GPU Usage never at 100% while gaming, no bottleneck

[yian11]

Hello,
Some months ago I made another thread about performance issues I had and I have to say they still haven't resolved.
The problem is, as you see in the title, while gaming I don't have 100% usage. My GPU usage is unstable and jumps occasionally from 50-70% and never even reaches 90%.
This causes very annoying FPS problems and stuttering.
Here is an example of my CPU and GPU usage while playing BF3 multiplayer - 32 people.

When I change the settings to something higher it gets worse so it's definitely not a bottleneck and I know that an HD 7850 can max out BF3 easily even with 1GB of VRAM.
Lowering the settings doesn't improve the performance by much, just 5 FPS maybe and I still get drops!
BTW, I have this problem on other "demanding" games too like Far Cry 3, Saints Row 4, Skyrim...
My specs:
Athlon X4 750k 3.4 Ghz (stock speeds)
ASUS F2A55-M/CSM Motherboard
8GB RAM 1333Mhz
XFX Radeon HD 7850 Ultra OC Edition 1024MB
Corsair CX500 PSU
1TB HDD
1920X 1080 resolution

My main suspect is the PSU, I am not sure though...

Please help me! I have had this problem since I built my computer in November of 2013!

 

[SU11YBEAR]

Definitely could be PSU related as it as the minimum wattage for that card, do you have CPUID or Hardware monitor? something to check voltages well you are playing to get an idea

CX's are also not the best PSU's avialable
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html
Radeon HD 7850 - 21A and a 500W psu minimum
http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

 

[yian11]

Definitely could be PSU related as it as the minimum wattage for that card, do you have CPUID or Hardware monitor? something to check voltages well you are playing to get an idea

CX's are also not the best PSU's avialable
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html
Radeon HD 7850 - 21A and a 500W psu minimum
http://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards

Also, I have to say I had recently freezes and before too. They happen when I watch YouTube videos, while the PC is idle and when I put my computer to sleep...
Could that be a PSU problem too or maybe a motherboard issue?

 

[SU11YBEAR]

Also, I have to say I had recently freezes and before too. They happen when I watch YouTube videos, while the PC is idle and when I put my computer to sleep...
Could that be a PSU problem too or maybe a motherboard issue?

Less likely to be a PSU issue when you are not stressing it but its hard to diagnose random crashes, could be software, RAM, CPU, alot of different things. I would definitely recommend trying to get some voltage readings and confirming that it is a PSU issue that is causing the first problem. If you can eliminate things you know have issues makes troubleshooting other stuff a little simpler

 

[ingtar33]

your issue is your cpu is bottlenecking you.

thats why your gpu isn't hitting higher usage. Every game you listed is very cpu heavy... and a stock athlon II x4 750k won't cut it. you'll need that chip up around 4.4ghz to play those games well.

remember you have a quad core cpu... in a single threaded game your cpu will show like 25% load... because 1 core is fully maxed out. in a 3 threaded game it will show 75%... bf3 becomes very cpu dependent in multiplayer and on large maps... skyrim doesn't like piledriver cored cpus, but you should be able to get 60fps if you can bump the clock speed a bit... far cry is a triple threaded game, and it's VERY cpu bound... saints row 4 i think is a 2 threaded game...

I have an 8 core piledriver. my cpu can show 13% total utilization and actually be the bottleneck in a game

 

[yian11]

your issue is your cpu is bottlenecking you.

thats why your gpu isn't hitting higher usage. Every game you listed is very cpu heavy... and a stock athlon II x4 750k won't cut it. you'll need that chip up around 4.4ghz to play those games well.

remember you have a quad core cpu... in a single threaded game your cpu will show like 25% load... because 1 core is fully maxed out. in a 3 threaded game it will show 75%... bf3 becomes very cpu dependent in multiplayer and on large maps... skyrim doesn't like piledriver cored cpus, but you should be able to get 60fps if you can bump the clock speed a bit... far cry is a triple threaded game, and it's VERY cpu bound... saints row 4 i think is a 2 threaded game...

I have an 8 core piledriver. my cpu can show 13% total utilization and actually be the bottleneck in a game

I would understand if it was a CPU bottleneck, but I'm 99% sure it's not. You see while playing BF3 the CPU Usage is around 70-90% maximum. What I know is the cpu usage must be 100% to have a bottleneck.

 

[yian11]

Also, I have to say I had recently freezes and before too. They happen when I watch YouTube videos, while the PC is idle and when I put my computer to sleep...
Could that be a PSU problem too or maybe a motherboard issue?

Less likely to be a PSU issue when you are not stressing it but its hard to diagnose random crashes, could be software, RAM, CPU, alot of different things. I would definitely recommend trying to get some voltage readings and confirming that it is a PSU issue that is causing the first problem. If you can eliminate things you know have issues makes troubleshooting other stuff a little simpler

Unfortunately, I can't monitor my GPU's voltage it only shows the VDDC.
What's the normal voltage my CPU should be receiving?

 

[Andrew Buck]

That CPU will most likely not bottleneck that GPU. It looks as if your CPU is barely bottlenecking, but not enough to make much of a difference. Overclock that thing to get rid of the bottleneck. Try 4 GHz. Your RAM looks like it is holding you back. I am assuming you are in single channel, because that is what happens with single channel. Get dual channel (if you don't already have it) and maybe try to relax timings and go to DDR3-1600.

Now, the bottleneck with Skyrim is a given. If you want good FPS in Skyrim, you need Intel. That's just the way it is. For Battlefield, your CPU is indeed bottlenecking a little.

 

[yian11]

That CPU will most likely not bottleneck that GPU. It looks as if your CPU is barely bottlenecking, but not enough to make much of a difference. Overclock that thing to get rid of the bottleneck. Try 4 GHz. Your RAM looks like it is holding you back. I am assuming you are in single channel, because that is what happens with single channel. Get dual channel (if you don't already have it) and maybe try to relax timings and go to DDR3-1600.

Now, the bottleneck with Skyrim is a given. If you want good FPS in Skyrim, you need Intel. That's just the way it is. For Battlefield, your CPU is indeed bottlenecking a little.

Hmmm... No, I have a dual channel RAM. I will try to use Asus Auto Overclock feature to see what's going on.
Also, when I try to overclock my CPU manually Windows 7 stops using Aero and becomes like Windows Basic, it seems like it doesn't get enough power and it's unstable. One day, I overclocked it to 4.5Ghz from the BIOS and when I went to boot Windows the monitor stayed black and frozen. I had to clear the CMOS to get it running again...
Perhaps, now you can understand what's the problem better?
Something else... recently my speakers broke while not playing any sound and my GPU started running like crazy, like when I'm running a game, and changed Windows theme from aero to basic again. I went to power options and I realized the power plan was set to high performance but moments before that happened I had changed it to Balanced and tweaked some of its settings.
I'm confused :/

 

[Andrew Buck]

That CPU will most likely not bottleneck that GPU. It looks as if your CPU is barely bottlenecking, but not enough to make much of a difference. Overclock that thing to get rid of the bottleneck. Try 4 GHz. Your RAM looks like it is holding you back. I am assuming you are in single channel, because that is what happens with single channel. Get dual channel (if you don't already have it) and maybe try to relax timings and go to DDR3-1600.

Now, the bottleneck with Skyrim is a given. If you want good FPS in Skyrim, you need Intel. That's just the way it is. For Battlefield, your CPU is indeed bottlenecking a little.

Hmmm... No, I have a dual channel RAM. I will try to use Asus Auto Overclock feature to see what's going on.
Also, when I try to overclock my CPU manually Windows 7 stops using Aero and becomes like Windows Basic, it seems like it doesn't get enough power and it's unstable. One day, I overclocked it to 4.5Ghz from the BIOS and when I went to boot Windows the monitor stayed black and frozen. I had to clear the CMOS to get it running again...
Perhaps, you can understand what's the problem?
Something else... recently my speakers broke while not playing any sound and my GPU started running like crazy, like when I'm running a game, and changed Windows theme from aero to basic again. I went to power options and I realized the power plan was set to high performance but moments before that happened I had changed it to Balanced and tweaked some of its settings.
I'm confused :/

Your PSU could be dying. That is a telltale sign. Get a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=. As for the RAM, upgrade it manually to 1600MHz or 1866MHz and move to voltage to 1.5 V from 1.35. If it is at 1.5, then you are pretty much out of luck. 1333 MHz really doesn't do it anymore. Never just overclock to 4.5. Go by 100 MHz at a time. Just go to 4 GHz straight away and go to 1.35 V for now. That should hold up. Try going to 1600 MHz with your RAM and move up by 0.15 V if you are at 1.35 V. That should keep the timings tightened. What are your current timings? (X-X-X-X or CLX)

 

[yian11]

That CPU will most likely not bottleneck that GPU. It looks as if your CPU is barely bottlenecking, but not enough to make much of a difference. Overclock that thing to get rid of the bottleneck. Try 4 GHz. Your RAM looks like it is holding you back. I am assuming you are in single channel, because that is what happens with single channel. Get dual channel (if you don't already have it) and maybe try to relax timings and go to DDR3-1600.

Now, the bottleneck with Skyrim is a given. If you want good FPS in Skyrim, you need Intel. That's just the way it is. For Battlefield, your CPU is indeed bottlenecking a little.

Hmmm... No, I have a dual channel RAM. I will try to use Asus Auto Overclock feature to see what's going on.
Also, when I try to overclock my CPU manually Windows 7 stops using Aero and becomes like Windows Basic, it seems like it doesn't get enough power and it's unstable. One day, I overclocked it to 4.5Ghz from the BIOS and when I went to boot Windows the monitor stayed black and frozen. I had to clear the CMOS to get it running again...
Perhaps, you can understand what's the problem?
Something else... recently my speakers broke while not playing any sound and my GPU started running like crazy, like when I'm running a game, and changed Windows theme from aero to basic again. I went to power options and I realized the power plan was set to high performance but moments before that happened I had changed it to Balanced and tweaked some of its settings.
I'm confused :/

Your PSU could be dying. That is a telltale sign. Get a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=. As for the RAM, upgrade it manually to 1600MHz or 1866MHz and move to voltage to 1.5 V from 1.35. If it is at 1.5, then you are pretty much out of luck. 1333 MHz really doesn't do it anymore. Never just overclock to 4.5. Go by 100 MHz at a time. Just go to 4 GHz straight away and go to 1.35 V for now. That should hold up. Try going to 1600 MHz with your RAM and move up by 0.15 V if you are at 1.35 V. That should keep the timings tightened. What are your current timings? (X-X-X-X or CLX)

This is the RAM==> http://gyazo.com/a3b29f34fe4b60a3f181c2d4612ffb79
This is the CPU==> http://gyazo.com/a35bcff78ca6abb96d4f147604f28b8b

 

[Andrew Buck]

That is probably on SpeedStep (AMD version) in am assuming. You are getting bottlenecked by that RAM. I would go for this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233170&cm_re=ddr3-1866_8GB_2_x_4gb-_-20-233-170-_-Product