Short freeze every second in most games

[Oogst]

In most games I get short freezes every second. The overall framerate is really high and fluent, but approximately once every second there is a short stutter. As if the game skips a bunch of frames once every second and then continues at normal speed. The extend to which this happens varies but I have seen it in a bunch of games: in Beyond Earth it is hardly noticeable, in Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite it is irritating but playable, and in Far Cry 4 it is so bad that the game is practically unplayable.

I have no idea what is causing this. Things I have tried, all without effect:
-Killing as many background programs as I could, including even my virus scanner.
-Running on low and high graphics quality.
-I thought it might be caused by Steam but Far Cry 4 is in UPlay and also has the problem (Steam is turned off altogether when I try Far Cry 4).
-Installing the game on a different harddrive.
-I have even upgraded my videocard (from Nvidia 480 to 770), but even that didn't fix it

My specs:
Windows 7 64bit SP1
Nvidia GTX 770 2GB
Intel Core i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz (2.5GT/s 8MB Box)
Motherboard: MSI P55-CD53 iP55, SATA2 RAID, GLAN
8gb RAM (Corsair 4x2GB DDR3 PC10666 CL9.0 XMS3 ref. A)
Crucial SSD 2.5", 480GB, SATA600, M500
Power: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 850W
Microsoft Security Essentials virus scanner

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this, or what more I could try to find the cause?

Thanks in advance!

 

[cats_Paw]

To tell you the truth it is very unusual to see that sort of problem. Since I really cant point it to a simple reason, lets run a battery of tests to figure out what the problem might be:

First lets check your temps. I use HwMonitor for it. Its not the most presice program, but it does the job and it has a all in one package. See if your temperatures are going too high while gaming.

Second, make sure your connections to the GPU are not lose (the PCI and the extra power connectors).

Third, Did this happen since... when? Do you recall any changes you made before the problem happened? Did you upgrade something? Was there a power outage at your home? Anything you can think of.

Lets start with those first, If we get nothing there, we will move to more detailed tests.

 

[Oogst]

I think it started when I added an SSD drive and reinstalled Windows 7 on that. For this reason I am currently trying to install Windows 7 on a different disc, to see whether I still have the same problem then. But right now the new install won't connect to the internet so I cannot start my games... I hope to have that fixed tomorrow with a really long network cable so that I can at least try whether that makes a difference.

This made me think of either a broken Windows installation (weird) or something with the SSD disc. (even weirder?). I did try installing my games on a different disc, but that didn't help.

 

[James Mason]

It's possible the windows install disc doesn't have the drivers for your wireless/ethernet adapter, that's why you can't get internet, you can download them from the manufacturers website on another computer and put them on a USB drive and transfer them over that way though.

Your CPU is fairly old though, I'm not gonna say that's the problem as I have no proof, but it seems to be the oldest part.

 

[cats_Paw]

Now that you mentioned it... some SSDs had firmware problems (i recall hearing about it some time ago) where they would not operate well as OS locations.
Try to google your SSD brand and model and see if other people had this issue and if a firmware upgrade solved it.

 

[Oogst]

Okay, so I decoupled my SSD drive, installed Windows 7 on a different drive, installed Far Cry 4 there and tried again and the stutters are still there, just as bad. This rules out the SSD card or a faulty Windows install (unless Windows installed faulty in the exact same way again). The videocard is also ruled out because I had this issue with two different videocards.

Am I correct to think this leaves the motherboard, CPU, memory and power supply as potential causes? Is there some way I can test further which it is without actually buying new ones and replacing them? I don't have replacement parts for any of those randomly lying around.

 

[cats_Paw]

Unfortunatelly I am abit lost. Its hard to think of anything else that can cause this issue... Run mem test to see if ram has a problem...