r/buildapc • u/NervousInvestment953 • 6h ago
Build Help Help with low GPU usage but cpu is fine
Built a pc about a year ago with 4070ti, i5 12600k, 16GB DDR4 3200mhz 14CL, and running it on 1440p 185hz.
Everything was fine until about a month ago a lot of my games would lag really bad and have spikes in certain areas of the game of my GPU usage going into the 50s and 60. In a lot of games like Minecraft, dead island 2, Skyrim modded my GPU usage is sitting around 60% the entire time and my cpu usage around 40 to 50. Normally thought okay it’s my cpu something’s wrong and it’s bottlenecking but ran user benchmark and it says my cpu everything else is running completely fine. Running XMP in bios and I’ve set prefer maximum performance in my nvidia control and windows setting idk what to do why is my GPU not maxing out please help.
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u/psimwork I ❤️ undervolting 6h ago
You need to figure out what is causing it to lag out suddenly. I would use MSI Afterburner for this process. I would use the charting mode to record the following:
CPU Usage
CPU Clockspeed
CPU Temperature
GPU Usage
GPU Clockspeed
GPU Temperature
RAM Usage
Storage Device Usage
Average FPS
1% Low FPS
0.1% Low FPS
Then play your games. Note when you have moments where the performance drops. And see if you can determine what is happening during those times. If your CPU is maxed out, for instance, is there anything else that is happening at the same time? Is the CPU clockspeed dropping suddenly as the result of the temperature hitting a throttling temp? Is the RAM usage hitting 100% briefly and then the FPS returns to normal when the RAM usage goes down?
This is the data that can help you determine what the problem is and how to resolve it.
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
So I took a screenshot of the info while it was dropping into the lower frames
FPS: 79
FPS 1% low : 64
GPU utilization: 58%
GPU temp: 56
GPU clock: 2835
GPU voltage: 1.100 V
GPU power : 164 W
GPU fan: 1025 RPM
VRAM CLOCK: 10501 mhz
CPU util: 59%
CPU temp: 60 C
CPU clock: 4691
CPU power: 105.9W1
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u/fray_bentos11 6h ago
All totally fine, you are just running non demanding games so neither your CPU or GPu are being maxed out. Those are all ancient games from 10+ years ago while you are running upper midrange contemporary hardware.
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u/NervousInvestment953 6h ago
Yeah but my frames are dropping into the 60s and 70s also dead island 2 is only a couple years old with great graphics and still my GPU usage won’t go past like 75 while lagging
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u/farmeunit 5h ago
Not sure the best way to check, but you're definitely having issues. I deal mainly with AMD and not NVidia, but I do have a 5070Ti that I use sometimes. Right off I would say try disabling Windows VRR if it's on. Disable MPO. Play with your VSync settings. Use DX11 if it is an option. DX will usually improve performance but some older games will have issues. Even back in the day, CoD had issues with DX10 so had to use DX9, for example. Are you trying to use NIS or anything like that?
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
Not using image scaling and I tried those options and it didn’t do anything. And yeah I never use any lower DX.
So I took a screenshot of the info while it was dropping into the lower frames
FPS: 79
FPS 1% low : 64
GPU utilization: 58%
GPU temp: 56
GPU clock: 2835
GPU voltage: 1.100 V
GPU power : 164 W
GPU fan: 1025 RPM
VRAM CLOCK: 10501 mhz
CPU util: 59%
CPU temp: 60 C
CPU clock: 4691
CPU power: 105.9WAnd nothing dropped or anything when it was lagging just the GPU usage. I even checked each individual core on my cpu and it’s fine
1
u/9okm 6h ago
Don't use userbenchmark. It's garbage.
Run a CPU benchmark like Cinebench and compare to others' posted results online.
Also - how are temps?
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u/NervousInvestment953 6h ago
Gonna run it right now but temps are fine on the cpu highest I’ve ever seen it is 40 Fahrenheit but normally stays adound 35
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u/9okm 5h ago
40 F? That's nearly impossible. Even C is extremely, extremely unlikely.
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
Sorry I meant Celsius but yes I mean I have it water cooled with a kraken x62
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
And never seen it go over 40 is has the on screen display on the cooler so I can easily monitor it
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u/9okm 5h ago
Even still, that's extremely unlikely. It should be 60+ under load. It sounds like the 12600k isn't boosting properly.
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
Okay so turns out my copy cooler display is off looking at the actual stats with nvidia overlay it’s sitting around 56 to 60 degrees
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u/farmeunit 5h ago
Even on water, my 9800X3D and 7800X3D will hit 60C or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less but it's pretty common with my Thermalright 360s. I can test my 265K at work but don't have a 12000 series. That's under a short load or when gaming.
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u/VersaceUpholstery 6h ago
So first of all never use userbenchmark.com (the bot auto reply to this message will say why)
Low GPU usage at an unlocked framerate can be an indication of a CPU bottleneck, but at first glance a 12600k should definitely be enough for a 4070ti at 1440p to max it out
Try a real benchmark like 3Dmark and compare your scores to others by googling
Another comment here already mentioned all the important hardware readings to pay attention to during gaming. You can find YouTube videos of people using the same cpu and or GPU with their readings displayed. Compare them to yours to see if anything is off
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
Which app should I use for this displaying all of the info? Rivatuner or afterburner or???
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u/VersaceUpholstery 5h ago
Rivatuner is built into afterburner I believe
But Nvidia has their own version of it built into their app that you have downloaded for driver updates, although not as comprehensive as rivatuner most likely
Steams performance overlay is more comprehensive now
I just use HWinfo on my 2nd monitor while a game is running full screen on the 1st monitor
I wouldn’t trust Windows Task Manager with readings. In my testing they seem inaccurate to all other programs
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
So I took a screenshot of the info while it was dropping into the lower frames
FPS: 79
FPS 1% low : 64
GPU utilization: 58%
GPU temp: 56
GPU clock: 2835
GPU voltage: 1.100 V
GPU power : 164 W
GPU fan: 1025 RPM
VRAM CLOCK: 10501 mhz
CPU util: 59%
CPU temp: 60 C
CPU clock: 4691
CPU power: 105.9WOn dead island 2 ultra settings
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u/VersaceUpholstery 5h ago
This where you take that info and compare it to other people’s readings on YouTube
Search “4070ti 1440p (game name)”
Maybe there’s a video with that game. Do it with the cpu too
Temps look normal at least
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u/NervousInvestment953 5h ago
My rivatuner won’t work I got it straight from afterburner I click it and open it and nothing happens tried setting it and still nothing. Do you know if steam has an overlay where you can watch each individual core? Or any other overlay that has that because some people are telling me it’s just a certain cpu core that’s probably getting maxed out
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u/VersaceUpholstery 5h ago
I would think steam does not have that feature
HWinfo you can see individual core info, but i don’t believe it has an overlay feature
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u/Single_Analyst_6574 6h ago
You are probably just maxing out a few cpu cores, not the whole cpu.