low gpu usage in games high on benchmarks

ManlyManass · Mar 7, 2014

i decided to ask you because i dont know anymore what to do. as the title says i have a low gpu usage in games but high on benchmarks. for example playing games on low settings i got a stable 60 fps but when there is something more intensive like explosions or a crowd of people i have fps drops to 40-45 fps and i noticed that the gpu usage is not even hitting 70%, but when i higher the settings of any game then the usage is floating from 70% to 90-97%, but its very laggy cuz the constantly fps drops from 60 to 35. i already tried all the gpu drivers from 296 until the latest 334, and switched the other drivers on the pc, bios flashed on gpu and mobo, oc'ed, changed to performance and quality in nvidia control panel, games reinstalled, windows reinstalled, switched rams, used 2 pci-e cables instead 1 molex to 6 combined with the 6 to 6+2 but nothing. on heaven benchmark the gpu usage is always 97-99%. is there a way to use the gpu always at 99 at least 90 so wont have fps drops even on low settings cuz its not loading enough?

games tested:

hitman absolution:

medium: min 27, max 75, av 34 gpu usage 43-62 cpu usage 62-82
high: min 26, max 48, av 31 gpu usage 77-97 cpu usage 77-100

Bf3:

low: 45-60 fps gpu usage 48-72 cpu usage 90-100
high: 31-55 fps gpu usage 64-91 cpu usage 81-100

Crysis 3

low: 35-60 fps gpu usage 70-98 cpu usage 80-100

my pc specs:

22 inch 1680x1050 60hz
q9400 stock 39c idle 55c full load
gtx 460 1gb 35c idle 70c full load
320gb 7200 rpm never goes above 44c
8gb pc2-6400 ddr2 800mhz ram
mobo: acer eg43m
cpm 650w psu

i got no dvi cable so im using the avg one with the converter

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TheUnknownPC · Mar 7, 2014

Turn V-Sync OFF !!!!

ManlyManass · Mar 7, 2014

TheUnknownPC :

forgot to say, there is no change with v-sync on or off.

TheUnknownPC · Mar 7, 2014

ManlyManass :

whats your cpu

Dorosh · Mar 7, 2014

TheUnknownPC :

+1 for checking if V-sync is on.

Depending on your monitor though, you may see screen tearing, so keeping it on my "look" better.

dextermat · Mar 7, 2014

hi,

Minimum System Requirements:
CPU: 2.4 GHz dual core Intel or AMD processor
VGA: Nvidia 8600 512 Mb RAM, or AMD equivalent

Recommended System Requirements:
CPU: Intel Core i7 or AMD Athlon II X4
VGA: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5770

That being said; your cpu is between minimum and recommended. So i'm thinking you CPU is holding you down.
You might want to overclock it a bit.

http://gamesystemrequirements.com/games.php?id=1434
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/Requirements/Hitman-Absolution/11505?p=r

ManlyManass · Mar 7, 2014

TheUnknownPC :

read pc specs, and no, this cant be a bootleneck.

Dorosh · Mar 7, 2014

Don't be so sure it's not a bottleneck. The difference between your processor and a new, high end one is 50%: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2013/-06-3DMark11,3159.html

Also, you're tests are showing your CPU maxing out - this is evidence of a possible bottleneck.

ManlyManass · Mar 7, 2014

dextermat :

cant overclock cpu, i got a craq oem mobo. i got a friend with almost the same setup, but he has a gtx 560 ti without oc and bottleneck.

TheUnknownPC · Mar 7, 2014

I think its bottleneck

ManlyManass · Mar 7, 2014

Dorosh :

so, if could overclock, problems could be solved?

TheUnknownPC · Mar 7, 2014

ManlyManass :

Well not exactly overclock your CPU a fair bit then tell us what happens

Dorosh · Mar 8, 2014

Yeah, if you overclocked it, it might be enough to make up for the bottleneck depending on how much faster you can get it.

Jing Ye Lim · Mar 12, 2014

I have the same problem as well...everything running fine in brenchmark apps but not the apps I trying to use....return low fps, low gpu load and memory....any advise? I have my apps install on Windows 2008 machine, any overclock software can be installed in this OS ?

Dorosh · Mar 12, 2014

If you're using windows 2008 R2, it will work the same as Windows 7.
Keep in mind video games started off loading more work the CPU because they're a lot faster. Apps as well are more than likely using mostly the CPU because they're not programed at low level to take advantage of the GPU hardware. Overclocking will speed these apps up.
What kind of CPU do you have?

Jing Ye Lim · Mar 12, 2014

I am actually running a vm on top of sl250s and had assign 32 core to vm...I don't think its cpu overclock problem but its good to have a try....

Dorosh · Mar 12, 2014

Take a look at what the performance monitor is doing while running the app. I'm willing to be it's not using half of those cores the way you'd want them too. Apps have a tendency to be programed at high level and aren't taking advantage of multiple cores. In this case, you want higher MHz as the apps can't use multiple threads so it has to wait for one thing to be processed at a time.

Jing Ye Lim · Mar 12, 2014

I m not sure overclock could help much . I do have onw workstation with everythinh installed local. The gpu is expected to be load around 50 percent but in current state its only use lesser than 10 with very low mmory. Tested with brenchmark apps - heaven everything runs perfectly. But not the app- I'm using petrel to get this display.

Dorosh · Mar 12, 2014

What I was trying to explain is that these apps are not programmed to be using the GPU. They're all CPU based. Unless they're using OpenGL or DirectX for the programming language, they simply will not use the GPU for performing the math.
Higher MHz will work better in this situation. Overclocking might not be what you're looking for.
A 32 Core CPU @ 2.0 GHz will simply not perform as well as a Core 2 Duo at 4.0 GHz when running single threaded apps.

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