[SOLVED] Low gpu and cpu usage but low fps.

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Kraii

Jun 13, 2019
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I'm not sure where to post this but I'll just post this here since its a gpu related question.

I recently bought a used Asus strix rx 470 online for about $60 the item condition is very good at maybe 97% with no visible rust or dust on it. It's able to reach 100% usage with no stutters or crashes when being stress tested and when I try to play games with it the fps is mostly good but it drops to 30-60 seemingly randomly when in games with gpu and cpu usages not even reaching 65%.

Examples:
View: https://youtu.be/XZkZz6k8V48
3:50 - 4:00 is probably the worst offender in the video above. Would definitely have been worse too if the adaptive resolution had not reduce the resolution to a pixelated mess.

View: https://youtu.be/LnJqzHilXDc
.

Specs:
CPU: Intel Xeon X3470 (30-40 idle, 50-60 underload)
RAM: 1x2GB, 1x8GB ddr3
GPU: Asus strix rx 470 (40-45 idle w/ 0db fan on, 60-70 underload)
Storage: Kingston A400 480GB & Seagate Barracuda 500GB
PSU: Some generic gigabyte psu rated at 350w.

Is my cpu bottlenecking the system? or is it something else,
I'm upgrading the PSU to a Super flower ECO Silver 500w 80+ Silver soon
 
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Solution
Phaaze88
This may be an issue with the cpu itself.
-cpu and gpu temps were fine
-thread usage was also fine
-ram usage is on the high side: borderline 7 out of 10GBs in use, plus, we have to take into account that the OS reserves some of it for itself.

What I also noticed in the video - and why I believe it has to do with the cpu, is that when the fps dropped, the frametimes went to hell at the same time - I think that's the number in (ms) next to the current fps figure?
While you were in the menu, in the plane, and in some areas of the map, fps was high and frametimes low(under 10ms).
Once you jumped out and were moving around, fps would drop and frametimes rose upwards of 20ms.

As for possible workarounds:
-Double check Cpu-Z to confirm...
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Monitor gpu usage and cpu usage - each thread, please - in game.
You have to monitor each core/thread, because unlike the gpu, a single thread from the cpu can become a limitation.


Kraii said:
RAM: 1x2GB, 1x8GB ddr3
Click to expand...
This would be another problem.
You're running in single channel - dual channel mode requires dimms of identical capacity.
If by chance, you're already cpu limited, running in single channel isn't helping things either.
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Monitor gpu usage and cpu usage - each thread, please - in game.
You have to monitor each core/thread, because unlike the gpu, a single thread from the cpu can become a limitation.
Click to expand...
I see, will monitor them when I get back from work.

Phaaze88 said:
You're running in single channel - dual channel mode requires dimms of identical capacity.
Click to expand...
Is it? I'm not sure. Last time when I checked CPU-Z it says that its running in dual-channel mode. And when reading posts on mixing different ram capacities I am still confused on whether it works with different capacities, some say that it will not work with different capacities, some say it will, some say it might. When buying the 8GB ram I remember reading something that says that dual channel operates in multiples of 2?
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Monitor gpu usage and cpu usage - each thread, please - in game.
You have to monitor each core/thread, because unlike the gpu, a single thread from the cpu can become a limitation.
Click to expand...
Here's with all cpu thread's usage, none of them reached 100% during the whole game. Not to mention it feels laggy even tho its at like 100+ fps. Enabling dynamic vsync in the settings seems to improve things? Not sure, could be a placebo effect.
View: https://youtu.be/J73nydA55Gk
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
This may be an issue with the cpu itself.
-cpu and gpu temps were fine
-thread usage was also fine
-ram usage is on the high side: borderline 7 out of 10GBs in use, plus, we have to take into account that the OS reserves some of it for itself.

What I also noticed in the video - and why I believe it has to do with the cpu, is that when the fps dropped, the frametimes went to hell at the same time - I think that's the number in (ms) next to the current fps figure?
While you were in the menu, in the plane, and in some areas of the map, fps was high and frametimes low(under 10ms).
Once you jumped out and were moving around, fps would drop and frametimes rose upwards of 20ms.

As for possible workarounds:
-Double check Cpu-Z to confirm whether single or dual channel mode.
-Update the motherboard drivers
-Do a check of your Windows files: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker
-Scan your drives for malware: https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
That's about all that comes to mind, at the moment. Any more likely demands a cpu upgrade.
 
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Solution
Kraii said:
Here's with all cpu thread's usage, none of them reached 100% during the whole game. Not to mention it feels laggy even tho its at like 100+ fps. Enabling dynamic vsync in the settings seems to improve things? Not sure, could be a placebo effect.
View: https://youtu.be/J73nydA55Gk
Click to expand...
well u have hyperthreading enabled
see your first 2 threads (core0/1)
if u count them together u can see 100% usage
try disable hyperthreading, that could help with stuttering
 
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Phaaze88 said:
This may be an issue with the cpu itself.
-cpu and gpu temps were fine
-thread usage was also fine
-ram usage is on the high side: borderline 7 out of 10GBs in use, plus, we have to take into account that the OS reserves some of it for itself.

What I also noticed in the video - and why I believe it has to do with the cpu, is that when the fps dropped, the frametimes went to hell at the same time - I think that's the number in (ms) next to the current fps figure?
While you were in the menu, in the plane, and in some areas of the map, fps was high and frametimes low(under 10ms).
Once you jumped out and were moving around, fps would drop and frametimes rose upwards of 20ms.

As for possible workarounds:
-Double check Cpu-Z to confirm whether single or dual channel mode.
-Update the motherboard drivers
-Do a check of your Windows files: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker
-Scan your drives for malware: https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/
That's about all that comes to mind, at the moment. Any more likely demands a cpu upgrade.
Click to expand...
Yeah the ram usage was kinda high. Steam, Discord and Origin was running in the background, maybe closing them will yield a little better results.

And yeah the numbers beside the fps figure are the frametimes. Maybe it has something to do when I look at a certain places there are less things being loaded/in view? Comparing 1:05 in the video when basically the whole map was in view the fps is at 55 and gpu usage at 66% with 1:13 when I look behind the plane the fps increased to 70+ and the gpu usage actually increased to 80+% for a second. But that wouldn't make sense since when I'm indoors there are less things to render outside, the usage dropped to 40+% with fps staying at about 50-60.

For the workarounds:

CPU-Z says it is indeed running in dual-channel.

NmYgiyS.png


Motherboard drivers are all as "up to date" as it can be when all the drivers are from 2010-2013 with support until windows 7 only.

Checked windows' files

EchLKPI.png


Just did a scan with malwarebytes yesterday, nothing came up.
 
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Kraii said:
Is it? I'm not sure. Last time when I checked CPU-Z it says that its running in dual-channel mode. And when reading posts on mixing different ram capacities I am still confused on whether it works with different capacities, some say that it will not work with different capacities, some say it will, some say it might. When buying the 8GB ram I remember reading something that says that dual channel operates in multiples of 2?
Click to expand...
If it is running in dual channel it's only 2Gb of dual channel since it's a 2Gb module the rest is single channel and that's not nearly enough for any semi recent game.

Yes,close down anything you can because RAM usage is a huge issue and make sure that the page/swap file are on the ssd only.
Also online games will drop frames if the connection is bad so make sure to again close down anything that uses the internet and if you can borrow a router from someone try it with a different router or if your router has QoS settings try to adjust those for better gaming/ping.
 
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kerberos_20 said:
well u have hyperthreading enabled
see your first 2 threads (core0/1)
if u count them together u can see 100% usage
try disable hyperthreading, that could help with stuttering
Click to expand...

Ok, so I disabled hyper-threading (took me a while to find lmao, its named multi-threading in the bios for some reason but the info says it's for disabling hyper-threading) and the fps is about the same at 50-100+ and it is noticeably less choppy. Although the cpu is pinned at 100% all the time now.
 
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TerryLaze said:
If it is running in dual channel it's only 2Gb of dual channel since it's a 2Gb module the rest is single channel and that's not nearly enough for any semi recent game.

Yes,close down anything you can because RAM usage is a huge issue and make sure that the page/swap file are on the ssd only.
Also online games will drop frames if the connection is bad so make sure to again close down anything that uses the internet and if you can borrow a router from someone try it with a different router or if your router has QoS settings try to adjust those for better gaming/ping.
Click to expand...
I see, games like counter strike should be fine right?

Yeah, the page file is on the ssd only although windows automatically allocated 12800 mb to it. Not sure if I should reduce it, it's set to system managed for now. Damn, my router is basically ass lmao. It came with my ISP and it randomly just stops working once in a while and have to be restarted. Was literally looking at routers to buy as it annoys me every time when I am in the middle of a game and the router just dies and I get disconnected with no way of reconnecting.
 
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kerberos_20 said:
something around 3.5GHz all core, it should be still safe
that cpu tops out at 4ghz
Click to expand...
Would temperatures be a problem tho? Had some thermal issues with it last time. Solved it by just removing the front panel off my case since the front intake fans are too close to the front panel therefore restricting airflow.
 
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kerberos_20 said:
your current cpu temperatures are fine
IHS temperature limit is se to 72.7C, if u get close to it, cpu will start to throttle (downclock)
Click to expand...
Okay, after some tinkering around I managed to get the cpu overclocked to about 3.6 GHz stable. The temps went up a little from about 55c to 63c as I had to increase the voltage a little but overall everything seems to be running fine for now. Only thing that happened was somehow Logitech G HUB was corrupted in some way and couldn't recognize my mouse, had to reinstall it for it to work again. Didn't really notice much of a difference with the fps in games but it seems like its using more of the gpu now than before which is good I guess. Looks like if I want any more better performance I'll have to shell out more money to get a new board, cpu and ddr4 ram to go with it.
 
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