Question PC works fine in benchmarks but acts like it's bottlenecking while gaming ?

[Easter_Egg]

I've been having this issue for a while but it only affects certain demanding games so I've ignored it up until now. I have:

B450 Tomahawk Max
Ryzen 9 5900X
RTX 3070
32GB RAM.
Corsair RM850

When I run any benchmarking program such as UserBenchmark/Cinebench everything works fine and gets great scores. When I test the cpu load in cinebench it reaches 100% usage on all cores no problem and clears the test fine, BUT when I'm playing a game like Starfield my cpu usage never goes above 40%, the cores are set to a max speed of 4,900 but never reach higher than 2,000 during gameplay, and I'm stuck with 30fps as if it's bottlenecking but it isn't even trying to use all of it's power.

I originally suspected it was a power issue and eventually fully replaced my PSU with a Corsair RM850 but that didn't fix the problem. My only idea left is that it's possibly the motherboard unable to send the information between the cpu and gpu fast enough but I feel like that would affect the benchmarks and I don't want to replace another component without getting some advice first. I've overclocked the CPU to no affect and searched every forum post about low cpu usage I could find and haven't found a single fix that fits my problem. It also can't be some sort of FPS lock because it jumps between 25-40 and in some small areas even reaches 70.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!
When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
Monitor:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. BIOS version for your motherboard? + Include a link to your ram kit.

I originally suspected it was a power issue and eventually fully replaced my PSU with a Corsair RM850 but that didn't fix the problem.
What PSU did you have prior to the RM850?

Try and run DDU to remove all GPU drivers, then manually reinstall the latest GPU drivers from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

 

[Easter_Egg]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Thanks for the response, my full system specs are as follows:
CPU: Ryzen 9 5900x
CPU cooler: Deepcool Assassin iii
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max (Version 7C02v3D, last updated 7/16/22)
Ram: G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 32gb (2x16) Link
SSD/HDD: 1x Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB, 1x Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB
GPU: RTX 3070
PSU: Corsair RM850x (2 days old)
Chassis: Lian Li Lancool 3
OS: Windows 10 Home
Monitor: LG UltraGear 144Hz

What PSU did you have prior to the RM850?
RM750, no noticable change from the upgrade

Try and run DDU to remove all GPU drivers, then manually reinstall the latest GPU drivers from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.
I will do this now and report back once I'm done.

 

[Easter_Egg]

Try and run DDU to remove all GPU drivers, then manually reinstall the latest GPU drivers from Nvidia's support site in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

No change, I'm attaching a picture of the system's clock speeds while running Starfield at 28fps

Most of the cores are sitting below 2,000, I can't figure out why they won't push any harder when the GPU is keeping up fine. They don't do this during any benchmarking and they even go up to 4k when loading new areas in the game but as soon as it's regular gameplay they sit at <2,000. I've even found a youtube video with the same specs showing how it runs the game at around 90fps.

 

[Zerk2012]

BUT when I'm playing a game like Starfield

Don't use that game to judge anything it's just a very poor game.

That video shows a average of 69 FPS (@1080p) nothing near the 90 you say. Looked like the had some settings to low and off and using 70% scaling.
Unless you use the same EXACT in game settings then it has nothing to do with your PC.
Did you notice his CPU usage?
You would also need the exact memory speed and timings he has.

EDIT also his video card was maxed out. If you have the settings to high then the CPU has nothing to do to keep up with the video card.

 

[Easter_Egg]

That video shows a average of 69 FPS (@1080p) nothing near the 90 you say

That's still double my average, and in parts of the video you can see he has 90-130 in places where I only get up to 30, starfield isn't the only game this issue happens on like I said in the post. It's just what I'm using as my baseline because I know where it SHOULD be at.

I think his reported 2% cpu is some sort of bug/misrepresented. There's no way that's possible because starfield is a CPU heavy game, even on ultra settings, I'd also point out that I get the same results and fps on the lowest and highest settings. I've also matched his settings in the video exactly and still get 30 fps avg.

EDIT his cpu clock speed is also hovering around 4700 meaning that 2% is definitely wrong and where mine would be around 2500 at best

 

[Zerk2012]

That's still double my average, and in parts of the video you can see he has 90-130 in places where I only get up to 30, starfield isn't the only game this issue happens on like I said in the post. It's just what I'm using as my baseline because I know where it SHOULD be at.

I think his reported 2% cpu is some sort of bug/misrepresented. There's no way that's possible because starfield is a CPU heavy game, even on ultra settings, I'd also point out that I get the same results and fps on the lowest and highest settings. I've also matched his settings in the video exactly and still get 30 fps avg.

EDIT his cpu clock speed is also hovering around 4700 meaning that 2% is definitely wrong and where mine would be around 2500 at best

So his is definitely wrong but yours is right?
You need to use a actual game that is established not a new one that is giving people fits with all kinds of hardware.

 

[Easter_Egg]

So his is definitely wrong but yours is right?

What's wrong is the 2% message, he's obviously using more than 2% of his cpu if its clocking 4700 MHz, you can see in my screenshot that most of my cores aren't even producing half of that under load while in game. That's the issue. No game in the world can artificially limit your max clock speed no matter how unoptimized. Starfield obviously isn't the problem.

If it helps here's my usage while in a game of CS:GO, a game I used to be able to and should get 200+ fps in, at the time of this screenshot I had 68 fps, the CPU is still capping itself around 40% with no reason.