Low GPU usage

[Phobosy]

Is there any way to fix low GPU usage sometimes my GPU will be used like 50-60% and the frames low there is no bottleneck as my cpu will be at 20-30% but my GPU just wont go over 50-60 sometimes i've tried all the power saving settings etc and still nothing

[YoungBlade]

In what game(s) is this happening? Also, what is the per-core utilization of the CPU? Is one core being heavily utilized?

[Phobosy]

7 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

In what game(s) is this happening? Also, what is the per-core utilization of the CPU? Is one core being heavily utilized?

how can i check that?

[YoungBlade]

Just now, Phobosy said:

how can i check that?

With Task Manager, go to Performance>CPU and then right click on the CPU graph and then choose Change graph to > Logical processors - this will show the utilization graphs for the individual CPU threads.

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, YoungBlade said:

With Task Manager, go to Performance>CPU and then right click on the CPU graph and then choose Change graph to > Logical processors - this will show the utilization graphs for the individual CPU threads.

 

This was that graph through a benchmark

[YoungBlade]

2 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

 

This was that graph through a benchmark

Note the bottom left graph: that's a single thread getting maxed out.

 

Some games, especially older ones, require better single-threaded performance to push more frames. More cores won't help.

 

What game(s) have you noticed this problem in?

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, YoungBlade said:

Note the bottom left graph: that's a single thread getting maxed out.

 

Some games, especially older ones, require better single-threaded performance to push more frames. More cores won't help.

 

What game(s) have you noticed this problem in?

Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn, Rust is the worst for it, Watch Dogs Legion and Cyberpunk but if im correct because i use DLSS on cyberounk the GPU usage should be lower? maybe i'm wrong.

[YoungBlade]

Just now, Phobosy said:

Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn, Rust is the worst for it, Watch Dogs Legion and Cyberpunk but if im correct because i use DLSS on cyberounk the GPU usage should be lower? maybe i'm wrong.

Those are not games where I would expect that to be a problem. Do you have v-sync or some other frame cap enabled? Also, are you running DX12 for the games that support it?

[Phobosy]

4 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

Note the bottom left graph: that's a single thread getting maxed out.

 

Some games, especially older ones, require better single-threaded performance to push more frames. More cores won't help.

 

What game(s) have you noticed this problem in?

 

I ran the same benchmark again and got these results only 3 cores getting close to 100%

[Phobosy]

I usually just let the game decide what to use ut of DX 11/12

[YoungBlade]

5 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

I usually just let the game decide what to use ut of DX 11/12

DX12 has better multi-threading support, so with your CPU, you should use it when possible. For some games like Cyberpunk, performance can tank on DX11 when a lot of NPCs are around, because the engine struggles to simulate them all on a single thread.

 

Edit: And that's probably why Cyberpunk's dev team didn't even try to get DX11 working on PC. The game would've been even buggier and slow than it already was at launch.

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, YoungBlade said:

DX12 has better multi-threading support, so with your CPU, you should use it when possible. For some games like Cyberpunk, performance can tank on DX11 when a lot of NPCs are around, because the engine struggles to simulate them all on a single thread.

Alright i'll use DX12 where I can apart from that you just gotta kinda take an L with the low usage?

[YoungBlade]

1 minute ago, Phobosy said:

Alright i'll use DX12 where I can apart from that you just gotta kinda take an L with the low usage?

It might be a solvable problem, but asking about this for a ton of games is very broad. I wouldn't expect it to be a single thread limit in the games you listed.

 

Are your framerates in line with what's shown in benchmarks for your GPU?

[Phobosy]

1 minute ago, YoungBlade said:

It might be a solvable problem, but asking about this for a ton of games is very broad. I wouldn't expect it to be a single thread limit in the games you listed.

 

Are your framerates in line with what's shown in benchmarks for your GPU?

They're a bit below but maybe thats just because my card isnt a special OC variant or anything

[YoungBlade]

4 minutes ago, Phobosy said:

They're a bit below but maybe thats just because my card isnt a special OC variant or anything

If they're just a few percent lower, that makes sense, and you're probably fine. GPU benchmarks are done with liquid-cooled, flagship CPUs (sometimes overclocked as well) using high quality, tuned memory on a clean Windows install on an open-air test bench.

 

Every game is different and is going to have its own quirks. For example, when I play Abzu, I'll notice weird GPU usage and framerate dips regularly like you describe, probably because of an engine limitation with the game. But in Control, GPU usage is at 99% the whole time, regardless of the dips. It doesn't mean they don't happen, just that the GPU is never idle.