Ryzen 1600 being weird in gaming (Low Usage in GPU and CPU)

[pcfreaky]

Hi,

So I've have upgraded my PC some months ago

Previous PC Specs:
GTX 660
i5 3570k
8GB ram 1333mhz
Some old mainboard I couldnt Overclock on. Pls tell me if this is important but I doubt it.

Current PC Specs:
GTX 1070 Zotac
Ryzen 1600 3.4Ghz
16GB 2400Mhz FlareX from Gskill
Asus Prime X370 Pro

And in gaming (1080p/144hz) I see my GPU usage only being very high (90%+) when I put the graphics settings to the max, even with Anti-Aliasing off. And for example in Overwatch, on lowest settings I do get about 30% (guessing) more fps BUT my gpu usage is at 40%-50% and my cpu about at 30%-40%. And that happens to almost all games.

I think it's just bad optimization of ryzen itself with gaming but is it really true? Is this normal? Should I check some bios settings?

 

[Dunlop0078]

Do you have vsync on? If not is the framerate hitting some kind of game engine fps cap in overwatch? If nothing is limiting framerate at the lower settings I would expect GPU, CPU usage, or both to be close to 100%.

 

[Shektron]

Seems normal to me. You see, rendering frames is a CPU+GPU task. The CPu draws the polygons and stuff, while the GPU fills in the details. Now, at high refresh rates, as is your case, the GPU need to be fed 144 frames of polygons each second, a task dependent on the CPU, specifically clock speed and IPC. Ryzen is lacking in this area. So, even if you lower the settings, the CPU can only render so much frames per second, and above that, the CPU becomes the limitation, and hence your FPS hits a max. The GPU still has some resources left to use, but it's not getting enough frames from the CPU to be able to use those resources. Since the CPu is limiting the FPS, the GPU usage hence drops, and therefore you see the lower usage.

TLDR - That's a normal phenomena you're seeing. Ryzen is a bit weak at high refresh rate gaming, hence it limits the frames even when the GPu is capable of pushing more FPS.

Only thing you can do to improve your condition a bit is to overclock the CPU as much as you can, it might get you a few extra FPS.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Seems normal to me. You see, rendering frames is a CPU+GPU task. The CPu draws the polygons and stuff, while the GPU fills in the details. Now, at high refresh rates, as is your case, the GPU need to be fed 144 frames of polygons each second, a task dependent on the CPU, specifically clock speed and IPC. Ryzen is lacking in this area. So, even if you lower the settings, the CPU can only render so much frames per second, and above that, the CPU becomes the limitation, and hence your FPS hits a max. The GPU still has some resources left to use, but it's not getting enough frames from the CPU to be able to use those resources. Since the CPu is limiting the FPS, the GPU usage hence drops, and therefore you see the lower usage.

TLDR - That's a normal phenomena you're seeing. Ryzen is a bit weak at high refresh rate gaming, hence it limits the frames even when the GPu is capable of pushing more FPS.

Only thing you can do to improve your condition a bit is to overclock the CPU as much as you can, it might get you a few extra FPS.

I disagree, overwatch is decently multithreaded. I would expect to see much higher cpu usage at low settings than 30-40% if that was the case. OP can you let us know individual cpu core usage in that game? If a few cores are maxed causing an overall 30-40% usage then maybe I could see your theory being plausible.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Seems normal to me. You see, rendering frames is a CPU+GPU task. The CPu draws the polygons and stuff, while the GPU fills in the details. Now, at high refresh rates, as is your case, the GPU need to be fed 144 frames of polygons each second, a task dependent on the CPU, specifically clock speed and IPC. Ryzen is lacking in this area. So, even if you lower the settings, the CPU can only render so much frames per second, and above that, the CPU becomes the limitation, and hence your FPS hits a max. The GPU still has some resources left to use, but it's not getting enough frames from the CPU to be able to use those resources. Since the CPu is limiting the FPS, the GPU usage hence drops, and therefore you see the lower usage.

TLDR - That's a normal phenomena you're seeing. Ryzen is a bit weak at high refresh rate gaming, hence it limits the frames even when the GPu is capable of pushing more FPS.

Only thing you can do to improve your condition a bit is to overclock the CPU as much as you can, it might get you a few extra FPS.

'The CPU draws the polygons and stuff'? Care to elaborate on that.

 

[Shektron]

Seems normal to me. You see, rendering frames is a CPU+GPU task. The CPu draws the polygons and stuff, while the GPU fills in the details. Now, at high refresh rates, as is your case, the GPU need to be fed 144 frames of polygons each second, a task dependent on the CPU, specifically clock speed and IPC. Ryzen is lacking in this area. So, even if you lower the settings, the CPU can only render so much frames per second, and above that, the CPU becomes the limitation, and hence your FPS hits a max. The GPU still has some resources left to use, but it's not getting enough frames from the CPU to be able to use those resources. Since the CPu is limiting the FPS, the GPU usage hence drops, and therefore you see the lower usage.

TLDR - That's a normal phenomena you're seeing. Ryzen is a bit weak at high refresh rate gaming, hence it limits the frames even when the GPu is capable of pushing more FPS.

Only thing you can do to improve your condition a bit is to overclock the CPU as much as you can, it might get you a few extra FPS.

I disagree, overwatch is decently multithreaded. I would expect to see much higher cpu usage at low settings than 30-40% if that was the case. OP can you let us know individual cpu core usage in that game? If a few cores are maxed causing an overall 30-40% usage then maybe I could see your theory being plausible.

https://youtu.be/5Fhho5vvU28

I know, I know, YouTube is not a reliable source, but I don't know where else to look for CPU usage while playing the game. The Ryzen bottlenecks even a GTX 1060 at Low settings, so obviously a 1070 would be as well.

 

[Shektron]

https://www.gamespot.com/forums/pc-mac-linux-society-1000004/what-does-a-processor-do-in-terms-of-gaming-26786187/

Alright I messed up on the what CPU does part. But what FPS you get still does depend on the CPU.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

https://www.gamespot.com/forums/pc-mac-linux-society-1000004/what-does-a-processor-do-in-terms-of-gaming-26786187/

Alright I messed up on the what CPU does part. But what FPS you get still does depend on the CPU.

Well, yes, you are right there. The CPU has some impact on FPS. I think your suggesting a slight bottleneck with the Ryzen 1600 at stock? If there is any bottleneck, and the info the OP has provided hasn't fully established that, then yes, an OC on the CPU will help negate that.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Seems normal to me. You see, rendering frames is a CPU+GPU task. The CPu draws the polygons and stuff, while the GPU fills in the details. Now, at high refresh rates, as is your case, the GPU need to be fed 144 frames of polygons each second, a task dependent on the CPU, specifically clock speed and IPC. Ryzen is lacking in this area. So, even if you lower the settings, the CPU can only render so much frames per second, and above that, the CPU becomes the limitation, and hence your FPS hits a max. The GPU still has some resources left to use, but it's not getting enough frames from the CPU to be able to use those resources. Since the CPu is limiting the FPS, the GPU usage hence drops, and therefore you see the lower usage.

TLDR - That's a normal phenomena you're seeing. Ryzen is a bit weak at high refresh rate gaming, hence it limits the frames even when the GPu is capable of pushing more FPS.

Only thing you can do to improve your condition a bit is to overclock the CPU as much as you can, it might get you a few extra FPS.

I disagree, overwatch is decently multithreaded. I would expect to see much higher cpu usage at low settings than 30-40% if that was the case. OP can you let us know individual cpu core usage in that game? If a few cores are maxed causing an overall 30-40% usage then maybe I could see your theory being plausible.

https://youtu.be/5Fhho5vvU28

I know, I know, YouTube is not a reliable source, but I don't know where else to look for CPU usage while playing the game. The Ryzen bottlenecks even a GTX 1060 at Low settings, so obviously a 1070 would be as well.

I've a 1600x and a GTX1060, there is no bottleneck whatsoever.

 

[pcfreaky]

Update:
So, I've reinstalled MSI Afterburner and Rivatuner to latest versions and tried Overwatch again and for some dumb reason I now get around 95% GPU Usage....which...is...really weird. I did also deleted all saves from MSI Aft. and Riv.. That's weird, that should'nt really affect the fps. Maybe I changed some settings many months ago and was too dumb to realise that I was actually getting around 95% GPU Usage before posting this thread here.

BUT I did try Battlefield 1 on lowest settings and in that game I have around 60%-70% GPU Usage while all cpu cores are being used at about 65%-85%..yes, all 12 threads at that percentage. I read that Battlefield is known to be cpu heavy, therefore the 65%-85% on all 12 threads but still, my GPU usage is at 60%-70%. Ok, maybe its like one of the only games that are badly optimized. Im gonna try some other games.

I just tried Titanfall 2 on lowest and max settings and GPU is being utilized 95%+ almost all the time so it's perfectly fine here. (Yes I did restart the game after changing graphic settings)

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is an older game and I really didnt expect good optimization with Ryzen in this game.

Lowest settings (Textures Highest, textures doesn't affect performance if you have enough vram)

Highest Settings:

Now I have tried Rainbow Six Siege and these are the results:

I shouldn't really complain about that one because I do get my 140-144 fps

Ok I think it's just me being dumb. I am really sorry for wasting your time here guys. My cpu and gpu are apparently fine and there's no issue. But I can say I had lower GPU usage in these games months ago. I guess they optimized it now. Thanks anyway!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Yeah, i think most of the posters, me included, thought something was a little amiss. The 1600 shouldn't have a problem driving any single high end GPU up to a 1080ti.

Glad you're sorted

 

[pcfreaky]

Yeah, i think most of the posters, me included, thought something was a little amiss. The 1600 shouldn't have a problem driving any single high end GPU up to a 1080ti.

Glad you're sorted

Didnt know who to give the ''Best Solution'' so yeah, here ya go. x)

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Yeah, i think most of the posters, me included, thought something was a little amiss. The 1600 shouldn't have a problem driving any single high end GPU up to a 1080ti.

Glad you're sorted

Didnt know who to give the ''Best Solution'' so yeah, here ya go. x)