Low GPU Usage when gaming with Low FPS SAPPHIRE 7870 GHz Edition

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Danoded

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Dec 4, 2013
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When playing most games my GPU usage idles around 50-70 and rarely goes into 80 and never into 90. I have a Sapphire 7870 GHz Edition and it's driving me crazy that the GPU usage is not staying at 99 constantly. Here is an image of the GPU Usage and my CPU utilisation while I was playing AC:IV at high without AA



http://imageshack.com/a/img811/4633/tu1n.jpg



Heat is definitely not an issue here, I have the latest 14.3 drivers installed, my PSU is more than enough so I am really stuck on what could be causing the GPU never to hit 99 or even 80 in most cases. I've tried rolling back drivers, but that didn't help. It is definitely not a CPU bgottleneck and I've tried overclocking it to 4.00 GHz to no avail. I've tried setting the power limit to +/- 20%, but that hasn't made a difference. I've tried overclocking my GPU, but that didn't make a difference either. The performance stays the same no matter what setting I put it at and even when I decrease my clock speeds by half it still does not run well.

ONLY WHEN THE GAME IS MAXED OUT DOES IT STAY AT 99 but it is useless since it is barely playable by then

My other system specs are:

CPU-FX 4130 3.8GHz (Zambezi)

MOBO-Biostar A960D+

PSU- Corsair CX600M

RAM-8gb DDR3 1333Mhz
 
Solution
Kari
cpu bottleneck, try lowering the game’s terrain setting (the one setting that only affects the CPU).
You dont have to get 100% usage on a quadcore cpu for cpu bottlenecking to happen. The game probably cant effectively use all cores to their full potential and as soon as the main/biggest thread maxes the core it is running on it'll start limiting the performance of the whole game. And going from 3.8 to 4.0GHz is only 5% increase so for example 30fps would be 31.5fps post OC and not noticeable...

edit ac4 doesn't have fps lock
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Catalyzer

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I dont udnerstand why do you want it to be hitting at 99% load everytime ?
When you work or do something on your CPU , do you desire it to hit 100% load ?
It can easily handle the load so it stays at that %.
Infact we all try to keep it as cool and as much load-free as we can.
If you want to stress test that GPU , you have softwares liek FUrMark.
 
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Danoded

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It should be at a high usage constantly. The fact that the usage is 50-60 is what is making the game so damn slow. If it was in the 90s my FPS would definitely improve.
 
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Catalyzer

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If your getting low FPS it could be coz of some other reason. (Drivers , game problems)

 
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Danoded

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Whether I underclock my GPU, keep it at stock, or overclock it there is no performance gain or decrease. Hell I even halved the clocks of both the vore and memory and yet I was getting the exact same FPS
 
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Catalyzer

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That specific game you're playing must have a maximum frames lock then !
Like for e.g NFS Rivals was locked at 30 fps.
Game developers do that generally to provide a smoother experience to the gamer.
Try playing some other games and recording the frame rates.
 
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Kari

Kari

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Jun 16, 2004
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cpu bottleneck, try lowering the game’s terrain setting (the one setting that only affects the CPU).
You dont have to get 100% usage on a quadcore cpu for cpu bottlenecking to happen. The game probably cant effectively use all cores to their full potential and as soon as the main/biggest thread maxes the core it is running on it'll start limiting the performance of the whole game. And going from 3.8 to 4.0GHz is only 5% increase so for example 30fps would be 31.5fps post OC and not noticeable...

edit ac4 doesn't have fps lock
 
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Solution
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Danoded

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AC:IV is capped at 60 (maybe), not 30...
 
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Danoded

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Exactly the same performance the settings don't effect the GPU usage or the FPS at all.

 
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Kari

Kari

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do some more testing with the cpu clocks, lower them step by step (or like 0.5GHz at a time) to the lowest possible and see how it affects the fps. If the fps scales linearly all the way through the GHz range it would mean the game is indeed cpu bottlenecked...
 
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Danoded

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Decreased it all the way to 3.6GHz and performance more or less stayed the same while the GPU usage tanked by 10%.
 
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Kari

Kari

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Jun 16, 2004
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ummm 3.6 is practically the same as 3.8...
i was thinking more like 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0GHz
if the gpu usage and fps go hand in hand with the hertz all the way to 4GHz the cpu is holding you back and all you can do is either overclock the sh't out of it or get a faster cpu.
 
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