[SOLVED] Please Explain Why FPS Maxes

The_Ginja_Ninja

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Nov 17, 2020
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Hopefully someone can explain this to me!

I was under the impression that your GPU will keep churning out higher FPS until it hits a limit.

I'm playing multiplayer on CoD Cold War and getting around 100fps. Using 2k resolution. Most settings are on ultra, I've tried reducing ray tracing to medium but doesn't make any difference.

I've read when amending graphics settings doesn't make much issue then it's a CPU bottleneck, but not sure that's the case here. From afterburner:

CPU Usage %: Min 0 Max 53 (generally hovering around 35% whilst gaming)
GPU Usage %: Min 0 Max 100 (generally hovering around 75% whilst gaming)
RAM Usage (MB): Min 3629 Max 18482
CPU Temp: Min 33 Max 65
GPU Temp: Min 25 Max 70
GPU Core Clock: Min 210 Max 2145
CPU Clock: Min 3775 Max 4600

Looking at the percentages, nothing seems to be maxing out, so I'd expect the FPS to increase until something does.

Build:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
GPU: Zotax Amp Holo RTX 3080
RAM: 2x16GB Vengeance LPX DDR4-3600C18
Mobo: MSI X570 Tomahawk WiFi
PSU: Antec Earthwatts Gold Pro 750W
Cooling: Cougar 240 AIO

GPU Overclock Details:
Power Limit: 110%
Core Clock: +130
Mem Clock: +800

No CPU Overclock.
 
Solution
Thanks sizzling. I've now mirrored your settings. Getting good FPS (160 to 210), but still not 100% GPU usage. On further examination of Afterburner charts, I frequently hit power or voltage limit. Is this normal behaviour?

Slightly off topic, I occasionally see a short spike of temp limit. It usually coincides with power limit, but temp readout suggests it's a false hit on the temp - they are well within normal range.
I took a look at my Afterburner results and strangely the gpu sits about 90+% but not 100%. I know it did a while ago. I’m guessing I’ve either changed a setting or a driver/game update has changed something.

As for temporary spikes to power or temp limits yes there are random spikes even though the gpu...
Turn Ray Tracing completely off. I can’t remember what this setting is called but there is an option to pick image quality over performance, try pushing it closer to performance. I am not able to look it up at the moment.

By playing with the settings and turning off RT I can get 160+ FPS in Cold War with a 3700x and 3080 at 1440p. It does vary from map to map.
 

The_Ginja_Ninja

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Nov 17, 2020
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I wasn’t sure but just checked and it is called NVidia DLSS in the menu and I have it set to balanced. Ray Tracing seems to limit FPS before the gpu hits 100% usage.
Thanks sizzling. I've now mirrored your settings. Getting good FPS (160 to 210), but still not 100% GPU usage. On further examination of Afterburner charts, I frequently hit power or voltage limit. Is this normal behaviour?

Slightly off topic, I occasionally see a short spike of temp limit. It usually coincides with power limit, but temp readout suggests it's a false hit on the temp - they are well within normal range.
 
Thanks sizzling. I've now mirrored your settings. Getting good FPS (160 to 210), but still not 100% GPU usage. On further examination of Afterburner charts, I frequently hit power or voltage limit. Is this normal behaviour?

Slightly off topic, I occasionally see a short spike of temp limit. It usually coincides with power limit, but temp readout suggests it's a false hit on the temp - they are well within normal range.
I took a look at my Afterburner results and strangely the gpu sits about 90+% but not 100%. I know it did a while ago. I’m guessing I’ve either changed a setting or a driver/game update has changed something.

As for temporary spikes to power or temp limits yes there are random spikes even though the gpu temp didn’t go over 64c.
 
Solution