[SOLVED] Why am I getting low fps with low gpu and cpu usage as well?

[zewalrus]

This is something that has been really bugging me recently and I can't seem to find any help what so ever so I hope someone here could help me.

Recently I upgraded my GPU from a 1070 to a 1080 ti and was hoping for some good (realistic) performance boosts. What I've now noticed is that I could, for example, have 70 fps in a game but still only have 40% GPU usage and 50% CPU usage. I have instances where I would turn around fast in a game or enter an area with many particle effects which would give FPS drops but the CPU and GPU usage would more or less stay constant or even DROP.


If I still have CPU and GPU usage to spare, why would it not utilize that and give me increased fps??? I play on a 144hz monitor and I want to reach those high frames. It really infuriates me when I'm dipping in the 40:s sometimes even though there is still GPU usage to spare.

How do I fix this issue? The amount the card is limited by should be fixed by the amount of frames it can produce. If it has more available usage, why does it not use it to give me more frames?

I'm thinking it might have something to do either with my ram, my motherboard or my CPU but I have no idea how to isolate the issue.

Here is my rig (I'm running Windows 10):

Motherboard
Asus H87-PRO

H87-PRO | Motherboards | ASUS Global

www.asus.com

PSU
Corsair CX850M Bronze plus rates
https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categ...-Units/cxm-series-2015-config/p/CP-9020099-EU

CPU (non k)
Intel i7-4770 3.4 Ghz
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...7-4770-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz.html

GPU
MSI 1080 ti gaming x
https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-GAMING-X-11G

Ram (Too old to find on the product page)
Corsair Vengeance ddr3 1600mhz 2x8gb


If I had to upgrade anything I don't have much against it but I want to make sure if I need it or not by fixing my utilization issue. I would upgrade to these three if I'm going to upgrade anything:

Motherboard + cpu (upgrade pack I found)
ASUS ROG STRIX X470-F Gaming + AMD Ryzen 7 3700X

Ram (I like rgb)
G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series 2x8gb 3200MHz (ddr4 of course)

If anyone could help me I would be so grateful because this has been bugging me for a long while now.

Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Your 4770 is definitely a thorn in your side when it comes to trying to support that 1080 TI. It is simply not capable enough. It's not a pile of junk, but it lacks the highly threaded capabilities and more physical cores, obviously, of newer CPUs, and is a bit behind in single core performance as well.

As for the usage, I suspect that it's a driver issue. I would try all of the following FIRST, and if that doesn't help, then an upgrade might be a foregone conclusion.


If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.


Fourth,

Make sure the problem is not just a bad cable or the wrong cable IF this is a display issue. If it is NOT related to a lack of display signal, then skip to the next step.

This happens a lot. Try a different cable or a different TYPE of cable. Sometimes there can be issues with the monitor or card not supporting a specific specification such as HDMI 1.4 vs HDMI 2.0, or even an HDMI output stops working but the Displayport or DVI output still works fine on the graphics card. Always worth checking the cable and trying other cables because cables get run over, bent, bent pins or simply were cheap quality to begin with and something as simple as trying a different cable or different monitor might be all that is required to solve your issue.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Clean install guide using the DDU






​

 

[zewalrus]

Your 4770 is definitely a thorn in your side when it comes to trying to support that 1080 TI. It is simply not capable enough. It's not a pile of junk, but it lacks the highly threaded capabilities and more physical cores, obviously, of newer CPUs, and is a bit behind in single core performance as well.

As for the usage, I suspect that it's a driver issue. I would try all of the following FIRST, and if that doesn't help, then an upgrade might be a foregone conclusion.


If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.


Fourth,

Make sure the problem is not just a bad cable or the wrong cable IF this is a display issue. If it is NOT related to a lack of display signal, then skip to the next step.

This happens a lot. Try a different cable or a different TYPE of cable. Sometimes there can be issues with the monitor or card not supporting a specific specification such as HDMI 1.4 vs HDMI 2.0, or even an HDMI output stops working but the Displayport or DVI output still works fine on the graphics card. Always worth checking the cable and trying other cables because cables get run over, bent, bent pins or simply were cheap quality to begin with and something as simple as trying a different cable or different monitor might be all that is required to solve your issue.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Clean install guide using the DDU






​

Thank you. This might be the most comprehensive answer to any tech question I've had ever!

I don't have time right now to go through all these options. When I do I'll make sure to mark the question as answered if it works.

I have one more quick question just to make sure that I got everything in check.

The motherboard is pretty old (2013). Do you think that a possibility is that it's not communicating with the newer specs of the system well? I'm guessing that the connections are very slow compared to what current motherboards can sustain.

Also, my ram is also old (2012) and only has 1600 Mhz running through DDR3. I installed the computer myself and know that they are running in dual-channel. I'm going to double-check that they are in the right positions.

Another thing I noticed is that my commit charge is very high when I look in MSI-Afterburner. It's around 25 GB. Should I be concerned or is this not an issue?

Thank you again for this answer. I'll make sure to go through all these potential fixes tomorrow.

 

[helper800]

The motherboard is pretty old (2013). Do you think that a possibility is that it's not communicating with the newer specs of the system well? I'm guessing that the connections are very slow compared to what current motherboards can sustain.

This is a non-issue as far as I know. Newer motherboards aren't usually "faster" than older ones. The difference is the other hardware being faster on the newer motherboards that drives the system altogether making for a faster experience.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, newer motherboards ARE faster, in many ways.

In comparison to older boards, newer boards generally tend towards having faster PCI bus speeds, faster SATA bus speeds, faster USB bus speeds, faster interconnects between the CPU and memory due to constantly improved MC and bus, more efficient driver frameworks because often newer chipsets have allowances not possible on older architectures. And probably a whole bunch of other things that I'm completely leaving out or are unaware of.

The fact that the newer hardware being used on the newer motherboard is faster, makes that even more obvious as it translates to actual performance.

Newer boards also generally support faster memory speeds and tighter memory timings as compared to older hardware. So yeah, they really are technically, faster. But you're right, the majority of gains come from hardware improvements on the CPU, memory and graphics card.

 

[Darkbreeze]

25GB of virtual memory? That's insane. Do this. Go into control panel and open the "System" applet.

Open "Advanced system settings" on the left side.

Click on settings in the Performance category.


Click on Advanced.

Click on "Change"

Click on C: drive and set minimum to 4096 and maximum to 4096. Make virtual memory is disabled for all other drives. Save settings and exit out of all open windows. Restart Windows. See if the commit charge is still high after restarting and firing up Afterburner again.