Fps drops/spikes do to GPU only using 30% to 70% GPU

Dylan Clarke · August 4, 2019

hi, recently i have been getting fps spikes/drops in all games. because my system is not using my graphics card to its full potential. i have a gtx 1070 and my cpu is a i7 6700k. idk if its to do with my power supply as its 430 bronze watts. and i heard that a 1070 needs 500 watts. even in battlefield 5 my GPU is using only 30% while my cpu is using like 80%. i understand BF5 is a CPU intensive game. but surely it should still be using the most out of my GPU. i dont know for sure this is why i get fps spikes. but from videos online with people with the same system as me. they get a more consistent fps than me because there gpu is being used 90%? anyone know a fix or a reason this could be happening?

phoenixflower · August 4, 2019

It is probably because of your power supply.

The best rule of thumb to follow is take your CPU power consumption which is 95W before you overclock

and your GPU consumes 150W under full load before before you overclock. Add the two numbers and multiple by 2 (this is how they came up with 500W).

If you do the math you'll find you need 490W to power your system. This is because although when you 95W and 150W you will come well below 430W. You also have to power the SSDs, the memory controller, the PCI-E lanes, the actual memory and the rest of the components in your system.

NVIDIA also displays their power consumption a little bit differently. Its 150W just for the GPU Core. Not the total draw of the PCB the GPU sits on. The actual DIE of the GPU is only one part of the whole card you put in the system.