GTA V Not using all my CPU and GPU

[ryantaylor96]

Hey there

I recently decided to over clock my GTX 980 TI. I did so with MSI afterburner and after the process I was using their on-screen display to check if my temps were in good order and I noticed that my CPU and GPU were hardly being used. I have a fairly good system and I struggle to run GTA at max settings, even on normal settings I get stuttering and FPS drops when I'm driving fast on busy roads. My overclock is below along with my system specs

GPU Clock - 1140MHz OC'ed to 1275MHz
Memory Clock - 1753MHz OC'ed to 2003MHz

Stock Voltage

**System Specs**
I7 3770 3.4 GHz
MSI GTX 980 TI 6GB
Cosair Vengeance 16gb 1600 MHz (I think)
HDD

Whilst playing, My CPU usage and GPU usage was the following

Core 1 - 28%
Core 2 - 56%
Core 3 - 41%
Core 4 - 69%

GPU Usage - 56%

Why isn't my hardware using everything it has? My 980ti should absoutley smash this game and it struggles to run at its lowish settings. Any help to get this sorted would be great

 

[sizzling]

I'd start by a fresh install of your gpu driver. Out of interest what psu do you have although I doubt its related

 

[geofelt]

Many games depend on the performance of a single master thread.
I think GTA is one of those.
When a thread is 100% utilized, windows will spread the activity among available threads making it look like you have more capability when you really don't.

And... the i7 has hyperthreads, I would think you would see 8 threads on your cpu performance report app.

 

[Groomer]

Many things can hold you back from utilizing your entire system, but if we consider the CPU to be a potential bottleneck:

Because of how hyper-threading works, any load over 50% could POTENTIALLY be full throughput for the CPU.

A single thread running all the time (on an i7-3770) will only show as 12.5% total CPU usage. (1/8 threads)
In games, it is not uncommon for a single thread to handle most of the work, and other parts of the game that relies on it has to wait.
Also note that a single thread does not necessarily keep running on the same core all the time, so it may look like workload is spread between multiple cores, when in reality it is simply taking turns.

 

[ryantaylor96]

Thanks for all of your responses. However, I have a GTX 980TI. 6Gb of video memory. Why can't I max out this game at 1080P? I struggle with Hitman aswell and also watchdogs. I paid just over £600 for this GPU with the intention of running all my games at ultra preset and so far this has not been the case. Is my GPU faulty?

My PSU is a cosair cx 750

 

[geofelt]

Barring the need for game patches, a game will be limited by either the cpu or the gpu.
Since your gpu is as good as it gets, you must consider that your cpu is lacking for these particular games.
To test how sensitive your games are to cpu capability, run this backhanded test:

Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 80%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 20% improvement in core speed might do.

 

[geofelt]

Another possibility.
You have an older 60gb ssd. If it is very full, say over 90% it will be slow to update.
Is it possible that your games are doing some checkpointing or other updates to the ssd and finding that it takes a Very long time to do?