GPU Not using 100%

[KapteijnK]

Whatsup guys,

 

I just finished building my new PC with this spec list: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/user/KapteijnK/saved/#view=dnXGjX

 

I started 1 of my favorite games RDR2, which I watched alot of benchmarks for with this spec list. But with the same settings as in the benchmark video's I get about 30-40 FPS less. I already enabled PBO and EXPO, and undervolted my GPU with +1600MHZ through MSI Afterburner. I also watched the GPU and CPU usage with MSI Afterburner and noticed that the GPU usage doesn't go past 94%. Didn't notice anything weird about the CPU usage tho. Can anyone help me? Thanks.

[SpookyCitrus]

Revert all of your CPU/GPU overclocks/undervolts back to stock settings and try again. Unless you're having cooling, or power issues, there is no point in undervolting your system right off the bat. Also keep in mind, every system is going to perform differently. YouTube benchmarks are not going to be identical to what your system can do and vice versa. Depending on the age of the video you are watching either the game or the drivers for the components you have could be on different versions, there will always be a difference in the performance you get versus what the benchmarker is getting in the video. No system will perform exactly the same even with identical components. Your resolution and refresh rate of your monitor will also play a factor. 

 

If your GPU is running at 94% or above, your GPU is within normal levels of performance. 

[podkall]

Revert undervolts and overclocks, only keep XMP/EXPO and basic PBO,

 

check if you run same settings, and resolution.

 

Are your chipset and GPU drivers up to date?

[KapteijnK]

1 minute ago, podkall said:

Revert undervolts and overclocks, only keep XMP/EXPO and basic PBO,

 

check if you run same settings, and resolution.

 

Are your chipset and GPU drivers up to date?

What is does "Basic PBO" mean, like no curve editted whatsoever? And should I enable the CPU overclock in the MSI BIOS next to the EXPO/A-XPO option?

[KapteijnK]

8 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Revert all of your CPU/GPU overclocks/undervolts back to stock settings and try again. Unless you're having cooling, or power issues, there is no point in undervolting your system right off the bat. Also keep in mind, every system is going to perform differently. YouTube benchmarks are not going to be identical to what your system can do and vice versa. Depending on the age of the video you are watching either the game or the drivers for the components you have could be on different versions, there will always be a difference in the performance you get versus what the benchmarker is getting in the video. No system will perform exactly the same even with identical components. Your resolution and refresh rate of your monitor will also play a factor. 

 

If your GPU is running at 94% or above, your GPU is within normal levels of performance. 

Will try to do so, will come back with results. But why won't the GPU run 100%?

[SpookyCitrus]

9 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

Will try to do so, will come back with results. But why won't the GPU run 100%?

In most games you're not going to ever see your GPU hit 100% usage. It's not a bad thing for it to not hit 100%. Anything above 93% GPU usage is normal and completely fine. Every game is going to run differently and your resolution, game settings, etc. Are going to play factors in how it performs. The optimization of the game, the age, the technology it uses. Just testing a single game and freaking about it only getting 94% usage is a mute objective. There is a lot of testing that needs to be done to determine an actual issues. It seems to me like you just watched a bunch of benchmarks of one game and are tripping out that your performance isn't exactly the same. 

[GuiltySpark_]

8 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

But why won't the GPU run 100%?

No one can just give you an answer there without testing. No testing and one game tested isn't even scratching the surface of being able to diagnose what's going on. For all we know you have VSync on or a framecap set.

 

In no particular order these are as many as I can think of things I check when diagnosing performance.

• Gather data from more than one game, one of which is a modern, GPU intensive title to minimize CPU influenece.
• Check for per game or global VSync or framerate caps. 
• Verify your drivers are up to date and you don't have any 3rd party software doing anything nefarious (Afterburner, for new users, is often a problem)
• Watch data in realtime using Intel PresentMon so I can see Frametime and GPU Busy time. 

plenty more I can't think of at the moment 

 

Note: with a 4080 Super at 1440p, you may not always see 99% usage depending on the game. In RDR2 you probably should if the settings are cranked, however. But, thats only one test.

[SpookyCitrus]

17 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

What is does "Basic PBO" mean, like no curve editted whatsoever? And should I enable the CPU overclock in the MSI BIOS next to the EXPO/A-XPO option?

Basic PBO should just be the standard PBO speed of the kit you have. So that would be the basic PBO profile, nothing extra just what the kit is rated to run at.

PBO is precision boost overdrive, it allows your CPU to perform at higher voltages and boost speeds without setting manual overclocks. I would avoid enabling PBO and also avoid overclocking the CPU in general until you have tested everything at stock settings. There isn't any point in doing any overclocks or undervolts at this point. You'll want to test the system normally without any overclocks or undervolts first. Most people don't do any tweaking to clocks or voltages unless absolutely necessary. 

[GuiltySpark_]

Just now, SpookyCitrus said:

Basic PBO should just be the standard PBO speed of the kit you have. So that would be the basic PBO profile, nothing extra just what the kit is rated to run at.

I think you're confusing XMP/EXPO with PBO.

[KapteijnK]

3 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

No one can just give you an answer there without testing. No testing and one game tested isn't even scratching the surface of being able to diagnose what's going on. For all we know you have VSync on or a framecap set.

 

In no particular order these are as many as I can think of things I check when diagnosing performance.

• Gather data from more than one game, one of which is a modern, GPU intensive title to minimize CPU influenece.
• Check for per game or global VSync or framerate caps. 
• Verify your drivers are up to date and you don't have any 3rd party software doing anything nefarious (Afterburner, for new users, is often a problem)
• Watch data in realtime using Intel PresentMon so I can see Frametime and GPU Busy time. 

plenty more I can't think of at the moment 

 

Note: with a 4080 Super at 1440p, you may not always see 99% usage depending on the game. In RDR2 you probably should if the settings are cranked, however. But, thats only one test.

So how should I see if the GPU is using 99% without afterburner? Cause yea that is running in the background 

[GuiltySpark_]

Just now, KapteijnK said:

So how should I see if the GPU is using 99% without afterburner? Cause yea that is running in the background 

Its Nvidia so Alt-R, or my preferable option of Intel PresentMon as described. The Frametime and GPU Busy graph tells you everything you need to know in one automatically configured overlay, none of that disaster to configure that is RTSS. 

[KapteijnK]

1 minute ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

Its Nvidia so Alt-R, or my preferable option of Intel PresentMon as described. The Frametime and GPU Busy graph tells you everything you need to know in one automatically configured overlay, none of that disaster to configure that is RTSS. 

This wouldn't work without geforce experience would it?

[SpookyCitrus]

Just now, KapteijnK said:

So how should I see if the GPU is using 99% without afterburner? Cause yea that is running in the background 

Task manager built into Windows or HWINFO64 will tell you your usages without running afterburner. The Nvidia overlay also has a pretty in-depth GPU information overlay option. You're also only testing one game, you need to test a multitude of GPU intensive games, the more modern and demanding the better.

[SpookyCitrus]

6 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

I think you're confusing XMP/EXPO with PBO.

I was, my bad. I meant EXPO. Not PBO.

[KapteijnK]

Just now, SpookyCitrus said:

Task manager built into Windows or HWINFO64 will tell you your usages without running afterburner. The Nvidia overlay also has a pretty in-depth GPU information overlay option. You're also only testing one game, you need to test a multitude of GPU intensive games, the more modern and demanding the better.

TBH, I think RDR2 is the most graphics intense games I own. I don't have CyberPunk or anything like Alan Awake.

[GuiltySpark_]

Here is the problem. We have no idea if there is an issue at all without more games tested.

[SpookyCitrus]

13 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

TBH, I think RDR2 is the most graphics intense games I own. I don't have CyberPunk or anything like Alan Awake.

Ok, then test other games you do have? Is it the only game that you own? Again, I will reiterate, your GPU does not need to be hitting 100% while gaming, in most games it will not be able to and that's mostly because of the games themselves. Whether it's age or optimization. You have a 4080 Super and depending on your resolution and settings of the games you play you'll likely never really see 100% usage. Again, anything in the mid to high 90s for GPU usage is nominal. Older games just can't push your GPU to its limits, again there are many, many, other factors but your main takeaway should be that your system sounds like to us, it is running as it should. 

 

Try whatever the next graphically demanding game you have is and test it. Just keep in mind the older the game, and the less demanding it is the lower the GPU usage. 

 

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at?

What are the in-game settings, what FPS are you getting in RDR2?

Is it having performance issues? Is it stuttering or not playable?

 

If you're only worrying about all of this solely because you aren't getting the exact same FPS as a YouTube benchmark video, you're worrying for nothing. Unless you have an actual issue, like stuttering or drastically low FPS, it sounds like your system is operating as it should. 

[podkall]

33 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

What is does "Basic PBO" mean, like no curve editted whatsoever? And should I enable the CPU overclock in the MSI BIOS next to the EXPO/A-XPO option?

yeah without curves or undervolts, that's what I meant,

 

also GPU not being 100% utilized doesn't always mean it's a bad thing or something's wrong,

 

having 40fps difference is another thing, but that could be due to settings or something.

 

there's no need for OC just PBO enabled already makes the CPU try clocking as fast as possible until it hits a thermal/factory limit,

 

there's also certain programs that will compare benchmark results from other similar hardware, 3D Mark does that, even just the demo version I think (full version costs money)

[KapteijnK]

14 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Ok, then test other games you do have? Is it the only game that you own? Again, I will reiterate, your GPU does not need to be hitting 100% while gaming, in most games it will not be able to and that's mostly because of the games themselves. Whether it's age or optimization. You have a 4080 Super and depending on your resolution and settings of the games you play you'll likely never really see 100% usage. Again, anything in the mid to high 90s for GPU usage is nominal. Older games just can't push your GPU to its limits, again there are many, many, other factors but your main takeaway should be that your system sounds like to us, it is running as it should. 

 

Try whatever the next graphically demanding game you have is and test it. Just keep in mind the older the game, and the less demanding it is the lower the GPU usage. 

 

What resolution and refresh rate do you play at?

What are the in-game settings, what FPS are you getting in RDR2?

Is it having performance issues? Is it stuttering or not playable?

 

If you're only worrying about all of this solely because you aren't getting the exact same FPS as a YouTube benchmark video, you're worrying for nothing. Unless you have an actual issue, like stuttering or drastically low FPS, it sounds like your system is operating as it should. 

So in RDR2 I get 105-110 FPS but which in this showcase (Go to 1440P with the timestamp) 

With those exact settings I achieve as you can see 15FPS lower. I also watched another Benchmark 

 

Which is WAAAAY higher FPS than I get, IDK why. It is playable but sometimes stutters.

[KapteijnK]

11 minutes ago, podkall said:

yeah without curves or undervolts, that's what I meant,

 

also GPU not being 100% utilized doesn't always mean it's a bad thing or something's wrong,

 

having 40fps difference is another thing, but that could be due to settings or something.

 

there's no need for OC just PBO enabled already makes the CPU try clocking as fast as possible until it hits a thermal/factory limit,

 

there's also certain programs that will compare benchmark results from other similar hardware, 3D Mark does that, even just the demo version I think (full version costs money)

Any tutorials on how to safely overclock the CPU?

[podkall]

14 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

Any tutorials on how to safely overclock the CPU?

you don't need to overclock your CPU, in fact modern CPUs these days are optimized to be fast already and any overclock wouldn't bring meaningful boost,

 

on top of that with x3D chips it's much more difficult to OC these things, they are slightly more sensitive to heat,

 

the PBO is what overclocks used to be, with the removed threat of CPU overheating/faster degradation due to thermals, because modern CPUs have more sophisticated safety features to stop any kind of overheating,

 

this is why AM5 CPUs are designed to run near their limit, because they can afford to do it

 

lastly, there's no reason to OC your CPU for regular reasons, you have the current fastest gaming CPU, there's no need to overclock the current fastest gaming CPU

[KapteijnK]

23 hours ago, podkall said:

you don't need to overclock your CPU, in fact modern CPUs these days are optimized to be fast already and any overclock wouldn't bring meaningful boost,

 

on top of that with x3D chips it's much more difficult to OC these things, they are slightly more sensitive to heat,

 

the PBO is what overclocks used to be, with the removed threat of CPU overheating/faster degradation due to thermals, because modern CPUs have more sophisticated safety features to stop any kind of overheating,

 

this is why AM5 CPUs are designed to run near their limit, because they can afford to do it

 

lastly, there's no reason to OC your CPU for regular reasons, you have the current fastest gaming CPU, there's no need to overclock the current fastest gaming CPU

Hello @podkall

I hope you're having a fine day, I looked into the GPU and the Bus Interface shows at x1 4.0 so it is running in 1x speed instead of 16x 4.0 what it should. Do you know how to force it into 16x ?

[podkall]

2 hours ago, KapteijnK said:

Hello @podkall

I hope you're having a fine day, I looked into the GPU and the Bus Interface shows at x1 4.0 so it is running in 1x speed instead of 16x 4.0 what it should. Do you know how to force it into 16x ?

where are you seeing this info, if it's HWinfo, have you tried running something that wakes up the GPU to confirm it wasn't just resting?

[KapteijnK]

1 minute ago, podkall said:

where are you seeing this info, if it's HWinfo, have you tried running something that wakes up the GPU to confirm it wasn't just resting?

It was GPU-Z, I ran Heaven 3D Benchmark and it still did the same thing, please look at the screenshot. (Littarly right before your reply I started another topic, sorry xD)

[podkall]

3 minutes ago, KapteijnK said:

It was GPU-Z, I ran Heaven 3D Benchmark and it still did the same thing, please look at the screenshot. (Littarly right before your reply I started another topic, sorry xD)

np my expertise go beyond checking if it's just resting, you're fine doing hundreds of posts as long as it's not spam