Your 3080 is underperforming, showing only half the expected frame rate versus online standards.
Your 3080 is underperforming, showing only half the expected frame rate versus online standards.
@Mark Kaine appreciates your feedback. I confirmed with afterburner that CPU cores are fairly balanced, usually fluctuating between 15-30% load. The average of the 20% total I shared earlier suggests it might be related to my B360M chipset or RAM speed rather than a bottleneck. Upgrading to a Z370 motherboard for 9th generation could help, though I’m unsure if overclocking the CPU and RAM to 3200MHz would be worthwhile. If you’re heavily GPU-bound, around 60fps at 1440p on a 3080 seems reasonable. It’s hard to confirm without deeper diagnostics. Thanks for the guidance.
Refer to my previous message, 3080 should handle 180fps at 1440p with maximum settings, as confirmed by guru3d. My 3070 only reaches around 140fps, which indicates a performance issue. It’s puzzling since the system isn’t underperforming drastically, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s causing the lag. I was considering increased CPU usage as a possible cause, which would have been straightforward, yet I’m still uncertain. The new motherboard might help, though I’m not confident without more experience on this platform. Generally, a 10-20fps improvement could be expected, but others can share their thoughts.
It's good to see. Usually, a GPU at 99% load indicates peak performance, but I think Afterburner might be tracking it poorly for Witcher 3. I guess "Max" means all sliders are set to their highest levels. Haven't played Witcher 3 recently. Could be the settings were changed or some extra resource was disabled. You have Shadow of the Tomb Raider? It has a benchmark with a graph showing GPU and CPU limits.
I also believe that setting everything to its maximum would be a preset choice, usually forcing all sliders up. However, things like MSAA might not help much here since performance could drop even on a stronger GPU—probably because of other factors. For 3D usage, FPS should be noticeably higher unless the game has unusual settings enabled (like MSAA or RTX). I’m not sure if OP’s PC supports DirectX 11. Check your in-game settings, reset everything, switch to the "max" preset, leave the rest alone, try using DirectX 11 if possible, and then restart the game to see if it improves.
@Mark Kaine Sadly I don't. Reset everything then Graphics set to Ultra and post processing to High (theres no ultra in witcher 3). Same for zero horizon Dawn, Ultra I found this reddit thread with some guy having ~similar problems. His CPU and GPU are underutilized compared to my GPU staying at 99% and CPU underutilized. Although not same build but ~similar enough to warrant some notice. Unfortunately his Update 4 didnt have a resolution if he fixed it. Not pretty helpful but it doesnt seem to be a CPU bottleneck from the thread and updates...? Correct me if Im wrong though... I'm on new ground here with this kind of hardware tier.
SotTR demo includes the benchmark by default. Would you like to check the GPU utilization? You can run HWinfo64 to see if any constraints are noted. 1440p in Witcher 3 caps at 99% GPU usage at 54fps—seems quite low for a 3080, which should draw about 320-340w at full power. I just noticed your other screens showing 207w, which appears underpowered given the specs; double-checking the percentage might help.
Power consumption differs across games, making a fixed measurement unreliable. Still, 207 seems too low—my 6800XT typically hits 220-250W with OC and Undervolt, sometimes reaching 270W. The fan speed isn’t around 60%; my OSD settings match his exactly. GPU usage usually ranks second under normal configurations.
It seems the readings aren't coming from the GPU but possibly from other sources. Afterburner's default settings don’t explain the low wattage, so it’s worth checking your cabling—maybe two or three PCIe cables or a splitter are involved. You should reset the monitoring feature, as the second value appears incorrect unless you’ve customized it. The goal is likely "3D GPU usage" rather than actual GPU load.
Performance has stayed steady near 90%+ with typical output between 310-335w. Info via hwinfo64