FPS Drops with MSI GTX 970

[Bropss]

I have a MSI GTX 970 gaming 4G and I've been getting constant fps drops/microstutters in some open world games, more specifically GTA V and The Witcher 3. If the character is standing still fps usually sits around 60, but when I start moving it can get unstable, giving me drops and microstuttering , being more noticeable when I turn the camera around.

Both games can drop to around 40 fps. Even when frame rate is high, I still get the feeling the game is stuterring.
With MSI Afterburner, GPU usage rarely goes over 80%, and none of my CPU cores reach 100%.
This is by no means a terrible performance, but from what I've been reading, people are getting much better results with the same graphics card.

In The Witcher 3, I have tested the lowest settings and got the exact same drops. Currently both games are using lower settings than the ones suggested by Geforce Experience.
This is one screenshot I took with MSI Afterburner. Frame rate acually got to 48 but I wasn't fast enough to take the shot.
http://imgur.com/oirXVFB

My pc specs are:
MOBO Gigabyte B75M-D3H
CPU i5 3330 @3.2 Ghz
GPU MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G
8 GB RAM

 

[Suztera]

I see you are in a city, you will typically get frame drops in a busy city as it loads new areas/objects on your screen. Witcher 3 is quite cpu intensive on certain areas.

 

[Bropss]

After watching some videos I may have interpreted my problem wrongly. I've seen people getting the same 48 fps but gameplay is still smooth. Which makes me think the problem isn't the low fps itself, it's the stuttering which may be caused by the frame rate not being able to remain stable (by that I mean fps can drop from 60 to 50 and then goes back to 60 in less than a second). This pretty much happens everywhere, not just in certain areas.
The real problem I'm facing is that gameplay is not smooth, which is something I don't see happening with other 970 owners, and I'd appreciate if someone can help me find the source of this problem.

 

[James Mason]

Turn down your settings.
You get stuttering because the 970 is hitting the 3.5 GB vram limit it has because the last .5GB of vram are much slower.

 

[Bropss]

Turn down your settings.
You get stuttering because the 970 is hitting the 3.5 GB vram limit it has because the last .5GB of vram are much slower.

As you can see in the picture I took, VRAM usage isn't even reaching 2 GB, so that can't be the reason. I've also tested the game in the lowest setting and got the same stuttering.
I've noticed a lot of people reaching 99% GPU usage in this game, while I'm only reaching 78%. Could it be CPU bottleneck, even though the CPU itself isn't at 100%?

 

[James Mason]

Turn down your settings.
You get stuttering because the 970 is hitting the 3.5 GB vram limit it has because the last .5GB of vram are much slower.

As you can see in the picture I took, VRAM usage isn't even reaching 2 GB, so that can't be the reason. I've also tested the game in the lowest setting and got the same stuttering.
I've noticed a lot of people reaching 99% GPU usage in this game, while I'm only reaching 78%. Could it be CPU bottleneck, even though the CPU itself isn't at 100%?

Well, I suggest you try googling "gtx 970 stuttering" because there are alot of causes and solutions out there.

 

[Bropss]

Well I have already searched a lot. I was actually thinking of doing this same post 3 months ago, but decided to search more. What I suspect is that I may have some hardware holding back my GPU, since I haven't upgraded anything on this PC aside from PSU and GPU itself. I'd like someone to confirm if that is true, and what specific part is causing this, since i'm kinda short on budget and can't go upgrading everything.