Question (GTX 1080) Under 30% GPU usage GTA V

[ArYcEz]

I recently bought a GTX 1080, however when I tried to play GTA V I realized that my framerate wasn't much different from the card I upgraded from (GTX 970.) My GPU usage howevers anywhere from 10~% to 35~% but rarely goes above that. I turned all my graphics down but there seems to be no improvement on my framerate (which is just around 60fps.) I've already tried disabling HPET and changing the priority to high in task manager, both of which yielded no results.

Specs:
MSI GTX 1080
i7 4790k
12 Gb DDR3
Asus z-97p mobo

 

[Metal Messiah.]

What's the make and MODEL number of your Power supply unit/PSU ?

 

[ArYcEz]

What's the make and MODEL number of your Power supply unit/PSU ?

It's an antec 520W HCG PSU, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371047. However I don't think that's the issue as I'm not hitting any power or voltage limit, when using MSI afterburner the only limit I'm hitting is a constant "no load" limit.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

However I don't think that's the issue as I'm not hitting any power or voltage limit, when using MSI afterburner the only limit I'm hitting is a constant "no load" limit.

I didn't say your PSU is indeed the culprit here. I just wanted to rule out the Power supply, that's why I asked for the model number. That's a decent PSU btw.

 

[ArYcEz]

I've since tried reinstalling my graphics drivers as described here
however this didn't seem to help either, still 35ish% usage and "no load" limit.

 

[ArYcEz]

I've since tried reinstalling my graphics drivers as described here
however this didn't seem to help either, still 35ish% usage and "no load" limit.

I've also made sure that my cpu is not throttling and isn't what's causing the issue either.
In addition to that I also ran some synthetic benchmarks (Heaven, furmark) and the GPU was able to hit max load in those.

 

[knickle]

60 fps is the maximum capability of most standard monitors. If you are gaming on a 1080p monitor at 60Hz, and have V-Sync turned on, you won't go past 60fps. If that's the case, you can try disabling V-Sync, but you will get some screen tearing.

 

[ArYcEz]

60 fps is the maximum capability of most standard monitors. If you are gaming on a 1080p monitor at 60Hz, and have V-Sync turned on, you won't go past 60fps. If that's the case, you can try disabling V-Sync, but you will get some screen tearing.

I'm running on a 144Hz monitor with v-sync disabled, disabling it is a first priority for me in any game.

 

[knickle]

Hmm. What about in the driver settings? If you use Geforce Experience, perhaps it created some kind of profile for the game and is over-riding some of your in-game settings.

 

[ArYcEz]

I'm running the latest drivers and I've uninstalled GeForce experience when I was reinstalling my drivers, so that's not what's causing it.

 

[RobCrezz]

GPU benchmarks dont mean your cpu isnt holding things up.

What temps, clock speed and utilization is your cpu at when running gta 5?

 

[ArYcEz]

GPU benchmarks dont mean your cpu isnt holding things up.

What temps, clock speed and utilization is your cpu at when running gta 5?

My cpu stays around 60°C, peaked at 77% usage (and a single core peaked at 95% very briefly,) the cpu stays at 4.2 GHz (I'm removed my oc which was at 4-5 GHz.) All this was from running the built in benchmark in GTA V

 

[knickle]

I've since tried reinstalling my graphics drivers as described here
however this didn't seem to help either, still 35ish% usage and "no load" limit.

Did you go as far as using the 3rd party DDU tool?

How does the GPU run in other games? If it's only GTA V causing you problems I would check with "Rockstar" for a possible solution. https://support.rockstargames.com/

 

[ArYcEz]

Did you go as far as using the 3rd party DDU tool?

Yes, I did use DDU to remove my drivers before reinstalling them.

How does the GPU run in other games?

52% Peak GPU usage (usually hovers around 35-45%) in overwatch with 85% peak CPU usage, the GPU usage goes quite high in Apex Legends (80-90%) with peak CPU usage of 86%

EDIT: GPU in PUBG is also around 70-80% with CPU usage peaking at 79%
And in Escape from Tarkov GPU usage is around 50% with CPU usage of 60%

 

[RobCrezz]

I would do a full wipe and reinstall of windows (or clean install on another drive) so you really know if its a hardware issue or not.

 

[knickle]

Yes, I did use DDU to remove my drivers before reinstalling them.


52% Peak GPU usage (usually hovers around 35-45%) in overwatch with 85% peak CPU usage, the GPU usage goes quite high in Apex Legends (80-90%) with peak CPU usage of 86%

EDIT: GPU in PUBG is also around 70-80% with CPU usage peaking at 79%
And in Escape from Tarkov GPU usage is around 50% with CPU usage of 60%

I can't help but wonder if your CPU bound for whatever reason. There's an older CPU article from AnandTech that doesn't seem all that far off from your experience. https://www.anandtech.com/show/1185...lake-review-8700k-and-8400-initial-numbers/17

Here's another article about GTA 5 performance. Maybe it will help. View: https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV_PC/comments/9huuw4/gta_v_will_only_use_2_out_of_6_cpu_cores_when_in/

 

[ArYcEz]

I can't help but wonder if your CPU bound for whatever reason. There's an older CPU article from AnandTech that doesn't seem all that far off from your experience. https://www.anandtech.com/show/1185...lake-review-8700k-and-8400-initial-numbers/17

Here's another article about GTA 5 performance. Maybe it will help. View: https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV_PC/comments/9huuw4/gta_v_will_only_use_2_out_of_6_cpu_cores_when_in/

I've tried doing this but it did not help,

I've looked around and I've found a source suggesting that I should enable X.M.P however this option is unavailable in my bios (there's only one option which is "disabled.") I've also found a post with a similar issue here, this also didn't help much as in concluded in that post and by looking at my own stats, the CPU isn't a bottleneck in these instances.
And for clarification on what I'm trying to do with my setup or get out of my new GPU, I'm trying to run GTA V on the lowest settings to get as high a framerate as I can, as I'm running on a 144Hz monitor. But the framerate won't go anywhere near that high due to the GPU usage, however, if I max out all the settings the GPU usage goes to where I'd expect it (around 80-90%+) So I was curious if there was a way to set an FPS target or force the GPU to run at 100%.

 

[knickle]

Are any of the individual CPU cores riding close 100% while playing the game? If the game can only use 3 out of 4 cores (for example), your CPU might show 75% use, but that could be 100% + 100% + 100% + 0%. That remaining core won't ever be used by the said game, but makes it appear that there is still headroom when really there isn't.

I don't own GTA V, but you should have options for things like traffic and pedestrians. That would use a bit of CPU power. Turn these settings right down and see if it helps.

 

[ArYcEz]

Are any of the individual CPU cores riding close 100% while playing the game? If the game can only use 3 out of 4 cores (for example), your CPU might show 75% use, but that could be 100% + 100% + 100% + 0%. That remaining core won't ever be used by the said game, but makes it appear that there is still headroom when really there isn't.

I don't own GTA V, but you should have options for things like traffic and pedestrians. That would use a bit of CPU power. Turn these settings right down and see if it helps.

That's not the case either, the highest single core usage is 92% while usually at 60-70% usage.

 

[knickle]

I'm not sure what else to suggest. I did notice that you are running an odd amount of memory. I think that might explain why XMP isn't available in your BIOS. XMP presets are stored on the memory module, and if the modules aren't the same I would expect XMP to be unavailable. Normally you would have identical modules in pairs, like 4GB x2, 8GB x2, 4GB x4, etc. Your configuration would suggest something like 4GB x3. That would make your ram operate in single channel, or a mixed dual/single channel mode. That "could" impact performance.

 

[ArYcEz]

I'm not sure what else to suggest. I did notice that you are running an odd amount of memory. I think that might explain why XMP isn't available in your BIOS. XMP presets are stored on the memory module, and if the modules aren't the same I would expect XMP to be unavailable. Normally you would have identical modules in pairs, like 4GB x2, 8GB x2, 4GB x4, etc. Your configuration would suggest something like 4GB x3. That would make your ram operate in single channel, or a mixed dual/single channel mode. That "could" impact performance.

I'm running 1x 8GB stick and 1x 4GB stick both of which are by the same manufacturer, and they are running in dual channel mode.
I've now also tried reinstalling Windows 10,clearing my CMOS and removing any and all of my overclocks, nones of which helped with the issue.

 

[Dragos Manea]

I dont think you are running in dual channel mode, you must have same capacity sticks and same frequency. Install hwinfo64 and run it in summary mode it will show if you are running in dual channel mode. Or aida64.

 

[knickle]

I'm running 1x 8GB stick and 1x 4GB stick both of which are by the same manufacturer, and they are running in dual channel mode.
I've now also tried reinstalling Windows 10,clearing my CMOS and removing any and all of my overclocks, nones of which helped with the issue.

I looked at the manual for your motherboard and it indicates that your scenario will run half of the 8GB in dual channel, and the other half in single channel.

"You many install varying memory sizes in Channel A and Channel B. The system maps the total size of the lower-sized channel for the dual-channel configuration. Any excess memory from the higher-sized channels is then mapped for single-channel operation"

 

[ArYcEz]

I looked at the manual for your motherboard and it indicates that your scenario will run half of the 8GB in dual channel, and the other half in single channel.

"You many install varying memory sizes in Channel A and Channel B. The system maps the total size of the lower-sized channel for the dual-channel configuration. Any excess memory from the higher-sized channels is then mapped for single-channel operation"

Is it possible that it would be my ram that's keeping both my CPU and GPU from performing as they should?
I've also seen a video (

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld2sy-wDrcQ
) which describes a similar issue, where the culprit is a bad PSU, which I might actually think is the case with my PSU since it is which old and I think it might be nearing the end of it's days.

 

[iMatty]

Well, gta 5 is not the greatest game in terms of optimization to be honest.
Also it is CPU demanding more than GPU demanding, and i would suggest lowering down grass quality to like high if you set it to ultra, that helps with framerates a lot.
Also your ram shouldn't be an issue here, but i have never seen a 12gb ram.