FPS drops (lag spikes) in all games - CPU usage reaches 100% and Maximum Frequency drops to 50%.

I_EAT_TODDLERS

Honorable
Dec 19, 2013
2
0
10,510
Every minute or so in any game I'm playing, the framerate will drop from 40-60FPS to 10-20 FPS, making gameplay impossible. During this, I ALT+TAB out to Resource Monitor, which says the CPU usage reaches 100% during the FPS drops and the Maximum Frequency drops to 50%. What could be causing this?
Here are my specs:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Corsair H90 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Toshiba 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Optical Drive: Asus DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GEN DVD/CD Drive

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full (32/64-bit)

The CPU isn't overheating, and neither is the motherboard (I think.) Any help is extremely appreciated.
 
ASRock mention "For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." Presuming that you didn't ignore that important advice while using a liquid CPU cooler, how are you cooling the VRMs? If you don't, then the motherboard may force the CPU to throttle to protect itself.