Low CPU usage on Cyberpunk 2077/ all games

[TheOtakuBirb]

i have a i7-9700k with a RTX 3080 and while playing Cyberpunk and pretty much any other game i only show 1 to 2 cores being used and im not sure if this is normal or not and if its not how would i fix it

[Vellari]

On 3900X here, and game appears to use roughly 12-cores at "non-idle/dialogue" scenes. So no, does not look right. No idea what the cause is though.

If other games are similar too, likely something unrelated to this game specifically.

[BimboGooch]

Depends on the game. But for my my ryzen 7 4.5ghz 6 core cpu is using all my cores in this game. Most are at 50-60% some are at 15% making my total cpu usage 40-50%. Which is bad because it isnt pushing my cpu to the limits and my gpu is at 80% to maybe 85%. So nothing is bottle necked. Im using a 1070 sc. The game just isnt optimized. If I had 100% on my gpu and it bottle necked my system id have like 10 more fps. Which would be a huge difference considering I average 45 fps lmao.

I think your system is an 8core. So yeah id say its odd only 1 or 2 cores is being used. That maybe will be this patches update some people only get like 10% cpu usage in this game. After this update. Try reverting patches if you have time and see how it is then. Cuz you should be using at least 6 of those cores in some way.

[Enrique™]

Same rig, I7-9700k @ 4GHz with RTX 3080 for cp77 CPU usage is between 40-60% all cores.
All settings are highest , ray-tracing is off and dlss is quality.
Resolution is 2k

[BimboGooch]

Originally posted by Enrique™:

Same rig, I7-9700k @ 4GHz with RTX 3080 for cp77 CPU usage is between 40-60% all cores.
All settings are highest , ray-tracing is off and dlss is quality.
Resolution is 2k

Make sure your turbo is on when youre playing. Cuz your rig gets quite a bit more GHZ with the turbo running. The auto turbo sucks and doesnt work often. AMD has an app to make turbo always on, maybe into does other wise you gotta go to your BIOS. It is meant to run in turbo so it wont damage your cpu. Nor will you have the cpu long enough to have it die from it. Maybe turbo is always working but if it isnt, your usage will go up a bit more or should as its using far more power. And youll get more fps as this game is super CPU based.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Which is bad because it isnt pushing my cpu to the limits and my gpu is at 80% to maybe 85%.

Think you got a few typos there, because Ryzen 7 are 8 core SKUs, not 6 cores, and you wouldn't want your CPU to be running anywhere near 100% usage, because that would mean you CPU is insufficient and/or lacking in core/thread count for what you're running on your system. Your GPU is the bottleneck either way, the 1070 is showing its age now.

As long as your CPU isn't older than Ryzen 5000 series/Zen3, even if you had a 3090, there wouldn't be any considerable bottleneck from the CPU outside of raytracing settings which puts strain on both the CPU and GPU. I had a 3900X and it was holding back my GPU, no such issue with a 10850K, GPU usage is often 99%.

Originally posted by TheOtakuBirb:

i have a i7-9700k with a RTX 3080 and while playing Cyberpunk and pretty much any other game i only show 1 to 2 cores being used and im not sure if this is normal or not and if its not how would i fix it

Could be that BIOS is incorrectly configured. Try resetting CMOS and just enabling XMP, nothing else, default settings with XMP enabled should be more than sufficient.

Also make sure that your motherboard's chipset drivers are up to date as well as your GPU.

Cyberpunk normally needs a minimum of 6 cores to run well, so if it's only ever using 2, that's hampering performance significantly, it runs terribly on quad-core CPUs like the 7700K and 3300X in comparison to hexa-core CPUs like the 8700K and 3600. Average FPS is worse and the frametimes can be god awful, making it a stuttery mess.

[BimboGooch]

Originally posted by r.linder:

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Which is bad because it isnt pushing my cpu to the limits and my gpu is at 80% to maybe 85%.

Think you got a few typos there, because Ryzen 7 are 8 core SKUs, not 6 cores, and you wouldn't want your CPU to be running anywhere near 100% usage, because that would mean you CPU is insufficient and/or lacking in core/thread count for what you're running on your system. Your GPU is the bottleneck either way, the 1070 is showing its age now.

As long as your CPU isn't older than Ryzen 5000 series/Zen3, even if you had a 3090, there wouldn't be any considerable bottleneck from the CPU outside of raytracing settings which puts strain on both the CPU and GPU. I had a 3900X and it was holding back my GPU, no such issue with a 10850K, GPU usage is often 99%.

Originally posted by TheOtakuBirb:

i have a i7-9700k with a RTX 3080 and while playing Cyberpunk and pretty much any other game i only show 1 to 2 cores being used and im not sure if this is normal or not and if its not how would i fix it

Could be that BIOS is incorrectly configured. Try resetting CMOS and just enabling XMP, nothing else, default settings with XMP enabled should be more than sufficient.

Also make sure that your motherboard's chipset drivers are up to date as well as your GPU.

Cyberpunk normally needs a minimum of 6 cores to run well, so if it's only ever using 2, that's hampering performance significantly, it runs terribly on quad-core CPUs like the 7700K and 3300X in comparison to hexa-core CPUs like the 8700K and 3600. Average FPS is worse and the frametimes can be god awful, making it a stuttery mess.

yeah mine is 8 just wasnt thinking. And Yes I want my cpu to use more resources when playing. My cpu will never get to 100% thou with my gpu a 1070. Why would you not want a component to get near max usage when gaming? unless you have overheat issues. Obviously it likely means im bottle necking a component but what if both are pretty much at 100% youd be getting the max out of your PC something you spent money on to be good. Well both at 100% likely would stutter the game so maybe like a little under 100% but it isnt bad to have super high usage unless its doing that even when not gaming.

My gpu is bottle necking my pc hardcore thing is, it isnt even using 100% lmao only 80% which is annoying. But at least it doesnt stutter. Anyways it isnt bad for any part to be 100% besides prolly the psu. It just depends on if it is trying to go over 100% and starts having issues.

Ive seen people think having 80% usage on both cpu and gpu was bad cuz its going to die way faster. Which sure likely it will die faster but unless the component is messed up, youll switch out before they die. To avoid stuttering messes Id prolly in reality want like 90% usage on the cpu for some breathing room. And ram I dont want over 90% as my games stutter then too.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Originally posted by r.linder:

Think you got a few typos there, because Ryzen 7 are 8 core SKUs, not 6 cores, and you wouldn't want your CPU to be running anywhere near 100% usage, because that would mean you CPU is insufficient and/or lacking in core/thread count for what you're running on your system. Your GPU is the bottleneck either way, the 1070 is showing its age now.

As long as your CPU isn't older than Ryzen 5000 series/Zen3, even if you had a 3090, there wouldn't be any considerable bottleneck from the CPU outside of raytracing settings which puts strain on both the CPU and GPU. I had a 3900X and it was holding back my GPU, no such issue with a 10850K, GPU usage is often 99%.


Could be that BIOS is incorrectly configured. Try resetting CMOS and just enabling XMP, nothing else, default settings with XMP enabled should be more than sufficient.

Also make sure that your motherboard's chipset drivers are up to date as well as your GPU.

Cyberpunk normally needs a minimum of 6 cores to run well, so if it's only ever using 2, that's hampering performance significantly, it runs terribly on quad-core CPUs like the 7700K and 3300X in comparison to hexa-core CPUs like the 8700K and 3600. Average FPS is worse and the frametimes can be god awful, making it a stuttery mess.

yeah mine is 8 just wasnt thinking. And Yes I want my cpu to use more resources when playing. My cpu will never get to 100% thou with my gpu a 1070. Why would you not want a component to get near max usage when gaming? unless you have overheat issues. Obviously it likely means im bottle necking a component but what if both are pretty much at 100% youd be getting the max out of your PC something you spent money on to be good. Well both at 100% likely would stutter the game so maybe like a little under 100% but it isnt bad to have super high usage unless its doing that even when not gaming.

My gpu is bottle necking my pc hardcore thing is, it isnt even using 100% lmao only 80% which is annoying. But at least it doesnt stutter. Anyways it isnt bad for any part to be 100% besides prolly the psu. It just depends on if it is trying to go over 100% and starts having issues.

Ive seen people think having 80% usage on both cpu and gpu was bad cuz its going to die way faster. Which sure likely it will die faster but unless the component is messed up, youll switch out before they die. To avoid stuttering messes Id prolly in reality want like 90% usage on the cpu for some breathing room. And ram I dont want over 90% as my games stutter then too.

The problem with usage percentages as a statistic is that people don't understand the complexity of it all and how little it actually matters. As long as your usage is below 100%, there's no issue as far as usage. 100% would mean that there's no headroom left and the component is being stressed (or in the case of memory, no memory left to use), and there's often performance issues that arise when running at 100%.

CPU-wise, usage mostly pertains just to the amount of threads being utilised by a process, and how far those threads are being pushed. You can't force the CPU to use more than what the process pushes the CPU to use, it doesn't work like that. Many older titles literally cannot use more than 4 cores or threads because they weren't designed to. Cyberpunk only needs between 6 to 8, and it's the performance of those cores that matter most, not the quantity. Look at older 8 core CPUs like the FX-9590 and TR 1900X. They might have the cores, but the core performance is god awful compared to newer 8 core processors like the 9700K and 3700X. I went from a 12 core 3900X to a 10 core 10850K and saw huge CPU-side gains and a massive reduction in bottlenecking because the core performance was higher, I had a launch batch 3900X that could barely run 4.2 GHz on a few cores, but my 10850K runs 5+ GHz all-core without issue and isn't at a core design disadvantage. The first iteration of Ryzen 9 had poor latency and single core performance, they were a complete waste of money for most buyers as the real value is in multi-core performance for workstation use as an ultra-budget alternative to Threadripper. Even now there's no reason to opt for a 5900X or 5950X over a 5700X or 5800X3D, it's silly enthusiast grade junk that doesn't give tangible benefits like the i9s did for Intel, because you actually got better clocks and core performance as Intel saved the best for the i9s, while on AMD you only get higher multi-threaded performance with higher end SKUs, the single-core performance is almost identical throughout the entire stack of each generation as they often clock the same in gaming.

GPU-wise is much more simple though, since it's just how hard the GPU core is being pushed when rendering. The more that has to be rendered, the higher the usage, so with lower settings, you get less usage, though having an uncapped framerate can increase the load as the GPU is rendering more frames. This also puts more strain on the CPU.

Your usages are normal, GPU usage would be higher at higher settings.

[BimboGooch]

Originally posted by r.linder:

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

yeah mine is 8 just wasnt thinking. And Yes I want my cpu to use more resources when playing. My cpu will never get to 100% thou with my gpu a 1070. Why would you not want a component to get near max usage when gaming? unless you have overheat issues. Obviously it likely means im bottle necking a component but what if both are pretty much at 100% youd be getting the max out of your PC something you spent money on to be good. Well both at 100% likely would stutter the game so maybe like a little under 100% but it isnt bad to have super high usage unless its doing that even when not gaming.

My gpu is bottle necking my pc hardcore thing is, it isnt even using 100% lmao only 80% which is annoying. But at least it doesnt stutter. Anyways it isnt bad for any part to be 100% besides prolly the psu. It just depends on if it is trying to go over 100% and starts having issues.

Ive seen people think having 80% usage on both cpu and gpu was bad cuz its going to die way faster. Which sure likely it will die faster but unless the component is messed up, youll switch out before they die. To avoid stuttering messes Id prolly in reality want like 90% usage on the cpu for some breathing room. And ram I dont want over 90% as my games stutter then too.

The problem with usage percentages as a statistic is that people don't understand the complexity of it all and how little it actually matters. As long as your usage is below 100%, there's no issue as far as usage. 100% would mean that there's no headroom left and the component is being stressed (or in the case of memory, no memory left to use), and there's often performance issues that arise when running at 100%.

CPU-wise, usage mostly pertains just to the amount of threads being utilised by a process, and how far those threads are being pushed. You can't force the CPU to use more than what the process pushes the CPU to use, it doesn't work like that. Many older titles literally cannot use more than 4 cores or threads because they weren't designed to. Cyberpunk only needs between 6 to 8, and it's the performance of those cores that matter most, not the quantity. Look at older 8 core CPUs like the FX-9590 and TR 1900X. They might have the cores, but the core performance is god awful compared to newer 8 core processors like the 9700K and 3700X. I went from a 12 core 3900X to a 10 core 10850K and saw huge CPU-side gains and a massive reduction in bottlenecking because the core performance was higher, I had a launch batch 3900X that could barely run 4.2 GHz on a few cores, but my 10850K runs 5+ GHz all-core without issue and isn't at a core design disadvantage. The first iteration of Ryzen 9 had poor latency and single core performance, they were a complete waste of money for most buyers as the real value is in multi-core performance for workstation use as an ultra-budget alternative to Threadripper. Even now there's no reason to opt for a 5900X or 5950X over a 5700X or 5800X3D, it's silly enthusiast grade junk that doesn't give tangible benefits like the i9s did for Intel, because you actually got better clocks and core performance as Intel saved the best for the i9s, while on AMD you only get higher multi-threaded performance with higher end SKUs, the single-core performance is almost identical throughout the entire stack of each generation as they often clock the same in gaming.

GPU-wise is much more simple though, since it's just how hard the GPU core is being pushed when rendering. The more that has to be rendered, the higher the usage, so with lower settings, you get less usage, though having an uncapped framerate can increase the load as the GPU is rendering more frames. This also puts more strain on the CPU.

Your usages are normal, GPU usage would be higher at higher settings.

Ye I know, tis why I corrected my self and said 90%. And I know my usages are pretty normal. Id just expect it to use more than 80% gpu especially since everything that mostly uses gpu I have set to max. Usually games like this just end up near 100% gpu usage, as in like 95% And usually most games dont even get past 25% cpu usage. And run just fine. Usually its a few cores maxed out. Im pretty sure I have the 5700X

Jk its the 3800x Although I got it like a few weeks before cyberpunk launched. So it is now older. I dont think id ever buy a like brand brand new cpu. It is always too overpriced imo. Especially intel ones.

[r.linder]

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Originally posted by r.linder:

The problem with usage percentages as a statistic is that people don't understand the complexity of it all and how little it actually matters. As long as your usage is below 100%, there's no issue as far as usage. 100% would mean that there's no headroom left and the component is being stressed (or in the case of memory, no memory left to use), and there's often performance issues that arise when running at 100%.

CPU-wise, usage mostly pertains just to the amount of threads being utilised by a process, and how far those threads are being pushed. You can't force the CPU to use more than what the process pushes the CPU to use, it doesn't work like that. Many older titles literally cannot use more than 4 cores or threads because they weren't designed to. Cyberpunk only needs between 6 to 8, and it's the performance of those cores that matter most, not the quantity. Look at older 8 core CPUs like the FX-9590 and TR 1900X. They might have the cores, but the core performance is god awful compared to newer 8 core processors like the 9700K and 3700X. I went from a 12 core 3900X to a 10 core 10850K and saw huge CPU-side gains and a massive reduction in bottlenecking because the core performance was higher, I had a launch batch 3900X that could barely run 4.2 GHz on a few cores, but my 10850K runs 5+ GHz all-core without issue and isn't at a core design disadvantage. The first iteration of Ryzen 9 had poor latency and single core performance, they were a complete waste of money for most buyers as the real value is in multi-core performance for workstation use as an ultra-budget alternative to Threadripper. Even now there's no reason to opt for a 5900X or 5950X over a 5700X or 5800X3D, it's silly enthusiast grade junk that doesn't give tangible benefits like the i9s did for Intel, because you actually got better clocks and core performance as Intel saved the best for the i9s, while on AMD you only get higher multi-threaded performance with higher end SKUs, the single-core performance is almost identical throughout the entire stack of each generation as they often clock the same in gaming.

GPU-wise is much more simple though, since it's just how hard the GPU core is being pushed when rendering. The more that has to be rendered, the higher the usage, so with lower settings, you get less usage, though having an uncapped framerate can increase the load as the GPU is rendering more frames. This also puts more strain on the CPU.

Your usages are normal, GPU usage would be higher at higher settings.

Ye I know, tis why I corrected my self and said 90%. And I know my usages are pretty normal. Id just expect it to use more than 80% gpu especially since everything that mostly uses gpu I have set to max. Usually games like this just end up near 100% gpu usage, as in like 95% And usually most games dont even get past 25% cpu usage. And run just fine. Usually its a few cores maxed out. Im pretty sure I have the 5700X

Jk its the 3800x Although I got it like a few weeks before cyberpunk launched. So it is now older. I dont think id ever buy a like brand brand new cpu. It is always too overpriced imo. Especially intel ones.

3800X is okay but if you get anything better than a 3070, you'll want a faster CPU because Zen2 will bottleneck the 3070 noticeably, anything faster and you're missing out on a good bit of performance.

Back when I had a 2080 Ti, my 3900X bottlenecked it. Literally no frame boost by running at 1080p vs 1440p. Not the case for my 10850K which does get a small boost, but not enough to be worth having to run a smaller resolution. Runs well enough with RT ultra settings.

[BimboGooch]

Originally posted by r.linder:

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Ye I know, tis why I corrected my self and said 90%. And I know my usages are pretty normal. Id just expect it to use more than 80% gpu especially since everything that mostly uses gpu I have set to max. Usually games like this just end up near 100% gpu usage, as in like 95% And usually most games dont even get past 25% cpu usage. And run just fine. Usually its a few cores maxed out. Im pretty sure I have the 5700X

Jk its the 3800x Although I got it like a few weeks before cyberpunk launched. So it is now older. I dont think id ever buy a like brand brand new cpu. It is always too overpriced imo. Especially intel ones.

3800X is okay but if you get anything better than a 3070, you'll want a faster CPU because Zen2 will bottleneck the 3070 noticeably, anything faster and you're missing out on a good bit of performance.

Back when I had a 2080 Ti, my 3900X bottlenecked it. Literally no frame boost by running at 1080p vs 1440p. Not the case for my 10850K which does get a small boost.

Dont think ill go for a 3080 but maybe at some point. BUt I upgrade my cpus every like 3 or 4 years. So by the time I get a 3080 ill end up getting a new cpu. Id have a 3070 or 80 by now but scalpers are annoying, and microcenter is always sold out. And what ever site I reserve a gpu for. They cancel it because they sell out again since bulk buys usually get priority even if you ordered 4 months prior lul. Plus I think the site I used cancels them after a few months, which is just stupid like why have an option to sit in line lmao.

[BimboGooch]

Originally posted by r.linder:

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Ye I know, tis why I corrected my self and said 90%. And I know my usages are pretty normal. Id just expect it to use more than 80% gpu especially since everything that mostly uses gpu I have set to max. Usually games like this just end up near 100% gpu usage, as in like 95% And usually most games dont even get past 25% cpu usage. And run just fine. Usually its a few cores maxed out. Im pretty sure I have the 5700X

Jk its the 3800x Although I got it like a few weeks before cyberpunk launched. So it is now older. I dont think id ever buy a like brand brand new cpu. It is always too overpriced imo. Especially intel ones.

3800X is okay but if you get anything better than a 3070, you'll want a faster CPU because Zen2 will bottleneck the 3070 noticeably, anything faster and you're missing out on a good bit of performance.

Back when I had a 2080 Ti, my 3900X bottlenecked it. Literally no frame boost by running at 1080p vs 1440p. Not the case for my 10850K which does get a small boost, but not enough to be worth having to run a smaller resolution. Runs well enough with RT ultra settings.

Although even if I get a 3080 I am only playing at 1440p so most games I dont think ill be really bottle necked. Maybe this game since this one seems more cpu intensive than RTS games. but Most would be fine,

[r.linder]

Originally posted by BimboGooch:

Originally posted by r.linder:

3800X is okay but if you get anything better than a 3070, you'll want a faster CPU because Zen2 will bottleneck the 3070 noticeably, anything faster and you're missing out on a good bit of performance.

Back when I had a 2080 Ti, my 3900X bottlenecked it. Literally no frame boost by running at 1080p vs 1440p. Not the case for my 10850K which does get a small boost, but not enough to be worth having to run a smaller resolution. Runs well enough with RT ultra settings.

Although even if I get a 3080 I am only playing at 1440p so most games I dont think ill be really bottle necked. Maybe this game since this one seems more cpu intensive than RTS games. but Most would be fine,

3800X bottlenecks 2080 Ti even at 4K in some instances.

[Triassic Time Traveler]

Thats the reason why, i searched for 4 hours on reddit, forums and everywhere else for it:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cpu-usage-dropped-to-5-during-gaming-after/e4b80ef6-be5a-42de-8b94-2bbaa4178778

You can blaim the latest windows 11 update 22H2 for it...

[Toodeloot]

if your gpu is not reaching 95% and you are way below your fps lock(target) then you are CPU bound.
You can be cpu bound with 2% cpu usage because it just lacks the speed to keep up ,cpu bound doens't mean only 100% cpu usage