Question My i5 6400 is at 100% in a low CPU usage game

[Gdolike]

Hello, first post. Please tell me if my CPU is just trash, old or everything is as it is supposed to be. The CPU is always at 100% in a game like Dota 2 and CS:GO... where it shouldn't even be like that, theoretically. But the I started playing Assassin's Creed Origins and no matter what video setting I put, the CPU usage is always 100%, and regardless of any setting I tried my average fps is around 40-50, minimal or ultra. Got an RTX 2060 usage of like 50-60% in the game with ultra, and 8 GB RAM which is like 80% usage. Any ideas people?

 

[86zx]

Hello, first post. Please tell me if my CPU is just trash, old or everything is as it is supposed to be. The CPU is always at 100% in a game like Dota 2 and CS:GO... where it shouldn't even be like that, theoretically. But the I started playing Assassin's Creed Origins and no matter what video setting I put, the CPU usage is always 100%, and regardless of any setting I tried my average fps is around 40-50, minimal or ultra. Got an RTX 2060 usage of like 50-60% in the game with ultra, and 8 GB RAM which is like 80% usage. Any ideas people?

I games and even windows 10 year after year are requiring more and more threads considering that you have a 4 core 4 thread cpu I think it’s reaching end of life, with all the new security leaks the performance of intel CPUs has been dropping, that all being said check and see if there is other things running in the background that might be using up the cpu, windows defender and sometimes the windows store can all of a sudden use the cpu

 

[RodroX]

Hi, welcome to the forum, and no, is not an abnormal behavior at all.

Basically your new GPU (RTX 2060) is asking for more than what your current cpu can give/handle.

If youre runing other software while playing CS:GO or Dota 2 that will also load the cpu with more work. Add to that your RTX 2060 and you have the perfect combo to make your CPU 100% usage all the time.

I haven't played Assassin's Creed Origins but (from my own experience with a GTX 1060 and RTX 2070 both paired with a Core i5 3570, playing SOTR and BF5) Im guessing that no matter what you do the CPU will keep stay around 100% usage.

But as 86zx wrote already, its a good time to think about: When was the last time you did a clean install of Windows 10?

To keep it short: Your CPU is not trash, is a very good CPU for a lot of tasks but your RTX 2060 is a really hungry GPU that needs a fast CPU to feed it in time and with lots of food.

You didn't mention, Are you having any issues in game, other than youre CPU been at 100%?, Stutter, Frame Drops?

Right now I would said the best "old" cpu to handle a mix of games like the ones you mention will be a 4 cores / 8 thread cpu, aka core i7 (i7 6700 for example).
Other than that just go ahead and buy a B450 motherboard with a brand new and cheap Ryzen 5 1600 AF (a new version, with the R5 2600 performance) that will be able to feed your GPU without issues. If you can afford it a B450 motherboard with an up to date BIOS + Ryzen 5 3600 will be a really awesome combo for gaming. Ryzen like fast memory, so right now a 16GB kit = 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz or 3600MHz is a must to get dual channel and the most out of Ryzen.

Cheers

 

[Gdolike]

Oh my god, I thought I would get a notification somewhere, but didn't, really unexpected to see 2 detailed replies, thank you very much for the warm welcome

You didn't mention, Are you having any issues in game, other than youre CPU been at 100%?, Stutter, Frame Drops?

I hope the quote thingie worked, but yeah i have like 40 fps on average in a city or some place like that, but then I went out to a forest or a desert and it's a stable 60+, i guess not so much stutters as something just happening in a game and my frames drop...

Right now I would said the best "old" cpu to handle a mix of games like the ones you mention will be a 4 cores / 8 thread cpu, aka core i7 (i7 6700 for example).
Other than that just go ahead and buy a B450 motherboard with a brand new and cheap Ryzen 5 1600 AF (a new version, with the R5 2600 performance) that will be able to feed your GPU without issues. If you can afford it a B450 motherboard with an up to date BIOS + Ryzen 5 3600 will be a really awesome combo for gaming. Ryzen like fast memory, so right now a 16GB kit = 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz or 3600MHz is a must to get dual channel and the most out of Ryzen.

Thanks for the cpu suggestions, but I don't think I can afford a new cpu anytime soon unfortunately, already lucky enough to get a beast gpu ^_^ Was just wondering if I could do something to boost the performance because I like smooth game-play.

I games and even windows 10 year after year are requiring more and more threads considering that you have a 4 core 4 thread cpu I think it’s reaching end of life, with all the new security leaks the performance of intel CPUs has been dropping, that all being said check and see if there is other things running in the background that might be using up the cpu, windows defender and sometimes the windows store can all of a sudden use the cpu

I turn off everything else, and check in task manager if something is using more than just a few % of my cpu and turn it off if possible, but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary there as I see it..

 

[RodroX]

Oh my god, I thought I would get a notification somewhere, but didn't, really unexpected to see 2 detailed replies, thank you very much for the warm welcome



I hope the quote thingie worked, but yeah i have like 40 fps on average in a city or some place like that, but then I went out to a forest or a desert and it's a stable 60+, i guess not so much stutters as something just happening in a game and my frames drop...



Thanks for the cpu suggestions, but I don't think I can afford a new cpu anytime soon unfortunately, already lucky enough to get a beast gpu ^_^ Was just wondering if I could do something to boost the performance because I like smooth game-play.



I turn off everything else, and check in task manager if something is using more than just a few % of my cpu and turn it off if possible, but nothing seems to be out of the ordinary there as I see it..

Like we said, when was the last time you did a clean install of Windows 10?

 

[Gdolike]

Like we said, when was the last time you did a clean install of Windows 10?

The last time was 4-5 months ago, not too long in my opinion :/ Got Avast and Windows defender stuff, nothing fancy

 

[RodroX]

The last time was 4-5 months ago, not too long in my opinion :/ Got Avast and Windows defender stuff, nothing fancy

Not too long indeed, then again, as I mention before a powerfull GPU will demand faster delivering from the CPU. its all a matter of balance

 

[Gdolike]

Not too long indeed, then again, as I mention before a powerfull GPU will demand faster delivering from the CPU. its all a matter of balance

I see how it is, thank you for your time, and I guess I'll play at low fps regardless of video setting since I cant afford a new CPU.

 

[punkncat]

I am not sure I am reading this right. You mention in your OP that no matter what settings you change as far as quality settings, etc. that you are seeing 40-50 FPS and later mention up to 60 "in the woods"?

I would think that regardless of a possible CPU bottleneck, you should still be seeing your frame rate scale with your quality settings. In other words, if I understand correctly, you are saying that frame rate doesn't change whether you are on low or ultra?

What resolution and frame rate is the monitor you are using?

 

[Gdolike]

I am not sure I am reading this right. You mention in your OP that no matter what settings you change as far as quality settings, etc. that you are seeing 40-50 FPS and later mention up to 60 "in the woods"?

Yeah, what I meant was on average all around I would have 45 avg FPS, when I am in a desert for example, I tend to have higher FPS, 60+ but when I'm in any other scenario I have around 40-50 😅

I would think that regardless of a possible CPU bottleneck, you should still be seeing your frame rate scale with your quality settings. In other words, if I understand correctly, you are saying that frame rate doesn't change whether you are on low or ultra?

I was actually surprised a bit by this as well, but it goes for all 3 games I tried on my PC, Dota 2, CS:GO and ACO, my fps would barely change regardless of my video settings. My CPU usage stays at 100% and the only thing from what I can see changes is my GPU usage. So lets say for example that in minimal graphics setting my GPU usage would be like 20-30% and on ultra it would be like 75% or something like that.

What resolution and frame rate is the monitor you are using?

1920x1080 60Hz

 

[punkncat]

Yeah, what I meant was on average all around I would have 45 avg FPS, when I am in a desert for example, I tend to have higher FPS, 60+ but when I'm in any other scenario I have around 40-50 😅

I was actually surprised a bit by this as well, but it goes for all 3 games I tried on my PC, Dota 2, CS:GO and ACO, my fps would barely change regardless of my video settings. My CPU usage stays at 100% and the only thing from what I can see changes is my GPU usage. So lets say for example that in minimal graphics setting my GPU usage would be like 20-30% and on ultra it would be like 75% or something like that.

1920x1080 60Hz

There is something else at play here. Your rig should be able to slay 1080/60, particularly at reduced settings.

You didn't forget to mention that you are streaming to Twitch in the background, yeah?

Is the 8gb of RAM only one stick?

 

[Gdolike]

There is something else at play here. Your rig should be able to slay 1080/60, particularly at reduced settings.

You didn't forget to mention that you are streaming to Twitch in the background, yeah?

Is the 8gb of RAM only one stick?

Sorry for replying late, can't seem to figure out how to enable sound notifications or something of that sort here.
And no, I'm not streaming 😂 and yes the 8gb ram is a single stick 2133 MHz.
Eager to find out what else is at play here :O
And I just stumbled upon overclocking on youtube, do you think, if nothing else works, that it is worth to overclock?

 

[punkncat]

Sorry for replying late, can't seem to figure out how to enable sound notifications or something of that sort here.
And no, I'm not streaming 😂 and yes the 8gb ram is a single stick 2133 MHz.
Eager to find out what else is at play here :O
And I just stumbled upon overclocking on youtube, do you think, if nothing else works, that it is worth to overclock?

Since you have ruled out other programs running in the background, or cpu/memory load being caused in the background....
First thing I would do is either try and find a matching bit of, or a dual channel kit of some memory. That alone should help a lot given what it's showing at memory used.
If I were going to take a guess here: I would figure that your system is running on a HDD. The memory load is causing you to go to page file and the write read from your drive is causing low frame rates? Along with running in single channel on the RAM....

I could be completely wrong.

 

[Gdolike]

Since you have ruled out other programs running in the background, or cpu/memory load being caused in the background....
First thing I would do is either try and find a matching bit of, or a dual channel kit of some memory. That alone should help a lot given what it's showing at memory used.
If I were going to take a guess here: I would figure that your system is running on a HDD. The memory load is causing you to go to page file and the write read from your drive is causing low frame rates? Along with running in single channel on the RAM....

I could be completely wrong.

Nah, got an SSD, not quite an expert on all the details of memory and CPU threads and all that stuff, but memory usage while gaming is 75% Maybe it will help to get a matching bit of memory but wont it just send more data to process for the processor? I don't know much but I don't think I can afford to spend money on PC parts atm..

 

[RodroX]

Since you have ruled out other programs running in the background, or cpu/memory load being caused in the background....
First thing I would do is either try and find a matching bit of, or a dual channel kit of some memory. That alone should help a lot given what it's showing at memory used.
If I were going to take a guess here: I would figure that your system is running on a HDD. The memory load is causing you to go to page file and the write read from your drive is causing low frame rates? Along with running in single channel on the RAM....

I could be completely wrong.

You're not wrong at all, and I totally forgot about dual channel, having two stick of identical RAM runing in dual channel should help you to raise the FPS a bit (it wont be a miracle, but it should help).

As I mention many times in the forum, I used to play with a core i5 3570 + RTX 2070 on 1080p@60Hz and my CPU was been used at 100% on any of the games I tried (BF5, SOTR, etc.) and there was tons of spikes and frame drops.
At that resolution, with such a decent card (like the one the OP have, the RTX 2060) it doesn't really matter if you change your detail levels in game. And I played with dual channel memory and my games were on a SSD drive.

 

[Gdolike]

Ok I understand about the part with dual channel would help a bit.

What do you guys think about overclocking and should I consider it or just stick to 45 frames?

 

[dirkrgriebel54]

Just to be save I think you should run a virus scan by: Adware cleaner, Malwarebytes, BitDefender, and your own windows defender. That should keep it clean. Just once a year though.