Why doesn't the GPU stay at 95~99% usage

[P4-630]

When I try GTA V without MSAA I get these results:
As you can see the GPU usage is all over the place

GTA V with MSAA x2:

I don't see my CPU being a bottleneck, also my system memory is 16GB and the temps are fine as you can see.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Well, quite frankly, GTA5 is not very taxing for a 1070. It’s years later. MSAA adds a little bit of stress to it and keeps the GPU more strongly used.

 

[P4-630]

Well, quite frankly, GTA5 is not very taxing for a 1070. It’s years later. MSAA adds a little bit of stress to it and keeps the GPU more strongly used.

You would just expect the fps going up without MSAA, but it doesn't much.

 

[Vayra86]

Its not just performance from the hardware. GTA V is an open world game, no linearity so all the performance you get is what the entire pipeline can produce: that includes the game engine, your hardware (beyond CPU: RAM latency/bandwidth, storage, etc.) and simply the things that happen in the game. You're meeting bottlenecks everywhere you go and that is what you see, and why the FPS isn't going up that much. It means faster hardware such as a GPU will probably not gain you that much if all else stays the same.

Engines have their limitations too, this is often underestimated, and there is also an API in between that has its limits (draw calls, good example) and they won't show up as 'usage'. The actual usage you see in a monitor is nothing but a ballpark indicator. I get a very clear picture of that on my current rig with a much more overkill CPU. Even at a 120 fps limit I see 90-100 FPS with the CPU at 20% and not even loading up a single core fully, while the GPU sits at 60-80% in some games.

You could play around with settings though to see where the bottleneck lies in the game itself. Often those are things like draw distance/LOD and shadow quality, especially at longer distances. Those things are not just a GPU load but also heavily tax the CPU/rest of the system because the game has to load up a larger area/more data around you all the time. Another big one is the amount of NPCs you draw, I think you can set that too in the game right - or at least how varied they are?

 

[Vya Domus]

I don't see my CPU being a bottleneck

This is why the phrase "X CPU is bottlenecking" shouldn't be used, because it doesn't mean much. The CPU can be a limiting factor at anytime without you knowing.

 

[HD64G]

Imho, this isn't the game engine to seek efficiency in using properly your hardware.

 

[W1zzard]

Cpu limited. To confirm drop the cpu multi by like 500 MHz, if fps go down, confirmed