Question Cpu usage only near 60%

Jan 21, 2022
26
2
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While im gaming i get 50-70% gpu usage Got 80% while watching youtube at the same time.
I get fps drops and it still keeps on like 70% how can i get it to run smoothly and near the 100% mark?
My mobo B450 tomahawk
Cpu ryzen 7 2700x
Gpu amd radeon rx 5700 xt.
 
First make sure your ram is running correct speed. Set DOCP/XMP in bios.
Next most games do not use all cores. Very few do.
So you need to look at each core usage, not total.
If one core(main game thread) is at 100%, nothing you can do will change that. The other cores could be idle or used very little.
Next check windows power plan.
for gaming you should have high performance or Ryzen Balanced selected.
If you do not have Ryzen Balanced as an option you need to update your chipset drivers from AMD.

What games and in-game setting do you have?
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Usage is misleading. It represents the amount of time a cpu/gpu is idle. Code is written in strings and there's pauses in the code, periods at the end of the sentance etc. In that instant, the cpu is idle, there's no work to be done. So when you see 60% usage, the cpu is doing all that's necessary to get the job done, but there are periods (40% of the time) when there's no work being done. Trying to get 100% is to be avoided, as then there's no extra room for any changes.

The cpu will only work as hard as it needs to. It's like putting a nail in the wall, you might be capable of swinging a giant, 2 handed sledge hammer, but it's just a nail in some drywall, so you'll use a much smaller 1 handed hammer, and you'll not swing it as hard as you can. Job doesn't require 100% effort.

Problem with many older, less powerful cpus is they are a iddy-bitty hammer tying to jam a massive nail into hardwood. Then they do require swinging that hammer as hard as possible or all that happens is the nail goes nowhere. That becomes 100% usage, full effort, and it still barely moves the nail. That translates into slow apps, low fps games, long load times etc and anything the cpu tries to do that's harder, just gets slower.

Frame drops are more about you network connection, speeds, the content and it's optimizations, cores used etc. If the content is only using 1 core and it's at 100% while every other core is at 50%, you get an average usage closer to 60% for the whole cpu, but that one core is maxed out, so anything more demanding has to wait, and you get frame drops. The software or content won't decide to use a second core, it's stuck just using the one. To find out, you'd need to use HWInfo and look at individual core uses, not the aggregate number.
 
Last edited:

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Total CPU utilization may not reach 100% because the software can't use the 16 threads the 2700x has available. If you want to see a higher percentage, turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS. Reduce the CPU to 8 threads. Your utilization will go up. No performance change, but you will achieve higher utilization that you desire. Most will call that a stupid idea.
It is not about 100% utilization, it is about maximizing performance.
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
First make sure your ram is running correct speed. Set DOCP/XMP in bios.
Next most games do not use all cores. Very few do.
So you need to look at each core usage, not total.
If one core(main game thread) is at 100%, nothing you can do will change that. The other cores could be idle or used very little.
Next check windows power plan.
for gaming you should have high performance or Ryzen Balanced selected.
If you do not have Ryzen Balanced as an option you need to update your chipset drivers from AMD.

What games and in-game setting do you have?
I have msi afterburner set showing atleast Cpu 1 does that mean core 1?
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
a
First make sure your ram is running correct speed. Set DOCP/XMP in bios.
Next most games do not use all cores. Very few do.
So you need to look at each core usage, not total.
If one core(main game thread) is at 100%, nothing you can do will change that. The other cores could be idle or used very little.
Next check windows power plan.
for gaming you should have high performance or Ryzen Balanced selected.
If you do not have Ryzen Balanced as an option you need to update your chipset drivers from AMD.

What games and in-game setting do you have?
and i play fortnite with pretty much the lowest settings. all pros seem to use them and i mean they give my system the fps boost i need. its just that my fps drops when i get to a critical point in the game
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
Total CPU utilization may not reach 100% because the software can't use the 16 threads the 2700x has available. If you want to see a higher percentage, turn off hyperthreading in the BIOS. Reduce the CPU to 8 threads. Your utilization will go up. No performance change, but you will achieve higher utilization that you desire. Most will call that a stupid idea.
It is not about 100% utilization, it is about maximizing performance.
Well shouldn't my System run fortnite Without fps drops if i have the lowest settings?
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
Usage is misleading. It represents the amount of time a cpu/gpu is idle. Code is written in strings and there's pauses in the code, periods at the end of the sentance etc. In that instant, the cpu is idle, there's no work to be done. So when you see 60% usage, the cpu is doing all that's necessary to get the job done, but there are periods (40% of the time) when there's no work being done. Trying to get 100% is to be avoided, as then there's no extra room for any changes.

The cpu will only work as hard as it needs to. It's like putting a nail in the wall, you might be capable of swinging a giant, 2 handed sledge hammer, but it's just a nail in some drywall, so you'll use a much smaller 1 handed hammer, and you'll not swing it as hard as you can. Job doesn't require 100% effort.

Problem with many older, less powerful cpus is they are a iddy-bitty hammer tying to jam a massive nail into hardwood. Then they do require swinging that hammer as hard as possible or all that happens is the nail goes nowhere. That becomes 100% usage, full effort, and it still barely moves the nail. That translates into slow apps, low fps games, long load times etc and anything the cpu tries to do that's harder, just gets slower.

Frame drops are more about you network connection, speeds, the content and it's optimizations, cores used etc. If the content is only using 1 core and it's at 100% while every other core is at 50%, you get an average usage closer to 60% for the whole cpu, but that one core is maxed out, so anything more demanding has to wait, and you get frame drops. The software or content won't decide to use a second core, it's stuck just using the one. To find out, you'd need to use HWInfo and look at individual core uses, not the aggregate number.
Hmm i get it. so Fortnite can't use all cores?
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
Usage is misleading. It represents the amount of time a cpu/gpu is idle. Code is written in strings and there's pauses in the code, periods at the end of the sentance etc. In that instant, the cpu is idle, there's no work to be done. So when you see 60% usage, the cpu is doing all that's necessary to get the job done, but there are periods (40% of the time) when there's no work being done. Trying to get 100% is to be avoided, as then there's no extra room for any changes.

The cpu will only work as hard as it needs to. It's like putting a nail in the wall, you might be capable of swinging a giant, 2 handed sledge hammer, but it's just a nail in some drywall, so you'll use a much smaller 1 handed hammer, and you'll not swing it as hard as you can. Job doesn't require 100% effort.

Problem with many older, less powerful cpus is they are a iddy-bitty hammer tying to jam a massive nail into hardwood. Then they do require swinging that hammer as hard as possible or all that happens is the nail goes nowhere. That becomes 100% usage, full effort, and it still barely moves the nail. That translates into slow apps, low fps games, long load times etc and anything the cpu tries to do that's harder, just gets slower.

Frame drops are more about you network connection, speeds, the content and it's optimizations, cores used etc. If the content is only using 1 core and it's at 100% while every other core is at 50%, you get an average usage closer to 60% for the whole cpu, but that one core is maxed out, so anything more demanding has to wait, and you get frame drops. The software or content won't decide to use a second core, it's stuck just using the one. To find out, you'd need to use HWInfo and look at individual core uses, not the aggregate number.
How do i read this HWinfo View: https://imgur.com/a/RHXpFrh
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Im not an pc expert can you explain this?
The KEY point is in bold "a CPU with just two cores should be sufficient to play Fortnite at 1920x1080 under the Epic quality preset with a mainstream graphics card" So your 16 threads won't be fully utilized by Fortnite.

To give us a standardized way to see if your system is performing, run userbenchmarks.com and post a link to the results.
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
The KEY point is in bold "a CPU with just two cores should be sufficient to play Fortnite at 1920x1080 under the Epic quality preset with a mainstream graphics card" So your 16 threads won't be fully utilized by Fortnite.

To give us a standardized way to see if your system is performing, run userbenchmarks.com and post a link to the results.
How do i run it, is it this site http://ww1.userbenchmarks.com/
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
The KEY point is in bold "a CPU with just two cores should be sufficient to play Fortnite at 1920x1080 under the Epic quality preset with a mainstream graphics card" So your 16 threads won't be fully utilized by Fortnite.

To give us a standardized way to see if your system is performing, run userbenchmarks.com and post a link to the results.
Nvm i guess it was a virus site or some <Mod Edit>
View: https://imgur.com/a/yrN97Ei
there we go
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
The KEY point is in bold "a CPU with just two cores should be sufficient to play Fortnite at 1920x1080 under the Epic quality preset with a mainstream graphics card" So your 16 threads won't be fully utilized by Fortnite.

To give us a standardized way to see if your system is performing, run userbenchmarks.com and post a link to the results.
how bout the fps drops? anything i can do
 
Nothing wrong with your system in the benchmark.
What all do you have running while gaming?
Your first pic shows 15% background CPU usage.
What internet speed do you have?
Since this is an online game your internet can cause skips and lags while it waits for updates from the server.
 
Jan 21, 2022
26
2
30
Nothing wrong with your system in the benchmark.
What all do you have running while gaming?
Your first pic shows 15% background CPU usage.
What internet speed do you have?
Since this is an online game your internet can cause skips and lags while it waits for updates from the server.
I usually have opera gx avast antivirus discord and lightshot. my internet speed is with ookla ping about 50 in game about 30 download 45-50mbps
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Fps is frames per second. That's important. Cpu gets the code from the ram. It translates and correlates that code into a set if instructions for the gpu. Included in that instruction set is 1 frames worth of info. All the objects, dimensions, shadows motion, vertices, colors, lighting sources, everything of a graphical nature the gpu will need to paint a picture. At the same time, the cpu is digesting a bunch of stuff. Motion, speeds, directions, sizes, Ai, bloom, lighting affects, AA, after affects, and applying that to the info going to the gpu.

The amount of times a cpu can do all that in 1 second = frames per second.

The more complex the arrangement, the longer it takes to compile all that. So dude standing on a hilltop doing nothing might see 100fps. Dude in the middle of a fortnite firefight with explosions, spell affects, other players, massive bloom affects, high motion etc might see 50fps. Turn a corner, see nothing but a brick hallway, 200fps.

When you drop to low settings, you disable the bloom, AA, after effects, shadows and shading, many foreground objects, finer details etc. Since the cpu doesn't have to spend time dealing with those, you get higher fps as a result.

But you'll still get variable fps as differences in scenery vs combat vs view change.
 
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