Constant high CPU usage with any nvidia gpu

[Kingpin]

So I had a 750 ti on my system and whenever I'd play games, my cpu would jump up to 100% usage and stay there no matter what game title. I got a hold of another 750 ti and the same thing would happen. I also have an AMD equivalent which is the Radeon HD 7850 2gb, and with that installed in my system, my games would show normal cpu usage with 60-70 usage with that rare 80 percent. It is strange because both cards seem to be alike in performance but the nvidia card makes my cpu jump up to 100 percent usage in any game.

I am stuck of what is causing this because when diagnosing my computer, I had a clean install of windows and and even used DDU to install new drivers. A little help from the forums could probably get me somewhere. Thanks.

screenshots, more detailed specs, etc will be provided when requested

mobo is ASUS Z170-A
cpu is i5-6600k at 4.5ghz
ram is 16gb hyperx fury
psu is EVGA 650G2

*UPDATE* So I've put a 960 in my system and same thing also. I've also put in my 980 and it's also doing the same thing but this time worse. CPU is constant 100 usage with 70-80 gpu usage with a 4.5 ghz overclock on my i5 6600k. This is also with turning up the resolution to 4k to maximize the gpu usage.

I pulled out black ops 3 to quickly show it.

https://i.imgur.com/sfeqat7.png

*keep in mind, this happens at every resolution and game so it's not game title specific*

the drops in usage is when changing menus*

and also in task manager, the only program it shows that is using up all of my cpu is the game itself.

[Kingpin]

upcoast님이 먼저 게시:

Impending Rentacle Tape님이 먼저 게시:

The only time I've personally myself seen with my own eyes something similar was when I tried to play modern DirectX-11 games on an odd configuration, a R9 290X in an old Core2quad Harpertown 12MB xeon clocked @ 4.5 ghz. Games like ARK: Survival Evolved, GTA-V and Borderlands 2, where the CPU was a quad core and constantly at 100% the entire time in all titles, but gpu usage was like 60% - 75%. Might not really be helpful but sometimes certain quad cores seem to do this. I can use the same games and gpu on my 5.0 ghz 2500K and it doesn't max out like that.

The core 2 quads where worse than amds PII I remember playing BL2 fine on the PII x4 with a 280x/1080p.

OP is having problems with BO3 that I also had no problems with an FX8350/280x/1080p so I believe the OP has some seriously borked pc there nothing to do with quad but seriously screwed if it can't deal with BO3.

You are right about newer games chewing up recent quads though basically the quad cpu is on its way out hence the quad cpu is now an i3 aka budget cpu.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/call_of_duty_black_ops_iii_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,7.html

BO3 isn't that demanding a ^ gtx 960 should manage very well with mixed med /ultra 1080p.

Ps, OP is pumping 182 fps https://imgur.com/sfeqat7 wtf does he think his cpu is going to do, Another go nowhere post.

Well as I stated, it isn't title specific and rather it happens to every game I play. Black Ops 3 was just the first thing I clicked to get that screenshot. And what do you expect! It was in windowed for a reason to show my task manager so of course my fps would be super high and also it was on the main menu! To add on it, no I don't play in windowed mode. I play in fullscreen. I've turned up the resolution to 1440p and 4k to see if cpu usage would go down as I stated in the post and the result is nope. It's the same thing. High cpu usage low gpu usage. So yeah, I don't want to come off sounding rude but just take the time to think and don't be ignorant and actually try to help? Thanks and it is much greatly appreciated.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Install ALL of your hardware Drivers; not just your GPU.
Chipset, Audio, LAN, WiFi, BT, etc...
Many seem to not install the Intel Chipset Drivers; please do so.

[Kingpin]

Bad_Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Install ALL of your hardware Drivers; not just your GPU.
Chipset, Audio, LAN, WiFi, BT, etc...
Many seem to not install the Intel Chipset Drivers; please do so.

Done all of that.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Update to latest BIOS on both Motherboard and GPU.

Get rid of any OC, always do that when an issue like this arises. Faster OC might not be the best for everything. 182 FPS? Yea limit the FPS by running game in Full Screen w/ VSync, that will reduce CPU usage quite a bit.

Use an SSD and get rid of Windows Defender.

[Kingpin]

Bad_Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Update to latest BIOS on both Motherboard and GPU.

Get rid of any OC, always do that when an issue like this arises. Faster OC might not be the best for everything. 182 FPS? Yea limit the FPS by running game in Full Screen w/ VSync, that will reduce CPU usage quite a bit.

Use an SSD and get rid of Windows Defender.

Got rid of any OC and installed the 960 back into my system and I get the same thing.

I've tried to use VSync and it helps a little by bringing down the cpu usage to 90 and sometimes 80.

SSD does nothing and also Windows Defender has no effect either.

I'll attempt another factory reset when I have the time to back up some of my files. My theory is that when installing drivers, Windows driver auto install conflicts with the drivers I'm installing because of it downloading some different/older drivers. I'll give an update if anything changes.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Don't use the factory restore non-sense.
Download the very latest Win10 64bit 1803 ISO from Microsoft and remake usb flash drive

Wipe your OS and start over; something is clearly wrong there.

Before you actually wipe your OS, download and update your BIOS to the very latest version from https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Simply disable Windows ability to handle Drivers, very simple, always do that.

[Kingpin]

Bad_Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Don't use the factory restore non-sense.
Download the very latest Win10 64bit 1803 ISO from Microsoft and remake usb flash drive

Wipe your OS and start over; something is clearly wrong there.

Before you actually wipe your OS, download and update your BIOS to the very latest version from https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Simply disable Windows ability to handle Drivers, very simple, always do that.

What program/way would you recommend to fully wipe my drive as of when I got it brand new.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Kingpin님이 먼저 게시:

Bad_Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Don't use the factory restore non-sense.
Download the very latest Win10 64bit 1803 ISO from Microsoft and remake usb flash drive

Wipe your OS and start over; something is clearly wrong there.

Before you actually wipe your OS, download and update your BIOS to the very latest version from https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-A/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Simply disable Windows ability to handle Drivers, very simple, always do that.

What program/way would you recommend to fully wipe my drive as of when I got it brand new.

Windows installer has a format option. Download ISO, make bootable USB stick. Boot to it, format it, go.

[upcoast]

Impending Rentacle Tape님이 먼저 게시:

Kingpin님이 먼저 게시:

What program/way would you recommend to fully wipe my drive as of when I got it brand new.

Windows installer has a format option. Download ISO, make bootable USB stick. Boot to it, format it, go.

If you use RESET "do not save any settings" for best results.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4130-reset-windows-10-a.html

Reset ^.


https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Media creation tool from MS ^, your 2nd option.

[spoogbill sandypants]

Impending Rentacle Tape님이 먼저 게시:

Your CPU isn't fast enough to feed the video cards and the games you're running. You need a faster cpu. It's going to continue to do this as long as you use that CPU.

LOL i was running an Athlon with a GTX 750 and it ran perfect, 120+ FPS on BF4, always stayed low usage. Intel is a joke.

[Kingpin]

*UPDATE*

Done a full wipe on my SSD and HDD and the problem still exists.

Destiny 2 Max Settings with Vsync:
https://i.imgur.com/MGUsKtZ.png

With fullscreen, cpu usage is still high. Vsync does not help either because with it on, cpu usage is still maxing out.

[an annoying pirate]

I hope you didnt use window built in wipe...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Kingpin님이 먼저 게시:

*UPDATE*

Done a full wipe on my SSD and HDD and the problem still exists.

Destiny 2 Max Settings with Vsync:
https://i.imgur.com/MGUsKtZ.png

With fullscreen, cpu usage is still high. Vsync does not help either because with it on, cpu usage is still maxing out.

> BIOS is configured all wrong
> Drivers not installed/updated (yea you need to do that, even on Win10)
> Disable all the CPU & Disk hogging crap in Win10
> Configure NVIDIA-CP properly for gaming
> SSD is dying; clogging up the SATA chipset and CPU
> Motherboard is dying; or the CPU itself. CPU is rare to go out, but hard to tell until you test more.

Get the PC looked at in-person by a good pc tech.
Need to try that CPU on another Motherboard and see if does the same thing; to rule out CPU or Motherboard.

Best bet first is reset the CMOS and don't OC anything.