Games started stuttering out of nowhere

[Traxicous]

I am not the most knowledgeable about PC stuff so bare with me here. Today my games started stuttering. They run normally but every few seconds the freeze for a very short period of time. This had never happened before. Let's use Overwatch as a comparison. Before this started happening I played ow on Ultra getting 100-110 frames, and it ran very smoothly. Now played ow, I get this same frames but it stutters as said above. Sometimes its only a fraction of a second but sometimes it will freeze for an upwards of around 2-3 seconds, which can be very very annoying in a game like Overwatch. I've also tested it on other games and still get the same thing. Any help would be appreciated.

Specs:
i7 860 @ 2.8 ghz (yes i know, I'm working on it. can't pull money out of my ass.)
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Gateway h57m01 motherboard
Win 10

And thank you for your time.

 

[elbert]

Have you installed anything lately? Right click on start and open task manager. See if any program is taking much of CPU while idle. If so post the program name. If the CPU usage is just high scan for viruses and malware.

 

[Traxicous]

Checked and according to task manager cpu using doesnt go above 40ish%. Though I had that open along with overwatch and chrome and when i tried alt tabbing from overwatch the game crashed and froze.

Side note: the program icons on my taskbar disappear when this happened.

I also am now virus scanning just in case.

Update: Quick virus scan came up with nothing

 

[Traxicous]

I am using a software called CAM to monitor my cpu and gpu temps and stuff and when i launch Overwatch the gpu load goes up to 98/99%, which I'm not sure is abnormal or not since I haven't looked while playing before

 

[elbert]

At idle your getting 40% CPU usage? If so you need some optimization. Try shutting down sevices you dont need using blackvipers safe desktop.
http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-10-service-configurations/

Use ccleaner to remove junk and clean up your registry. Its in popular downloads list on the right.
http://download.cnet.com/windows/

 

[Traxicous]

I should have worded that different, the 40% is while the game is running sorry.

 

[elbert]

Ok maybe you have parked cores. Here is a video on unparking your CPU cores.
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv0tYJ74_No"][/video]

 

[Traxicous]

Cores were not parked. Changed power setting to high performance though. Will help but that's not what was causing the problem.

 

[elbert]

Try uninstalling the video card drivers and then use DDU to remove all leftovers. Then download the latest drivers from Nvidia.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx

Try reseating the video card by pulling it out of the PCIE slot and put it back in. This helps get a good connection.

If that dosent work check your bios. Make sure you have the latest version.

 

[Traxicous]

Try uninstalling the video card drivers and then use DDU to remove all leftovers. Then download the latest drivers from Nvidia.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx

Try reseating the video card by pulling it out of the PCIE slot and put it back in. This helps get a good connection.

If that dosent work check your bios. Make sure you have the latest version.

It seems that the problem might not be the video card. Overwatch is now just outright crashing. And it is failing to perform even basic tasks. For example, it froze while alt tabbing, and it froze up just typing in the search bar on chrome. Whatever the problem is it appears to be getting worse.

Update: when it does this it reloads the windows taskbar for some reason. Like the icons and stuff go away then load back.

 

[elbert]

Check your RAM by testing one stick at a time. Change your page file settings and check your drive using the drive makers tools. IE Seagate use seatools or WD use data lifeguard.

 

[seagate_surfer]

^ what Elbert the Wise has said. Here is the link for SeaTools if needed. Good luck getting the issue sorted out!

 

[Traxicous]

Passed and had no issues from all of the tests available to me on Seatools.

 

[elbert]

Could be window 10's full screen optimization nvidia problem. Try right-click the game > Properties > Compatibility Tab > Disable Fullscreen optimisation > ok. This could cause alt-tab freezing as a result.