GPU and CPU needs to be 100% loaded on heavy games all the time?

M05K · Jul 24, 2015

GPU and CPU needs to be 100% loaded on heavy games all the time? Games like GTA 5 or The Witcher 3? Because i've been playing GTA5 and the GPU/CPU never goes up to 90/99, sometimes it goes but for a little bit, it goes more to 70/80% usage and CPU 90/80% too but without frame drops, the only game I can feel frame drops is on Tomb Raider. Is it normal to not go 100% loaded all the time?

Thank you!

Sergeant_Sneaky · Jul 24, 2015

Do you have Vsync on? The best combo if you don't have Vsync on is a 100% GPU usage and a lower CPU usage, this causes less problems and means your CPU isn't a bottleneck. What are your specs?

MarkW · Jul 24, 2015

No. They do not need to be at 100%.

I don't know why people expect their hardware to be at 100%.

When you drive a car around town, do you do so with the gas pedal smashed up against the floorboard the entire time? No? Why not? It would surely go faster if you did!!

Gam3r01 · Jul 24, 2015

100% (or rather 99%) load mean the card is working to its full potential.
Ideally 95-99% means the card is working as hard as it can, without lacking extra power to keep up. The card is being used to its full potential, no more no less.
However, if the graphics card is below this (such as 80%) that means the full performance of the card is not needed to keep up.

If the processor is maxed, that means it is struggling to keep up in terms of performance.

Overall, if you are getting the performance you are needing, and the card is not maxed, that means it simply well (over) suited to the task.

M05K · Jul 25, 2015

I never use Vsync. Here's my specs:

CPU : I5 4430S 2.7Ghz
RAM : HyperX Fury 8GB
PSU : XFX 750w

I'm afraid because I think something is faulty >.<

MarkW · Jul 25, 2015

Actually, in most cases, if your video card is putting out more frames per second than your monitor can display, it should be pausing briefly in between frames. Most monitors are 60Hz monitors. That means that it can only display up to 60 frames per second. So if the video card is capable of producing 120 frames per second, you should turn V-Sync on, at which point the video card would run at about 50% usage, and stop wasting the energy it takes to generate those other 50% of frames that cannot be displayed anyways..

As for the CPU load, that is completely up to how the programmers wrote the code. Some games put a huge load on the CPU. Most games do not. There is very little that you can do to change the load on the CPU.

M05K · Jul 25, 2015

I really enjoying your explanation you know what you talk about. One more thing so if the GPU doesn't go all the time to 90/95 I should not be afraid of my GPU not using it's fully potential?

Like Gam3r01 said: However, if the graphics card is below this (such as 80%) that means the full performance of the card is not needed to keep up.

Gam3r01 · Jul 25, 2015

I have to agree with that.
The second you pass the refresh rate of your monitor (ie 61 FPS on a 60Hz monitor) it is wasted performance, if you cant display it, and you can prevent it from dropping below that, no need for the extra performance.

If your are getting horrible framerates and the card is not running at a high% then you should be worried.
But in games like terraria I have 100% usage on one core, and 30% usage on my GPU, running nearly 200 FPS.

MarkW · Jul 25, 2015

The video card is blazing fast. Unfortunately, the hard drives are not. And sometimes, the video card just has to stop and wait for something it needs in order to complete a frame to arrive. SSD's help a lot with this, but even as fast as they are, they are not instantaneous. And 1/60th of a second is a very brief period of time. Although to a computer, it seems like forever.

M05K · Jul 25, 2015

The only game I can see bad perfomance is Tomb Raider, my card is an R9 280 by AMD and the game is optmized for Nvidia, i try to play it and max settings but it drops and the GPU not running at really high %. I saw Nvidia games can be tricky for AMD so I think that's the problem here

MarkW · Jul 25, 2015

And there are AMD optimized games that are tricky for Nvidia cards. It does go both ways.

velo3100 · Jul 25, 2015

I would say that you have nothing to worry about as you are not experiencing any frame drops. The more demanding a game, the more cpu and gpu usage is expected. Only worry about the usage if you experience frame drops.

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