[SOLVED] Possible Bottleneck with RTX 3060 ti

[fabiowuersch]

Hello fellow gamers,
I have recently picked up an RTX 3060 ti and was excited to put it in my system. Unfortunately I did not experience the speed that got promised, in fact it was nearly on par with my old 1070.

Some, rather disappointing, benchmarks:
CS:GO, maxed@1080p: 220fps dips to 150fps
RL, maxed@1080p: 210fps
Warzon, nearly maxed@1080p: 80fps
RDR2, nearly maxed@1080p: 45fps
In Time Spy, however, my GPU scored 11900 points, which is, as far as I know, normal for my GPU.

After a google search I checked my Utilization and it only shows 55-65% usage. Except RDR2 which is using 100% but still only delivers 45fps (?)
I assumed it has to do with the fact that my CPU bottlenecks my GPU, hoped an i7-6700 was enough... could it maybe be the Ram? 😉

I wanted to asked some others before I spend another $500 on a new CPU and motherboard sigh

My Rig:

• Motherboard: MSI Z170A
• CPU: i7-6700
• GPU: RTX 3060 ti
• RAM: 16GB DDR4@2133MHz

Thanks in advance!

 

[LucasPerks]

Hello fellow gamers,
I have recently picked up an RTX 3060 ti and was excited to put it in my system. Unfortunately I did not experience the speed that got promised, in fact it was nearly on par with my old 1070.

Some, rather disappointing, benchmarks:
CS:GO, maxed@1080p: 220fps dips to 150fps
RL, maxed@1080p: 210fps
Warzon, nearly maxed@1080p: 80fps
RDR2, nearly maxed@1080p: 45fps
In Time Spy, however, my GPU scored 11900 points, which is, as far as I know, normal for my GPU.

After a google search I checked my Utilization and it only shows 55-65% usage. Except RDR2 which is using 100% but still only delivers 45fps (?)
I assumed it has to do with the fact that my CPU bottlenecks my GPU, hoped an i7-6700 was enough... could it maybe be the Ram? 😉

I wanted to asked some others before I spend another $500 on a new CPU and motherboard sigh

My Rig:

• Motherboard: MSI Z170A
• CPU: i7-6700
• GPU: RTX 3060 ti
• RAM: 16GB DDR4@2133MHz

Thanks in advance!

There are many causes for this, but the most common one for me is that the game is just not demanding enough, so the GPU isn’t going to it’s full potential. For example, when I played minecraft with my 1650 super, the clocks were at around 1600mhz, but when I use shaders, the clocks go to 2100mhz. Try a variety of games and use msi afterburner to manage your clocks. I’m pretty sure there are ways of fixing this, you need to go to nvidia control panel, and change the power management mode, but this doesn’t always work.

 

[sizzling]

How many cpu cores/threads are at 100% when you are testing? As a test drop the resolution to 720p, do you see any improvement in FPS?

 

[nofanneeded]

Check the CPU is it at 100% all the time or not . this is what determines if you need to upgrade the CPU or not . compare CPU and GPU usage ... if the CPU is near 100% while the GPU is lower usage ( like 80% or less) , then you need to upgrade the CPU

 

[dotas1]

Check the CPU is it at 100% all the time or not . this is what determines if you need to upgrade the CPU or not . compare CPU and GPU usage ... if the CPU is near 100% while the GPU is lower usage ( like 80% or less) , then you need to upgrade the CPU

That claim is false. You don't need 100% utilisation of cpu to be bottlenecked. You can be bottlenecked with just one core being at full utilisation so you need to check each core individually.

Also what many people do not understand is that the clocks of the GPU do matter when you are observing GPU utilisation. Almost all GPUs have multiple power stages with clocks adjusted to that power. You are not gonna have the same performance when you see for example 99% utilisation with core clock 800MHz and 99% with core clock 2000MHz.

To OP, use DDU in safe mode to remove and reinstall your GPU drivers.

How To - How to perform a CLEAN install of your video card drivers.

Updated 9-19-19 How to do a CLEAN install of your graphics card drivers using the Wagnard tools Display Driver Uninstaller A major issue on many systems is the presence of multiple graphics card drivers or drivers that have been incompletely uninstalled followed by the installation of...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[nofanneeded]

That claim is false. You don't need 100% utilisation of cpu to be bottlenecked. You can be bottlenecked with just one core being at full utilisation so you need to check each core individually.

Where did I say all cores ? ..

meh

 

[dotas1]

Where did I say all cores ? ..

meh

Where did you say that you meant just one core? You only said "CPU".

Check the CPU

if the CPU is near 100%

 

[nofanneeded]

Where did you say that you meant just one core? You only said "CPU".

. when you see me say all cores then start talking next time. dont assume from your mind. ask for clarification better !

 

[dotas1]

. when you see me say all cores then start talking next time. dont assume from your mind. ask for clarification better !

We are trying to help someone here. You were not clear at all and I am certain that everyone that read your comment assumed the exact same thing. You confuse OP and others with your answers that way and you are being offensive afterwards and want us to ask you for clarifications...

 

[USAFRet]

All,
Let's help the OP, not snipe back and forth.

Deal?

 

[fabiowuersch]

How many cpu cores/threads are at 100% when you are testing? As a test drop the resolution to 720p, do you see any improvement in FPS?

So, I've tested Warzone with a render resolution of about 720p and out of curiosity also 3.840 x 2.160.
1080p and 720p both use about 65-90% (across all cores) CPU and 50-55% GPU usage.
Oddly enough 4k render resolution uses 60-80% CPU and 100% GPU usage. Across all 3 of them there were no noticable fps differences; ~65 fps (maxed settings)

 

[sizzling]

The same fps across all resolutions does suggest a cpu limitation. Warzone can use 12 threads of a cpu so with 4 cores and 8 threads I’m not overly surprised.

 

[RTX 2080]

So, I've tested Warzone with a render resolution of about 720p and out of curiosity also 3.840 x 2.160.
1080p and 720p both use about 65-90% (across all cores) CPU and 50-55% GPU usage.
Oddly enough 4k render resolution uses 60-80% CPU and 100% GPU usage. Across all 3 of them there were no noticable fps differences; ~65 fps (maxed settings)

You are 100% CPU limited, no getting around it. When you play a game, your CPU requests data from your hard drive/RAM and renders certain parts of a frame. It then sends the pre-rendered frame to the GPU so that the GPU can do the portion of the frame rendering that it is responsible for which is then displayed on your screen. Thus, if your CPU isn't fast enough, certain types of games will overwhelm your CPU, causing your GPU to be underutilized because it can't begin rendering a frame until it receives it from the CPU. Since you're using a very capable GPU for high refresh rate 1080p gaming, you need to pair it with a CPU capable of rapidly providing your GPU with frames, like a Ryzen 5600X.

 

[spentshells]

RAM speed will be a limting factor for you. You are getting lower frame rates in games simply due to having slowish ram. Also more cores helps in games that support them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m692eBH2Jw


as the video shows up to 40fps difference between 2133 vs 3000. Try overclocking, sure this is a newer cpu with more cores so your mileage may vary, but if there was a limiting factor in your pc that would be it.

 

[mdd1963]

The base model non-K /stock 6700 at an all-core turbo of but 3.7 GHz is hardly an 'FPS powerhouse just begging for a faster GPU' these days...

Concur with 'cpu is too weak' summary...unless you can find a cheap 7700K w/ cooler, time to pile onto the rather lengthy B550/R5-5600X waiting lists....!

 

[StiFFman_CZ]

Something seems weird with you performance - for comparison, I am getting about 70-80fps in COD Warzone (maxed, 1xAA) and 50fps in RDR2 (maxed, TAA), but both in 1440p!
I wonder if only CPU bottleneck could cause loss that big... I have ordered 3060ti, so when (if) it comes , I can make a test to compare.

 

[fabiowuersch]

The same fps across all resolutions does suggest a cpu limitation.

You are 100% CPU limited, no getting around it. When you play a game, your CPU requests data from your hard drive/RAM and renders certain parts of a frame. It then sends the pre-rendered frame to the GPU so that the GPU can do the portion of the frame rendering that it is responsible for which is then displayed on your screen. Thus, if your CPU isn't fast enough, certain types of games will overwhelm your CPU, causing your GPU to be underutilized because it can't begin rendering a frame until it receives it from the CPU. Since you're using a very capable GPU for high refresh rate 1080p gaming, you need to pair it with a CPU capable of rapidly providing your GPU with frames, like a Ryzen 5600X.

RAM speed will be a limting factor for you

Thanks for the detailed explanations. I can see why my CPU bottlenecks so much, together with the RAM problem that spentshells mentioned it could just about be those missing 60-ish frames.

time to pile onto the rather lengthy B550/R5-5600X waiting lists....!

This will probably be my next move and when I'm at it I might aswell also upgrade my RAM. 💸


Thanks all for the help, guess there is no getting around a new CPU.. 🙄

 

[RTX 2080]

This will probably be my next move and when I'm at it I might aswell also upgrade my RAM. 💸

100% upgrade your RAM. Ryzen CPU is particular are very sensitive to RAM speeds. For a Ryzen 3000/5000 series build you'll want minimum 2x 8 GB 3200 MHz RAM, 3600 MHz is even better.