Are you sure it's the GPU? Could just be a poor install job on the CPU cooling solution. Try running Handbrake for a few minutes on any old video file you have and check the CPU temperature and speed. If the temps hit 80+, it might just be the CPU throttling.
 
In any case, run something and record both CPU and GPU data, if you see temperature spikes or frequency drops that could be an issue

Update bios?

I had a similar issue once where I got massive stuttering in everything even at the desktop for several weeks.  After doing some professional googling I got DPC latency checking software and sure enough I had massive latency spikes going on with my CPU.  I was able to use it to zero it down to the Corsair Link software.  I closed out the Link software but had the same issue going on and had to completely uninstall it and reboot and the problem magically went away. 

For those of you having performance issues, try running MSCONFIG, and under the General tab select "Diagnostic Startup" then restart your computer and see if your performance is any better. This will start up the system with only the necessary processes for Windows to run, so if something is running on the GPU in the background and causing the card to throttle, this will shut it down. If you're still getting poor performance, open the performance monitor in Precision and see if you have GPU activity when the system should be idle. If the GPU is showing any serious load when it should be idle, this could indicate some kind of malware in hiding that's running off the card or cards.

EVGATech_JaesonW
For those of you having performance issues, try running MSCONFIG, and under the General tab select "Diagnostic Startup" then restart your computer and see if your performance is any better. This will start up the system with only the necessary processes for Windows to run, so if something is running on the GPU in the background and causing the card to throttle, this will shut it down. If you're still getting poor performance, open the performance monitor in Precision and see if you have GPU activity when the system should be idle. If the GPU is showing any serious load when it should be idle, this could indicate some kind of malware in hiding that's running off the card or cards.

I need to start doing this when I benchmark!

steveinsanity

EVGATech_JaesonW
For those of you having performance issues, try running MSCONFIG, and under the General tab select "Diagnostic Startup" then restart your computer and see if your performance is any better. This will start up the system with only the necessary processes for Windows to run, so if something is running on the GPU in the background and causing the card to throttle, this will shut it down. If you're still getting poor performance, open the performance monitor in Precision and see if you have GPU activity when the system should be idle. If the GPU is showing any serious load when it should be idle, this could indicate some kind of malware in hiding that's running off the card or cards.

I just tried this and I am having better performance (60 FPS) in Diagnostic Startup. on normal setup I'm only getting 19 - 30 FPS. How do i find outs whats slowing my GPU down?  

I'm in the same boat as SteveinSanity... I did the diagnostic startup and my fps are great (60+fps). But when I do a normal startup I get drops between 15-20. I've tried running through as many services and processes as I could find and checked performance after disabling them, but I still can't find whatever is causing the problem.
 
If anyone knows how to pinpoint the culprit, please let me know! :D

I say screw it and reinstall Windows.
Then start paying attention to what you install in case the performance drops again.

AMD and nVidia generally don't like to play nice.

Check bio's updates, chipset, etc and than run DDU (Display Driver Utility) Google it and reinstall 347.88 Driver and see if you're still having issues. Could be anything causing issues but I know that nVidia GPU's on an AMD Board can be quite tricky to get to work properly unlike throwing an Intel and nVidia together.

Brayden, what games are you trying to run, and what settings are you using for your 970?

EVGATech_ErinW

Squall_Rinoa86
AMD and nVidia generally don't like to play nice.

Check bio's updates, chipset, etc and than run DDU (Display Driver Utility) Google it and reinstall 347.88 Driver and see if you're still having issues. Could be anything causing issues but I know that nVidia GPU's on an AMD Board can be quite tricky to get to work properly unlike throwing an Intel and nVidia together.

Been running AMD CPUs since the 8088, and never had this issue. AMD/Nvidia was the best platform for some time, especially during the Super7 and SocketA days, mainly because of the unified driver support of VIA and Nvidia. Been running a 460 on an EVGA 730a board until recently, upgrading to an 8370 with a 980. Runs everything I can throw at it easily. Sometimes small stutters are caused by background processes, as detailed earlier. I commonly see a small FPS drop when Windows is swapping wallpapers, or something starts an automatic update, but it's brief.

So, then the OP can eliminate the fact he is using AMD, and it has to be somewhere else within the system. Correct?

EVGATech_ErinW
Pretty much. Small stutters happen in just about every system that I've seen. Sometimes, it can be a chipset driver, failing hard drive, the drive or partition that holds the paging file gets full, RAM errors, bad SLI bridge... sometimes even the system running too fast for an older game. If the card is still running slow after eliminating these issues, then we can arrange for an RMA for Brayden193.

I have to tell you that i don't experience any stuttering at all.
Correct me if I'm wrong, isnt it correct that the "recommended" ram requirements for the 970 is 12gb of ram? i read an article on that recently and that is what it posted.

bdary

stalinx20

EVGATech_ErinW
Pretty much. Small stutters happen in just about every system that I've seen. Sometimes, it can be a chipset driver, failing hard drive, the drive or partition that holds the paging file gets full, RAM errors, bad SLI bridge... sometimes even the system running too fast for an older game. If the card is still running slow after eliminating these issues, then we can arrange for an RMA for Brayden193.

I have to tell you that i don't experience any stuttering at all.
Correct me if I'm wrong, isnt it correct that the "recommended" ram requirements for the 970 is 12gb of ram? i read an article on that recently and that is what it posted.

I'd like to read that aricle if you have a link.  I don't believe that for a second...

I can't find it right now due to my work comp limiting what i can search. But let's do a small scenario where the 970 requires a minimum of 4. Lets just say that. So, you have computer that has 8gbs of ram. if your 970 pulls a certain amount of memory to function correctly, and then your program pulls the rest, not to mention the operating system, what memory do you have left to ensure that the performance is running sufficiently? Take SOM for example, it recommends 8...so where's the memory availabilty at?
 
Edit : Let's make it even more intersting.... Now you're going SLI with 2 970s, now you have to double that memory to 8. where's yoyour extra memory at? Right now I got nothing to back this up. this is just a speculation, but to assume i'm right with this scenario that the 970 reqiures a minimum of 4gbs of ram... you get what im saying.
 
Edit 2 : i just realized that i put "i read". i meant to put "i thought i read". my bad. ya, i thought i read something. i'll wait till i get home. i could have been completely wrong and read something else. But to see so many people have problems with this with this stuttering, i'm willing to believe there is something within their computer blocking something. Or, they are pushing their card too hard. Ok, with that being said, again, most people have tried lowering settings, and still have the stutter. now what? you see what i'm saying? What else is there that is blocking them from making the 970s function normally?  (i, myself,have zero problems with the 970s and have even decided to buy a 3rd one because of how outstanding they are.)
 
 
Apologies if I'm sounding like a troll or anything to that matter...I'm just trying to figure this out just as much as everyone else is. That being : Why?
 
Finally got home and researched, and apparently I was way off. It doesn't say anything about a minimum requirement of ram for the 970. I must have read something different. So I was wrong. my apologies.

Good news! So, after I tried all of your suggestions and a few others I found online, it still didn't work. I got kinda pissed that my expensive investment was taking a performance dump on my face, so I decided to just do a system restore to a date 2 weeks ago, as the other restores I did were only 1 to 1 and half weeks ago. Now, everything is running great! Well, except for Trine. Trine only gets under 20fps, so I'll have to optimize settings for that.
 
But, Dark Souls 2, Bioshock, Minecraft, and Shadow of Mordor are back to above 60fps on max settings. I got an average of 74fps in SoM benchmark! Minecraft gave me a steady 230fps and would sometimes reach 450fps for a few seconds. 
 
I assume I downloaded some bad software or something of the like and the restore peaced it out. Now, I'll just have to be extra cautious about what I download and what not. 
 
Anyway, thanks everyone for all your help! If something goes amiss again, I'll prolly whine about it here.... :D

stalinx20

bdary

stalinx20

EVGATech_ErinW
Pretty much. Small stutters happen in just about every system that I've seen. Sometimes, it can be a chipset driver, failing hard drive, the drive or partition that holds the paging file gets full, RAM errors, bad SLI bridge... sometimes even the system running too fast for an older game. If the card is still running slow after eliminating these issues, then we can arrange for an RMA for Brayden193.

I have to tell you that i don't experience any stuttering at all.
Correct me if I'm wrong, isnt it correct that the "recommended" ram requirements for the 970 is 12gb of ram? i read an article on that recently and that is what it posted.

I'd like to read that aricle if you have a link.  I don't believe that for a second...

I can't find it right now due to my work comp limiting what i can search. But let's do a small scenario where the 970 requires a minimum of 4. Lets just say that. So, you have computer that has 8gbs of ram. if your 970 pulls a certain amount of memory to function correctly, and then your program pulls the rest, not to mention the operating system, what memory do you have left to ensure that the performance is running sufficiently? Take SOM for example, it recommends 8...so where's the memory availabilty at?
 
Edit : Let's make it even more intersting.... Now you're going SLI with 2 970s, now you have to double that memory to 8. where's yoyour extra memory at? Right now I got nothing to back this up. this is just a speculation, but to assume i'm right with this scenario that the 970 reqiures a minimum of 4gbs of ram... you get what im saying.
 
Edit 2 : i just realized that i put "i read". i meant to put "i thought i read". my bad. ya, i thought i read something. i'll wait till i get home. i could have been completely wrong and read something else. But to see so many people have problems with this with this stuttering, i'm willing to believe there is something within their computer blocking something. Or, they are pushing their card too hard. Ok, with that being said, again, most people have tried lowering settings, and still have the stutter. now what? you see what i'm saying? What else is there that is blocking them from making the 970s function normally?  (i, myself,have zero problems with the 970s and have even decided to buy a 3rd one because of how outstanding they are.)
 
 
Apologies if I'm sounding like a troll or anything to that matter...I'm just trying to figure this out just as much as everyone else is. That being : Why?
 
Finally got home and researched, and apparently I was way off. It doesn't say anything about a minimum requirement of ram for the 970. I must have read something different. So I was wrong. my apologies.

No problem...If you actually had read something like that, I wanted to see myself how they came to that conclusion...

stalinx20
Now all you have to do is benchmark the crap out of the 970s and see how they really since you fixed your problem. you're going to be amazed. a great game to benchmark those cards is Ryse son of rome. and SOM, of course.

Ha! That'll give me an excuse to play Ryse. I bought it a few months ago, but I've been wrapped up in Dark Souls 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, and the Bioshock Trilogy. Here come duh benchmarks!