Periodic 30s freezes followed by "Gears and Embers" recovery (RTX 3080 / Ryzen 9800X3D)

Hi, I am experiencing periodic freezes in Path of Exile 2. It happens roughly every 15 minutes.

Symptoms:

The game and the entire PC freeze completely for about 15-30 seconds.

After the freeze, the "Gears and Embers" loading screen appears.

The game recovers and I can continue playing exactly where I left off.

It seems like an engine deadlock or a GPU driver timeout that the game successfully catches and recovers from, but it happens too frequently to enjoy the game.

My Specs:

GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 VENTUS 3X 10G OC

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30

OS: Windows 11 Pro

Renderer: DirectX 12

Monitors: 27" 144Hz & 32" 165Hz (Dual monitor setup)

I am playing solo and this happens regardless of the map density. I've already tried verifying game files.

Thanks for any help!