Why is my GPU consistently using 97% while my CPU is only 30% utilized?
Why is my GPU consistently using 97% while my CPU is only 30% utilized?
I play siege with medium and high settings. Previously, on ultra everything, the GPU was capped at 97% and CPU at 30%, but now it's still at the same level when I switch to medium settings. My PC specs are: RTX 2070 super, 32gb RAM at 3600MHz, Ryzen 7 3800X, Gigabyte X570 gaming motherboard. The GPU is being used fully even with the lowest possible settings.
What issues are you facing?
Your performance might not be optimal.
A game is always constrained by either the CPU or the GPU.
Reducing settings and maintaining similar FPS suggests your CPU is the limiting factor.
Be mindful of how you read CPU usage in Task Manager.
Windows distributes the workload of a single thread across all available threads.
If a game is single-threaded and CPU-bound, it will appear as 25% utilization on a quad-core processor across all four threads.
This can mislead you into believing the bottleneck is elsewhere.
It appears that very few games can effectively utilize more than 4-6 threads.
How do you assess how well threaded your games or applications are?
One way is to...
What is the issue here?
Your performance isn’t satisfactory?
A game is always constrained by either the CPU or the GPU.
Your attempt to reduce settings and maintain similar FPS implies your CPU is the limiting factor.
Be mindful of how you read CPU usage in Task Manager.
Windows distributes the workload of a single thread among all available threads.
Therefore, if a game is single-threaded and CPU-bound, it would appear on a quad-core processor as 25% utilization across all four threads.
This may lead you to believe there’s another bottleneck.
It seems that very few games can effectively utilize more than 4-6 threads.
How do you assess the threading performance of your games or applications?
One approach is to disable several threads and observe the results.
You can adjust this in Windows via the msconfig boot advanced options.
A restart is necessary for changes to apply. Set the number of processors below what you have.
This will indicate how responsive your games are to having many threads.
If the difference is minimal, it suggests you won’t gain much from additional cores.
A higher clock speed might be more beneficial.
GPU consumption rises with higher resolution, detail/quality, and refresh rate, especially when paired with a capable processor.
Many recent titles (such as BF5) running at Full HD (1080P) remain heavily dependent on GPU performance even at ultra/max settings.
Are you using a monitor with a 100/144 Hz refresh rate as well?
There are several AMD/Intel scaling comparisons involving various GPUs in different games, helping determine if your frame rates align with expectations.
I would only be concerned if the situation were reversed, meaning your CPU would restrict the video card's performance. However, your card appears to perform optimally, utilizing its full potential whenever possible.
Even at lower settings, the GPU consistently operates near 100%, provided it isn't hindered by your CPU. The card can process as many frames per second as feasible, as long as it receives timely draw calls from the CPU. Lower graphics settings won’t reduce its performance to 100% but may result in slightly higher FPS compared to higher settings. The GPU usage drops below 100% only when you cap the frame rate below what it naturally achieves (which some games allow). For instance, if you typically reach 80 FPS at full capacity and cap it at 60, you’ll notice reduced GPU utilization.