Weird Utilisation - Very Confused

[SokkaBlyat]

Hi so Ive noticed that in quite a lot of the games I play my GPU usage is extremely low but performance doesn't seem to bad tbh. For example I was just playing Rise of the tomb raider and Far cry 5 and in both games my GPU usage was around 20 per cent. In far cry 5 my CPU would also get up to 100% usage every so often. First thing that comes to mind is a CPU bottleneck but Im pairing a OC'd 9700k and an RTX 2080...  At first I thought it may have been CAM software just being weird but I checked in task manager for my GPU usage  and It all matched up... Any idea  what the hell is going on?  

 

Full specs

i7 9700k

MSI Z390 Tomohawk mobo

16gb DDR4 3000mhz DDR4 

EVGA RTX 2080 Black

 

EDIT

 

just went back on Farcry 5 and my CPU usage is around  60 and my GPU is around 15. I also get spikes where my GPU remains the same but my CPU goes to 100.

[minibois]

Do you perhaps have VSync on - either in the game and/or the Nvidia control panel?

[SokkaBlyat]

6 minutes ago, minibois said:

Do you perhaps have VSync on - either in the game and/or the Nvidia control panel?

I have actually just turned this off in the nvidia control panel to try this but no luck. (Vsync off in game too)

[minibois]

Just now, SokkaBlyat said:

I have actually just turned this off in the nvidia control panel to try this but no luck. (Vsync off in game too)

With Vsync off they are still both not at 100%? What fps is the game maxing out on? It's entirely possible the game can only run at 60fps at most (or any other random number), which is the case with certain games (Skyrim for example).

I would try to run a benchmark like 3DMark (you can try the demo on Steam) and seeing if your system performance is expected of your components.

[SokkaBlyat]

1 minute ago, minibois said:

With Vsync off they are still both not at 100%? What fps is the game maxing out on? It's entirely possible the game can only run at 60fps at most (or any other random number), which is the case with certain games (Skyrim for example).

I would try to run a benchmark like 3DMark (you can try the demo on Steam) and seeing if your system performance is expected of your components.

Yeah Im still getting below 20 on my GPU and around 60 on my CPU. FPS in Farcry is around 90 to 100 which is not bad at all but my CPU keeps ramping up to 100 per cent for a few seconds then dials back down to around 60. 

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, SokkaBlyat said:

Yeah Im still getting below 20 on my GPU and around 60 on my CPU. FPS in Farcry is around 90 to 100 which is not bad at all but my CPU keeps ramping up to 100 per cent for a few seconds then dials back down to around 60. 

Some of this story sounds like a CPU thermal issue, but also not on the other hand

I just kinda hope this isn't the cause of the Denuvo DRM in the game..

[SokkaBlyat]

13 minutes ago, minibois said:

Some of this story sounds like a CPU thermal issue, but also not on the other hand

I just kinda hope this isn't the cause of the Denuvo DRM in the game..

The plot thickens... Borderlands 3 which isnt the most optimised game ever does not have the problem. GPU pretty much always at 90 usage and no cpu spikes. 

[SokkaBlyat]

**UPDATE** 

 

After re applying thermal paste to my CPU, I no longer get temperature spikes on my CPU, Im still seeing 100% usage in my CPU from time to time in some games with GPU at basically 0 but temps stay below 70 c. I am going to chalk this up to the games I'm playing just displaying the wrong GPU usage because I doubt I'd be getting 100 plus FPS in Rise of the tomb raider @ 3440x1440p with below 20 per cent usage on my GPU.