Question Win11 GPU and CPU power utilization in-game very low? Bad fps drops on semi high end system

[littleneighbour]

Specs:
Gigabyte B660M D3SH AX
GTX 3060
Intel i7-12700k with Lian Li Galahad cooler
16gb Corsair Ram in channel a with 8gb MSI in channel b
Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
I do have 2 monitors (165hz and 60hz for work) in but the 60hz one is always idle when I am playing games
PC was built brand new in August 2022 with the parts from a Memory Express.

I'm definitely not tech illiterate but I'm by no means an expert on Windows or hardware and I'm kinda stuck on how to proceed further. I've always had bad performance or random fps drops on this pc for the hardware but just ignored it because I had more urgent matters (work, school stuff) but I've seriously decided to crack down on this issue because I've been playing a lot recently and I don't mean to sound like a hyper competitive nerd or anything but I am watching the frames being drawn on my screen sometimes and it feels like sandpaper is being dragged across my eyes. I play games in waves and the games I've been playing recently are TF2, Payday 2 and the Finals beta, and recently when I ran TF2 recently on med-low settings in normal casual games I am getting about 80-110fps. When I ran Payday med settings solo no mods I am getting around 70-100fps, but I noticed when running The Finals with all high graphics and med raytracing I am averaging 140-160fps. It doesn't make sense to me how I can knock whole buildings to the ground in a colossal map with stunning shadows but am struggling to win gunfights in games from 2007 because my screen is tearing across my eyes. Is this just an optimization thing? I feel like my old rig (GTX1060, i5-5600) would run the same games better and I don't understand what is happening here. Sorry for the tirade but I've been trying to test stuff all day and I don't know what else to do haha
These are just some recent examples but every game I've played on my old rig runs the same if not worse than the newer rig. I never bothered to check because I haven't been gaming on this rig a lot but I've been running task manager on my 2nd monitor the past few days and while I am playing games task manager says both my CPU and GPU are always being utilized at about 20-25%. Bottleneck calculator sites say there should be a 3.1% CPU bottleneck so I get that but that doesn't explain both parts running at 25% power when games get hectic. Might also be worth mentioning that ram isn't affected by this throttling and the CPU and GPU have no problem spiking up when rendering stuff like in Sony Vegas or Stable Diffusion, just doesn't seem to want to work when playing games of any kind.


Some things I have done to combat this (~2week timeframe) are:
Tested all ram with Memtest86
Debloated and updated GPU drivers using DDU and NVcleanstall
Updated bios
Reconfigured NVIDIA control panel and some other smaller graphic settings
Wiped drives and changed from Win11 to Tiny11
I run the windows ultimate power performance plan or the Bitsum highest performance plan with x game's process states on high. All games are written to an SSD.


Please let me know if I am missing any vital information here to helping this problem. Obviously this isn't earthshattering stuff and I can tolerate sparing fps but I can't even get 165 frames for my monitor on titles from over a decade ago, and not meeting my native refresh rate tears the screen in front of my eyes and actively hurts my performance and enjoyment of whatever I'm doing. I just want my computer to run games over 160 frames I really don't understand why The Finals with ray tracing on medium runs beautifully but I can't even make it through a payday heist (on med-low graphics) without my eyes actually hurting. Is there any chance this is just an optimization issue for these older games I have only been playing recently? I seriously am lost because I have noticed all games run pretty poor from what I've seen(like gta, overwatch, call of duty titles, even games like league) and I feel like even though I do have a pretty standard mid-tier setup nowadays I should not be pushing 100 frames in TF2. Please help me if you have any suggestions! This is my first forum post ever so please let me know if any further info is needed. Thank you


EDIT: Here is a recent UserBenchmark test https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/65452282
It says my CPU is performing below expectations and my GPU is performing below potential.
Put here incase someone can make sense of maybe why this is. I could also run cinebench or another similar benchmarking program if that would help.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Gigabyte B660M D3SH AX
+
Updated bios
What BIOS version are you on?

16gb Corsair Ram in channel a with 8gb MSI in channel b
Can you pass on links to the memory?

If I were you, I'd have gone with a Z690 chipset motherboard, would've been able to take advantage of the K suffix processor in your build.

 

[kira-faye]

Get RAM that matches - running single channel (which is effectively what you're doing) kills performance. Best ~$50 you'll ever spend on that machine.

 

[littleneighbour]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Gigabyte B660M D3SH AX
+
Updated bios
What BIOS version are you on?

16gb Corsair Ram in channel a with 8gb MSI in channel b
Can you pass on links to the memory?

If I were you, I'd have gone with a Z690 chipset motherboard, would've been able to take advantage of the K suffix processor in your build.

Hey Lutfij, I am currently running the F27 version of my motherboard's bios (non-beta) which launched this october. I apologize about the ram misinfo, the 16gb is Corsair Vengence memory and the other 8 is actually 8gb of HyperX Fury ram, both linked below

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/memory/cmw16gx4m2e3200c16-tuf/vengeancea-rgb-pro-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-dram-3200mhz-c16-memory-kit-a-tuf-gaming-edition-cmw16gx4m2e3200c16-tuf

https://www.newegg.ca/hyperx-4gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820104566 (x2)

Regarding the mb model I kinda just threw all the parts into pc part picker, saw there weren't any glaring compatibility issues and just bought the parts lol
Why would running the Z690 mb utilize the intel 'K' better? I thought the K suffix in the processor just meant it enabled overclocking. Is there any way I could take advantage of this instead of buying a new mobo?
Thanks

 

[littleneighbour]

Get RAM that matches - running single channel (which is effectively what you're doing) kills performance. Best ~$50 you'll ever spend on that machine.

Hey Kira, thank you for the reply. Now please correct me if I'm wrong because like I said I am by no means a hardware expert, but I don't understand how it is single channel. The sticks are running in their respective slots, both DDR4, have been tested extensively using Memtest, and I don't think my motherboard chipset has compatibility issues running 2 different brands of ram. I have more ram I can test in the system but that doesn't explain to me why my CPU and GPU are not being utilized in games. Could I please get some more reasoning for this? I could just be ignorant here but from what I can see the ram is the only thing being properly utilized in the rig.

 

[Order 66]

Hey Kira, thank you for the reply. Now please correct me if I'm wrong because like I said I am by no means a hardware expert, but I don't understand how it is single channel. The sticks are running in their respective slots, both DDR4, have been tested extensively using Memtest, and I don't think my motherboard chipset has compatibility issues running 2 different brands of ram. I have more ram I can test in the system but that doesn't explain to me why my CPU and GPU are not being utilized in games. Could I please get some more reasoning for this? I could just be ignorant here but from what I can see the ram is the only thing being properly utilized in the rig.

mismatched RAM means it runs in single channel, which cuts the memory bandwidth to the CPU in half, potentially causing massive stutters. That's why a matched kit is so important. Single-channel RAM (usually meaning only 1 stick) is very common in prebuilts and people get very mad when it happens, generally.

 

[kira-faye]

Hey Kira, thank you for the reply. Now please correct me if I'm wrong because like I said I am by no means a hardware expert, but I don't understand how it is single channel. The sticks are running in their respective slots, both DDR4, have been tested extensively using Memtest, and I don't think my motherboard chipset has compatibility issues running 2 different brands of ram. I have more ram I can test in the system but that doesn't explain to me why my CPU and GPU are not being utilized in games. Could I please get some more reasoning for this? I could just be ignorant here but from what I can see the ram is the only thing being properly utilized in the rig.

If they were the same size and speed they'd work in dual channel, but since they're mismatched the board drops back down to single channel. It's counterintuitive but that's how it works.

So far as Intel and overclocking, you have to have both a K series processor and a P/X/Z series ("enthusiast") motherboard. Lower tier chipsets like the B series won't allow overclocking even with a K series CPU.

 

[littleneighbour]

mismatched RAM means it runs in single channel, which cuts the memory bandwidth to the CPU in half, potentially causing massive stutters. That's why a matched kit is so important. Single-channel RAM (usually meaning only 1 stick) is very common in prebuilts and people get very mad when it happens, generally.

Hey Order, thanks for the quick reply. So I always thought if I have a 2 sticks clocked at 2100mhz and 2 sticks clocked at 3200mhz it says it's running the lower memory clocks, but I never would've thought the mobo would just think it's operating in single channel. Do you think it's this ram config that's stopping the CPU and GPU from barely being utilized at all? Would there be any way to combat this without buying a new matching set? I am on a bit of a budget and I would really prefer to try and fix what I have, but if I have to buy new ram then so be it. Considering I have this weird mismatch of ram do you think unplugging the old sticks and just letting it run on the 16gb of 3200mhz ram could solve this compatibility problem? I will give it a test but just for knowing sake is that how it works? Like if I am just running the 2 3200mhz sticks it will stop displaying/detecting all the sticks at a lower speed? I seriously didn't know that, thank you so much for this advice!

 

[kira-faye]

A single stick might run faster than two mismatched sticks, but it will still be single channel. No way to run dual channel without buying a new kit.

 

[littleneighbour]

If they were the same size and speed they'd work in dual channel, but since they're mismatched the board drops back down to single channel. It's counterintuitive but that's how it works.

So far as Intel and overclocking, you have to have both a K series processor and a P/X/Z series ("enthusiast") motherboard. Lower tier chipsets like the B series won't allow overclocking even with a K series CPU.

Hey Kira, thank you for the quick reply.
I've never really had an interest in overclocking as I just use the rig for work and games every now and then but good to know the board isn't physically capable of overclock. Another thing I am looking at as well is while idle on the desktop with nothing running but task manager and background processes it is saying I am utilizing 40-50% of ram. Is this even remotely normal? That seems crazy high to me.. I only care about the speed of the rig so if running single channel at 3200mhz will be quicker I will give that a go. All my sticks passed with memtest but could there be anything wrong with the ram sticks the test won't pick up, or is it just the configuration? Is there something I might've missed with memtest? Out of all the components in a pc I think I understand how ram works the least, so I really appreciate all the troubleshooting from you all

 

[Order 66]

Hey Order, thanks for the quick reply. So I always thought if I have a 2 sticks clocked at 2100mhz and 2 sticks clocked at 3200mhz it says it's running the lower memory clocks, but I never would've thought the mobo would just think it's operating in single channel. Do you think it's this ram config that's stopping the CPU and GPU from barely being utilized at all? Would there be any way to combat this without buying a new matching set? I am on a bit of a budget and I would really prefer to try and fix what I have, but if I have to buy new ram then so be it. Considering I have this weird mismatch of ram do you think unplugging the old sticks and just letting it run on the 16gb of 3200mhz ram could solve this compatibility problem? I will give it a test but just for knowing sake is that how it works? Like if I am just running the 2 3200mhz sticks it will stop displaying/detecting all the sticks at a lower speed? I seriously didn't know that, thank you so much for this advice!

it could be, but it is hard to say for sure.

 

[littleneighbour]

Little update: After removing the 8gb of HyperX ram I can report back that My gpu is being utilized at about 40% ingame and a little playtest on Payday resulted in about 130-150 frames, so a noticeable increase from before which is very nice. I have noticed though my frames only peak when my gpu peaks util as stated in task manager. I know that sounds silly and ignorant but what I mean is despite the ram now running 16gb in single channel and games are clearly running faster I'm pretty sure my problem lies in my underusage of the gpu for whatever reason, because anytime I peak in frames I peak in gpu usage. Do I need to run dual channel matching sets just to utilize this gpu? Why is it only capable of using 40% of itself in games but has no problem having a freakout in editing softwares? I see something in hwinfo under gpu performance limiter called 'performance limit - utilization' ticked to yes, could that have anything to do with it? I've included a screenshot of hwinfo incase someone can make better use of this information, I don't know how to go about changing this lol - or even what is happening for that matter

link to hwinfo screenshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19GYn9z-5R5Qj_G9DhEqe_bmp8NbEdQhi/view?usp=sharing