GPU Usage Not Stable

[Downies]

Hello linustechtips community! Recently I have been noticing some issues when it comes to gaming with my rig. On games such as Battlefield 4 and GTA 5 I never maintain a stable usage along with framerate. I have no clue why because I made sure everything was on max performance in both windows and nvidia control panel. Also I unparked my cores and am currently using the XMP profile. For instance, I was playing Battlefield 4 and one game I will be getting 90+ usage with some drops to 70% and then up to 90% but the next game I will have a constant 70%. On GTA 5 I never get a constant usage of 90% either which leads to drops as well. If  you guys need graphs or video proof I can show you guys. Also I do not know if this is relevant but on simple games such as garrys mod or Insurgency (Both source games) and just simply movements can lead to frame drops to 70fps. Any suggestions will help!

 

i5 4460

EVGA GTX 970 SC

MSI z97 PC Mate Motherboard

Corsair CX750m

Gskill Ripjaws 1600mhz Ram

Windows 7 64bit

[AlwaysFSX]

Best thing to do is to reinstall your graphics drivers, aside form that there isn't much you can do.

[Samfisher]

Cos your CPU ix maxed and therefore bottlenecking your GPU at points where you aren't getting high GPU usage.

[CoolaxGaming]

Turn on mantle.

[AdamH96]

Your GPU will not max out unless you are not using v-sync. At 1080P 60FPS (im guessing) this card can push more than 60FPS which means it does not need to be at 100%. Depending where you are in a game level you GPU will have more or less work to do so it wouldn't be at a constant 100% either way (unless your doing something like 4K).

 

EDIT: Also WIN 7 in BF4 is known to give stutters because it is not as CPU efficient as WIN 8.1. How much RAM do you have?

[incarnate]

Turn on mantle.

 

i hope you're joking. he has an nvidia card

[CoolaxGaming]

i hope you're joking. he has an nvidia card

nvm. I was drunk, ignore my post...

[Downies]

Best thing to do is to reinstall your graphics drivers, aside form that there isn't much you can do.

So would using DDU and reinstalling the drivers could help in any sort? If you guys need to see any graphs in afterburner I can post them up.

[Downies]

Cos your CPU ix maxed and therefore bottlenecking your GPU at points where you aren't getting high GPU usage.

 

Took that when I played a 64 man siege of shanghai match for about 10 mins. My GPU load was all over the place while my CPU cores never were maxed out at 100% yet stayed between 80-90%

[sgloux3470]

It's because you're gaming at 1080p and are CPU bound.

 

If your framerates are good it doesn't matter.  If they're not, reinstall your graphics drivers after cleaning out the old ones with display driver uninstaller.

 

120 Hz/144 Hz gaming doesn't work because no CPU can push 144 FPS in all that many games.

[Downies]

It's because you're gaming at 1080p and are CPU bound.

 

If your framerates are good it doesn't matter.  If they're not, reinstall your graphics drivers after cleaning out the old ones with display driver uninstaller.

 

120 Hz/144 Hz gaming doesn't work because no CPU can push 144 FPS in all that many games.

Forgot to mention. The whole reason as to why I have not reinstalled my GPU drives is because I did a clean install of Windows a couple of days ago

[Samfisher]

 

Took that when I played a 64 man siege of shanghai match for about 10 mins. My GPU load was all over the place while my CPU cores never were maxed out at 100% yet stayed between 80-90%

 

There will never be a game that will always take 100% all the time every time.  Your CPU is the bottleneck.

[AdamH96]

^

[Majestic]

There will never be a game that will always take 100% all the time every time.  Your CPU is the bottleneck.

 

Crysis 3, Welcome to the jungle map comes pretty close. Stepping outside is usually 95-100% on CPU and GPU.

I measure peak power consumption in that level, it's ridiculous.

[AdamH96]

There will never be a game that will always take 100% all the time every time.  Your CPU is the bottleneck.

True! Also, Windows 7 it is not as CPU efficient as Windows 8.1 in BF4 which means you will get more spikes and dips with your CPU!!!

[Downies]

So basically this CPU bottlenecks this GPU while others are on an i5 750 overclocked and it wouldn't... ._.

[AdamH96]

So basically this CPU bottlenecks this GPU while others are on an i5 750 overclocked and it wouldn't... ._.

I had a i5-760 OC to 4Ghz and only saw a bottleneck at frame rates well above 60fps. I was also on Windows 8.1 which reduced the bottleneck a little. So 2 options, upgrade to windows 10 when it comes out (should be free) or upgrade you CPU.

[incarnate]

So basically this CPU bottlenecks this GPU while others are on an i5 750 overclocked and it wouldn't... ._.

 

amd is so far behind intel in single core performance it isn't even funny. it is weird that your cpu seems to be bottlenecking your graphics cards in some games but that is the trade off going with amd sadly.

 

i really hope after this arch has run their course that amd steps up their game and comes out with a good cpu. seeing as how they stopped development on the FX cpus, i hope they are taking their time to come up with something decent.

[Downies]

I had a i5-760 OC to 4Ghz and only saw a bottleneck at frame rates well above 60fps. I was also on Windows 8.1 which reduced the bottleneck a little. So 2 options, upgrade to windows 10 when it comes out (should be free) or upgrade you CPU.

How does changing an OS reduce a bottleneck...

[incarnate]

How does changing an OS reduce a bottleneck...

 

more efficient cpu scheduling

[AdamH96]

How does changing an OS reduce a bottleneck...

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/24/battlefield_4_windows_7_vs_81_performance_review/5#.VTP0dVVVhBc

 

"Under Windows 7, we experienced choppiness as we played. This was felt both in the "Test Range" map, and in multiplayer gaming sessions. The choppiness was more pronounced on the GeForce GTX 780. We could get on a straight path, in the "Test Range" and move down a straight road. As we did this, there would be a pause, or chop, in the frames randomly. It was like the game was hitching for no reason. This happened more on the GTX 780. This is under Windows 7.

 

When we tried this on Windows 8.1 the pausing, or hitching, or chop (however you want to describe it) was completely gone. Moving was smoother with no hitching in the game on the GTX 780. This affected both the test range and the multiplayer gaming session."

[Downies]

Alright well I guess I am just going to have to deal with this until windows 10 apparently 

[itachipirate]

i hope you're joking. he has an nvidia card

Mantle still provides a performance boost for every platform. I'm pretty sure Nvidia cards and Intel CPUs can still use mantle, since AMD is more open with things they make. AMD just made a great API, though it's only in like 11 games

 

Windows 8 runs faster. And windows 7 has really poor core parking