only 60% CPU utilization and 20% gpu when playing games

[overturnedv1]

Listen, I'm no tech wiz, but shouldn't either my CPU or GPU be at 100%, and then it bottle necks the other? Cuz when I play games, my CPU only maxes at like 60% cpu and my GPU sits at like 20%, and I always feel like I need some more fps. Am I wrong?

[Guest]

If you are using a multicore CPU, then even if only one of the cores/threads is being pegged it will still only show overall usage as being lower than 100%. That's because on a 4c/4t CPU, for example, if one core is at 100% utilisation but the other three cores are at 0% utilisation, the overall CPU utilisation will be shown as just 25%. This is accurate, but not helpful when trying to find the bottleneck.

One way to find out utilisation on a thread-by-thread basis in Windows 10 is by right-clicking on the CPU graph in Task Manager and selecting 'Change graph to --> Logical processors'. This will give you a graph of each thread that your CPU is handling. If any one of these threads are pegged, you've found your CPU bottleneck.

 

 

That's not the only way a CPU can bottleneck can be found (as sometimes poorly-threaded games might not even use 100% of any thread and still bottleneck the GPU!), but it is one of the most common.

 

As for your GPU, 20% utilisation is pretty low in general. What are your system specifications, what resolution do you play at, and what range of FPS do you get? Is it consistent across many games or just one in particular?

 

Cheers.

[Prodigy_Smit]

21 minutes ago, overturnedv1 said:

Listen, I'm no tech wiz, but shouldn't either my CPU or GPU be at 100%, and then it bottle necks the other? Cuz when I play games, my CPU only maxes at like 60% cpu and my GPU sits at like 20%, and I always feel like I need some more fps. Am I wrong?

Which games and what resolution?

Also the explanation that @Pooky gave is very accurate.

[overturnedv1]

6 minutes ago, Smit Devrukhkar said:

Which games and what resolution?

Also the explanation that @Pooky gave is very accurate.

valorant rn 1920x1080 but low graphics

 

[overturnedv1]

13 minutes ago, Pooky said:

If you are using a multicore CPU, then even if only one of the cores/threads is being pegged it will still only show overall usage as being lower than 100%. That's because on a 4c/4t CPU, for example, if one core is at 100% utilisation but the other three cores are at 0% utilisation, the overall CPU utilisation will be shown as just 25%. This is accurate, but not helpful when trying to find the bottleneck.

One way to find out utilisation on a thread-by-thread basis in Windows 10 is by right-clicking on the CPU graph in Task Manager and selecting 'Change graph to --> Logical processors'. This will give you a graph of each thread that your CPU is handling. If any one of these threads are pegged, you've found your CPU bottleneck.

 

 

That's not the only way a CPU can bottleneck can be found (as sometimes poorly-threaded games might not even use 100% of any thread and still bottleneck the GPU!), but it is one of the most common.

 

As for your GPU, 20% utilisation is pretty low in general. What are your system specifications, what resolution do you play at, and what range of FPS do you get? Is it consistent across many games or just one in particular?

 

Cheers.

Thanks for the awesome reply. Here is a screenshot of the graph I took while playing the game. As you can see on the left, 61% CPU usage, 26% GPU. I'm not really sure how this works, bu t to me all the graphs look similar? Or do they show the problem?

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, overturnedv1 said:

Thanks for the awesome reply. Here is a screenshot of the graph I took while playing the game. As you can see on the left, 61% CPU usage, 26% GPU. I'm not really sure how this works, bu t to me all the graphs look similar? Or do they show the problem?

I do not see any issues on the CPU side of things. From the way it looks, there might be an issue with your GPU drivers. I noticed in your post history that you had an issue with Valorant before following a GPU driver update. Have you tried uninstalling your current driver with DDU and then reinstalling the driver from GeForce Experience? I can't quite make out what model of GPU your laptop has but since your CPU is very capable, Valorant is well-optimised, and your GPU isn't pegged, I suspect that there may be a driver issue at play. It might not even be a GPU driver issue, but that would be the first thing to check.

 

EDIT: I've also just thought, since you're on a laptop, it's also possible that there is power and/or thermal throttling limiting your GPU's performance. Could you check which power plan you are using in Windows? If you are not plugged in or if you have the wrong power plan selected, the system may be throttling power delivery.

 

 

Cheers.

[overturnedv1]

1 minute ago, Pooky said:

I do not see any issues on the CPU side of things. From the way it looks, there might be an issue with your GPU drivers. I noticed in your post history that you had an issue with Valorant before following a GPU driver update. Have you tried uninstalling your current driver with DDU and then reinstalling the driver from GeForce Experience? I can't quite make out what model of GPU your laptop has but since your CPU is very capable, Valorant is well-optimised, and your GPU isn't pegged, I suspect that there may be a driver issue at play. It might not even be a GPU driver issue, but that would be the first thing to check.

 

Cheers.

Every time I uninstall my GPU drivers, I always have some problems, but I'll go for it I guess. It's a 1060 6gb by the way, I believe. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, overturnedv1 said:

Every time I uninstall my GPU drivers, I always have some problems, but I'll go for it I guess. It's a 1060 6gb by the way, I believe. 

Check my edit. I have a few more ideas about power throttling but it would require downloading a software called ThrottleStop to check for limiters.

 

Ex:

[overturnedv1]

6 minutes ago, Pooky said:

I do not see any issues on the CPU side of things. From the way it looks, there might be an issue with your GPU drivers. I noticed in your post history that you had an issue with Valorant before following a GPU driver update. Have you tried uninstalling your current driver with DDU and then reinstalling the driver from GeForce Experience? I can't quite make out what model of GPU your laptop has but since your CPU is very capable, Valorant is well-optimised, and your GPU isn't pegged, I suspect that there may be a driver issue at play. It might not even be a GPU driver issue, but that would be the first thing to check.

 

EDIT: I've also just thought, since you're on a laptop, it's also possible that there is power and/or thermal throttling limiting your GPU's performance. Could you check which power plan you are using in Windows? If you are not plugged in or if you have the wrong power plan selected, the system may be throttling power delivery.

 

 

Cheers.

Only thing I ever changed in there was having CPU run at 100% at any percent, unplugged and plugged in I think. Not sure if there is anything else in there that should also be changed from default.

[overturnedv1]

1 minute ago, Pooky said:

Check my edit. I have a few more ideas about power throttling but it would require downloading a software called ThrottleStop to check for limiters.

 

Ex:

Do you think it would be better to do this before uninstalling and reinstalling drivers?

 

[Guest]

Just now, overturnedv1 said:

Do you think it would be better to do this before uninstalling and reinstalling drivers?

It wouldn't hurt to try reinstalling drivers, but since you claim that it did not work when you tried, it might be better to check for power limits first. All you need to do is run the software I linked and press the "Limits" button under "PKG Power". That window will show you anything that is limiting power to your system, both CPU and GPU.

[overturnedv1]

2 minutes ago, Pooky said:

It wouldn't hurt to try reinstalling drivers, but since you claim that it did not work when you tried, it might be better to check for power limits first. All you need to do is run the software I linked and press the "Limits" button under "PKG Power". That window will show you anything that is limiting power to your system, both CPU and GPU.

Done. When I open Limits, only thing that shows up is "EDP OTHER" in yellow under CPU and GPU. Nothing under Ring. Sometimes, EDP OTHER doesn't show up.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, overturnedv1 said:

Done. When I open Limits, only thing that shows up is "EDP OTHER" in yellow under CPU and GPU. Nothing under Ring. Sometimes, EDP OTHER doesn't show up.

unclewebb, the author of ThrottleStop, explains it like this:

Quote

In Limit Reasons, boxes in yellow indicate a record of previous throttling. Boxes in red indicate that throttling is in progress. You can click on the headings in Limit Reasons to clear this throttling information from the CPU. On some laptops, they might immediately turn yellow again after you clear them.

EDP OTHER is related to the current limit...

So basically, it is the normal limit the system puts on the CPU to prevent it from overheating. This does not appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

Apologies if I am forgetting, but did you ever tell us what resolution and FPS you were getting on Valorant? If your settings are low enough and you are capped at your screen's refresh rate, it's possible that the low GPU usage is cause by v-sync is being forced on.

 

Unfortunately I need to sleep now but hopefully some other, more helpful fellow can pick up the slack while I am off.

Cheers.

[overturnedv1]

29 minutes ago, Pooky said:

unclewebb, the author of ThrottleStop, explains it like this:

So basically, it is the normal limit the system puts on the CPU to prevent it from overheating. This does not appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

Apologies if I am forgetting, but did you ever tell us what resolution and FPS you were getting on Valorant? If your settings are low enough and you are capped at your screen's refresh rate, it's possible that the low GPU usage is cause by v-sync is being forced on.

 

Unfortunately I need to sleep now but hopefully some other, more helpful fellow can pick up the slack while I am off.

Cheers.

Its 1920 x 1080 144FPS. Thanks for all your help.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, overturnedv1 said:

Its 1920 x 1080 144FPS. Thanks for all your help.

Okay, I've just had a look at some benchmarks with hardware similar to yours, and I think that v-sync is limiting your FPS to your screen's refresh rate. Check the game's settings to see if v-sync is enabled in there and if so, try disabling it.

If v-sync is disabled in the game's settings, try Nvidia Control Panel instead. Follow this guide but choose "Off" rather than "Forced on" and save your settings. Let me know if that uncaps your framerate.

 

 

Cheers.