Extremely unstable GPU usage!

[shohan0073]

so I m facing this issue since last 1 year, here is my rig

CPU : AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
(Cooler : Cooler Master HyperX 212X)
GPU : MSI GTX 960 4GB Gaming Edition
Ram : G-skill ripjaws V (2x4)=8 GB
Mob : Asrock 960 GM VGS3-FX

So while gaming the cpu usage stays high like 80-99%
but the gpu usage is extremely unstable like,
right now it has 70% usage? after 5=10 secs it got 10-19%
the fps drops instantly from 70 to 5-10 (Battlefield 1, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 3, Cod BO3 + many others)
so this problem getting very irritating, and when the gpu usage got lower its just impossible to play!

i am attchaching some After burner screen shots of while playing battlefield 1 please have a look

please help me out!!
i m stucked

 

[shohan0073]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from shohan0073 : "Extremely unstable GPU usage!"

so I m facing this issue since last 1 year, here is my rig

CPU : AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
(Cooler : Cooler Master HyperX 212X)
GPU : MSI GTX 960 4GB Gaming Edition
Ram : G-skill ripjaws V (2x4)=8 GB
Mob : Asrock 960 GM VGS3-FX

So while gaming the cpu usage stays high like 80-99%
but the gpu usage is extremely unstable like,
right now it has 70% usage? after 5=10 secs it got 10-19%
the fps drops instantly from 70 to 5-10 (Battlefield 1, Battlefield 4, Battlefield 3, Cod BO3 + many others)
so this problem getting very irritating, and when the gpu usage got lower its just impossible to play!

i am attchaching some After burner screen shots of while playing battlefield 1 please have a look

http://imgur.com/a/iKE1z

please help me out!!
i m stucked

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Which PSU do you have? your low GPU usage goes along with those power drops, if your PSU is unable to handle your system it can easily lead to your current situation.

 

[shohan0073]

Which PSU do you have? your low GPU usage goes along with those power drops, if your PSU is unable to handle your system it can easily lead to your current situation.

I'm using a Thermaltek Lite power 550w psu.. isn't it enough for 960? :/

 

[DRagor]

I think it's because your GPU is bottle-necked by CPU. That's why you get GPU usage drops: CPU can't do it's job fast enough so GPU has nothing to work on.

 

[shohan0073]

I think it's because your GPU is bottle-necked by CPU. That's why you get GPU usage drops: CPU can't do it's job fast enough so GPU has nothing to work on.

maybe, but I bought this gpu by watching reviews, and benchmarks.. they are showing absoolutely fine.and some.other also told that, 960 isn't strong enoughh to bottleneck the 6300
:/

 

[RaDiKaL_]

That's not a bottlenecking issue, when the CPU bottlenecks the GPU the GPU will indeed drop down to 0% usage until it requires to render again, but your FPS should stay the same, that massive drop fewer than 20fps is something more going on.

Thermaltake's Litepower is not really the best they make, and even their best PSUs aren't great, unfortunately I cannot find which exact OEM made the 550w for Thermaltake, but generally their Litepower series are built by Solytech or HEC, which are bad for the PSU business.


Stress test your system, furmark for your GPU, Intel Burn Test-AVX for your AMD cpu, lets see if there's any issue in either, you could also try Unigine Heaven or 3DMark for an overall stress, this one to find out if the PSU can sustain both GPU and CPU loaded at the same time.

 

[shohan0073]

That's not a bottlenecking issue, when the CPU bottlenecks the GPU the GPU will indeed drop down to 0% usage until it requires to render again, but your FPS should stay the same, that massive drop fewer than 20fps is something more going on.



Thermaltake's Litepower is not really the best they make, and even their best PSUs aren't great, unfortunately I cannot find which exact OEM made the 550w for Thermaltake, but generally their Litepower series are built by Solytech or HEC, which are bad for the PSU business.


Stress test your system, furmark for your GPU, Intel Burn Test-AVX for your AMD cpu, lets see if there's any issue in either, you could also try Unigine Heaven or 3DMark for an overall stress, this one to find out if the PSU can sustain both GPU and CPU loaded at the same time.

okay.. I will let you know.after testing.

 

[shohan0073]

Hello RaDiKaL_, here is some screen shots of after burner while running Furmark take a look

http://imgur.com/a/09qoE

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Ok, from those readings I get to see your FPS dropped the moment your CPU started hitting 100% usage, something that SHOULD NOT happen while running Furmark, at most two of your cores should reach around 30% usage each while running Furmark. It seems to me there's another process using your CPU from time to time.

When you mentioned your CPU usage at 80%+ in those games, I was kinda confused, even though BF1 and such are pretty CPU demanding, your cpu usage shouldn't get that high in all of those games.


Run again furmark and keep an eye on task manager, wait until your CPU usage reaches 100% and look at which process is saturating your cores.

 

[shohan0073]

Ok, from those readings I get to see your FPS dropped the moment your CPU started hitting 100% usage, something that SHOULD NOT happen while running Furmark, at most two of your cores should reach around 30% usage each while running Furmark. It seems to me there's another process using your CPU from time to time.

When you mentioned your CPU usage at 80%+ in those games, I was kinda confused, even though BF1 and such are pretty CPU demanding, your cpu usage shouldn't get that high in all of those games.


Run again furmark and keep an eye on task manager, wait until your CPU usage reaches 100% and look at which process is saturating your cores.

ok im posting in a while

 

[shohan0073]

Hello RaDiKaL_ When i m in gpu stress cpu utilization is 34-36% stable.. but when i m on cpu burner on furmark
it stays on 99% after 2-3 sec it gots 30-34% again it hits 99% and no processes are holding it back.. the furmark uses low cpu usage just by its own.. im not seeing any process that killing the cpu usage
here is a screen sshot of task manager while i m in cpu burner on furmark have a look

http://imgur.com/a/v79lG

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Ok, so furmark has a cpu burner, gotta update mine it seems.

There's your problem, clearly your CPU is being unable to hold its usage, during a burn in test it should stay at 100% all the time.

Now the reason for this could be overheating or some power issue, I'd suggest you to use HWInfo, go to its sensors section and enable its log feature, after you enable it minimize it and run the CPU burn in test once more. When it finishes stop the logging in HWInfo and upload the file to dropbox and similar and share it here so we can see what's exactly going on.