[SOLVED] Low FPS with Low CPU & GPU Utilization

[Rage_8986]

Hi, I recently got my new 3070 installed into my system and wanted to give it a shot on my games. I have been recently playing Rising Storm: Vietnam and I have all the graphics settings maxed. With my performance analysis program overlay open, I checked both my CPU and GPU utilization and they both sit under 30%-40%. Now, I had figured since it's not using it's full potential, that this could be a probable cause of my low FPS in a lot of games. I've tried lowering the graphics settings for all my games but none seemed to work. I've even tried raising my resolution as high and that didn't even boost up utilization.

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600x
GPU
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 OC Triple Fan
PSU
CORSAIR CX-F RGB Series CX650F
RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 3200MHz
SSD/HDD
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB
Kingston SA400S37250G
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG Strix B450-F AM4

 

[dotas1]

Please provide your system specs along with the make and model of your PSU.

 

[AntonyLovric]

Are you using the windows suggested drivers or the latest from Nvidia?

 

[Rage_8986]

Please provide your system specs along with the make and model of your PSU.

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 2600x
GPU
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 OC Triple Fan
PSU
CORSAIR CX-F RGB Series CX650F
RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX
SSD/HDD
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB
Kingston SA400S37250G
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG Strix B450-F AM4

 

[Rage_8986]

Are you using the windows suggested drivers or the latest from Nvidia?

Yes, I've checked for updates multiple times in GeForce Experience and Windows Updates but nothing shows for any driver updates.

 

[Karadjgne]

You are looking at it backwards. The 30-40% usage is a representation of the resources needed for the gpu to render a frame, not how much of the gpu is being used. In simpler terms, it's not having to use very much vram, speed, cache, bandwidth etc, even at maximum settings, to put every frame it gets on screen in a second.

Lowering settings will only raise fps if the gpu is struggling to render everything received from the cpu. Basically if at ultra the cpu is sending 200fps, the gpu is outputting 100fps, lowering to medium is giving the render process a break and the gpu can output 150 frames instead. Lowering to low gets you closer to 200fps. You have the reverse. Cpu is sending 100fps, so at ultra the gpu can output 100fps, but changing to low it's still only going to output 100fps because that's all it gets, even if it's capable of 500fps.

That's why lowering settings did nothing. The 3070 is an extremely capable card, so changing detail levels did nothing. It already exceeds the cpu fps at ultra, so output doesn't change, just the details in the picture.

The issue is with the amount of fps the cpu is capable of, not the gpu. Slow ram, ram in wrong slots, lack of boost, cpu cooling, single channel ram, slow storage, bunked up windows, badly optimized games, bios/Agesa incompatibilities etc can all cause low cpu fps outputs. As can I game settings with lighting, Ai, grass detail levels, viewing distance etc.

 

[Rage_8986]

You are looking at it backwards. The 30-40% usage is a representation of the resources needed for the gpu to render a frame, not how much of the gpu is being used. In simpler terms, it's not having to use very much vram, speed, cache, bandwidth etc, even at maximum settings, to put every frame it gets on screen in a second.

Lowering settings will only raise fps if the gpu is struggling to render everything received from the cpu. Basically if at ultra the cpu is sending 200fps, the gpu is outputting 100fps, lowering to medium is giving the render process a break and the gpu can output 150 frames instead. Lowering to low gets you closer to 200fps. You have the reverse. Cpu is sending 100fps, so at ultra the gpu can output 100fps, but changing to low it's still only going to output 100fps because that's all it gets, even if it's capable of 500fps.

That's why lowering settings did nothing. The 3070 is an extremely capable card, so changing detail levels did nothing. It already exceeds the cpu fps at ultra, so output doesn't change, just the details in the picture.

The issue is with the amount of fps the cpu is capable of, not the gpu. Slow ram, ram in wrong slots, lack of boost, cpu cooling, single channel ram, slow storage, bunked up windows, badly optimized games, bios/Agesa incompatibilities etc can all cause low cpu fps outputs. As can I game settings with lighting, Ai, grass detail levels, viewing distance etc.

That's a weird way to word CPU/GPU utilization if the percentage it's showing is what resources are needed, but I guess it makes sense. I've tried on many other games, including Mud Runner, Jedi Fallen Order, Sea of Thieves, Medieval Dynasty, Fallout 76, Hell Let Loose and SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom but the FPS usually hovers around the mid 70s-80s. I'm expecting more of something like 150-250 FPS on average but if the games are limiting my performance output, then there's nothing I can really do about it. Maybe drivers need support for the games, but I can't do anything else if that's the issue. My PC in general terms is a pretty beefy PC as of right now, with AIO Cooling for my CPU and the Corsair 4000D Airflow case, my temps never exceed more than 50c-60c.

 

[Rage_8986]

I'm going to through this in as well, because it may likely be an issue related to the GPU but I don't think it is considering that when I've tested the GPU the first day I got it CP2077 ran perfectly fine when I had my 3070 installed.

CP2077 Crazy Render Latency Issue

 

[drivinfast247]

What is your RAM?

 

[Rage_8986]

What is your RAM?

I've shared it above, it's Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB clocked at 3200MHz.

 

[drivinfast247]

I've shared it above, it's Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB clocked at 3200MHz.

Now I see it.

 

[Karadjgne]

What resolution is the monitor, is any DSR set? (my 2070S is enough for my 1080p monitor it set a 4k DSR automatically with GeForce Experience optimization), is Ray tracing enabled? DLSS?

Is Xbox DVR and game bar helper stuff disabled in Windows?

 

[Rage_8986]

What resolution is the monitor, is any DSR set? (my 2070S is enough for my 1080p monitor it set a 4k DSR automatically with GeForce Experience optimization), is Ray tracing enabled? DLSS?

Is Xbox DVR and game bar helper stuff disabled in Windows?

1080p, I've tried DSR with 2K and 4K but neither seemed to improve or decrease in performance. I've enabled both Raytracing and DLSS but neither seemed to help nor did it worsen it.

For Xbox DVR, that's disabled. I've tried with it enabled and disabled.

 

[Karadjgne]

DSR is Dynamic Super Resolution. Basically the gpu takes the data sent from the cpu, renders it at 2k/4k for maximum clarity, the renders that picture a second time into 1080p. All done by the gpu. It's a LOT of workload.

So in simple terms you doubled the gpu workload, and then some, and it realistically did nothing to fps.

Seriously cpu bound. It's the root cause, no ifs, ands or butts about it.

Clean the pc out. Ccleaner and registry tools, Defrag any hdds (not SSDs), run malware AND Antivirus, update bios and motherboard chipset drivers, do whatever you can to clean up windows and make the cpu run optimized. Check startups apps running in the background, verify ram is actually running at rated speeds, check storage capacities (SSDs should be no more than 50% full for maximum speeds). Check all temps.

Something is bogging the cpu, somewhere.

 

[Rage_8986]

DSR is Dynamic Super Resolution. Basically the gpu takes the data sent from the cpu, renders it at 2k/4k for maximum clarity, the renders that picture a second time into 1080p. All done by the gpu. It's a LOT of workload.

So in simple terms you doubled the gpu workload, and then some, and it realistically did nothing to fps.

Seriously cpu bound. It's the root cause, no ifs, ands or butts about it.

Clean the pc out. Ccleaner and registry tools, Defrag any hdds (not SSDs), run malware AND Antivirus, update bios and motherboard chipset drivers, do whatever you can to clean up windows and make the cpu run optimized. Check startups apps running in the background, verify ram is actually running at rated speeds, check storage capacities (SSDs should be no more than 50% full for maximum speeds). Check all temps.

Something is bogging the cpu, somewhere.

Yes, I know what DSR. I am familiar with the basic and moderate Graphics settings in the control panel. However, I don't think CCleaner and Registry Tools will do any good because I had just freshly reinstalled Windows on my PC about a few months ago. I've also rather not install Malware and Antivirus programs since they never really do actually perform anything, my RAM is running at my rated speeds and my storage capacities are perfectly fine. I've only got SSDs and no HDDs, my temps average to 54c for both my CPU and GPU so temps are fine. I also only have a very select few programs for startup.

As far as I'm aware, it can only really be something related to the drivers or some corrupt program on my PC like an overlay.

 

[Fiorezy]

Did you enable XMP?

 

[Mastaflex]

DSR is Dynamic Super Resolution. Basically the gpu takes the data sent from the cpu, renders it at 2k/4k for maximum clarity, the renders that picture a second time into 1080p. All done by the gpu. It's a LOT of workload.

So in simple terms you doubled the gpu workload, and then some, and it realistically did nothing to fps.

Seriously cpu bound. It's the root cause, no ifs, ands or butts about it.

Clean the pc out. Ccleaner and registry tools, Defrag any hdds (not SSDs), run malware AND Antivirus, update bios and motherboard chipset drivers, do whatever you can to clean up windows and make the cpu run optimized. Check startups apps running in the background, verify ram is actually running at rated speeds, check storage capacities (SSDs should be no more than 50% full for maximum speeds). Check all temps.

Something is bogging the cpu, somewhere.

Hello man, it's great advices, i have the same problem as the other dude, and already did all you said there (three days now searching for a fix...). I never thought about CPU bottleneck cause temps were OK, and no real proof of that. But I'm starting to think about it seriously cause I tried another GPU, and I got the same low usage/fps (all games running very badly (sometimes unplayable) compared to before (was perfectly smooth)). So now I "know" there is something wrong with the CPU (probably software related (maybe windows <Mod Edit>)) what can I do ? Already did everything you said there...

 

[Karadjgne]

Check taskmaster, see if there's any services or software using a bunch of resources. Check your gpu settings, in game and global, see if you have DSR set or Hairworks or other after affects that puts serious loads on the cpu. Test games using low, med, ultra, how does that affect fps. Check ram speeds, cpu speeds in HWInfo, is the ram set for dual channel in the right slots, is xmp applied, is fclock set, do you have eco settings set.

There's multiple things that can clamp down on cpu performance, you'll be looking for stuff that just doesn't seem right.