High End Computer Stuttering In All Games

[Guest]

I've been having extremely annoying stuttering/microstuttering in almost all games I play except a few ever since the day I built this computer. I've tried all the obvious things and then some so do not ask me to update my drivers or re install the operating system or check temperatures because I've done all of that already and I still can't identify the issue. The stuttering happens like this, the game stays at a constant 60fps and suddenly for no reason, it dips causing a noticeable screen freeze that lasts for a short time until the game hops back to 60. I tried vsync on and off and I play with the settings in Nvidia control panel and the games I play almost on a daily basis. I am willing to buy new parts if that means the the issue will be fixed so please give me some advice on parts if you can. I am currently suspicious of my CPU, RAM, and motherboard as the cause of the issue. Please give me some advice on this issue. Here is my full system specs.
MSI z77agd 65 motherboard
500gb Western Digital Caviar blue HDD (7200rpm) With duel boot Win 7 and 8.1
i7 3770k CPU OCed via OCgenie to 4.2ghz
2x MSI gtx 680 2gb each
Corsair High Perform Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz2x4
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850W 80+ Bronze
LG 24X SATA DVDRW OEM
Corsair Hydro H70 CORE CPU Liquid Cooler
Thermaltake Chaser MK-I Full Tower Gaming Case

 

[Lauwi]

The microstuttering might be caused by your 680 SLI, have you tried taking out one GPU and running the game to see if the stuttering still persists? If there is still stuttering when running on just one GPU at a time its likely a problem with the GPU itself and you could consider getting it replaced

 

[Guest]

I've replaced both GPUs 3 different times actually (even though MSI customer service is garbage and a pain in the butt to deal with) and I made certain that the GPUs are not the issue (unless the shitty MSI customer service gave me 6 bad GPUs in a row, which I honestly believe that they might have), sorry forgot to mention that. The one thing I haven't replaced out of my entire system is the CPU, RAM, HDD, and PSU. I also tried to run with only one GPU like you said but it made no difference. The one thing I notice alot though is that I usually keep EVGA Precision monitoring on while I'm playing games and I notice that everytime the frametime spikes, the framerate is negatively effected and I noticed that the frametime spikes alot on some games.

 

[Lauwi]

Hmm..seems pretty strange if its not SLI microstuttering. Have you tried running CPU stress tests like Prime 95 to check that your system is stable? Also did you overclock your GPUS? It might be drawing too much power for your PSU to handle and that might explain the stutters.

 

[Guest]

Both GTX 680s are factory overclocked but I have never overclocked them myself. The reason why I don't think the psu is the problem either is because this STILL happens when only one GPU is installed. This 850W psu is suppose to easily handle an SLI configuration like mine let alone one single GPU. Also my bad I forgot that I actually replaced my GPU and ram too at one point a long time ago. See how freakin complicated this problem is? I feel like I've literally done everything possible to try and solve this sticky and annoying problem and it feels so damn hopeless. I guess i'm either destined to live with the microstuttering or my eyes themselves are stuttering.
You know, I might actually buy a whole new CPU and motherboard but the problem is I dont know which ones to get that will solve this issue and I only have about $600 to spend. Or should I just try to replace the psu/buy a new one or what? I have no clue...
Oh, and about prime95 I always get really scared to use it so no I haven't tried. My temperatures never go above 50c in any game that I've played (that's with OCgenie on) and I also never got a blue screen before (knock on wood) and lets hope that i never do. I already have enough problems as it is. I do benchmark my system a lot using 3dmark11 though. Idk why but for some reason prime95 scares the hell out of me so I never use it. I can give you a benchmark result using 3dmark11 now if you want.

 

[Lauwi]

Ok if you've made sure that neither one of your GPUs alone is responsible for the stuttering, the issue is probably still PSU(might simply be faulty) , HDD, CPU or motherboard related.

You're only getting the stuttering when doing intensive gaming right? Does it stutter when you browse the web or do anything less intensive? Also you mentioned there are certain games that do not experience the stuttering issues?

If thats the case theres some chance that it might be a software/driver issue pertaining to the game and your GPU. If not, I'd suggest you try swapping in another shittier CPU from your old builds or something and see if that fixes the issue and similarly, from there on continue swapping out parts and perhaps trying them out in a friends PC until you are able isolate which hardware/software is causing you the issue

 

[gamerk316]

Question: Is the display driver crashing at all? Might be a driver problem, or one of the cards is defective. Might want to test each card, individually, and see if you can tie the problem to a card.

 

[Guest]

Nothing stutters at all on anything other than gaming and when it comes to which games, it's kinda complicated. I get almost no stuttering in BF3 and BF4 for example, but I get stuttering with AC Black Flag or Rust so I wouldn't say it only stutters during intensive gaming or non intensive gaming since it's random as hell. I know my forum title says all games and I should probably fix that.I do not recall a display driver crashing on me recently, but it might have a long time ago, not sure.I've done a 3dmark11 benchmark a few minutes ago just to show you. Here are the results and temperatures.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7777797 (I'm using the latest Nvidia 331,93 beta driver and the other official release drivers give about the same results as this one)
P16281
Graphics Score 20734
Physics Score 10454
Combined Score 9176
CPU max temperatures for the 4 cores 45,47,49,45
GPU max temperatures GPU1 66c GPU2 64c

I'll give the swapping parts idea a try even though it's a giant pain. Gamerk, i've replaced both gpus 3 times and I tested them too much I think with benchmarking each one of the replacements so i'm paying more attention to other suspect parts.

 

[Lauwi]

Hey man wait if theres almost no stuttering in BF3 or BF4 its more likely to do with those games AC4 and Rust simply not being optimised for SLI configs
or that your GPU drivers are just not up to date for these relatively new and unoptimized games so you should just try updating your GPU drivers to the newest ones before doing anything else.

 

[Guest]

Well i currently have the most recent beta driver on windows 8.1 and the most recent official driver on windows 7. Since this problem has been going on for a long time and i've experimented with installing and reinstalling different drivers in the past so i don't think this is actually a driver issue. It definitely could be a problem with some other software though. BF4 runs smooth on windows 8 even when I use 64x CSAA, 16x supersampleing and 16x aniostropic filtering in nvidia control panel plus everything maxed out inside the game itself, however when I play it on windows 7, the cpu spikes a lot, no clue why bf4 likes windows 8 more, but that could've indicated that there is something wrong with my windows 7 if i didn't already reinstall windows 7 twice and the problem persisted. Windows 8 is not off the hook with being the better windows for gaming though, it may run bf4 smoothly but other games stutter like hell on it like AC4 and batman arkham orgins.

 

[aevm]

Well, if BF4 runs smooth on windows 8, your hardware is probably OK...