FPS drops/spikes on ALL games

Hello,

I'm in desperate need of your help and so are many others who still have this problem, and I want to solve it once and for all.
About 2 months ago I bought a new gaming PC (specs below) and it runs very smooth but I'm having trouble while playing (intense) games (I'm going to use BF4 in this case).

Every few minutes I get a sudden FPS drop/spike that makes almost every game unplayable.
Running BF4 on mixed High-Ultra settings with an average of 60-80 fps suddenly drops to 10-20 every now and then, making the game unplayable for 5-10 seconds (I recorded a video so it is easier to understand.

My system was running on Windows 7 before but people told me to switch to 8.1 to get better performances and because it had better support, and it did. It cranked up my FPS a bit but did not get rid of the spikes. Since my OS is fresh and have yet installed any software I'm guessing it is hardware related.

Things I tried already:
1. Disabling page file/Superfetch + emptying memory StandbyList using RAMmap - did not help
2. Using best (or lowest) settings on the Nvidia Control Panel and also inside the game - cranked up FPS, spikes still occur
3. Switch to Windows 8.1 - better general performance, still getting spikes
4. Re-install all drivers and game(s) - no difference at all
5. Check for malware and viruses - none found
6. Unpark cores - nope
7. Disabled all Nvidia Audio Devices - still spiking

The temperature of most hardware parts is 35-45°C, so I don't think my system is overheating. I also have a pretty good CPU cooler.

Note:
I found something interesting using MSI Afterburner while playing BF4.
My GPU usage is at 98% the entire time (no idea if this is normal?). But at those random moments (the FPS spikes) it drops to 40-50%, after a few seconds it goes back to 98%. I'm not an expert and I have no clue what this means...

While looking on the internet for solutions, I found some threads saying that the Nvidia and Realtek audio could also be the reason for FPS drops and spikes but I have no further information on this.

Specs:
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
Processor: AMD FX-8350 Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM: 8,00GB Duel-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 (CPUSocket)
GPU: 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (MSI)
Storage: 465GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA050 (SATA)
Optical Drive: ATAPI iHAS124 E
Sound: NVIDIA HD & Realtek Audio Device

Anyone out there that can help me with my problem?
It's really getting annoying.

Thanks !
 
I had the SAME exact problem and it was a relatively easy fix. I had not cleaned out my pc for quite some time. The fans were caked with dust and everything was just quite nasty. Every game I tried to play my fps would go from 45 all the way down to 5 or lower! I couldn't play at all!
What I suggest:
Buying some compressed air(in a can) and spraying everything out, you can also remove your fans and clean them. But make sure all the dust is out of your tower. My computer did not read as having a high temperature either!

Goodluck, tell me if it worked for you!
 
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I had the SAME exact problem and it was a relatively easy fix. I had not cleaned out my pc for quite some time. The fans were caked with dust and everything was just quite nasty. Every game I tried to play my fps would go from 45 all the way down to 5 or lower! I couldn't play at all!
What I suggest:
Buying some compressed air(in a can) and spraying everything out, you can also remove your fans and clean them. But make sure all the dust is out of your tower. My computer did not read as having a high temperature either!

Goodluck, tell me if it worked for you!

Thanks for replying but I just found the solution !

The thing is with these new AMD processor's: they have a thing called Cool 'N Quiet. It's a CPU dynamic frequency scaling and power saving technology, which can lead to some instability when overclocking. I found that when the Cool 'N Quiet feature was enabled, my game didn't run as well and was getting spikes all the time. Thus, I leave it disabled. If you have adequate fans in your case, I believe you really don't need this feature enabled. My PC is slightly louder now and temps go up to 60°C (only when playing intense games), but that's it, all smooth now.
 
Thanks for replying but I just found the solution !

The thing is with these new AMD processor's: they have a thing called Cool 'N Quiet. It's a CPU dynamic frequency scaling and power saving technology, which can lead to some instability when overclocking. I found that when the Cool 'N Quiet feature was enabled, my game didn't run as well and was getting spikes all the time. Thus, I leave it disabled. If you have adequate fans in your case, I believe you really don't need this feature enabled. My PC is slightly louder now and temps go up to 60°C (only when playing intense games), but that's it, all smooth now.
Bet its the best feeling in the world, playing now that is. I had Fps drops for about 6 months or so...the feel.
 
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