Low GPU Usage = Low FPS, possible bottleneck?

[NerevarineX]

first of all my specs:
CPU : Core i5 750 @3.05 Ghz
GPU: Sapphire R9 280X Dual-X (Latest 15.7 Driver)
Mobo: AsRock P55M PRO
RAM: 6 GB [4gb + 2gb (dual channel)]
PSU : Coolermaster 600W eXtreme power plus
OS : Windows 10 x64
Resolution: 1680x1050
okay , so I've been having FPS Problems , I'm playing Fallout New Vegas with mods and GTA SA with ENB, I get avg 35 fps in FNV , and 35s in GTA SA While my cpu usage is around 20% - 60% and GPU 19% to 64%, so yeah..
I am aware that my CPU's a bottleneck but I've played Unity, GTA 5 and the Witcher 3,
in Unity I had like 30s in tweaked high-ultra with FXAA , in GTA 5 I had 40-50s on Ultra 2XMSAA , in the witcher 3 I had 30-40s on high-ultra, so I guess those are close to the performance I should be having. I've used Furmark 720p preset and my GPU has min 79 , Max 86, Avg 82, what should I do to increase fps (or usage)? P.S I will get MSGV as soon as my friend's finished playing it on his steam, I usually borrow his account when he's not playing (I hope that's not a crime)
FYI: I had a problem with my GPU's cooling system before, It had reached 94c-96c several times before I was aware of it (The Witcher 3/Crysis 3) and my GPU was throttling it was giving me 5 constant fps TW3 then when I restarted my PC it was fine.. Both the fans were physically damaged, and I was/am too busy to fix it right now, so what I did is this:

It's from an old room cooler fan

 

[jimmysmitty]

The CPU is older and could be bottlenecking the GPU but it to me that resolution would hold your GPU back. The R9 280X (HD7970) is better at 1080P.

Plus these are older games and older games tend to be more CPU intensive as things advance. If you have a 1080P display I would try running the games on that and seeing if you get better performance.

 

[NerevarineX]

The CPU is older and could be bottlenecking the GPU but it to me that resolution would hold your GPU back. The R9 280X (HD7970) is better at 1080P.

Plus these are older games and older games tend to be more CPU intensive as things advance. If you have a 1080P display I would try running the games on that and seeing if you get better performance.

I tried VSR, to 1080p but nothing, the FPS stays the same, even if I turn down the res to 720p , it stays the same.
if it's a bottleneck, wouldn't the cpu be at 90s-80s?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Yes CPU usage is normally higher in games when it is the bottleneck.

 

[NerevarineX]

Yes CPU usage is normally higher in games when it is the bottleneck.

perhaps If I could increase CPU usage in the game, I might see a difference, do you know of any way to do that?

 

[mlga91]

Are you using msi afterburner to check the gpu usage? For the cpu, you need to check each of the CPU cores usage, if only one of them reaches 100% then your FPS and gpu usage drops, and you're having a bottleneck.

 

[jimmysmitty]

To increase CPU useage you normally run at lower resolutions so the game becomes CPU bottlenecked.

 

[Reaper_7799]

So what are your gpu temps now when you play? Download gpuz and hw info, turn them on before and open the sensors tab in both and play one of those games for like 10-15 min and then post a screenshot of the cpu section in hw info that shows cpu usage, temps, clock speed and the gpuz section that shows clock speed, load and temps.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

http://www.hwinfo.com/

 

[NerevarineX]

So what are your gpu temps now when you play? Download gpuz and hw info, turn them on before and open the sensors tab in both and play one of those games for like 10-15 min and then post a screenshot of the cpu section in hw info that shows cpu usage, temps, clock speed and the gpuz section that shows clock speed, load and temps.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

http://www.hwinfo.com/

That's what I've been using all along, but i'll post the screenshots here.

Fallout New Vegas

NOTE: The high maximum values(of cores1,2,3,4) is when I did something else, not the game, the game didn't use more than total %40s , 2 cores were on 30%/50% , and the other 2 were on 8%/10s% and the fps is around 45s on the menu,YES, THE MENU! and around 20-30s in the game

GTA San Andreas

NOTE: the same case here, the maximum of (cores 1,2,3,4) is when perhaps i launched the game?, the game didn't use more 50%, 1 core was on its 60s, the other was on its 30s , the other 2 were low, around 10s, BTW I USE OSD too so i know whats going on.(on screen display)

 

[maxalge]

NOTE: the same case here, the maximum of (cores 1,2,3,4) is when perhaps i launched the game?, the game didn't use more 50%, 1 core was on its 60s, the other was on its 30s , the other 2 were low, around 10s, BTW I USE OSD too so i know whats going on.(on screen display)

What is going on is vegas only uses 2 cores, you will never reach 100% cpu

your cpu is fairly old and weak = bottleneck in gta5 as well

 

[NerevarineX]

NOTE: the same case here, the maximum of (cores 1,2,3,4) is when perhaps i launched the game?, the game didn't use more 50%, 1 core was on its 60s, the other was on its 30s , the other 2 were low, around 10s, BTW I USE OSD too so i know whats going on.(on screen display)

What is going on is vegas only uses 2 cores, you will never reach 100% cpu

your cpu is fairly old and weak = bottleneck in gta5 as well

GTA 5 was fairly smooth to me(I had no problems), but all I want is my GPU to give me atleast 80% of performance it is supposed to,but when it stays at 40% or 30%, That's a shame, and we all know my CPU is atleast enough for 80%.
BTW even the two cores are not at their best!(i.e 80s-90s)

 

[jimmysmitty]

The GPU shows (for the game you ran) 91% of its utilization as a maximum. It will fluctuate but it still is pretty high for Fallout 3. But a game like GTA:SA is very old on a very old engine and at a lower resolution. In 2004 (when GTA SA PC came out) the top end GPUs were the nVidia GTX 6800 Ultra and the ATI Radeon X850 XT PE. Both GPUs were well before a unified shader uArch and are probably only about as powerful as 10% of your current GPU. Basically GTA SA would need to be at a higher resolution with much more in mods to truly push and utilize your GPU at all.

 

[NerevarineX]

So I finally got to MGS:V , and I get 40-60 FPS on Ultra preset, and GPU usage is +88% so this proves that the old games are the problem here,
they're not made to use more than 1-2 cores, and That's the reason there's a bottleneck, low fps and stuff, But the frames I get now are adequate. Thank you all for answering.