Question Low GPU Usage on 5700 XT

Eldgrimr

Junior Member
May 7, 2020
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Hello!

I recently purchased 5700 XT. It's Gigabyte Gaming OC version. Below is the HWInfo output.


And here is the DXDiag output.


And user benchmark.


I updated MB bios to latest. I'm using latest drivers from AMD. (as of 7th of May 2020 - Uninstalled previous one with DDU and installed the new one)

So let's get to the problem. My new GPU does not really want to go high GPU usage like 90 or 95. It typically goes up and down between 1 and 77.Never seen it reaching 90+. I play mostly Battlefield 5 and when I limit the FPS or turn on the V-sync, frame-times becomes more stable. However, if I disable the limiter, FPS goes up, frame-time get spikes to 80ms.

Here is the frame-time graph with limiter on:


Here is frame-time graph without limiter on:

https://imgur.com/a/vSx2QSD

You might say "Yes its normal because GPU is pushing harder to catch up with the frames" but while limiter is off, GPU usages do not exceed 70% and CPU usage is around %50 while VRAM and DRAM is about %50.

I tried to test with memory overclocked to 3.2 via XMP profile but it crashes BF 5 for some reason.

I need to find out what is causing this because eventhough I have Dell U2414H (I love this monitor), I might change it to 120Hz monitor for gaming so I need every FPS I can get.

Battlefield 5 runs on SSD.

Some say it might be the PSU dying. I'm not so sure about anything now. I really need your help, otherwise I'll lose my mind.

Thank you everyone!
 

Guru

Senior member
May 5, 2017
830
361
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Your cpu isn't able to utilize the full gpu. Ryzen 1700x is a decent chip, but even at the time it was about 10% slower in games than Intel counterparts and that was 3 years ago. If you compare it to today's chips in some games it can be up to 30% slower.

Also try some other games, BF5 is a really cpu heavy game, especially in multiplayer, so trying other games might have a better result for you.
 

Guru

Senior member
May 5, 2017
830
361
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Thank you for the answer.

My confusion here is CPU usage. Should we not expect some cores hitting %100 if CPU is the bottleneck?
Well infinity babrick is tied to ram speed, and 1st gen ryzen also has a big latency, so its not how much the cpu is utilized, its how fast it can process draw calls in games to feed the gpu. Unfortunately with ram speeds below 3200mhz, which you've said you've failed to enable xmp without crashing in games, its probably limiting your cpu as well.

Did ryzen 1 have a default ram frequency of 2666mhz? That is probably what your memory is running at, so try and manually overclock the memory to 3000mhz and manually setup the timings, this would help a lot. Even today ryzen 1 has issues with certain ram and being able to run it at 3200mhz or higher. So try 3000mhz and better timings, there are many guides on youtube and online to see how to setup and OC your ram manually.

If you are able to tune your memory timings and speed to 3000MHz, that will give your cpu a boost and that will then give your gpu a boost!
 

Eldgrimr

Junior Member
May 7, 2020
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0
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Well infinity babrick is tied to ram speed, and 1st gen ryzen also has a big latency, so its not how much the cpu is utilized, its how fast it can process draw calls in games to feed the gpu. Unfortunately with ram speeds below 3200mhz, which you've said you've failed to enable xmp without crashing in games, its probably limiting your cpu as well.

Did ryzen 1 have a default ram frequency of 2666mhz? That is probably what your memory is running at, so try and manually overclock the memory to 3000mhz and manually setup the timings, this would help a lot. Even today ryzen 1 has issues with certain ram and being able to run it at 3200mhz or higher. So try 3000mhz and better timings, there are many guides on youtube and online to see how to setup and OC your ram manually.

If you are able to tune your memory timings and speed to 3000MHz, that will give your cpu a boost and that will then give your gpu a boost!

G-skill is Ryzen certified and there should be no problem with memory clocks. Stock clocks of this memory set is 2333 which is low. It looks stable with 3200 on Windows with XMP but not in Battlefield.

However, when I turn on Future Frame Rendering in Battlefield 5, it gives me more FPS and lower frametimes. Future Frame Rendering, as explained here seems like putting more load on CPU. Since CPU can handle it and give me more, it makes me think may be CPU is not the issue here. I'm just thinking out-loud. What do you think?

I might end up upgrading this to 3700x so I can play with Infinity Fabric overclocking aswell.

By the meantime, I'll try to get stable 3200 MHz for the memories with manual overclocking instead of XMP profiles and let you know.

Thanks a lot for your answer.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,582
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Just an FYI

You can OC IF speed on all Ryzen CPUs. With Matisse (3700x), you can try to desync RAM from IF, but that kills your performance. So in reality, you will OC IF on Matisse the same way you would on Summit Ridge (1700x) or Pinnacle Ridge (2700x). Faster RAM = faster IF. On your 1700x, there realistically isn't much you can do to increase IF speeds beyond 1733 MHz (DDR4-3466). On a 3700x, you can probably hit an IF speed of 1800-1900 MHz, which means your RAM has to be able to do DDR4-3600 - 3800 to stay in synchronous mode.

The first thing I would do in your shoes is to try and overclock the 1700x. It won't have much headroom, but if you can get to at least 3.8 GHz, that might offer you some improvement.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
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You won't see any cores hitting 100%, threads get bounced around between cores to get the power dissipation even. You have to go by the percentage of CPU time used. Assuming you have hyper threading enabled, you have 16 threads. Lets say a game is only dual threaded, if both CPU cores are pegged, you will be at 12.5% CPU.
 
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Eldgrimr

Junior Member
May 7, 2020
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Just an FYI

You can OC IF speed on all Ryzen CPUs. With Matisse (3700x), you can try to desync RAM from IF, but that kills your performance. So in reality, you will OC IF on Matisse the same way you would on Summit Ridge (1700x) or Pinnacle Ridge (2700x). Faster RAM = faster IF. On your 1700x, there realistically isn't much you can do to increase IF speeds beyond 1733 MHz (DDR4-3466). On a 3700x, you can probably hit an IF speed of 1800-1900 MHz, which means your RAM has to be able to do DDR4-3600 - 3800 to stay in synchronous mode.

The first thing I would do in your shoes is to try and overclock the 1700x. It won't have much headroom, but if you can get to at least 3.8 GHz, that might offer you some improvement.

Hi.

CPU was set to 3800 already. On the RAM, max I could go was around 3k. I manually set the timings and set the freq. to 3200 but games crashed again. I guess there is something wrong with them.

But in general, what you generally say is eventhough you can't manually overclock as in 3000 series, it still does benefit from RAM overclocking. Good to know. Thanks!

Drop in a 3300X when they come out?

I'm planning to go 3700x because I need cores for productivity reasons. :)

You won't see any cores hitting 100%, threads get bounced around between cores to get the power dissipation even. You have to go by the percentage of CPU time used. Assuming you have hyper threading enabled, you have 16 threads. Lets say a game is only dual threaded, if both CPU cores are pegged, you will be at 12.5% CPU.

None of the threads were hitting %100 as you said. I'll try to measure CPU time and let you know. Thanks!

@Stuka87

Thanks for reminding me about SMT. OP could probably get better performance disabling it while playing games.

Battlefield does not really benefit from turning SMT on or off but I keep that in mind for other games.

But interesting thing happened today.

I flashed the latest bios from Gigabyte website. It was FA0. It was successfully flashed. Restarted PC. Opened up the game, screen flashed a few times, GPU stuck at 99 till I restarted the PC.
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
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I flashed the latest bios from Gigabyte website. It was FA0. It was successfully flashed. Restarted PC. Opened up the game, screen flashed a few times, GPU stuck at 99 till I restarted the PC.
Have you tried using XMP with the ram again? I had a few 3 series boards that would not run any of my 3200 at full speed until I updated the bios to a newer one than it shipped with.