Is my CPU bottlenecking my GPU?

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H

Hammahness

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Jun 30, 2015
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I just installed my CPU watercooler earlier today and I downloaded MSI Afterburner to monitor the CPU temperatures in game as well as the usage, framerate, and GPU usage and temperature. While my CPU temperatures did go down by 30 degrees celcius at full load I did notice however that my CPU usage would be around 60-80 percent while the GPU would be at the high 90s in Fallout 4, going to a full 100 a couple of times. Sometimes these numbers would switch though as the CPU usage would go to 70 to 80s while my GPU would be in the 70s. Then in GTA 5 my GPU usage would be at the high 90s to 100 while my CPU would be at the 80s to 90s. This would then sometimes switch to where the CPU would have 90 to even 100 percent usage while the GPU would be at the high 80s or 90s. Even though these switches don't cause me any FPS dips or drops, i'm just worried if this a sign of a bottleneck, faulty cooler or CPU or if these 2 games are just known for high GPU usage?

I5 4670k Non OC'd
ASUS Sabertooth Z87 Tuf Armor
GTX 1070 G1 Gaming Edition
16 GB 1600mhz
1 TB HDD 7200 RPM
Corsair 500w 80+ bronze

PS: I run these games at 4k resolution so just putting that out there if that is what's contributing to the high usage.

 
Solution
hdgaming
Well GTA 5 is a pretty cpu demanding game, so its quiet normal to get 90-100% cpu usage on an i5, if your gpu drops to 80% sometimes while your cpu is at 100% then there is indeed a bottleneck, but if its not all the time and if you don't get any framedrops then I wouldn't really worry about it.

Your i5 4670k should be up to the task to feed the gtx 1070. :)
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hdgaming

hdgaming

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Well GTA 5 is a pretty cpu demanding game, so its quiet normal to get 90-100% cpu usage on an i5, if your gpu drops to 80% sometimes while your cpu is at 100% then there is indeed a bottleneck, but if its not all the time and if you don't get any framedrops then I wouldn't really worry about it.

Your i5 4670k should be up to the task to feed the gtx 1070. :)
 
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Solution
hdgaming

hdgaming

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You shouldn't, in most games the i5 is more than enough, only in some cpu heavy games you might get a small bottleneck, but you still will get good performance in those games aswell.
 
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bicycle_repair_man

bicycle_repair_man

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Jan 10, 2014
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That'll do it.

High usage is nothing to worry about in your case. If the CPU or GPU shot up to 100% and stayed there indefinitely, then you'd have a bottleneck.
 
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D

Decends

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Your CPU will contribute to a bottleneck, BUT ONLY in very CPU demanding games like GTA V as a example.
At Times even my I7 4790k can hold back my 1070 in certain areas. The only CPU that really seems to keep up with GTA V well is the I7 6700k. Based on benchmarks that I've seen anyways.
 
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H

Hammahness

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All right. I just tested some other games like ARK Survival evolved and Warface and I guess theres only a slight bottleneck in heavy CPU based games like GTA 5 like you said. The other games stayed at 50 - 70 percent CPU usage and the GPU usage stayed at high 90s to a full 100 most of the time so I guess for now I'll have nothing to worry about.

 
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Hammahness

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Thanks! At least I know what to look for if my CPU is truly bottlenecking my GPU.
 
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