antandbetty
did you test your old ssd before getting the new one? I am curious as maybe the Shader cache option had something to do with it?  just going out on a limb here but it is not often you get an Intel ssd that was responsible for this issue?  
 
 

dbkams

Sajin

dbkams
well looks like it was my SSD causing my issues...put in a Samsung 850 EVO 500gb drive and everything is back to being silky smooth...zero signs of stuttering running 347.25 drivers

Which SSD were you running before putting in the 850?

an Intel 530 series 240gb

yes...tested everything on my system trying to solve it with zero progress other than seeing ssd benchmarks only reading my intel around 150-200 for read speeds instead of the 500~ its advertised as
 
gave up and just spent the money on a new one figuring i could return it if it didnt solve anything but since installing the new drive my issue has completely gone away
 
so yes...outside of my own hardware issues the newer batch of drivers have solved this issue :D

Sajin
Are you affected by gpu usage dropout? Here is how to test for it...
 
#1 Download & install unigine heaven 4.0. Get it 
 
#2 Download & install msi afterburner. Get it 
 
#3 Open nvidia control panel and set power management mode to prefer maximum performance. Reboot PC.
 
#4 Open Heaven 4.0 and adjust your settings to the following. For single screen users select a resolution that will allow yourself to view/run Heaven 4.0 & the MSI Afterburner hardware monitor on the screen at the same time.

 
#5 Screen should look exactly like this while testing...

NOTE: Freeze heaven 4.0 at this exact spot by selecting "Camera" inside heaven and selecting "Free" when the scene comes into view.
 
#6 Right click inside the MSI Afterburner hardware monitor and select clear history, this will reset min/max GPU1 Usage % back into the 90's.
 
#7 Monitor afterburner for an hour and watch to see if your GPU1 usage drops down to 0%.
NOTE: It's important that you not interrupt the process by looking/moving around inside heaven as this will make your GPU usage go up and down. Do not surf the web while testing also. You want the GPU1 usage % line inside the msi afterburner hardware monitor to stay solid the entire hour. Drops from 93-94% to 83-84% from time to time is normal. Drops over 10% are not normal.
 
#8 Report back if you're affected or not. State if you're running a single card, SLI, Tri-SLI, etc.
 
 
 
 
Here are my results. Right click on the images and open them to get a bigger picture.
 
347.09 SLI Enabled: Notice the drops to 0%.

331.82 SLI Enabled: No drops.

 
Each test was ran for one hour.
 
 
 
For 700/900 series users looks like you can use 344.11 to prevent the stutter/drop...
 

AthilarSo I've read that all drivers up to and including the 344.11 release will also stop the stuttering, but you have to put your computer to sleep and wake it up again in order for this to work.  You have to do this every time you reboot, too, or if you change any options in the nvidia control panel.

 
Some users have reported not having the stutter/dropout during benchmarks but instead have the stutter/dropout during gaming, so just because you don't have it in valley doesn't mean you're clear from the issue.
 
Driver 347.25 fixes this issue. 

Is this "Low gpu usage" or Crash issues? Just reading the first post to many pages to read.

Vayne4800
I doubt it is the low gpu usage issue as I still have that even with latest drivers.

I wouldn't worry about low GPU usage honesty, GPU's are almost becoming like CPU's, GPu's having way more power over their counterpart.
 
Does a GPU need to be at 100% for 100-200 F/ps? OR @50% with less heat and less power, I think this is the only thing Nvidia has done right.
 
980 is designed well, 970 on the other hand...........

Great thread! a thank you to @sajin & @dbkams .

347.52 has no issues on my titans.

Hey guys
 
I have the same usage drops to 0 issue. I already tried the suggestions here on setting it to performance made on nvidia control panel. I'm using the latest 347.88 drivers. It's a single card. I just built this machine 2 weeks ago. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Man... I hate to reply to a thread that's over a year old... But i'm having the same issue on my Zotac GTX 970.
I started getting it in June of 2016, did a system reinstall then and it seemed to fix it for the time being then... 3 weeks ago it came back. Tried system reinstall again and this time it did nothing.
So absolutely frustrated, I'm relieved that i'm not the only one with the issue but its also rather disappointing that this issue has been going on for well over a year and Nvidia still has not solidly fixed it. Way to go for $300+ Graphics cards....

I've been testing it with Battlefield 3 and 4, Mainly 4 because on multiplayer there's the latency/ packet loss/ fps warning indicators. Along with the drawgraph and drawfps console commands. I run an average of 90-110 FPS on ultra @1080P 60Hz, every once and a while randomly (like described in this thread) ill get a solid hard freeze for a second. Like playing a video and pressing pause for one second and having it play on again like nothing happened. Happens in single and Multiplayer, tried repair game and reinstall of course.

Installed MSI afterburner and was monitoring usage. It seems when the hard freezes happen the GPU usage goes from 99/100% down to 0. Seems the Power % also goes down a slight bit and the CPU usage as well. (But im assuming thats just from the GPU usage going down).
Attached is a screenshot of what I mean: 

I've tried the following drivers, 362, 368.22 and one of the newest 372.(something) drivers. I've emailed Nvidia and they've just been giving me different drivers to try. I think I tried another but I believe i've deleted it and i don't remember the name... 
Game was running fine before June... This computer was only built back in October of 2015.
Here's my specs: I shouldn't be having problems with BF4 honestly.
i5 6600k
Zotac GTX 970
16GB Gskill ram (4x4GB) @ 2133 mHz
Seagate 1TB HDD
Mushkin 240GB SDD (Games are installed here)
Corsair H55 cooling
Win 10 home
1080P monitor @ 60Hz

Which driver officially fixes this problem for the GTX 970?... I really appreciate the help guys. I don't really know much at all about computers, I didn't build this computer and Its been really difficult trying to troubleshoot. I've had this problem for 3 weeks and i was close on several occasions to bringing it into a technician to get it fixed. 

Thank you!

Wooohah
Man... I hate to reply to a thread that's over a year old... But i'm having the same issue on my Zotac GTX 970.
I started getting it in June of 2016, did a system reinstall then and it seemed to fix it for the time being then... 3 weeks ago it came back. Tried system reinstall again and this time it did nothing.
So absolutely frustrated, I'm relieved that i'm not the only one with the issue but its also rather disappointing that this issue has been going on for well over a year and Nvidia still has not solidly fixed it. Way to go for $300+ Graphics cards....

I've been testing it with Battlefield 3 and 4, Mainly 4 because on multiplayer there's the latency/ packet loss/ fps warning indicators. Along with the drawgraph and drawfps console commands. I run an average of 90-110 FPS on ultra @1080P 60Hz, every once and a while randomly (like described in this thread) ill get a solid hard freeze for a second. Like playing a video and pressing pause for one second and having it play on again like nothing happened. Happens in single and Multiplayer, tried repair game and reinstall of course.

Installed MSI afterburner and was monitoring usage. It seems when the hard freezes happen the GPU usage goes from 99/100% down to 0. Seems the Power % also goes down a slight bit and the CPU usage as well. (But im assuming thats just from the GPU usage going down).
Attached is a screenshot of what I mean: 

I've tried the following drivers, 362, 368.22 and one of the newest 372.(something) drivers. I've emailed Nvidia and they've just been giving me different drivers to try. I think I tried another but I believe i've deleted it and i don't remember the name... 
Game was running fine before June... This computer was only built back in October of 2015.
Here's my specs: I shouldn't be having problems with BF4 honestly.
i5 6600k
Zotac GTX 970
16GB Gskill ram (4x4GB) @ 2133 mHz
Seagate 1TB HDD
Mushkin 240GB SDD (Games are installed here)
Corsair H55 cooling
Win 10 home
1080P monitor @ 60Hz

Which driver officially fixes this problem for the GTX 970?... I really appreciate the help guys. I don't really know much at all about computers, I didn't build this computer and Its been really difficult trying to troubleshoot. I've had this problem for 3 weeks and i was close on several occasions to bringing it into a technician to get it fixed. 

Thank you!

The driver version you seek is listed on the very first post of this thread.

Wooohah
Will such old drivers cause problems for newer games in the future?

Yes, you'll need to run newer drivers for newer games as older drivers won't have any optimizations/bug fixes for newer titles.

Wooohah
I see, so if the newer drivers don't work for me (Which they haven't) i'm basically screwed...

347.25 didn't seem to work either :(

Taken from the first post...
 
For 700/900 series users looks like you can use 344.11 to prevent the stutter/drop...
 

AthilarSo I've read that all drivers up to and including the 344.11 release will also stop the stuttering, but you have to put your computer to sleep and wake it up again in order for this to work.  You have to do this every time you reboot, too, or if you change any options in the nvidia control panel.

Wooohah

Sajin

Wooohah
I see, so if the newer drivers don't work for me (Which they haven't) i'm basically screwed...

347.25 didn't seem to work either :(

Taken from the first post...
 
For 700/900 series users looks like you can use 344.11 to prevent the stutter/drop...
 

AthilarSo I've read that all drivers up to and including the 344.11 release will also stop the stuttering, but you have to put your computer to sleep and wake it up again in order for this to work.  You have to do this every time you reboot, too, or if you change any options in the nvidia control panel.

Ok gotcha, so If i install a 344.11 or earlier driver, I need to put the computer to sleep and wake it up for it to work?
But then every time I turn off my computer and turn it on again I need to repeat the process? 

Correct. Please let me know if installing driver 344.11 along with putting the computer to sleep/waking it up helps fix your issue. 

Wooohah
Alright, let me do that and try it and ill let you know!

Ok. If you continue to have problems maybe #6 listed here is your problem.

When I open up the Xbox app I don't see a settings button, I only see "Sign in" "Need help?" and the Xbox logo :/

Alright got that set up, hopefully that helps!
But I should mention when the problem first started in June, the microsoft windows update did not come out for a bit afterwards.

Sounds good! Thank you Sajin! 
I appreciate your help :)

If the problem is still there, ill post a thread in general hardware