My low GPU usage affecting game performance.

[HankySpankie]

I have been struggling latley to run PC titles that my pc should easily and sufficiantly be able to run, I pulled up my usage performance using the windows+G menu and noticed during games my GPU usage caps between 50%-65% and I have been wondering what could be causing this, i have changed graphics card settings from the pc performance tabs, made sure my drivers are up to date and I know I'm not bottlenecked, the one issue I just cant prove but have thought of is that a few months back I sent my pc in to a local repair shop becuase I never knew why my pc had simply stopped working and found out my power supply had simply stopped working ( I can't remember the exact reasoning) but I had two options, to go for an expensive replacment I couldnt afford at the time or to go for the cheaper replacement, I had went for the cheaper replacment as I figured they would atleast of had the profecional courtesy to give me an up to par replacment and recently while trying to install a new GTX 1060 my friend had gave me a lend of i had figured out that this PSU had no PCI-E cable, I found this odd and uppon a second glance I had realised that my 8pin CPU plug had a 4pin connector in it, I was to be frank baffled that my computer had worked for the months it had been like this but you learn something new everyday. I suspect this to be my issue but I wanted a second opinion.

 

[My Build]

GTX 1050ti windforce OC

Ryzen 2200g

1x8gb corsair ageis ram 2166mhz (oc to 3000)

and a really shit barley branded 600w psu

[Levent]

I am by means no expert with Ryzen CPUs but I know that you got a relatively low end CPU, you are running your memory in a single channel and ram is pretty important for Ryzen CPUS. PSA: Motherboard 4 and 8 pin EPS while GPUs use ATX 4/8 pin, they are different, you will damage your hardware if you somehow plug it wrong.

[HankySpankie]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

I am by means no expert with Ryzen CPUs but I know that you got a relatively low end CPU, you are running your memory in a single channel and ram is pretty important for Ryzen CPUS. PSA: Motherboard 4 and 8 pin EPS while GPUs use ATX 4/8 pin, they are different, you will damage your hardware if you somehow plug it wrong.

The PSU issue was something I was concerned with but I can by no means afford an appropriate replacment rn and I have just noticed the issue

 

[Kenpachi1985]

4 minutes ago, HankySpankie said:

I have been struggling latley to run PC titles that my pc should easily and sufficiantly be able to run, I pulled up my usage performance using the windows+G menu and noticed during games my GPU usage caps between 50%-65% and I have been wondering what could be causing this, i have changed graphics card settings from the pc performance tabs, made sure my drivers are up to date and I know I'm not bottlenecked, the one issue I just cant prove but have thought of is that a few months back I sent my pc in to a local repair shop becuase I never knew why my pc had simply stopped working and found out my power supply had simply stopped working ( I can't remember the exact reasoning) but I had two options, to go for an expensive replacment I couldnt afford at the time or to go for the cheaper replacement, I had went for the cheaper replacment as I figured they would atleast of had the profecional courtesy to give me an up to par replacment and recently while trying to install a new GTX 1060 my friend had gave me a lend of i had figured out that this PSU had no PCI-E cable, I found this odd and uppon a second glance I had realised that my 8pin CPU plug had a 4pin connector in it, I was to be frank baffled that my computer had worked for the months it had been like this but you learn something new everyday. I suspect this to be my issue but I wanted a second opinion.

 

[My Build]

GTX 1050ti windforce OC

Ryzen 2200g

1x8gb corsair ageis ram 2166mhz (oc to 3000)

and a really shit barley branded 600w psu

First of all - never go to that place again - but i guess you figured that out by yourself now  .

You have no noticeable bottleneck, thats right - but your performance overall is in no way sufficent for any modern games, the GPU is quite weak and your CPU is even sligthly weaker.

Having a bad PSU can make a lot of trouble, even damage your whole system.

Get a decent one from the list in the forum and then see if your performance gets better (there are quite some good and affordable ones there). This is literally the FIRST STEP you can NOT skip - cheaping out on a PSU can be dangerous for all your other components and even become a fire hazard.

After that, get a pair of 2x4 (or if you can afford it somehow) 2x8 GB Ram sticks with at least 3000 mhz speed non OC (XMP or AMP as its called on AMD side is the trick here) if you plan to stick to your low end CPU - single channel (so one stick) Ram is always a bad idea for anything more then an office PC.

Upgrading your CPU makes only sense if you also go for a better GPU, since you say you have literally no budget i think that is out of the question for now.

 

Get a proper PSU (highest priority for now) and 2x4 or 2x8 matching ram sticks, that might help you the most. Here is the PSU list:

 

 

[Otto_iii]

In task manager what does it show as "GPU"? is there only one or does it have GPU 1 and GPU 2?  Likewise in a stress test or hard to run game how much ram does the card use?  

Nobody asked but i suspect your issue is that potentially in the BIOS the system is currently configured to be utilizing the intigrated graphics of the 2200g, running in SLI/Crossfire with 1050ti and restricting its vram usage, or not using 1050ti at all, if its setup eitherway rather then to only utilize the 1050ti which is about 3x more capable then the Vega 8 graphics of the 2200g it will be hugely restricted in its performance.  There is some disagreement about best way to fix this but im strongly in the "completely disable intigrated graphics" camp as SLI/Crossfire isn't supported in most games at all in 2019, can cause lots of issues in such a case like, and even in perfectly configured situation with SLI between the Vega 8 iGPU and 1050ti the Vega 8 adds so little its not worth it. 

Usually you can just "disable" intigrated graphics in the BIOS, but i'd ask which motherboard you have as sometimes things are labeled or organized differently in the BIOS, and likewise you may need to manually set it so once you disable integrated graphics, but likely it automatically swaps to PCI slot on more modern boards if iGPU/integrated graphics is disabled. 

May sound like a silly question, but i'd ask to make sure if Monitor is plugged into GPU, if you did get anxious and just disable it in BIOS make sure the cable is atleast plugged into GPU first , if is plugged into GPU then atleast we know PSU can support the 1050ti currently installed, even if 1050ti isn't being utilized properly. 

Absolute worst case if PSU cannot support the 1050ti, and its not working because of that, we could try to configure 2200g to run as efficiently as possible, but thats worst case situation. 
 

3 hours ago, HankySpankie said:

The PSU issue was something I was concerned with but I can by no means afford an appropriate replacment rn and I have just noticed the issue

understandable, when you can get around to it find anything well reviewed with about 450W+, 80+ bronze if possible, maybe 65-70$ 650w if or when possible as power supplies are one of the few components that will often last decade, and can be seen more as a investment then other hardware. 

 

3 hours ago, HankySpankie said:

I pulled up my usage performance using the windows+G menu and noticed during games my GPU usage caps between 50%-65% and I have been wondering what could be causing this

Low GPU usage can also be due to CPU bottleneck, but assuming you aren't trying to run super high resolution or high settings ingames that is unlikely.  I'd still ask what CPU utilization in Task Manager etc is in games, but most games can run graphics far harder then CPU in anycase so this is unlikely, a 2200g and 1050ti should pair perfectly fine. 
 

3 hours ago, Kenpachi1985 said:

You have no noticeable bottleneck

I'd really disagree with this, first off even if everything was configured properly in BIOS like i mentioned above, running single channel ram, as in 1 stick, or two sticks installed incorrectly, can be a huge bottleneck, but since hes on a budget we'll focus on other things he can fix without spending too much. In this case if anything was changed probably get better PSU first, ram stick second, but for now hopefully just get his system running best it can as it is.  

Finally, his computer may not be glamorous, but i've seen people playing the latest, most modern games on 3000G APUs simply with graphics settings configured to work as efficiently as possible and mild overclock, and a overclocked 3000g is far inferior to a stock 2200g on intigrated graphics, let alone a 2200g with a 1050ti working as the GPU