Back to update and accept my shame! So even though I wasn't having any issues whatsoever in any other game or application, I took Shaggy's advice and did a wipe and reinstall of my GPU drivers and software. That seems to have nearly entirely fixed every stutter and hang issue so far.

So let my lack of fully exploring all troubleshooting options before jumping on to complain to the devs be a reminder to us all. I mistook "not having issues anywhere else" to mean "it must just be the game," and it wasn't. Mea culpa!

To the Valheim team: I cannot overstate how much enjoyment my wife, my friends, and myself are getting out of your game. Thanks for giving it to us. :) <3

Thanks again to all that commented with suggestions and stuff. :)
Original post left below for context and humility.

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Everyone is champing at the bit for more content. I'd be happy if my game would just *run without stutters and hangs for more than a thirty seconds*.

We're running an unmodded world. Our base is very simple in comparison to many of the absolutely awesome huge stone castle keep type areas I've seen on here and elsewhere. We've explored maybe 5% of the map and have been slow playing the bossess (only defeated Eikthyr so far on this one).

I'm playing on a system that should absolutely have no problems maxing this game out in 4k (R5 5600x + 6800 XT), but even dropping it to 1080p and putting all the settings on medium and turning off "fancy" effects offers barely any improvement.

I know, I know. It's in Early Access. I get it. But holy hell I hope the only thing the devs are spending time on right now is making the game *actually run*.