Unusual sine wave performance on GPUs in most games (no bottlenecks present)
Unusual sine wave performance on GPUs in most games (no bottlenecks present)
Hey, I noticed a strange issue with my game performance. According to gamebar and AMD drivers, my system seems to be using most components at under 70%, yet I’m still struggling with frame rates. When I launch a game, the GPU hits full capacity while CPU, RAM, and VRAM stay between 20% and 60%. After a while of inactivity, the GPU drops to around 60% and FPS halves. If I keep playing, it snaps back to full usage, then settles again. It feels like the GPU usage fluctuates in a pattern, almost like a wave. I’ve tried updating drivers, reinstalling them, cleaning installations, and testing with different games and engines. Checked thermal info and overheating warnings—nothing out of the ordinary. CPU runs steady at 3.3GHz even under heavy load, and GPU stays around 1900Mhz. Drivers are current, and I haven’t noticed any hardware problems. This keeps happening no matter what I do. I’m not sure if it’s a hardware or software problem and need some guidance to figure out what’s causing this inconsistency. Any suggestions or tests would be really helpful.
Check MSI afterburner performance while gaming, monitoring temperatures and power consumption during use.
Well, essentially, the GPU needs to operate near full capacity consistently. When it falls between 60-70%, something is restricting its performance. It might be a CPU bottleneck, even if the CPU utilization doesn't appear at 100%. Tools like MSI Afterburner or Intel PresentMon can offer more insights.
You noted the temperature remains consistent, but I’d still want to explore further. It’s possible the issue lies with the charger or power supply, especially since it’s a laptop. I’d recommend verifying that the charger matches the required wattage for your device, or consider replacing it if necessary.
You seem to be facing a CPU or power constraint ("bottlenecked"). First, turn off the iGPU completely—likely needs BIOS adjustment. Then run GPU-Z in the background. After launching a game, verify performance data and adjust settings to display maximum usage. Share the relevant tab here. PS: Disable it too if you want a clean view.
This means you can still face restrictions even without full CPU usage. I find the opinions of Daniel Owen and other reviewers helpful: focus on GPU performance rather than CPU percentages.
Many laptop chargers deliver insufficient power, possibly due to CPU constraints. My unit has around 280 watts, which is quite high (120 watts for the CPU, 140 watts for the GPU). This seems reasonable but not typical. Edit: it might actually be limited by the processor, especially for recent games. Comparison with my setup: It’s strange to feel impressed by a top-tier Intel desktop! xD (though benchmarks suggest otherwise)
I checked the GPU-Z logs, started the game, and remained in the main menu. The GPU temperature reached 90°C, while the CPU hit 94°C. Both stayed steady at those levels without increasing. Despite this, frame rates fluctuated between 60 and 90 FPS, and GPU usage hovered around 60-80%. It seems like just waiting in the main menu, even after a full cold boot. I plan to download and run Afterburner next. There appears to be a bottleneck, but it’s not immediately obvious. Previously, overheating caused visible warnings in hwinfo and G-Helper showing CPU temperatures near 99°C. P.S. This issue is easy to reproduce in finals. In other titles, I see full CPU utilization for a short time before dropping to 60%, similar to the sine wave pattern I mentioned. In finals, it stays at a constant 60% usage regardless of settings, even with maximum RT and all options enabled. Normally I’d limit GPU usage, but it doesn’t work here. Anyway, I can try other games too—maybe KCD 2 since its engine is different, helping us rule out UE problems. GPU-Z Sensor Log.txt
According to PresentMon, both CPU and GPU experience frequency adjustments. That’s what I interpreted. It feels odd that GPU graph stays consistent while CPU usage varies. MSI Afterburner seems quite complicated to operate. I managed to turn on monitoring using a similar method as before. Keep the game running in the main menu, launch the software, begin logging, pause after 5-10 seconds, then stop. The data shows most CPU cores operate between 40-80% capacity, all being active, though it’s unclear if every core is working for the game.