i5-4690k CPU Usage 95-100% No matter what I do

[MrVic87]

By no means am I attempting to add on what seems to be a growing topic. But, I have spent about 3 solid days trying to find a solution to this problem and have no luck. Ever since I upgraded my graphics card to a 980Ti, it seems like my cpu is holding my system back. When I ran games like GTA V, it was pushing no more than 55% prior to the card upgrade. Now it spikes from 75% to 99% and back down, which results in stutters or input lag. I used the Inspector tool, which is a great software to limit fps on some games. No luck on cpu usage. With the Division, no matter what graphical settings I used, cpu is using on average 92%! I was overclocked to 4.6ghz per core, but scaled back to 4.5ghz for all cores. Still no luck. I also play Witcher 3 & Dark Souls 2; cpu usage is 60-65%. Perhaps those 2 games are very well optimized. I have no issues with temps for the cpu as I've been getting no higher than 45-50c, courtesy of the liquid cooling. My card runs about 65-70c for most of the gpu intensive games I play. Cpu is less than 4% when I'm not playing anything.

Does anyone know what the issue might be? I have updated my bios, graphics driver, changed graphical settings, changed priority/affinity settings, used inspector, went back to stock, & yet nothing changed. I am thinking maybe upgrading the cpu, though I was told the i5-4690k is a good pairing with my 980Ti.

Key things to know:

I used AI Suite 5 optimization to overclock, as I didn't find a solid guide with my existing setup (perhaps that might be the problem?). If any of you feel I shouldn't use this, let me know. System has been stable thus far.

My current rig right now is:

i5-4690k 4.5ghz all cores
H105 liquid cooling
980Ti SC 6gb
DDR3-1600 16gb
650w psu
SSD 120gb
HDD 5TB total
144hz monitor with 60hz Tv

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Xibyth]

This is normal for GTA5. Heavy CPU usage in game. The reason it went up is due to the card not bottleneck in the CPU any longer. So the game can run its ai functions and other CPU oriented tasks that used to be pushed to the wayside.

The games configuration is the reason your getting these results.

 

[MrVic87]

So can you agree in a sense that the cpu is what's holding my system back? I am thinking about getting the i7-4790k or the i7-5820k. It's not just GTA that does this. Division is worse in my opinion. I'd like to be able to max out all games since I have a powerful card now. But there's been too many frequent stutters or input lag when I max out the settings.

 

[Xibyth]

So can you agree in a sense that the cpu is what's holding my system back? I am thinking about getting the i7-4790k or the i7-5820k. It's not just GTA that does this. Division is worse in my opinion. I'd like to be able to max out all games since I have a powerful card now. But there's been too many frequent stutters or input lag when I max out the settings.

No, not really. The basic i7 is basically the most the game can utilize, being capped at 8 threads, and would offer up a bit more performance.

Input lag is actually caused by the display, and can you describe the studder?

 

[MrVic87]

So can you agree in a sense that the cpu is what's holding my system back? I am thinking about getting the i7-4790k or the i7-5820k. It's not just GTA that does this. Division is worse in my opinion. I'd like to be able to max out all games since I have a powerful card now. But there's been too many frequent stutters or input lag when I max out the settings.

No, not really. The basic i7 is basically the most the game can utilize, being capped at 8 threads, and would offer up a bit more performance.

Input lag is actually caused by the display, and can you describe the studder?

I have a 144hz monitor. My frames never go over 60fps since I cap them or put vsync on. The stutter only happens when the cpu usage is at 99% or 100%, when it goes down, it goes away and gameplay is smooth as silk. It either stutters or pauses a brief second then resume, all the while the fps is still manageable.

Those extra cores from the i7 might be the solution to this as I have yet to hear anyone with a similar or better performing i5 chip that is running the game good. I'd love to hear from any i5 users that are running GTA V or any other gpu intensive game well, to post their specs, or some feedback.