How do i find out if my rig work at its full potential?

[Trotilatu]

Hi,

 

I've always had the feeling that my computer isn't running like it is supposed to. I am talking about the gaming experience: i think that my rig should run at more fps than it is currently running. 

 

I thought about running some bench-marking tools, but i guess they show how the system runs and not how it SHOULD run.

 

My question is: how can i figure out if some/any components are not working properly (at their max potential) ?

 

PS: this is my first post, so please excuse me if i broke some rules or smth

PS2: if info is needed, my system is pretty modest, 3 years old now with i5-3350p 3.1ghz, nvidia geforce gtx650 1gb, 6gb ram, 500w psu, 1tb hdd

 

[Nexxus]

Use some type of overlay on your games like NZXT Cam, MSI Afterburner or others.

They can state how much your cpu is being utilized, how much your gpu(s) are being utilized, how much ram is used and how much Vram is used. among other things

 

MSI afterburner is the more informative, but its not as easy to setup as NZXT Cam

[The_Stig]

Download something like GPU-Z/HWmonitor and make sure you GPU's usage is at 99/100% while gaming.

[Trotilatu]

Use some type of overlay on your games like NZXT Cam, MSI Afterburner or others.

They can state how much your cpu is being utilized, how much your gpu(s) are being utilized, how much ram is used and how much Vram is used. among other things

 

MSI afterburner is the more informative, but its not as easy to setup as NZXT Cam

Ok so i installed the MSI Afterburner and did some testing. The gpu reaches 99% , but the CPU never goes above 50%. Shouldn't it go higher?

 

Edit: i ran a stress test with prime95 and checked the task manager: cpu was running at 99%

[Nexxus]

Ok so i installed the MSI Afterburner and did some testing. The gpu reaches 99% , but the CPU never goes above 50%. Shouldn't it go higher?

 

Edit: i ran a stress test with prime95 and checked the task manager: cpu was running at 99%

it really depends on the game. I don't pay much attention to my cpu usage in game frankly but no I dont think thats desireable. gpu yes that situation is normal. 

CPUs generally dont effect fps that much, I mean they do but its a situation where does the game have enough cpu power to run as it was intended to run. Yes? Good we dont need to utilize anymore of it.

 

GPU its not really like that if there is more for the gpu to give it will generally do so for higher FPS.

This isnt true witgh every game mind you in hitman as I type this im looking at 55% on gpu1 and 69% on gpu 2

 

CPU is sitting at 24%

[Robin88]

Ok so i installed the MSI Afterburner and did some testing. The gpu reaches 99% , but the CPU never goes above 50%. Shouldn't it go higher?

 

Edit: i ran a stress test with prime95 and checked the task manager: cpu was running at 99%

As a general rule of thumb your GPU usage should be 100% in games and your CPU usage should ideally be as low as possible without it affecting framerate in games, Prime95 is not a benchmark, if you want to know if you're getting the most out of your hardware then use Cinebench for checking CPU performance and Unigine Heaven or Valley for GPU performance, and if you want to know if your system as a whole is running at it's best then use PCMark.

HOWEVER! And I really must stress this part the most, only compare your scores to other systems with the EXACT SAME HARDWARE. Check your scores either in the application or on forums and see whether or not it's performing as well as others are.

[Trotilatu]

Thank you all for your answers, it really helped me a lot