Why is my GTX 1080 GPU Usage low compares after upgrading from a gtx 970?

[Hong Yuan]

I just brought in a new GTX 1080 for my PC and my GPU usage on both FF XV and Far Cry 5 never reached 99-100% like when I am using my GTX 970. I have pics below showing the difference in GPU usage with MIS afterburner. All the settings are the same and I tested both in 1440p with a Gsynch Monitor.

Gtx 1080
https://imgur.com/a/2JvvWft
https://imgur.com/a/yfNNp7S

Gtx 970
https://imgur.com/a/QtuCO2v
https://imgur.com/a/HeRcf6w

 

[Dugimodo]

The answer is in your pictures, look at the CPU usage. Your CPU is maxing out and bottlenecking the GPU, with the 970 it was the other way around.

 

[Hong Yuan]

The answer is in your pictures, look at the CPU usage. Your CPU is maxing out and bottlenecking the GPU, with the 970 it was the other way around.

Hello
Oh, really? I never thought that the 1080 can get bottleneck by a i5 6500. I always thought it usually occurs with much older cpu

 

[Dugimodo]

Depends on the game, some are harder on the CPU and some are more GPU intensive.

You can see in the screenshots for the 970 that the CPU was already hitting 87-91% so you were never going to get much more fps out of those games before maxing it out. Closing anything running in the background including benchmarking software should bump it up a bit.

 

[rfm420]

]I never thought that the 1080 can get bottleneck by a i5 6500. I always thought it usually occurs with much older cpu

It depends on what resolution you play, at 1920x1080 your CPU will be the bottleneck. But at 3840x2160 (4K), with 4x the pixel count compared to full HD, your 1080 will be the bottleneck.

With an i7 , with hyperthreading and a K model that can easily be overclocked you could gain some performance at 1440p and lower resolutions.

 

[boju]

FC5 is heavy multi threaded game from experience with it. Not sure about FF.

2600k @ 4.5, 16GB ram, 1080Ti 1440p 144Hz here. HT off CPU usage was pegged at 95%, GPU usage around the 60s.

HT on, CPU usage dropped to 65ish and GPU usage increased into the 90s. Gained 20+ fps and felt a lot smoother.