Stuttering - CPU Usage Varies

[twofatslugs]

I've had stuttering on my rig for quite a while now, and it's never really bothered me, but now I'm looking for a solution, or at least the cause of my problem.

When I'm playing a select few of my games, they stutter no end when turning the camera, when I'm scrolling down a web page my PC stutters, the "Bubbles" screen saver on Windows 7 has it's FPS vary every few seconds.

I did some testing in terms of viewing CPU percentage using MSI Afterburner to see what's happening when I scroll down a web page, every time it stutters, the CPU percentage goes down a couple %, usually something like 35-33. It's the same when I'm playing something like Archeage, when it stutters, the CPU % goes down a tad. Similarly, I have a bit of coil whine with my GPU, when stuttering occurs, the coil whine stops for the duration of the stutter, usually half a second.

Looking for some answers in terms of what is wrong with my rig and possible solutions.

Specs:
Zotac Geforce GTX 760
i5 4670k
12GB DDR3 RAM
ASRock z87

 

[ShroomX]

Have you checked your temps?

 

[Karsten75]

You have a 4-core CPU - most tasks can only take up a single core, so you may see stuttering even at 25% utilization. Get Open Hardware Monitor and watch in that if one core specifically shoots to 100%. Also watch for temperatures. What may happen is that your cooling is failing and the CPU gets throttled down.

If your righ is a year old or so, consider opening the side panel and checking for dust - excessive dust build up can cause heat issues which can manifest itself as you describe.

You can buy cans of compressed air at large retailers (target, Walmart in the USA) to blow the dust out. Make sure you take the PC outside before you do it!

 

[twofatslugs]

You have a 4-core CPU - most tasks can only take up a single core, so you may see stuttering even at 25% utilization. Get Open Hardware Monitor and watch in that if one core specifically shoots to 100%. Also watch for temperatures. What may happen is that your cooling is failing and the CPU gets throttled down.

If your righ is a year old or so, consider opening the side panel and checking for dust - excessive dust build up can cause heat issues which can manifest itself as you describe.

You can buy cans of compressed air at large retailers (target, Walmart in the USA) to blow the dust out. Make sure you take the PC outside before you do it!

I don't think it's a temperature problem, I have a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo, my CPU temps sit at around 30 degrees while idling, scrolling down web pages etc and a maximum of 50 degrees while gaming. My PC is relatively dusty and I do need to give it a clean, but if the temperature isn't the problem I don't think the dust is.