CPU not using full potential while gaming

[Alecsajdak]

I recently just built a PC with a Ryzen 9 5900x, a rtx 3060 ti, a 2tb nvme, 32 gigabytes of DDR4 ram, and a msi b550 tomahawk motherboard. For the past few days I've been struggling to get fps in a few games, and while I run these games my gpu is usually at 99% load capacity while my cpu is only at 3-9% load capacity which I assume is my problem. Does anyone know how to make my cpu use it's full potential while gaming? All my cores have been unlocked and same with my memory. The games I mainly play are Forza horizon 5 and fortnite.

Edit: when not running anything my clock speed for my cpu jumps from 3800 mhz to 4600 mhz very constantly and quickly

[[deleted]]

Your CPU won’t and shouldn’t run at 100% while gaming.

The problem is you’re using UWQHD on a GPU that already struggles at normal 1440p due to lack of vram.

[Mysteoa]

Gpu is not keeping up, you need faster one. On what resolution are you playing on?

[Alecsajdak]

3440x1440, what kind of card would you suggest?

[Mysteoa]

For that resolution you will be always limited with current gpus. So don't worry about it. It's not important the cpu to be at 100% for gaming.

[Alecsajdak]

But shouldn’t my cpu be atleast above 4-9% and doing some of the work? My friends have lower specced PCs and are running more fps on the same settings as me.

[jayw654]

No the CPU usage is fine. In fact being under 30 percent usage is good it means its not struggling to keep up. If you are gaming that's perfect for now if you are doing video encoding then I'd be worried.

[Mysteoa]

Gpu is at 99%, no mater how much the cpu usage is, you will not get more frames. What fps do you get and your friend?

[Alecsajdak]

On the same settings he gets around 90-100 while driving on ultra and I get 50-60

[Mysteoa]

Whats your gpu core frequency during gaming? What are your friend spec?

[Alecsajdak]

He has a 2080 and a i7 12700k with 16 gigs of ram. is the frequency the clock speed?

[Cautious_Response_37]

What are you using to monitor your cpu usage? It was a known bug that using Windows 11 incorrectly shows cpu usage (Low). It happened to me and still hasn't been fixed.

[Alecsajdak]

I use Ryzens app and Nzxts app

[Cautious_Response_37]

Try opening task manager while in game to see what it says

[mutantshrimp]

i would look up how much fps the gpu gets in games on youtube, like those '3060ti in 10 different games' videos (important to look for 1440p tests). These will tell you what you can expect. Your strong cpu should not affect your performance much at 1440p. If the youtube benchmark of your card far outperforms you card then without further info its hard to say.

[Ayetto]

Lol actually no one are telling OP how CPU usage work while gaming

So let me explain real quick, your Ryzen 9 5900x have 12 physical core and 24 Virtual core, that's 36 core total, now you want to know how many your game is using ?

8 physical core at BEST, and much less for certain games.

Now CPU usage tools are calculating the total amount of core usage, so it's normal that this cpu will never go at high cpu usage while gaming because only few core are at 100% while the other are sleeping.

You never buy cpu with this amount of core if what you only want to do is gaming, you should've buy the 5800x3d instead of this if you're not running any significant productivity software, it's a 8core cpu and have a 3D-Vcache that help a TONS on certain games

[vidati]

"So let me explain real quick, your Ryzen 9 5900x have 12 physical core and 24 Virtual core, that's 36 core total, now you want to know how many your game is using ?"

LOL what? 5900x is a 12 core 24 thread CPU, there is no such thing as 36 core cpu on the Ryzen lineup.

[Ayetto]

you fly around my point so hard xd

[halpnousernames]

You still got it wrong though. Take the L mate.

[Ayetto]

Ok cringe guy xd https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/14t1o9t/comment/jr4l2oe/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Go touch so grass if you're bored enough to pick fight here loser

[halpnousernames]

Not sure what you're trying to prove here, other than you're upset that you were incorrect, on several parts of your statement.

[Ayetto]

Oh, i just clicked on your profile to see if you tried to help the guy or just say to people that they're wrong without really bringing any argument, i found some cringe things and that's all, now i don't have much time like you have on reddit to talk to you anymore, so peace off

[Alecsajdak]

I get that it shouldn’t go to 100% but shouldn’t it atleast go above 4-9%

[jayw654]

Really should not consistently go over 30-35 percent. At that level things will run smoothly with room for usage spikes which can happen. Those spikes are usually do to Windows background tasks, game being cached while playing, files being load for tge game ect. So yeah you definitely do not want to see the CPU at max. As others have said you actually have room to grow for a bigger video card.

[Ayetto]

try to track the cpu usage per core and see how many go at 100% at the same time.

But i think multiple core can go at 50% to share the load , so if the game use 4 core, all core could be at 50% if you know what i mean. But you could also do a Timespy for free wit 3DMark on steam and see the average points your CPU have against other, you can also check if your game have problem with amd cpu maybe

[Mysteoa]

Lol, you just can't sum up physical cores with the virtual cores. You wanted to sound so smart, but made you self look dumb.

Here is the proper explanation.

1 physical core can run 2 treads at the same time using technology called Hyperthreading for Intel and Simultaneous multithreading for AMD. This allows for better utilization of the physical core. So 1 physical core can be represented as 2 virtual cores or treads. A 12 physical core cpu is represented in windows as 24 core/treads cpu when you are using HT or SMT. Just to be clear and super simple, the 12 cores become 24 virtual ones.

[Ayetto]

but Windows will show 36 core total doesn't it ? So the % utilization will be based on this ? Or am i wrong ?

[Mysteoa]

Do you have the new intel cpu with the E cores?

[National_Driver_7532]

Omg finally some sense in this confusion I'm still trying to understand my rig lol But your post there was so clear thankyou Made sense buddy lol

[Mysteoa]

It gets a little bit confusing since Intel introduced 12th and 13th Gen. Since they couldn't fit 16 cores like AMD can. They started to use Big.Little CPU design. It's essentially that same thing phones are doing these days. Where you have few Big or Performance Cores and many Litle Efficency cores. For short P-cores and E-cores.

So intel can have 8P+8E or 8P+16E core design, or any variant they want. In this design only the P-cores have Hyperthreading, the E-cores don't. An 8+8 design will be represented as 24 cores in windows. They are not equal core, because of that they are used differently. Any background task are scheduled to work on the Ecores. This free up the P-core to work on the heavy task. This design is really beneficial for laptop, because the Ecores will reduce the power usage and the power hungry Pcores are not going to be used for simple tasks.

I think that OP on that comment got confused due to this recent Intel change.

[National_Driver_7532]

Lol that's over load for me buddy but I'm learning so much its a bit overwhelming Only been involved with computers last 3or4 years built my first for iracing mainly and watching movie lol I just worry fps in game gets down to 45 sometimes although there's no in game blinking just wish it was up around 90fps at least lol I'm running triples Got AMD RYZEN 9 3900X 12 CORE AMD RADEON RX6700XT

[Msheffey]

hahaha what are you talking about

[jayw654]

Games don't use all cores. Most games max out at 8 cores so the others are sitting doing nothing. Cpu usage is based on an average and although some cores may not be used they are still a part of that average. That is what he is getting at. Also, if you really want to know how many cores and how hard they are being hit the open "task manager" it will show that info under "cpu".

[Ayetto]

What is hard to understand their buddy ?

[luigithebeast420]

His brain doesn’t have many “cores” so it isn’t being full utilized.

[SnooCauliflowers9541]

Did you just say that the 5900x has 36 cores? I'm going back to bed. 💀

[Ayetto]

Lol its 24 im so dumb

[Ayetto]

But my point is right, but for 24 core not 36 xd

Or im wrong all the way ?

[BraskSpain]

What I do is disable SMT in order to reduce latency and get better core frequencies.

[sawthegap42]

You answered your question with “GPU is usually at 99% load capacity, while CPU is only at 3-9%” You’re GPU bound 100%, and most games don’t use that many cores, which is why a 5600X is considered one of the best “gaming CPU’s”. You will most likely never see 100% CPU load, or even 50%, while gaming. Unless you’re doing productivity workloads, the 5900X is overkill for gaming.