Question GPUs don't want to run at 100%, and other performance problems ?

[FastbackNL]

I've had performance problems since I upgraded to the 2070 Super (almost 3 years ago). It seems to work fine in some situations, like when running benchmarks like Userbenchmark or Heaven benchmark.

But in other use cases, like games it just doesn't want to run 100% and gets bad fps because of that. There are no settings on that should lower the gpu usage. I can also hear a coil whine comming from somewhere near the gpu. Even changing the settings from low to epic or something doesn't really effect the fps, it just stays on low fps either way.

Some games run better then others. And sometimes they run better then other times.

I've just bought a new gpu because of this issue, but it seems to be doing exactly the same as before. Again the same coil whine, also gpu not running at 100% and still having those performance problems. Only difference is, is that the 2070 Super's coil whine is louder, but it also consumes more power. So, what else could it be?
My cpu, ram etc are on low usage, so there is no bottleneck. Temps are good of all components.

I've already tried/information:
- Upgrading my PSU, higher wattage and rating (came from a silver 550 watt)
- DDU to uninstall all drivers
- Undervolting the GPU
- Changing thermal paste on both the cpu and gpu
- Installing latest drivers
- Updating Bios
- Changing GPU
- RAM are in correct slots
- Test ram through memtest86+
- Installing games on other drives
- Changed out HMDI and display port cabels.

The only thing I can think of now that maybe the Motherboard or PSU has gone (partly) bad. Wanting to hear your thoughts on that.
Or maybe DDU doesn't work properly, or PSU was also bad to begin with??

UPDATE:
I switched the GPU from the upper to the lower PCIE slot, and now the coil whine sound also shifter lower, it sounds like it's coming almost from the PCIE slot, so that has to be either a PSU or motherboard problem then right?

My specs currently are:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/shXkjn

 

[helpstar]

most likely cpu is bottlenecking
is the ram speed @3600MHz?

 

[FastbackNL]

most likely cpu is bottlenecking
is the ram speed @3600MHz?

CPU usage is low, so no bottleneck. Also running on boost.
Ram speed is at 3600 mhz

 

[RTX 2080]

Changing settings in games and not observing an increase/decrease in fps is something that often happens when you are CPU limited.

While your overall CPU utilization is low, your are very likely highly utilizing a single core/thread and that is causing you to be CPU limited.

The Ryzen 3600 has generally poor single core/thread performance and is often the source of CPU limited gaming scenarios on this forum.

The best thing that can be done is to feed it 2 sticks of 3600 MHz RAM, but you have already done that, so there is nothing more that can be done short of a new motherboard/CPU.

Coil whine can be annoying, but isn’t necessarily indicative of a problem.

 

[FastbackNL]

Changing settings in games and not observing an increase/decrease in fps is something that often happens when you are CPU limited.

While your overall CPU utilization is low, your are very likely highly utilizing a single core/thread and that is causing you to be CPU limited.

The Ryzen 3600 has generally poor single core/thread performance and is often the source of CPU limited gaming scenarios on this forum.

The best thing that can be done is to feed it 2 sticks of 3600 MHz RAM, but you have already done that, so there is nothing more that can be done short of a new motherboard/CPU.

Coil whine can be annoying, but isn’t necessarily indicative of a problem.

I've already did a lot of test to look if anything is throttling of some sort. I've looked at every single core and thread and they never come above 60% usage when having the problems. Also the coil whine sounds louder when I am having problems or if the performance is even worse.

I am certain it's not the cpu bottlenecking, would you have any other ideas? My next step is probably a new motherboard and psu.

 

[beyondlogic]

I've already did a lot of test to look if anything is throttling of some sort. I've looked at every single core and thread and they never come above 60% usage when having the problems. Also the coil whine sounds louder when I am having problems or if the performance is even worse.

I am certain it's not the cpu bottlenecking, would you have any other ideas? My next step is probably a new motherboard and psu.

for a start the 4060 will lose performance cause your on a board with pci gen 3x8 vs a gen 4x8 which on lower end cards it can murder the 1 percent lows by 20 frames and take about 15 frames of performance from top.

cpu wise i would upgrade the cpu to 5700x minimum ( not to be confused with ryzen 5700 the x matters) or 5700x3d.


faster cpus are just as important in 1080p becomes less of a issue as you move up the scale as the gpu takes more of the load.

also the ram kit your using is single rank ram.

you really want double rank ram at high speed and low latency.

a example of double rank ram is this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Renegade-Desktop-KF432C16RB2K2-64/dp/B0CKJ4Q7T9/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2AZPLBT0RZGJJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9YBTgO2YuQ1FUtBv0iqlvpwvbaqKqOcErRxcjT0k_h6ExHAIHru9-9rrPuDncd9gn-NsEyGmfBL9ZZDCkp322It2JJ5Hwg70r-GRtDH9JgT-wUkqndGWsBXzrkD6KkxCWOq5rXX2OaTxm1FbyCsg_LS_WCpFPwHlheiSYqh93Tz-gzFgUoBtvjaU9wvpYci4cTk97QplUHUPIvB8rSTsSDot6ltQ6kO4WEUkQQZr_cc.sxnR-620tG0ZhlJf2jWdiUYXLxWu9CW5Oxifd9jow-U&dib_tag=se&keywords=renegade+ram+ddr4&qid=1737847067&sprefix=renegade+ram+ddr4,aps,179&sr=8-6&th=1


https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/memory/gaming/kingston-fury-renegade-ddr4-memory

 

[LordVile]

for a start the 4060 will lose performance cause your on a board with pci gen 3x8 vs a gen 4x8 which on lower end cards it can murder the 1 percent lows by 20 frames and take about 15 frames of performance from top.

cpu wise i would upgrade the cpu to 5700x minimum ( not to be confused with ryzen 5700 the x matters) or 5700x3d.


faster cpus are just as important in 1080p becomes less of a issue as you move up the scale as the gpu takes more of the load.

also the ram kit your using is single rank ram.

you really want double rank ram at high speed and low latency.

a example of double rank ram is this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Renegade-Desktop-KF432C16RB2K2-64/dp/B0CKJ4Q7T9/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2AZPLBT0RZGJJ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.9YBTgO2YuQ1FUtBv0iqlvpwvbaqKqOcErRxcjT0k_h6ExHAIHru9-9rrPuDncd9gn-NsEyGmfBL9ZZDCkp322It2JJ5Hwg70r-GRtDH9JgT-wUkqndGWsBXzrkD6KkxCWOq5rXX2OaTxm1FbyCsg_LS_WCpFPwHlheiSYqh93Tz-gzFgUoBtvjaU9wvpYci4cTk97QplUHUPIvB8rSTsSDot6ltQ6kO4WEUkQQZr_cc.sxnR-620tG0ZhlJf2jWdiUYXLxWu9CW5Oxifd9jow-U&dib_tag=se&keywords=renegade+ram+ddr4&qid=1737847067&sprefix=renegade+ram+ddr4,aps,179&sr=8-6&th=1


https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/memory/gaming/kingston-fury-renegade-ddr4-memory

The x really doesn’t matter. Once you enable PBO they’re within variance of each other.

Ranks really don’t matter than much with DDR4.

 

[beyondlogic]

The x really doesn’t matter. Once you enable PBO they’re within variance of each other.

Ranks really don’t matter than much with DDR4.

ok first of that's false. with the x does matter as these are 2 different chips just badly named.

which is why i dont recomend the 5700 non x. as a upgrade the reasons below

ryzen 5700 has its bus width cut down
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/ryzen-7-5700.c3305
ryzen 7 5700 is cezanne and has inferior cache of only 16mb. which is why i dont recomend it.


ryzen 7 5700x is vermeer
which has the full pci gen 4 granted you need a motherboard to use this to support it fully.
however its the cache of this cpu thats important and it has 32mb

and lanes are 24 vs 20 which is important for gpu


ranked ram doesnt matter on ryzen 3000 it does however matter with 5000 series and depends on the game it can be significant in the 1 percent lows.

View: https://youtu.be/AGux0pANft0?feature=shared

 

[Flayed]

If you are going to upgrade the CPU I think the 5700x3D would be the way to go.

 

[LordVile]

ok first of that's false. with the x does matter as these are 2 different chips just badly named.

which is why i dont recomend the 5700 non x. as a upgrade the reasons below

ryzen 5700 has its bus width cut down
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/ryzen-7-5700.c3305
ryzen 7 5700 is cezanne and has inferior cache of only 16mb. which is why i dont recomend it.


ryzen 7 5700x is vermeer
which has the full pci gen 4 granted you need a motherboard to use this to support it fully.
however its the cache of this cpu thats important and it has 32mb


ranked ram doesnt matter on ryzen 3000 it does however matter with 5000 series and depends on the game it can be significant in the 1 percent lows.

View: https://youtu.be/AGux0pANft0?feature=shared

The X is indicative of a power limit. Once you remove that limit the chips are pretty much the same performance wise.

Your video proves me right mate. All results are within variance.

 

[beyondlogic]

The X is indicative of a power limit. Once you remove that limit the chips are pretty much the same performance wise.

Your video proves me right mate. All results are within variance.

yes the x is for power limit.

but in this case there 2 different chips. the ryzen 5700 is a knee capped chip.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCuVEuFIkew&t=31s

 

[FastbackNL]

Thank you all for the respones, but I am not looking to upgrade. I have repeated my tests and it seems like either my PSU or my motherboard can't really deliver the power to the CPU and GPU when they need to. I also see that if my FPS drops my CPU usage also goes lower, so from 60% tot like 35% in game. My GPU is always floating somewhere near 70%, but almost never goes to full usage, only in benchmarks. Once it goes to a cutscene, the cpu usage goes higher and the fps goes up. Also when my fps is bad the coil whine coming from gpu is getting louder.

Let me know what you think.

 

[drivinfast247]

Thank you all for the respones, but I am not looking to upgrade. I have repeated my tests and it seems like either my PSU or my motherboard can't really deliver the power to the CPU and GPU when they need to. I also see that if my FPS drops my CPU usage also goes lower, so from 60% tot like 35% in game. My GPU is always floating somewhere near 70%, but almost never goes to full usage, only in benchmarks. Once it goes to a cutscene, the cpu usage goes higher and the fps goes up. Also when my fps is bad the coil whine coming from gpu is getting louder.

Let me know what you think.

They already let you know what they think. That is a slow CPU.

That IS a lower end motherboard, though it's not holding performance back. You could upgrade the motherboard to make you feel better, but there's a 99% chance it doesn't increase your performance.

 

[Flayed]

I have repeated my tests and it seems like either my PSU or my motherboard can't really deliver the power to the CPU and GPU when they need to.
Let me know what you think.

I'm not sure how you have come to this conclusion. Maybe you could provide some game benchmark fps scores we could compare.

 

[LordVile]

yes the x is for power limit.

but in this case there 2 different chips. the ryzen 5700 is a knee capped chip.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCuVEuFIkew&t=31s

Did you miss the entire point about PBO? You can literally remove the power limit and the performance is roughly the same.

 

[LordVile]

Thank you all for the respones, but I am not looking to upgrade. I have repeated my tests and it seems like either my PSU or my motherboard can't really deliver the power to the CPU and GPU when they need to. I also see that if my FPS drops my CPU usage also goes lower, so from 60% tot like 35% in game. My GPU is always floating somewhere near 70%, but almost never goes to full usage, only in benchmarks. Once it goes to a cutscene, the cpu usage goes higher and the fps goes up. Also when my fps is bad the coil whine coming from gpu is getting louder.

Let me know what you think.

It’s the CPU dude everyone had already told you. The CPU all core utilisation doesn’t really matter than much when the primary threads are slow.

 

[FastbackNL]

It’s the CPU dude everyone had already told you. The CPU all core utilisation doesn’t really matter than much when the primary threads are slow.

But how could I see this in my pc, there has to be a way to test that right. If I look at the usage of the individual threads, they all seem to be fine and never hit 100%. I am not here just to blindy buy components, I am here to learn why this is happening as well.

 

[FastbackNL]

It’s the CPU dude everyone had already told you. The CPU all core utilisation doesn’t really matter than much when the primary threads are slow.

And it also doesn't make sense that my fps ingame is way lower than people with the exact same system.

 

[LordVile]

And it also doesn't make sense that my fps ingame is way lower than people with the exact same system.

Have you thought it might be something you have running they don’t or a setting you’ve got turned on or off such as PBO etc? Or maybe it could be your RAM being sub optimal or running off a HDD rather than a SSD

 

[Flayed]

Did you miss the entire point about PBO? You can literally remove the power limit and the performance is roughly the same.

I think his point is the 5700 has half the cache of the 5700x which impacts gaming performance.

 

[LordVile]

I think his point is the 5700 has half the cache of the 5700x which impacts gaming performance.

For the performance of the chip once you remove the power limit not really.

 

[Flayed]

Thank you all for the respones, but I am not looking to upgrade. I have repeated my tests and it seems like either my PSU or my motherboard can't really deliver the power to the CPU and GPU when they need to. I also see that if my FPS drops my CPU usage also goes lower, so from 60% tot like 35% in game. My GPU is always floating somewhere near 70%, but almost never goes to full usage, only in benchmarks. Once it goes to a cutscene, the cpu usage goes higher and the fps goes up. Also when my fps is bad the coil whine coming from gpu is getting louder.

Let me know what you think.

You could do a fresh install of windows if you haven't already

 

[FastbackNL]

Have you thought it might be something you have running they don’t or a setting you’ve got turned on or off such as PBO etc? Or maybe it could be your RAM being sub optimal or running off a HDD rather than a SSD

I've tried all my drives, including my Nvme, I have tested my ram fully through memtest86+. And I've tried using without and with PBO.

 

[FastbackNL]

You could do a fresh install of windows if you haven't already

Have done that a couple times as well, also a cmos reset.

 

[Flayed]

Have done that a couple times as well, also a cmos reset.

I have the same CPU what games are you experiencing low fps in?