Reduced GPU demand and stable frame rates in GTA V
Reduced GPU demand and stable frame rates in GTA V
I haven’t received many replies on the graphics card forums, so I’m sharing this here. I’ve recently resumed playing GTA V after a five-month break (last played about last week). My FPS was around 80 before, now it’s hovering in the 50s, and my GPU usage stays below 30% most of the time—previously it was consistently high in the 80s or 90s. This problem hasn’t occurred before. Others think it’s a CPU bottleneck, but that doesn’t fit since it’s never been this way. No other games have this issue. I’ve attached a photo showing my GPU and CPU while gaming. As you see, my GPU usage is in the low 10s (I ran NVLink Control, using 20% CPU, but that’s not the problem).
Specs: Intel i5-6400, GTX 1070, 2x4 Hyper X Fury, 2133MHz RAM (motherboard only supports that), Gigabyte B150 D3H BeQuiet 500W power supply, NZXT Kraken X42 water cooler, WD 1TB HDD (game files stored).
Graphics settings: DirectX 11, Fullscreen, 1920x1080, 65Hz. FXAA off, MSAA off, Vsync off. Texture quality is high, shaders and shadows are top-notch, grass looks normal, water reflection is good, reflections are strong, soft shadows are softer, post-processing effects are advanced, tessellation is high, ambient occlusion is high, anisotropic filtering 8x, pop density, variety, and distance scaling are all at 0%.
Game details: Long shadows disabled, resolution and distance scaling set to 0%, no extra features enabled.
What I’ve tried so far: Restart PC, check game files, reinstall latest drivers, reinstall GTA V.
It seems the system relies on dedicated graphics rather than integrated options. Otherwise, frame rates would drop significantly and the game might fail to load. My GPU is already operating at full capacity.
I checked another GPU monitoring tool and it shows accurate GPU utilization.
No curve has been created yet. The FPS remains approximately 50 to 60 frames per second in the city.
never had any issues before I resumed playing, possibly due to a faulty Windows update.
When using MSI Afterburner, keep an eye on your CPU and GPU speeds during gameplay. Note their actual clock rates while playing. If feasible, film a short clip of your session (about 30 seconds) and share it here while you're watching with MSI AB. My system closely matches yours, and I run GTA 5 without issues. Still, achieving 50-60 FPS in the city is typical given my RAM of 2133MB (my motherboard is B150). GPU utilization at 10% seems problematic, so I want to verify it myself. Record using Shadowplay—it's simple and won’t noticeably drop FPS. Press Alt+F9 to start or stop recording. If you use another method, the video will be saved in the r* editor, making it hard to post directly here. Here are some adjustments you can make to boost your graphics settings for smoother performance without sacrificing quality: FXAA should be enabled, MSAA to x2, disable TXAA, set Distance Scaling between 20-60%, keep Shader Quality at Normal, raise Water Quality to High, turn off Reflection MSAA, choose Sharp Soft Shadows, increase Anisotropic Filtering to x16, skip Ambient Occlusion unless you like it, and set Tessellation to Normal. Avoid Self Radio as it can strain your CPU (15-25% usage) and cause bottlenecks. Use self radio only in open spaces or while flying for better FPS. In urban areas, definitely disable it.