5-6600k OC 4.6

16gb ram 2400 OC 2999

asus hero viii rampage

gigabyte 980ti custom bios no OC

corsair hx860i PSU

 

my displays are:

acer xb271hi gsync 1440p via display port running at stock 144hz

lg 23ea63 1080p via hdmi running at stock 60hz