Question Low fps with low CPU and GPU usage

[szbalcsi]

Hi!

I'm experiencing low FPS especially in League of Legends with a decent PC, and I noticed that my CPU is only running at 30% at maximum, and my GPU is running at 10% tops.
I also play Valorant and even tho my FPS is fine there (around 200), the GPU usage is also only around 30%-50% and so is the CPU. I also would just assume that I should have more FPS with my PC.

My build is:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3LLkzf

I'm using Win 10 OS, freshly reinstalled, and I have also tried everything in this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...s-with-low-gpu-and-cpu-usage-as-well.3524328/
I know my CPU is bottlenecking my GPU a little, but that should be no explanation. I also tried running both games from my SSD, but that didn't change a thing.
I also don't have temperature issues.
HWMonitor pic while using playing LoL:
https://ibb.co/sP3X9qV

N-vtelen2 hosted at ImgBB

Image N-vtelen2 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

As you can see I have a second monitor as well, but I don't think that's affecting the performance.

I'm really desperate at this point, because I have no idea how this would be happening, and I also don't know where to turn for help. If you have any idea what might couse this, or stumbled upon somehting similar please let me know!
Thanks!

EDIT:
I feel like somehow my CPU is caped, so it dosn't really go above 50% and that caps my GPU as well, but I have no idea what could cap the CPU, and tell it to never use more than 50% of it's resources.

 

[Darkbreeze]

By "freshly installed" do you mean you did a CLEAN install, deleting all existing partitions on the drive, or do you mean you did a refresh, reset or restore, which are not the same thing as a clean install?

Get rid of HWmonitor, download HWinfo (Which is unquestionably more accurate and is updated more frequently), install it, select "Sensors only" and unselect "Summary", and take screenshots of ALL the sensors which usually takes scrolling down and about three screen shots to capture them all, while playing same as you did before. Post them here as follows:

How to PROPERLY post images on the Tom's hardware forum​

 

[Darkbreeze]

Also, you have a ten year old power supply that wasn't terrific even when it was brand new. That is likely the first concern and if the screenshot from HWmonitor is even remotely accurate your 12v rail is dropping to like 9.7v, which means it's shot and needs to be replaced before it damages something else like your motherboard or graphics card. At about 11.5v we usually call them bad, so you are far below that especially since your max 12v reading looks like barely more than 10v. Honestly, if that is accurate, I'm not sure how the system is even running as well as it is.

 

[szbalcsi]

By "freshly installed" do you mean you did a CLEAN install, deleting all existing partitions on the drive, or do you mean you did a refresh, reset or restore, which are not the same thing as a clean install?

Get rid of HWmonitor, download HWinfo (Which is unquestionably more accurate and is updated more frequently), install it, select "Sensors only" and unselect "Summary", and take screenshots of ALL the sensors which usually takes scrolling down and about three screen shots to capture them all, while playing same as you did before. Post them here as follows:

How to PROPERLY post images on the Tom's hardware forum​

By "freshly install", I meant that I deleted all the softwares on my PC, and deleted the partition on my SSD, where my Windows was, and then recreated a partition on my SSD, and installed Windows there. Basically I just kept my files (except softwares) on my HDDs only.

HWinfo picture:

 

[Darkbreeze]

By "freshly install", I meant that I deleted all the softwares on my PC, and deleted the partition on my SSD, where my Windows was, and then recreated a partition on my SSD, and installed Windows there.

And when you did that, did you do that DURING the installation, using the "Custom" installation options in the installer, or did you do it some other way? And did you also delete the hidden EFI and Recovery partitions or ONLY the "C:" partition?

In other words, did you use THIS method? :

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Because there is no need to "delete" anything when you do a clean install. ALL you need to do is disconnect all drives except the drive you are installing Windows TO and the drive you are installing Windows FROM, such as your optical or USB flash drive, then run the installer and choose the CUSTOM option, then delete all the existing partitions on the drive you are installing Windows on which it allows you to do IN the installer, then select the unpartitioned, unformatted space and click next. Windows will perform ALL necessary creation of partitions and all necessary formatting, automatically.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You need a new power supply. This is 99.9% likely your problem. You have only 9.84v on the 12v rail which should NEVER be lower than about 11.7v and which we recommend discarding the power supply when we see it dropping to about 11.5v. You are far below that.

There is always a minimal chance that the sensor readings are inaccurate if there is another problem so if you have a multimeter, can borrow one or can go buy a cheap five dollar one from someplace, it wouldn't be the worst idea to actually test the unit as follows, but I can just about guarantee that your PSU is done had it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac7YMUcMjbw

 

[szbalcsi]

You need a new power supply. This is 99.9% likely your problem. You have only 9.84v on the 12v rail which should NEVER be lower than about 11.7v and which we recommend discarding the power supply when we see it dropping to about 11.5v. You are far below that.

There is always a minimal chance that the sensor readings are inaccurate if there is another problem so if you have a multimeter, can borrow one or can go buy a cheap five dollar one from someplace, it wouldn't be the worst idea to actually test the unit as follows, but I can just about guarantee that your PSU is done had it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac7YMUcMjbw

I tested it, and it came back as 11.5 Volts, so that means the sensor are faulty, but none the less, I bought a new PSU, since you recommended, that it shouldn't be used at 11.5 V. But even with the new PSU the issue still persists sadly. (Also the HWinfo still reads 9.8 Volts so the sensors for sure don't work correctly.)

 

[szbalcsi]

And when you did that, did you do that DURING the installation, using the "Custom" installation options in the installer, or did you do it some other way? And did you also delete the hidden EFI and Recovery partitions or ONLY the "C:" partition?

In other words, did you use THIS method? :

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Because there is no need to "delete" anything when you do a clean install. ALL you need to do is disconnect all drives except the drive you are installing Windows TO and the drive you are installing Windows FROM, such as your optical or USB flash drive, then run the installer and choose the CUSTOM option, then delete all the existing partitions on the drive you are installing Windows on which it allows you to do IN the installer, then select the unpartitioned, unformatted space and click next. Windows will perform ALL necessary creation of partitions and all necessary formatting, automatically.

I didn't diconnect my other drivers. But I did delete all the partitions which was created from my "Windows drive" (my SSD). And then then I did as you said, seleted the unpartioned space and clicked next.
But I did delete all my softwares manually, since they were installed on my hard drives, and as far as I know, they wouldn't work with my "Windows drive" being cleaned, since all the %appdata, and things like that are lost. I mean thats what I found on the web about the issue, they said its similar to when you would just try to copy a folder containing a software from one drive to an other, it won't necessary work.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What PSU did you buy?

 

[szbalcsi]

What PSU did you buy?

Corsair TX750M

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, well that's a decent unit. I have no problems with that model at all.

So, if you are still getting below spec power level readings and you have a brand new TX power supply, it can pretty much only be a bad motherboard unless some component is direct shorting out somewhere causing a huge voltage drop, but you'd know that by all the magic smoke it would let out.

I think I'd contact ASUS about an RMA on the motherboard if it is still under warranty. Generally these boards all have about a three year warranty so long as you still have access to the invoice or purchase information.

 

[szbalcsi]

Ok, well that's a decent unit. I have no problems with that model at all.

So, if you are still getting below spec power level readings and you have a brand new TX power supply, it can pretty much only be a bad motherboard unless some component is direct shorting out somewhere causing a huge voltage drop, but you'd know that by all the magic smoke it would let out.

I think I'd contact ASUS about an RMA on the motherboard if it is still under warranty. Generally these boards all have about a three year warranty so long as you still have access to the invoice or purchase information.

Sadly it isn’t under warranty anymore. So I looked around on the web a bit. And on the HWinfo forum they said that the wrong reading is because the BIOS sends out wrong data. But most likely there is the correct 12V in reality. So I wouldn’t think that my mobo is faulty.

When I get home I will stress test the CPU, since I’m pretty sure that if the mobo was faulty then that should crash my PC. Also I wanna test if I can force the CPU to go at 100% for a longer time. If it can than I assume it should be a software problem that causes that for some reason programs like LoL dont use the CPU more.

 

[szbalcsi]

Sadly it isn’t under warranty anymore. So I looked around on the web a bit. And on the HWinfo forum they said that the wrong reading is because the BIOS sends out wrong data. But most likely there is the correct 12V in reality. So I wouldn’t think that my mobo is faulty.

When I get home I will stress test the CPU, since I’m pretty sure that if the mobo was faulty then that should crash my PC. Also I wanna test if I can force the CPU to go at 100% for a longer time. If it can than I assume it should be a software problem that causes that for some reason programs like LoL dont use the CPU more.

So it seems like the CPU can go on 100% for 10 minutes without any problem, so now I would assume, that there is some sort of software restrictions that, doesn't let my games use the processor more, but I can't fathom what the could be.

 

[Darkbreeze]

When I get home I will stress test the CPU, since I’m pretty sure that if the mobo was faulty then that should crash my PC.

That sounds nice, but unfortunately it's not even remotely true. There are fifty different ways a motherboard can fail or develop problems, and most of them aren't going to have any relevance to doing a stress test.

If it was that simple, we'd never have any problems diagnosing anything.

How do you think it is a software problem if you did a clean install of Windows? Do another clean install, and don't install ANYTHING else except the motherboard specific manufacturer drivers from the ASUS website, the AMD drivers for your graphics card and one game. Nothing else. No Armory crate or other motherboard manufacturer supplies utilities (Which are generally a bad idea anyhow. Dragon center, Armory crate, all these "utilities" are well known for causing problems and should be avoided if possible.). See if you have the same issue still. If you do, then it really can't be a software issue.

In fact, just do a clean install, install the required drivers like I said and then run Realbench, Cinebench, Prime95, Superposition or another utility that you know taxes both the CPU and graphics card, and see what it does in that environment. If it works as it should, then you know that something you've been installing after doing the clean install is causing the problem. If it still does the same thing as before, then you know it's not a software issue. This is pretty much the only way I see you isolating this problem well enough to satisfy your concerns on the matter.

And, there are no "software restrictions" that just magically "happen" after ten minutes. If the problem happens after ten minutes of stress, then it's either a thermal issue causing the CPU to throttle because it's getting hot, or there is a problem with the motherboard and some component like the VRMs or something else, is getting hot. When a time component is involved it is a thermal issue 99.99% of the time. If it's random or can happen at ANY time, THEN it's generally not a thermal issue.

And for what it's worth, the "BIOS" IS part of the motherboard. SO if there is a problem with the BIOS then there is a problem with the motherboard. It's literally as simple as that. And like I said in the thread you said you "did everything listed there" you need to make sure you have the MOST up to date STABLE BIOS release. Do not install "Beta" BIOS releases unless absolutely necessary.

Also, there is a brand new BIOS version for your motherboard that just released three days ago, so I'm pretty sure you have not installed that version yet and it would be a good idea to try that before going any further with anything else.