GTA V low CPU usage, low GPU usage and low FPS. What gives?

[Glosb]

In GTA V my FPS fluctuates around 45-65 in the city at day (stays at 60+ outside the city) and at the same time GPU usage is about 40-50% and CPU usage is around 75% (GTA V CPU usage is actually only 45-55%, I just have a lot junk running in the background). It doesn't seem like the game is being bottlenecked by neither the CPU nor GPU, so what could it be?

MSI Afterburner screenshot after driving around the city: http://puu.sh/iF0cf/e84cd3d963.png

My rig:
AMD FX-8150 (overclocked to 4.3GHz)
GTX 780 (latest driver v.353.30)
2*4GB DDR3 1333MHz
2*4GB DDR3 1666MHz (downclocked to 1333)
ADATA SX900 256GB SSD (Windows 7 and GTA V are installed on this drive)
2*2TB HDD

GTA V graphics settings (haven't enabled any of the advanced ones):
Windowed borderless 1920x1080
FXAA - on
MSAA - off
VSync - off
Population Density - max
Population Variety - ~50%
Distance Scaling - max
Texture Quality - High
Shader Quality - High
Shadow Quality - High
Reflection Quality - High
Reflection MSAA - off
Water Quality - High
Particles Quality - High
Grass Quality - High
Soft Shadows - Softest
Post FX - High
Motion Blur - min
Anisotropic Filtering - X2
Ambient Occlusion - High
Tessellation - Very High

 

[Onetimetwotimes]

First of all, try cleaning up the "junk" you have running in the background. It may have CPU reserves that is limiting GTAV's ability to use it. If you would like, try setting the priority of GTAV to above normal or high (you can find out how to do that here: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager) Along with all of that, try changing some of those high settings to medium. It won't make too much of a difference in quality, but it usually makes a huge difference in performance.

 

[Glosb]

First of all, try cleaning up the "junk" you have running in the background. It may have CPU reserves that is limiting GTAV's ability to use it. If you would like, try setting the priority of GTAV to above normal or high (you can find out how to do that here: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager) Along with all of that, try changing some of those high settings to medium. It won't make too much of a difference in quality, but it usually makes a huge difference in performance.

So I reduced the CPU usage aside from GTA V down to about 8% (by terminating all but the system processes), however GTA V still didn't use any more CPU. I've already tried increasing the priority of the game and that didn't have any effect either. Changing the settings would "work", at least in getting a good framerate, however this is not a solution. My system should be able to run the game fine with high settings as there are a lot of resources left over that the game is not using for some reason (also, my system is above the recommended specs, but who knows what settings those are actually for).

 

[Onetimetwotimes]

First of all, try cleaning up the "junk" you have running in the background. It may have CPU reserves that is limiting GTAV's ability to use it. If you would like, try setting the priority of GTAV to above normal or high (you can find out how to do that here: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Process-Priorities-in-Windows-Task-Manager) Along with all of that, try changing some of those high settings to medium. It won't make too much of a difference in quality, but it usually makes a huge difference in performance.

So I reduced the CPU usage aside from GTA V down to about 8% (by terminating all but the system processes), however GTA V still didn't use any more CPU. I've already tried increasing the priority of the game and that didn't have any effect either. Changing the settings would "work", at least in getting a good framerate, however this is not a solution. My system should be able to run the game fine with high settings as there are a lot of resources left over that the game is not using for some reason (also, my system is above the recommended specs, but who knows what settings those are actually for).

I can't think of any other reason that it would be running so slowly, but there is one (unlikely) thing that may be causing the issue.

Check the set affinity option, and make sure GTAV has free will over all of the CPU cores.

 

[Glosb]

I can't think of any other reason that it would be running so slowly, but there is one (unlikely) thing that may be causing the issue.

Check the set affinity option, and make sure GTAV has free will over all of the CPU cores.

That's not it either, the game is using each core, but just ~50% of each...

 

[oomshnah]

Hey what happened with your problem? I'm having the same problem and I'm getting fed up with this. I've upgraded half of my core components and nothing is fixing my problem. Did you happen to get things working and get some decent FPS?

 

[master_1]

Im not 100% sure but im seeing a pattern. Every one having this issue has 1333mhz RAM, me included. maybe upgrade your RAM?

 

[Green9090]

Im not 100% sure but im seeing a pattern. Every one having this issue has 1333mhz RAM, me included. maybe upgrade your RAM?

Oh my god. You're totally right and here's how I know:

I had 1600mhz RAM in my computer and was having this issue. Looked into it and it somehow had gotten underclocked to 1333mhz. Turned it up properly and, lo and behold, I DOUBLED my framerates by doubling my GPU utilization.

If you're having this issue: your RAM frequency is too low.

 

[Onetimetwotimes]

Oh my god. You're totally right and here's how I know:

I had 1600mhz RAM in my computer and was having this issue. Looked into it and it somehow had gotten underclocked to 1333mhz. Turned it up properly and, lo and behold, I DOUBLED my framerates by doubling my GPU utilization.

If you're having this issue: your RAM frequency is too low.

It's been a while since I've been on this thread, but I think my friend is having a similar issue. I'll check it out soon. Thanks for the suggestions from master_0, and green9090