Question Underperforming RTX 3060 Ti --- is it CPU bottleneck ?

[Seifeak]

System specs:
GPU: Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
CPU: i5-12400f
Motherboard: PRO B660M-A DDR4
Monitor: Acer GF246
RAM: Crucial Ballistix DDR4 16GB
OS: Win10

Hello, I recently upgraded from GTX 950 to RTX 3060 Ti. After plugging the GPU in and testing it in games, benchmarks, I found out the GPU is underperforming. I tried uninstalling drivers with DDU, reconnecting the GPU. I have no temepratures issues, the card never goes above 70°C and CPU never goes over 60°C. Only thing that comes to my mind is bottleneck? A lot of times I see in multiple games that the GPU is not fully utilizing. But I think this CPU shouldn't be bottlenecking this GPU as it's a pretty good combo.. I watched some benchmarks on YT with the same setup and in every game, they have more FPS than I do. For example in GTA 5 they reach around 160 fps on max settings, I get 90-110 fps. In RDR2 they get 80 fps on ultra, mine keeps falling under 60. Could it be faulty GPU? Or did I miss something when installing the new GPU? Should I try reinstalling the system?

Here's benchmark: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/59537543

 

[Nighthawk117]

Have you used MSI Afterburner to determine your GPU utilisation when playing games? GTA V falls apart if you push the frame rate too high, it's not going to be pleasant at 160 FPS. What's your CPU clock speed playing games?

Your userbench results look fine, I certainly don't think anything is faulty. Also what PSU do you have?

 

[Unolocogringo]

Your UBM shows 29% background CPU usage.
You will never get high FPS with that much background CPU usage.
Go to start up in task manager and disable all non needed start up programs.
Is this install of windows very old?
You are also running on a slow WD blue drive as your main HD.

 

[Seifeak]

Have you used MSI Afterburner to determine your GPU utilisation when playing games? GTA V falls apart if you push the frame rate too high, it's not going to be pleasant at 160 FPS. What's your CPU clock speed playing games?

Your userbench results look fine, I certainly don't think anything is faulty. Also what PSU do you have?

Yes, I use Afterburner for benchmarking. Here's example benchmark screenshot from GTA V:

https://imgur.com/8r1x8KQ

View: https://imgur.com/8r1x8KQ

Isn't 80 fps very low for RTX 3060 Ti? Sometimes it climbs up to 120 fps, but I've seen that the GPU is capable of much more on the same system. The fps is flying all over the place sometimes as low as 60. On max settings on 1080p. Perhaps the HDD could be a slowdown?

I have SilentiumPC Supremo L2 - 650W Gold as PSU.

 

[Seifeak]

Your UBM shows 29% background CPU usage.
You will never get high FPS with that much background CPU usage.
Go to start up in task manager and disable all non needed start up programs.
Is this install of windows very old?
You are also running on a slow WD blue drive as your main HD.

Everything is turned off on the startup.
The install is max 2 years old.
Yup, do you think upgrading to SSD could give me a performence boost?

 

[Gamefreaknet]

Everything is turned off on the startup.
The install is max 2 years old.
Yup, do you think upgrading to SSD could give me a performence boost?

Definitely yes. Almost always do SSDs outperform HDDs or SSHDs (hybrid drives) as there are no moving parts. Personally I'd recommend Corsair MP600GS PCIE 4.0 (2TB) for just under £130ish GBP (link here) and a side 500GB SSD boot drive for around £40ish GBP Crucial P2 (here) which is still PCIE 3.0 but since it's just a boot drive the speed will barely be seen when actively on your PC

 

[Nighthawk117]

Yes, I use Afterburner for benchmarking. Here's example benchmark screenshot from GTA V:

https://imgur.com/8r1x8KQ

View: https://imgur.com/8r1x8KQ

Isn't 80 fps very low for RTX 3060 Ti? Sometimes it climbs up to 120 fps, but I've seen that the GPU is capable of much more on the same system. The fps is flying all over the place sometimes as low as 60. On max settings on 1080p. Perhaps the HDD could be a slowdown?

I have SilentiumPC Supremo L2 - 650W Gold as PSU.

MSI Afterburner is showing your GPU usage at 100% so you do not have a CPU bottleneck. Not that I would expect one in this title with a 12400F. You can still make GTA V quite intensive by turning view distance, AA to max ect.. so I wouldn't be surprised you might not hit 160 FPS. 60 does seem a little low though. From your Userbench results I don't think it's your issue but just to rule it out I would check the PCI-E link speed with GPU-Z, just make sure it's running in x16:

https://imgur.com/bhQac9c

View: https://imgur.com/bhQac9c


I've found with some newer open world games that HDD's can cause texture display issues, I've never found it to affect frame rate noticeably though. I personally run GTA V on an SSD, I'd certainly advise running games on an SSD but I would have no idea if it will fix your issue.

 

[geofelt]

For certain, a SSD for the C drive will make your pc much quicker .
No telling if games will do much better.
A good 1tb ssd will cost about $70
You can clone your c drive to make an easy transition.
Repurpose the hdd as an external backup device.
You DO have backup, I hope?

Games will be limited by the cpu or the gpu.
Some games are cpu limited(think sims,mmo , and strategy)
Others are limited by the gpu, think fast action games.
As a simple test,
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

I think you have a relatively well balanced system so far as the cpu/gpu equation goes.