Question Low Fps & GPU usage, No throttling/bottleneck

[Mr.Stork]

In other games like Tomb Raider, Sniper GW 3, etc... the GPU usage is 99% with 70+ fps Ultra. But in Team Fortress 2 (TF2), the usage is like 40-50% 100+fps, also comes lower or higher depending on the scenes. There's no throttling as other games prove that. My friend suggested maybe the CPU is 100% in other cores, but it doesn't seem that's the case, here's a screenshot of MSI AB overlay while in-game:

https://imgur.com/y3NFJYr

View: https://imgur.com/y3NFJYr
. It's 500 fps in that image as the map is low quality and there's no players/fights going on. Even in fights/ton of people, there's no CPU core usage above 90%, tf2 handles multithread very well. (No fps limit too)

Specs:
i5-8400
1660ti
16gbx1 (it's shouldn't be ram, cuz the other games use 99% of GPU while 70+fps)
Z370M-D3H (Mboard)

What's going on? Please help.
Thanks in advance.

 

[iMatty]

Some games wouldn't use 100% of the CPU/GPU and TF2 is more CPU intensive but it's not using all the cores.
You're having 500FPS what else do you need? thats pretty normal in my opinion.
Other games you mentioned ultras all the cores.

 

[Mr.Stork]

Some games wouldn't use 100% of the CPU/GPU and TF2 is more CPU intensive but it's not using all the cores.
You're having 500FPS what else do you need? thats pretty normal in my opinion.
Other games you mentioned ultras all the cores.

I'm not getting 500 fps in real games, the image you see is in a low quality map with no one around, to get the best fps possible to show there's not limit in fps, as few people say there's a fps limit so you can't get fps above that.
In real game I get around 70-80, need at least 120

 

[Metal Messiah.]

On what SCREEN RES are you playing games, 1080p or 2K, or some other ? What's the make/model number of your Power supply unit ? Some games are CPU-bound, whereas others are GPU-intensive, but this also depends on the resolution on which the games are being played.

 

[RobCrezz]

I'm not getting 500 fps in real games, the image you see is in a low quality map with no one around, to get the best fps possible to show there's not limit in fps, as few people say there's a fps limit so you can't get fps above that.
In real game I get around 70-80, need at least 120

Keep lowering the settings until you get near the FPS you want?

 

[iMatty]

Well not all games will give you the 120FPS, even if you have a monitor that supports a refresh rate of 120HZ.
Your GPU is not the top of the line and some of the games you mentioned are pretty demanding.
I would agree with RobCrezz

 

[Mr.Stork]

On what SCREEN RES are you playing games, 1080p or 2K, or some other ? What's the make/model number of your Power supply unit ? Some games are CPU-bound, whereas others are GPU-intensive, but this also depends on the resolution on which the games are being played.

1080p, as I said other games are fine, so that means I'm CPU bottleneckin even tho my CPU is good, the game is old and poorly optimized. as I came to know after doing some research

 

[-Fran-]

Oof... So much to comment on here...

First of all, your CPU and GPU are not "top dogs", so don't expect them to behave as such. You need to curve your expectations according to the price bracket you got them from.

Second, there are plenty of other factors that come into play for a game to behave in "optimal fashion". It's not just "CPU bottleneck", but "PC being slow because reasons". What other programs are you running in the background? What cooling are you using for the CPU? How do temperatures look? Throttling has a bigger impact than what CPU you use (when it goes wrong). What about your GPU temperatures? Have you tweaked your RAM? There's plenty of things you can do to improve performance that also have nasty side-effects when gone wrong.

And, lastly, I will repeat RobCrezz'es recommendation: lower detail settings to match your desired FPS/Smoothness level.

I have to say it annoys me, very generally speaking, when people uses blanket statements for specific things: "it's just old", "it's poorly coded", "it's a bottleneck". Each symptom has a different cause at best, or your system has a horrible flaw at worst. We're here to help, but much like with everything, educating yourself comes first (and setting the right expectations). This was more of a rant than actual help, TBH.

Cheers!

 

[Mr.Stork]

Oof... So much to comment on here...

First of all, your CPU and GPU are not "top dogs", so don't expect them to behave as such. You need to curve your expectations according to the price bracket you got them from.

Second, there are plenty of other factors that come into play for a game to behave in "optimal fashion". It's not just "CPU bottleneck", but "PC being slow because reasons". What other programs are you running in the background? What cooling are you using for the CPU? How do temperatures look? Throttling has a bigger impact than what CPU you use (when it goes wrong). What about your GPU temperatures? Have you tweaked your RAM? There's plenty of things you can do to improve performance that also have nasty side-effects when gone wrong.

And, lastly, I will repeat RobCrezz'es recommendation: lower detail settings to match your desired FPS/Smoothness level.

I have to say it annoys me, very generally speaking, when people uses blanket statements for specific things: "it's just old", "it's poorly coded", "it's a bottleneck". Each symptom has a different cause at best, or your system has a horrible flaw at worst. We're here to help, but much like with everything, educating yourself comes first (and setting the right expectations). This was more of a rant than actual help, TBH.

Cheers!

Ik my pc is not top notch, but I should at least get consistent 80fps, sometimes it goes to 100+ then it dips to 70s. The game reaches 500fps when I'm alone in a server, but with a server full of people and fights it reduces, if you have seen the imgur image that I posted a link.

 

[-Fran-]

Ik my pc is not top notch, but I should at least get consistent 80fps, sometimes it goes to 100+ then it dips to 70s. The game reaches 500fps when I'm alone in a server, but with a server full of people and fights it reduces, if you have seen the imgur image that I posted a link.

That's the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

Games, specially online games, have fluctuating requirements CPU-wise as everything needs to be processed "on the spot". The more CPU ponies you have at your disposal, the lesser the dip when a lot of things happen at once. That's just a simple rule of thumb for every single game out there.

Core count and speeds are important, but nowadays, specially online (again), core count is becoming more relevant than pure speed: at least, 6c/6t or 4c/8t for no nasty dips!

Then there's the GPU. From a pure mathematical perspective, your GPU will always be capped at a certain type of calculation. For instance, smoke and light effects are taxing, even more so that AA and textures. Simple games that are heavily reliant on a single type of calculation will hit this "cap" on any video card pretty quick and make the game behave poorly. So you have some workarounds for that: find the taxing setting and lower it, keeping everything else up. In modern engines, for instance, global illumination is murder ("world reflection") and smoke shadows are as well. Each graphical engine has it's peculiarity and knowing about it will let you have more control over quality vs performance.

I hope that makes more sense now?

Cheers!

 

[RobCrezz]

Ik my pc is not top notch, but I should at least get consistent 80fps, sometimes it goes to 100+ then it dips to 70s. The game reaches 500fps when I'm alone in a server, but with a server full of people and fights it reduces, if you have seen the imgur image that I posted a link.

Thats totally normal! The more things your gpu has to render, the lower the FPS.

 

[Mr.Stork]

Thats totally normal! The more things your gpu has to render, the lower the FPS.

but if it has headroom in usage why not use it to max, I'll tell ya, other factors...

 

[-Fran-]

but if it has headroom in usage why not use it to max, I'll tell ya, other factors...

Er... I already explained why you see the slowdowns with more or less good details.

Past this point, I don't know what to tell you anymore, really...

Cheers!

 

[wh3resmycar]

1080p is just not that GPU Bound. If you want more consistent FPS, supersample (DSR) to 1440p to take the CPU out of the equation and let the GPU do all the work. Obviously the FPS will be lower but the variance of the min fps vs max fps would be better.

This is what i did when i was playing borderlands 1 and 2 with a lowly i5-3450 and a gtx1060 3gb. playing at 1080p, my FPS was all over the place. DSR made the fps more stable.

try it.

 

[Mr.Stork]

1080p is just not that GPU Bound. If you want more consistent FPS, supersample (DSR) to 1440p to take the CPU out of the equation and let the GPU do all the work. Obviously the FPS will be lower but the variance of the min fps vs max fps would be better.

This is what i did when i was playing borderlands 1 and 2 with a lowly i5-3450 and a gtx1060 3gb. playing at 1080p, my FPS was all over the place. DSR made the fps more stable.

try it.

But I have a 1080p monitor.

 

[wh3resmycar]

But I have a 1080p monitor.

yes, there is a way to upscale your resolution to 1080p. Google Nvidia DSR and it will enable you to use 1440p on your 1080p monitor. Caveat is the text might become smaller but can still be readable.

 

[Mr.Stork]

yes, there is a way to upscale your resolution to 1080p. Google Nvidia DSR and it will enable you to use 1440p on your 1080p monitor. Caveat is the text might become smaller but can still be readable.

There's a thing like that I didn't know, so I did it, and the fps were the same, just the GPU usage was high. 4k mind u and it didn't go above 80% usage, averaging to 60-70% usage... but same fps, so gpu is fine, something other than the GPU. And, Cpu always not more than 50%, though other tf2 gamers say it's natural because of the engine in the 10 years old game. Can't utilize more than 2 half cores...

Btw, is there any benefit in using DSR? I wouldn't mind gaming in 1440p as my gpu handled 4k just fine but will it be visible in a 1080p monitor?

 

[wh3resmycar]

There's a thing like that I didn't know, so I did it, and the fps were the same, just the GPU usage was high. 4k mind u and it didn't go above 80% usage, averaging to 60-70% usage... but same fps, so gpu is fine, something other than the GPU. And, Cpu always not more than 50%, though other tf2 gamers say it's natural because of the engine in the 10 years old game. Can't utilize more than 2 half cores...

Btw, is there any benefit in using DSR? I wouldn't mind gaming in 1440p as my gpu handled 4k just fine but will it be visible in a 1080p monitor?

this is quite interesting, there are several threads here with poor gpu utilization for 1660/ti even after DSR.... i am starting to think now that this is more of a driver issue. my gtx1060, the moment i go 1440p will stay at >90% usage.

as for DSR, improved visual fidelity as it is a form of anti-aliasing and should make the game more GPU bound specially in cases where you have a cpu bottleneck.

i also find it interesting that the FPS remained the same as max FPS should go down but make it more stable as it would be closer to your min FPS.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

if the hz of your monitor is lower than the fps you want 60fps=60hz then there's no reason to have 120fps

 

[RobCrezz]

if the hz of your monitor is lower than the fps you want 60fps=60hz then there's no reason to have 120fps

Not entirely true.

higher fps can give lower input lag, regardless of refresh rate.

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

but wouldn't you have screen tearing?

 

[PrinceTexasLoaf]

Not entirely true.

higher fps can give lower input lag, regardless of refresh rate.

 

[RobCrezz]

but wouldn't you have screen tearing?

Depends on the monitor, some deal with it better than others. But often it doesnt matter to the person who wants the low input lag.

Competitive FPS games like CS:GO are a good example. Many people run it at 300+fps for the low input lag.

 

[Mr.Stork]

if the hz of your monitor is lower than the fps you want 60fps=60hz then there's no reason to have 120fps

There is, some times it goes up to about 150+fps, and then if it comes down to 60fps it will feel very laggy, so I want to limit it to about 120 fps. And also reduce input lag...

 

[Mr.Stork]

Depends on the monitor, some deal with it better than others. But often it doesnt matter to the person who wants the low input lag.

Competitive FPS games like CS:GO are a good example. Many people run it at 300+fps for the low input lag.

yep that's right, I like lower input lag, I actually play tf2 semi competatively...