GTX 960, 60+ FPS but stutters

[vonlehmden7]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the help in advanced.

So I bought a MSI GTX 960 2GB Gaming card to replace my withering GTX 460.
Although my GTX 460 played Sniper Elite 3 as well as Civ 5 perfectly, I was hoping to upgrade so that I could play Shadow of Mordor as well as some other modern games with better performance.

As soon as I replaced the 460, however, this stuttering began to happen. The FPS shows 60+, but it feels kind of choppy. It doesn't look like screen tearing and is still present with V-Sync on. At first I thought it was due to the games I tried but then I tried Diablo III out and it's even worse.

My Specs
---------------
CPU: FX-8320 (@ 4.0GHz w/ 1.32V Stable)
MB: Asus M5A97 R2.0
RAM: ADATA 8GB (@ 1600 w/ 1.55V)
GPU: MSI GTX 960
PSU: Seasonic S12II 620W
OS: Win 8.1
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, 2 x 1TB WD Blue

EDIT:
I have attempted to reinstall all drivers as well. Additionally my card runs between 38C to 42C while playing games. I do have the fan curve set to start at 40%, however. I am unsure if this is normal as I see most cards are running in the 60s

Thanks!

 

[I need halp]

I'm having the same problem.

I upgraded from a GTX 660 to a GTX 970 and I'm getting stuttering, problems launching and frandom freezing/crashing. It's even slowing my computer down - I struggle to open two chrome tabs without it locking up.

 

[Eurasianman]

Did you re-install the graphics driver? If not, I would recommend removing the old graphic drivers and/or download the latest NVIDIA drivers and run that (NVIDIA has an option for an "clean installation" last I checked that should uninstall the old drivers before installing the new drivers). Reboot the system afterwards and see if that resolves your issue.

 

[vonlehmden7]

Eurasianman,

Thanks for the response! I did indeed reinstall graphics drivers. I installed the Graphics driver, Physics software, and HD Audio out of the list (so I didn't download 3D drivers, Nvidia Experience, or miracast Driver). Also did use the clean installation feature as well. I can reasonably play the games just they have this annoying stutter. So there's no crashing just stuttering as I run around. It seems to get worse by light sources.

Thanks again!

 

[vonlehmden7]

Found the solution! I did another DDU of the Nvidia Drivers and downgraded to 347.25. I also did not install HD audio this time, as I use an independent cable for sound, and I installed the Geforce Experience. Seems to have fixed the problem. I also noticed did some research and found that D3 is known for this problem. But SE3, Civ 5, and D3 look A TON better.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[mhansonv2]

I'm not sure if you have ever solved the problem by now but this for anyone who still has issues and finds this forum.
Your stuttering is caused by the Cpu overheating. You can confirm this easily by buying artic silver 5 thermal paste (it's cheap) then take off the intels stock fan and heat sink wipe off the old thermal paste that's on your cpu and reapply new thermal paste in the x shape and refit the fan and heat sink on the Cpu. Now try your games again and you'll find that there's no more stuttering. I highly recommend changing that cpu cooler as well to some thing like this one here https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005HIRDUA/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER