[SOLVED] 100% GPU Utilization but only 40% power draw causing FPS drops + Vram spikes

[Starly_]

Hello
Lately I have this issue in Red dead redemption 2 where I get sudden FPS drop from 80 - 100 FPS to 4 FPS. Normally the GPU is using 220-230 watts of power, but before the lag happens I noticed that my GPU hits around 7.4 GB of Vram allocation and 6.2-ish GB of actual Vram used by the game. Then the huge FPS drop happens. GPU utilization spikes to stable 100% and power draw drops down to 60 - 80w and the result is 4 fps that last a few seconds or a minute or until I leave an area in the game. Then it stops for a minute and then it keeps happening until I restart my PC. Restarting my PC is the only way how make the game smooth with no issues for at least 20 minutes. I was able to play for 2 hours at most with no issues.

Things I tried so far:

• Deleting drivers using DDU and installing new ones multiple times
• Decreasing graphic settings in game especially textures
• Checked all of my temperatures using Hwinfo64 and I didn't find anything our of the ordinary except low GPU power draw of course.
• Downclocking my GPU memory and core.
• Reinstalling the game

Important thing to note is that didn't experience this issue in any other game except RDR2, but I also couldn't find anyone else experiencing this issue with RDR2.
Other games I played:

• Battlefield V = absolutely no issues
• Modded Minecraft with shaders = no issues
• Control = No issues at all no matter the graphic settings.
• Elite dangerous: Oddysey = No issues... mostly. Ocasionally I had lower FPS due to power draw dropping from 220w to 150-ish
• Post Scriptum = No issues
• Hell let loose = no issues
• War Thunder = no issues
• Call of Duty: Warzone = suspiciously low GPU power draw again. No matter the graphic settings. My GPU simply didn't want to go over 160w
• Witcher 3 = No issues
• Mafia: Definitive edition = no issues

After hours and hours of testing and looking at numbers I realized I could replicate the lag in RDR2 by getting to roughly 6.2 GB of actual Vram usage not allocation (It can be done with MSI afterburner)

So I maxed out everything that eats Vram in all games I have and I noticed that no other game that I could test went over 6.2 GB of actual Vram usage. So I asked a friend if he could borrow me Cyberpunk 2077 and he did so back to testing.
I maxed out a lot of settings to get Vram nicely high. I managed to get actual Vram usage to 7.1 GB but nothing. No issues at all. I had 25 FPS at that point because GPU itself wasn't fast enough, but no issues with power draw or Vram happened. I was driving around the city like that for at least 30 minutes.

So I'm getting really desperate here. Because I can't find anyone else having issue like this anywhere on the internet and I just really don't know why It's happening becauese:

• If It's hardware issue, why I can't replicate it in any other game at all no matter how much I try?
• If It's problem with the game, why I'm the only one experiencing it?

I'm thinking It could be some software issue. I didn't try reinstalling whole windows yet.

Does anyone have any clue what could be going on here? And how is it even possible for GPU to be 100% utilized, but only using half of It's power draw?


Oh yea last thing
Specs:
GPU: Asus Dual RTX 3070 8GB OC
CPU: I5 10400f
Mobo: Asus Prime Z490-P
Ram: HyperX Fury 2x8 GB 3600Mhz CL17 (I'm running XMP)
PSU: Seasonic Focus GX-750 Gold
64 GB windows SSD
1 TB WD Black HDD
Game is running on 1 TB Samsung EVO 860 SSD with 100 GB of free space.

Running 3440x1440 144hz monitor.

 

[Koekieezz]

And how is it even possible for GPU to be 100% utilized, but only using half of It's power draw?

Well it's up to the code on how to execute the process, heavier process = heavier power draw.

You could try these

• Uninstall the driver using DDU again
• Uninstall all the processors on device manager (should be 12 on yours) like this:

• Restart the pc to bios, and update to the latest bios(download, extract the files and copy it to flashdrive, plug it on top rear usb slot)
• boot up to windows and install the latest Intel chipset driver and me driver, reboot and connect to internet again
• Install the latest nvidia driver.
• And check windows update (and optional updates) if there is any.

*do this all offline until reboot after installing amd chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP, make sure your ram is on slot 2 and 4. Download the needed files first (highlighted words) before doing the 1st step, done this by order. Also try to defrag the hdd/retrim the ssd (you could defrag the ssd using cmd (run as admin) and do defrag (drive letter) /d /u /v and defrag (drive letter) /l /o /u /v. Defragging SSD is not necessary but you could try it.

On NVCP, you could try these settings on 3d settings:

and apply.

 

[Koekieezz]

And how is it even possible for GPU to be 100% utilized, but only using half of It's power draw?

Well it's up to the code on how to execute the process, heavier process = heavier power draw.

You could try these

• Uninstall the driver using DDU again
• Uninstall all the processors on device manager (should be 12 on yours) like this:

• Restart the pc to bios, and update to the latest bios(download, extract the files and copy it to flashdrive, plug it on top rear usb slot)
• boot up to windows and install the latest Intel chipset driver and me driver, reboot and connect to internet again
• Install the latest nvidia driver.
• And check windows update (and optional updates) if there is any.

*do this all offline until reboot after installing amd chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP, make sure your ram is on slot 2 and 4. Download the needed files first (highlighted words) before doing the 1st step, done this by order. Also try to defrag the hdd/retrim the ssd (you could defrag the ssd using cmd (run as admin) and do defrag (drive letter) /d /u /v and defrag (drive letter) /l /o /u /v. Defragging SSD is not necessary but you could try it.

On NVCP, you could try these settings on 3d settings:

and apply.

 

[Starly_]

Well it's up to the code on how to execute the process, heavier process = heavier power draw.

You could try these

• Uninstall the driver using DDU again
• Uninstall all the processors on device manager (should be 12 on yours) like this:

• Restart the pc to bios, and update to the latest bios(download, extract the files and copy it to flashdrive, plug it on top rear usb slot)
• boot up to windows and install the latest Intel chipset driver and me driver, reboot and connect to internet again
• Install the latest nvidia driver.
• And check windows update (and optional updates) if there is any.

*do this all offline until reboot after installing amd chipset driver, also you may reboot to bios after all of this to set the XMP, make sure your ram is on slot 2 and 4. Download the needed files first (highlighted words) before doing the 1st step, done this by order. Also try to defrag the hdd/retrim the ssd (you could defrag the ssd using cmd (run as admin) and do defrag (drive letter) /d /u /v and defrag (drive letter) /l /o /u /v. Defragging SSD is not necessary but you could try it.

On NVCP, you could try these settings on 3d settings:

and apply.

Thank you
But at this point I'm also considering full windows reinstal with complete system wipe. I just need to get an external hardrive so I can save some things like photos, saves and screenshots. Then instal everything again.