Question GPU Usage Spikes and Frame Drops in Game

[LuckyYoon]

I keep getting frame drops while playing escape from tarkov.
I've updated windows and all my drivers, reinstalled the game, and tried lowering the graphics settings.
At the current graphics settings, I'm getting avg 100 fps with frame drops every half a second to around 20~30 fps.
It seems like the gpu usages spikes every time the frame drops. The cpu usages hovers at around 30%.
Here's a capture of task manager, I've capped the fps at 90 to make the spikes more noticeable.

when I cap the fps at 60, the game runs fine and never dips below 60. The gpu usage is also stable, hovering at around 25%.
Here are my pc specs:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H with Radeon Graphics(I disabled igpu from the bios)
32GB 3200MHz GDDR4
NVMe SK hynix 1TB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
Windows 10 Pro

Could it be an issue with the cpu not being able to pre render frames although it's only hovering at 30%?
edit: after more testing it seems like there's still frame dips at 60fps, just not as often.

 

[geofelt]

Your cpu has 16 processing threads.
Possibly, you game is largely single threaded and30% of the total leaves room for the master thread to be running at 100%.

On task manager performance tab, right click for the display to show individual thread usage.

Gaming laptops are prone to heat issues.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
The coolers are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
I think ryzen is more like 90c.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses.
At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.
Use a windows balanced power profile, not the performance profile.
Set a minimum cpu performance to something like 20%

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows balanced power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.

 

[LuckyYoon]

Your cpu has 16 processing threads.
Possibly, you game is largely single threaded and30% of the total leaves room for the master thread to be running at 100%.

On task manager performance tab, right click for the display to show individual thread usage.

Gaming laptops are prone to heat issues.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
The coolers are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
I think ryzen is more like 90c.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses.
At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.
Use a windows balanced power profile, not the performance profile.
Set a minimum cpu performance to something like 20%

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows balanced power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.

I was aware of my cpu hitting 100c constantly, but alienware says it's apparently normal on their laptop? and amd's website states the max operating temps as 105c. So I was just hoping that wouldn't be the issue and I won't have to take the laptop apart.
Long story short, I decided to take a day to completely disassemble my laptop and clean the fans. The filter that's on the intake above the keyboard was completely blocked, and there were a lot of dust in the heat sinks as well. It wasn't as easy as I would've liked it to be, considering I had to take the entire motherboard out to access the fans. I'm just glad I didn't take out one of the tiny capacitors while pulling out all the ribbon cables.
Now the stuttering issues are completely fixed, and the laptop idles 20c cooler. Thanks for the help.