Question 100% GPU/CPU Usage in Games

Jan 15, 2021
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Hi all, I've been at a loss for solutions with this and any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. My computer (i9-9900k OC, EVGA RTX 2070s OC, 32gb ram, SSDs) has been working flawlessly since I built it in June 2020, but recently a concerning issue has popped up out of seemingly nowhere. (by that I mean I haven't done/changed/downloaded anything out of the ordinary lately, all nvidia and PC settings have remained the same).

The problem:
I'm getting very high GPU and CPU usage in almost all games, regardless of age or graphical settings. This is resulting in FPS loss/stuttering in games that I've run with no issues for months.
This issue is happening in nearly every game, and the games that aren't running at 100% usage are still much higher than before.

The example:
-Before issue: for months I've played AC: Odyssey on ultra settings at 2k and was getting around 90 - 120 FPS depending. CPU/GPU usage never exceeded 50% during this, game ran smoothly.
-Now: Under the same conditions, I'm getting between 40 and 60 FPS while my CPU and GPU are both running at a steady 100%.

The attempted solutions:
-Ran full system scan multiple times with malwarebytes premium, adwcleaner and defender.
-Played with global/per-app settings in nvidia control panel.
-Checked processes/resource usage to ensure no viruses were hijacking/driving up hardware usage and found nothing.
-Reinstalled current (as of 1/15/21) nvidia driver 461.09
-Removed OC, reverted to stock settings on both CPU and GPU (suggestion by keith12)

Conclusion:
Most people I've spoken with so far tend to say something like "That's a good thing! You want your gpu/cpu running at 100% to maximize performance!" but I disagree. This has never happened to my computer before and now I'm getting worse performance in the same games that used to use half/less than half of the resources they're using now.
What could this be? Hardware issue? Software? Drivers? Virus? Act of God?
Please help me get my system back to peak performance! 😁
 
Last edited:
Jan 15, 2021
2
0
10
Hey there,

I'd start by taking any OC's you have off (CPU/GPU) and run at stock. See if problems persist.

Hey Keith, thanks for the suggestion. I reverted both to stock, problem isn’t resolved. Nothing changed as far as I can see, tested with a few games all are still stuttering and using far more resources than they should/ever have before.