[SOLVED] Low GPU Usage under load

[g1meat]

Been trying to get my graphics card to go above 75% in games but it just cant.

I game at 1080p 144hz, I had a GTX 1070 before and it reached 95-97% easily. Now I upgraded to a RTX 2070 Super and it's struggling

Performance is kinda wack too, especially in Black Ops Cold War. I'm getting nearly the same frames
I also play Apex Legends, it gets to 85-95% in firing range but stays near 65-75% in game

I'm guessing I need a new cpu or something, but can anyone else diagnose? here's my rig:

• Ryzen 7 2700x
• MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
• XPG Gammix D20 16gb 3200mhz
• Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC 3X
• Inland Prof 1TB nvme
• Teamgroup AX2 1TB
• Corsair SF600 Gold

I've done the following:

• Reinstall windows
• Reinstall drivers
• BIOS is already at newest version
• Reseated GPU
• Power plan changes
• Graphics card OC
• Setting various settings to prefer higher performance (Control Panel & Windows settings)

 

[popatim]

Are you monitoring your CPU core usage as well? not the overall cpu usage. A dual core game will max out 2 cores and if you only look at the overall cpu usage the game would only account for 25% on an 8 core Cpu.

 

[Jason H.]

Been trying to get my graphics card to go above 75% in games but it just cant.

I game at 1080p 144hz, I had a GTX 1070 before and it reached 95-97% easily. Now I upgraded to a RTX 2070 Super and it's struggling

Performance is kinda wack too, especially in Black Ops Cold War. I'm getting nearly the same frames
I also play Apex Legends, it gets to 85-95% in firing range but stays near 65-75% in game

I'm guessing I need a new cpu or something, but can anyone else diagnose? here's my rig:

• Ryzen 7 2700x
• MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC
• XPG Gammix D20 16gb 3200mhz
• Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC 3X
• Inland Prof 1TB nvme
• Teamgroup AX2 1TB
• Corsair SF600 Gold

I've done the following:

• Reinstall windows
• Reinstall drivers
• BIOS is already at newest version
• Reseated GPU
• Power plan changes
• Graphics card OC
• Setting various settings to prefer higher performance (Control Panel & Windows settings)

Before we troubleshoot, its worth noting, just because a gpu is not running at 100% does not mean its not working at full potential. Some lighter games will not push your gpu to 100%. Basically, most of the time, the gpu % is representative of what the game is asking for, not the power capability of the gpu.

Next, we need to know the cpu usage as well to know wether its a bottle neck or not. As far as I know, that cpu is a bit outdated, although 8 core it may not be ideal to be paired with a decently powerful gpu like the 2070 super. I would be thinking more along the lines of a 3800x or better with the 2070 super.

 

[g1meat]

Are you monitoring your CPU core usage as well? not the overall cpu usage. A dual core game will max out 2 cores and if you only look at the overall cpu usage the game would only account for 25% on an 8 core Cpu.

I dont usually watch the core usage, Ill look into that too

 

[g1meat]

Before we troubleshoot, its worth noting, just because a gpu is not running at 100% does not mean its not working at full potential. Some lighter games will not push your gpu to 100%. Basically, most of the time, the gpu % is representative of what the game is asking for, not the power capability of the gpu.

Next, we need to know the cpu usage as well to know wether its a bottle neck or not. As far as I know, that cpu is a bit outdated, although 8 core it may not be ideal to be paired with a decently powerful gpu like the 2070 super. I would be thinking more along the lines of a 3800x or better with the 2070 super.

CPU usage is near the same, like 50-70%

 

[zero_l0gic]

if you wish to test the CPU and GPU download Heaven/TimeSpy benchmark and run it, set the resolution/refreshrate as you want and see does it now load your GPU to 90%-100% if it does you have no problems, games aint a good way to test that is why we have benchmarks. Games can be unoptimised, made in fasion that if it has enough hardware that they wont use 100% of it, its like asking why super mario world or tetris aint using all of my 16 cores and 8gb of GPU and 16gb of RAM well it doesnt need to. so try to run a benchmark to see does it stress normaly the GPU and CPU ( most of them are made in a way so they use ALL avaible hardware) while games are not made in that way. and how you said if it uses 75% that is ok if you dont have huge FPS issues, if you are playing Apex and having 20 FPS with 75% usage of GPU then its a problem someplace.

 

[Jason H.]

if you wish to test the CPU and GPU download Heaven/TimeSpy benchmark and run it, set the resolution/refreshrate as you want and see does it now load your GPU to 90%-100% if it does you have no problems

Highly agree with this.

CPU usage is near the same, like 50-70%

Other than running the benchmark tests as mentioned above to confirm the GPU is working properly, in my opinion, the CPU is just not powerful enough to push the 2070 to its full potential. Your "overall" CPU % is 50-70% which is a tad high considering we dont know if any single cores are being maxed out to 100% and this matters more than the "overall" value.

For example, on a 8 core cpu, a game that only runs off 2 cores will only show a 25% overall usage, but the 2 single cores its using would be at 100% each. And the 2000 series cpus are not know for the best single core performance.

We need to know your single core CPU percentages to see if there are any single cores being maxed out causing lower fps and lower gpu performance. So use your monitoring software to monitor the single core's and report back those percentages. Thanks!

 

[g1meat]

Highly agree with this.



Other than running the benchmark tests as mentioned above to confirm the GPU is working properly, in my opinion, the CPU is just not powerful enough to push the 2070 to its full potential. Your "overall" CPU % is 50-70% which is a tad high considering we dont know if any single cores are being maxed out to 100% and this matters more than the "overall" value.

For example, on a 8 core cpu, a game that only runs off 2 cores will only show a 25% overall usage, but the 2 single cores its using would be at 100% each. And the 2000 series cpus are not know for the best single core performance.

We need to know your single core CPU percentages to see if there are any single cores being maxed out causing lower fps and lower gpu performance. So use your monitoring software to monitor the single core's and report back those percentages. Thanks!

Here's the clocks while in a game of Call of Duty:

Here's a timespy result:

I also did heaven if that means anything: