Low GPU Usage

[elitemasta3000]

I have struggles with performance in certain games like PUBG, Battlefront 2, etc. I get 80-100% GPU usage on high-ultra settings while on ultra settings I get high usage but large usage drops. My CPU cores all individually stay around 50-85% I have added a new hard drive into my computer to help it's performance which did help.

Specs:
1060 3GB
i5-7400
8 GB of DDR4 2300 MHZ
300 Watt 80+ bronze PSU
Windows 10
2 1TB 7200RPM HD

 

[Vic 40]

Check with MSI Afterburner what the Vram usage is when playing.Also ram usage.

 

[elitemasta3000]

Check with MSI Afterburner what the Vram usage is when playing.Also ram usage.

I get roughly 5-6 Gigabytes on Ram and on the settings I use, VRAM goes up to about 2900 MB but even when I turn settings down to get 2000 MB I still get the same problem

 

[Vic 40]

So even with lowered settings and therefore vram usage you get the same drops? You said before that with a mix of high/ultra you had good gpu usage (i guess no drops? ),with just ultra you got drops.Makes no sense.

The cpu doesn't spike in usage as well?

 

[elitemasta3000]

So even with lowered settings and therefore vram usage you get the same drops? You said before that with a mix of high/ultra you had good gpu usage (i guess no drops? ),with just ultra you got drops.Makes no sense.

The cpu doesn't spike in usage as well?

No, the CPU stays relatively the same. Even when I lower the settings and therefore VRAM I still get these GPU usage drops. I have checked MSI Afterburner and Taskmanager to find that CPU and RAM never go above 95%. (They stay around this number though) The GPU Usage drops make the usage drop as low as 11% although frames still stay relatively high, then I get a stutter that is annoying. Other times Instead of a stutter the frames drop to zero and i'm screwed although this is normally when I'm in a car in PUBG. I thought it could be my Hard Drive so I got a new one but the new one never goes above 70% Usage unless i'm just dropping. (This isn't the problem) I had a friend suggest it could be an undersized PSU though.

 

[Greeko85]

Im surprised your system has not been shutting down with your PSU-300w is quite underpowered. Get yourself a decent unit around the 550-650w (depending if you are planning to upgrade your gpu to something more power hungry down the track).

 

[Vic 40]

The psu was what i was going to if things wouldn't be different,but a good quality 450watt would already run that system fine. A 550watt would give some extra headroom and possibility for upgrading let's say gpu.

Ram is weird speed as well,does it really run at 2300,cause i doubt it.Make sure XMP is enabled in the bios so ram will work at rated speeds.

In the end could it also be using a hard drive instead of ssd,so speed related.Or maybe still cpu that won't keep up.

 

[elitemasta3000]

The psu was what i was going to if things wouldn't be different,but a good quality 450watt would already run that system fine. A 550watt would give some extra headroom and possibility for upgrading let's say gpu.

Ram is weird speed as well,does it really run at 2300,cause i doubt it.Make sure XMP is enabled in the bios so ram will work at rated speeds.

In the end could it also be using a hard drive instead of ssd,so speed related.Or maybe still cpu that won't keep up.

I checked again and I bought a new PSU (sorry for long delay) 650w 80 plus bronze, Vram is 2900 at max (normally stays around 2800, RAM is 7700 on average after long periods of gameplay (doesn't go much higher)
Checked on Battlefront 2 and the only difference I see is the GPU usage drops when I get the lag, I check hard drive usage so it's not that. It does thermal throttle but the clock speeds don't correlate with the lag spikes so I don's believe that is the problem. I am seriously getting mad though, help me this is BS

 

[Vic 40]

Might be that with ram almost maxing out the hdd's are getting more in play and with them being relatively slow drives this is causing the problems. Might be that more ram or an ssd could help.

 

[elitemasta3000]

Might be that with ram almost maxing out the hdd's are getting more in play and with them being relatively slow drives this is causing the problems. Might be that more ram or an ssd could help.

I was just playing Just Cause 3 today, I don't believe that it is RAM as it was only at 6500-6600 megabytes, I will do further experiments with my hdd but I don't think that it is the problem.

EDIT:I used CPUID HWMONITOR to look at my hdd usage and found that neither ever went above 87% usage while playing battlefront 2. This leads me to conclude it is not hdd related either. I also used it to check Max RAM Usage and Max CPU Usage. While the CPU's max was 100%(on Afterburner the 100% Usage did not correlate with the major usage drops of the GPU)(This was also only on one core) it is safe to say it isn't the bottleneck. The Ram never came above 93% and reached a max of 7500 mb. I really don't know what the problem is but I am literally losing sleep over this. HELP ME. Also VRAM never went above 87% usage.

 

[Vic 40]

Also checked virtual memory usage and page file usage?

 

[elitemasta3000]

Also checked virtual memory usage and page file usage?

I don't know hot to monitor this, I tried to check with performance monitor but because I don't understand the program I cannot say the results I found were certain. According to my test paging file usage barely increased in game but I don't know what i'm doing. I don't even have a clue as to how to test my virtual memory usage. A quick and easy guide would be most appreciated.

 

[Vic 40]

This tool gives sensor readings and system usages of cpu,gpu,ram,virtual memory,even page file usage,

download hwinfo64,
install and open it,
check "sensors-only",
click "run".

the last three at the top.

Wouldn't run it at the same time as hwmonitor.

 

[elitemasta3000]

This tool gives sensor readings and system usages of cpu,gpu,ram,virtual memory,even page file usage,

download hwinfo64,
install and open it,
check "sensors-only",
click "run".

the last three at the top.

Wouldn't run it at the same time as hwmonitor.

https://imgur.com/BNuRZpm
https://imgur.com/nXyvA6B
https://imgur.com/94wyAoW
https://imgur.com/lCurgFx
https://imgur.com/p1XVERM

These were the results after playing a few games. Although it appears physical memory was very high it was around 7800 most of the time but idk much. Give me your oppinion though, I don't have much money left so this last part is the last one I can buy. I CAN rule out CPU though, it was being bottlenecked with the GPU. Most of the time when the GPU usage would drop the CPU usage would drop too.

 

[Vic 40]

Memory is high,more importantly is virtual memory also almost at 90% at peak which means that alot is written to the hdd confirmed by the max 100% the hdd can be busy.Think this is what gives the performance drops.

See the ram works at high timings,is that what the rams specs are? Tried enabling XMP in the bios? Think getting more ram would be first priority.

Cpu is at about 100% at max so is the gpu,seems these are pretty well matched (abit of a guess that they do this simultaniously) . Do see that the gpu gets hot (88°C) so look at airflow in your case as well.Maybe even see if the gpu needs to be cleaned.

 

[elitemasta3000]

Memory is high,more importantly is virtual memory also almost at 90% at peak which means that alot is written to the hdd confirmed by the max 100% the hdd can be busy.Think this is what gives the performance dips.

See the ram works at high timings,is that what the rams specs are? Tried enabling XMP in the bios? Think getting more ram would be first priority.

Cpu is at about 100% at max so is the gpu,seems these are pretty well matched (abit of a guess that they do this simultaniously) . Do see that the gpu gets hot (88°C) so look at airflow in your case as well.Maybe even see if the gpu needs to be cleaned.

My GPU actually does thermal throttle a lot, 91 C, but I keep it clean and the fans high to ensure it stays as cool as possible. For this test I ensured that it was cool for most of the test so that it wouldn't thermal throttle while this was happening. You are right about GPU and CPU being a good pair, they are perfect. I am not familiar with what you said about RAM. A quick google will probably fix that though. I am on a prebuilt though so there is no option to use XMP in my bios (HP).

Also, my motherboard can only go up to 16GB duel channel 2400 Mhz.
Specs list for motherboard https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05355651
RAM=micron mta4atf51264az-2g3b1
teardown of my prebuilt=https://youtu.be/Xg1wnK4OFXY
Review=https://youtu.be/B6Ijym8d9NA
I upgraded hdd and PSU
Also these:
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/New-RAM-not-running-at-MOBO-supported-speed/m-p/6604060#M156494
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/12690505

Just trying to give you as much info about my system as possible because I need to get this 100% right.

 

[Vic 40]

The ram being at 2400mhz isn't my big issue,it working at 17-17-17-39-2T is (latest is "command rate" which could easily be 1T with two sticks).

User benchmark also states that an ssd would help,but for now does imo a ram upgrade to lower latecy (timings) ram @2400mhz be better so the hdd will not come into play as much.
If an upgrade to an ssd would be more preferred by you would that also help since an ssd is much faster (the better ones) than a hdd so even when needing the virtual memory on the ssd would data transfer be quicker.

 

[elitemasta3000]

The ram being at 2400mhz isn't my big issue,it working at 17-17-17-39-2T is (latest is "command rate" which could easily be 1T with two sticks).

User benchmark also states that an ssd would help,but for now does imo a ram upgrade to lower latecy (timings) ram @2400mhz be better so the hdd will not come into play as much.
If an upgrade to an ssd would be more preferred by you would that also help since an ssd is much faster (the better ones) than a hdd so even when needing the virtual memory on the ssd would data transfer be quicker.

so what you are saying is that I should upgrade RAM and my hdd? and if so, can I keep my new hdd and buy a 128GB SSD of the OS?

 

[Vic 40]

Ideally yes,but one or the other would be fine. Think that ram would be most urgent.

If you would get an ssd would having the game youplay the most on it be nice,also 240gb of is getting cheaper and would be better. Otherwise could you use the ssd just for gamestorage and use the normal hdd for windows,booting and installing programs will just take longer.You could still set virtual memory to work from the ssd if you wanted.

What still you could try first is disable any program that you don't use during gameplay,see if that helps.Means looking at taskmanager and disable/stop anything in the list "processes" that has started but not necessary just to play the game.