[SOLVED] GPU Usage below 5%

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
Specs: Intel i7-7700HQ, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 with Max-Q design.

So basically one day everything is fine, and the next day my GPU usage is below 10% or even 5%, needless to say, my games are performing badly. There's no overheating and I've updated my drivers.
 
Solution
I looked it up and it seems it should be behind an advanced settings tab but i have no such thing.

It seems that some applications do use a lot of GPU but others will just not use more than 2%

If you click on the titles of the graphs, you'll see there's actually more stuff it can display. There's actually another graph that shows GPU activity called Graphics_0 on NVIDIA GPUs, and I've never seen both 3D and Graphics_0 being pegged at the same time. But I don't think this would explain low performance in games, it could simply be an issue with Optimus not working as intended.
Oct 20, 2020
26
2
35
Hmmm..

You could always overclock a little bit. Just downoad Afterburner. Your specs seem fine...

I'd say just download Afterburner and see if overclocking works
 

Zer0123

Reputable
Aug 8, 2017
36
5
4,545
Are you sure your games aren't using the iGPU? It seems like they might not be using your actual dedicated card but rather the low power iGPU. You can disable the iGPU from your device manager and see if it makes any difference when you launch a game.
 

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
What is the brand, model and age of your power supply? Are you sure the PCIe power cable is connected to the power supply and GPU? Did you use an adapter to power the GPU?
I actually don't know. I use a laptop so I'm guessing the power supply is the block attached to the charging cable? Sorry I don't know much about computers.
 

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
Are you sure your games aren't using the iGPU? It seems like they might not be using your actual dedicated card but rather the low power iGPU. You can disable the iGPU from your device manager and see if it makes any difference when you launch a game.
I was actually wondering if that could be the case but it seems I only have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design in Display Adapters. I was looking at my Task Manager and it would sometimes show "GPU 0 - 3D" or "GPU 0 - Copy" or "GPU 0 - Video Decode". Does that mean anything?
 

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
I posted this in another thread but I guess it has to do with what the problem is. In certain programs such as Camtasia or Photoshop, dragging files in the program makes the GPU usage go to 90% and the program temporarily freezes for some reason
 

Zer0123

Reputable
Aug 8, 2017
36
5
4,545
I was actually wondering if that could be the case but it seems I only have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design in Display Adapters. I was looking at my Task Manager and it would sometimes show "GPU 0 - 3D" or "GPU 0 - Copy" or "GPU 0 - Video Decode". Does that mean anything?
They're are just the tasks your GPU can potentially do and the percentage of the power dedicated to them at any moment so they don't particularly mean anything here.

What you can do is try disabling the iGPU from the bios menu (you can google how to do that if you haven't done it before) and then we can see if that was the culprit or not.
 

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
They're are just the tasks your GPU can potentially do and the percentage of the power dedicated to them at any moment so they don't particularly mean anything here.

What you can do is try disabling the iGPU from the bios menu (you can google how to do that if you haven't done it before) and then we can see if that was the culprit or not.
I looked it up and it seems it should be behind an advanced settings tab but i have no such thing.
 

Serpenoid

Commendable
Jul 21, 2020
27
1
1,545
They're are just the tasks your GPU can potentially do and the percentage of the power dedicated to them at any moment so they don't particularly mean anything here.

What you can do is try disabling the iGPU from the bios menu (you can google how to do that if you haven't done it before) and then we can see if that was the culprit or not.
It seems that some applications do use a lot of GPU but others will just not use more than 2%
 
I looked it up and it seems it should be behind an advanced settings tab but i have no such thing.

It seems that some applications do use a lot of GPU but others will just not use more than 2%

If you click on the titles of the graphs, you'll see there's actually more stuff it can display. There's actually another graph that shows GPU activity called Graphics_0 on NVIDIA GPUs, and I've never seen both 3D and Graphics_0 being pegged at the same time. But I don't think this would explain low performance in games, it could simply be an issue with Optimus not working as intended.
 
Solution