Underperforming GPU ?
Underperforming GPU ?
I recently upgraded my GPU to an AMD 7800 XT, mainly for esports titles such as CS2 and Rainbow Six. The performance feels noticeably smoother compared to my previous card, though the results are not as impressive as I had hoped.
In CS2, at the lowest possible settings (1280x960 in a deathmatch), I achieved an average of 150fps. I was expecting stability and a frame rate well above my monitor’s refresh rate of 240.
For Rainbow Six, my average is around 200fps, which is decent but still below my monitor’s refresh rate and not significantly better than my previous GPU (1080Ti).
In CS2, the GPU usage remains very low, typically around 45-60%. My CPU runs at about 30-40%, and temperatures are within normal limits, so I don’t think a bottleneck is present.
What might be causing this? It could be that my motherboard isn’t powerful enough to supply the card efficiently, or perhaps my 700W PSU isn’t providing enough power.
Here are the performance details:
Performance: https://imgur.com/a/ZxKv3qM
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/low-gpu-usage-ZxKv3qM
Specs: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/NTLtYd
On a related note, I’ve been attempting to enable the resize bar in BIOS to check if it would help. However, every time I do, I experience a blue screen and my boot drive disappears from the BIOS until I turn off the resize bar and restart. That’s quite strange.
In low graphics mode, the CPU controls FPS. Ensure your memory has a 3200 dual channel configuration. Activate XMP or EXPO in the BIOS.
Your CPU is clearly the main obstacle here. Those games aren't optimized for multithreading, so you're not utilizing all your cores. The simplest upgrade would be a 5700x or 5700x3d model.
This was with the Amd Adrenalin software (The gpu driver controller).
Ah ok thank you, I thought this may be the case but was confused as to why my cpu usage was so low if it was the bottleneck. Is it reasonable that it is explained by bad optimisation (or not making use of the cores and hyperthreading as you said)?
Just double checked, XMP is enabled and I'm running at 3200
Consider boosting graphics detail a bit more and let your new card shine.
It’s currently being too relaxed.
The only way to raise FPS is by using a more powerful processor. More cores aren’t the answer—faster cores are better.
Upgrading to a 5700x or 5800x could boost frame rate by about 15-25%.
This offer is extremely valuable.
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor
($133.94 @ Amazon)
Total:
$133.94
Costs cover shipping, taxes, and any applicable discounts
Created by
PCPartPicker
2025-07-12 17:01 EDT-0400