Stable fps but encountering microstuttering in every game

pingpongplayer

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Dec 31, 2017
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Microstuttering appears to occur in every game I play. I have very stable fps in every game, but it drops to 40 for a millisecond and it's pretty annoying, even though it doesn't happen often. I replaced my mobo, cpu, and ram, to no avail.

CPU: i7-6700K @4.5 Ghz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard: MSI Z170A SLI
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor

Things I have already done:
- I have upgraded my mobo, cpu, and ram as stated above
- I defragged my HDD a few weeks ago
- I reapply thermal paste to my cpu every once in awhile
- I have reinstalled my graphics drivers completely

Additional notes:
- Temps are fine. GPU doesn't exceed 78 degrees under heavy load. CPU doesn't exceed 65.
- No crashing, ever
- I have stable fps in pretty much all games that I play
- The only fans I have in my case are the rear and top as exhaust, and one front fan as intake
- Recently I encountered a complete freeze while in the middle of a game. The game froze for a full second, I'd say.

Any help is appreciated. This is pretty frustrating.
 

jdog2pt0

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May 28, 2009
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Use Seatools, (Seagate's drive testing utility) to check your HDD to make sure nothing funky is going on with it. You'll have to use the bootable version of Seatools (Seatools for DOS), and boot to that to run the test. Just run the long test (it'll likely make you run the short test first). Probably will take a few hours, but if it comes back clean we can hopefully rule your HDD out.
 

pingpongplayer

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Dec 31, 2017
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Apparently I can't run the bootable version. Seatools doesn't detect my harddrive and the only way for it to detect it is if I flip the controller to IDE mode from AHCI in the bios. However, the only options that appear in the bios are AHCI and RAID. Do you recommend I run the version for Windows?
 

pingpongplayer

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Dec 31, 2017
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Seatools from DOS doesn't detect my harddrive. I did run the "Generic Long" test on the Windows version and it passed. Any ideas?

 

jdog2pt0

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May 28, 2009
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The last time I had a problem like this, it was because my HDD was failing....

When you reinstalled your graphics drivers, did you use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to purge the old drivers before installing the new ones?
 

pingpongplayer

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Dec 31, 2017
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Yep, I always use DDU when reinstalling graphics drivers.