troubleshoot PC won't use all of the GPU and CPU power

[Fwip]

These are my specs:

• Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI (AM5, DDR5)

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 (6 cores / 12 threads, Zen 4)

• RAM: 32GB DDR5-6000

• GPU: ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5070 OC

• PSU: Corsair RM850x

Some games runs pretty great. Games like Monster Hunter Wilds will use all 99% of the CPU at times, but some games like Hell Let Loose will only use 25% of my GPU and 35% of my CPU power while keeping my frames in the 55-60 frames. Why is this? Shouldn't it be using all of the power to get my frames to the max?

[Needfuldoer]

Sounds like VSYNC is enabled in some games, so your computer will cap your FPS at your monitor's refresh rate.

 

From what I found on the interwebs, Hell Let Loose specifically is capped at 60 FPS by default.

 

 

[OddOod]

This is called a bottleneck. Some games have a CPU bottleneck (CPU @100%, gpu at 30), some have a GPU bottleneck (GPU @100%, cpu at 30), and some have *single thread* CPU bottleneck.
To ID those last ones, pop open Task Manager, (More details if needed), Performance tab. Then click the CPU thing to pull up the graph, right click the graph, change graph to... > logical processors. If one or two of those graphs is waaaaaaaay up there, that's a thread limited bottleneck. 

 

[matt0725]

Im not sure what level of performance to expect from your setup, but you have to look at the per-core usage of a CPU to understand what may be limiting you in a game. If hell let loose only uses 2 cores, they can both be maxed out, limiting your performance, but your overall usage may only be 25%+running windows, so about 35% like youre experiencing

[Fwip]

7 minutes ago, OddOod said:

This is called a bottleneck. Some games have a CPU bottleneck (CPU @100%, gpu at 30), some have a GPU bottleneck (GPU @100%, cpu at 30), and some have *single thread* CPU bottleneck.
To ID those last ones, pop open Task Manager, (More details if needed), Performance tab. Then click the CPU thing to pull up the graph, right click the graph, change graph to... > logical processors. If one or two of those graphs is waaaaaaaay up there, that's a thread limited bottleneck. 

 

I have like 12 graphs and all of them are active but the top 4 are pretty high compared to the bottom ones?

[Fwip]

7 minutes ago, matt0725 said:

Im not sure what level of performance to expect from your setup, but you have to look at the per-core usage of a CPU to understand what may be limiting you in a game. If hell let loose only uses 2 cores, they can both be maxed out, limiting your performance, but your overall usage may only be 25%+running windows, so about 35% like youre experiencing

But my friend who has a better CPU is having not trouble he has 8 cores. I don't understand how having more cores is better if the game only uses a specific amount?

[matt0725]

10 minutes ago, Fwip said:

But my friend who has a better CPU is having not trouble he has 8 cores. I don't understand how having more cores is better if the game only uses a specific amount?

What CPU is it? its possible to be clocked higher, a new generation, etc.

 

more cores is also better but only to a certain extent, and depends on the game as well. It also helps a lot when multitasking.

[Fwip]

1 minute ago, matt0725 said:

What CPU is it? its possible to be clocked higher, a new generation, etc.

 

more cores is also better but only to a certain extent, and depends on the game as well. It also helps a lot when multitasking.

9800 3XD

[matt0725]

3 minutes ago, Fwip said:

9800 3XD

yeah.. that cpu is significantly better than your cpu, so you can't compare it to yours in that way.

 

from your other reply, it seems the game uses 4 cores to run and its maxing all 4 out, so that's just your limit. Hell let loose is super cpu intensive, so that's just how it is with that game.

[Fwip]

9 minutes ago, matt0725 said:

yeah.. that cpu is significantly better than your cpu, so you can't compare it to yours in that way.

 

from your other reply, it seems the game uses 4 cores to run and its maxing all 4 out, so that's just your limit. Hell let loose is super cpu intensive, so that's just how it is with that game.

As long as there is a reason and it isn't something I've done, then I'm totally fine with it, thank you!

 

[OddOod]

On 6/19/2025 at 3:45 PM, matt0725 said:

more cores is also better but only to a certain extent

Fun fact: sometimes it not only hurts, but can actually cause games to straight up not launch. When I tried running Call of Juarez: Gunslinger on my 5950x (16c/32t), it would immediately crash. After an hour of googling I stumbled on someone who had a similar problem and they recommended Process Lasso which lets you hide all but a few specified cores. Turns out that it crashes on any more than 4 cores and REALLY dislikes hyperthreading