All games freeze, but I'm still actually in the game.

[Hearthfire]

In the beginning I thought it was only a Garry's Mod issue so I didn't pay much attention to it, but it seems to be happening in all games, team fortress 2, dayz, planetside 2, etc...
What happens is the game freezes for a few seconds, and then the game itself continues but my screen is still frozen, if I alt tab out and come back into the game the screen is black but the game is definitely still working, I can hear myself move, shoot, etc...
I've tried reinstalling the games, tried using older amd drivers, beta drivers, removing them every time COMPLETELY before installing them again, I even tried reinstalling my operating system (Windows 8.1 64 bit).

My specs:

AMD FX-8350
R9 290
700W Cooler Master B700 PSU
M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard