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i5 6400 high cpu usage when gaming(stutter, low fps) any fixes?

idata
Employee
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my cpu is a i5 6400

 

gpu is a msi rx 480 4gb gaming x 4gb

 

motherboard is a msi h110m

 

I have 8gb of ram

I'm finding it extremely hard to game since I got this pc, my cpu's usage is way too high compared to benchmarks I've seen and I cant get stable or high fps in games due to it

 

it's bottlenecking the heck out of my gpu, and I don't even know why considering it's a highly rated processor.

 

Does anyone know if I can do anything to relieve this issue and start gaming without issue?

 

any and all help would be would most welcome.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about

 

I understand the i5 6400 isnt a high end cpu but this level of bottleneck is insane, I'm not sure what I should, and can do about it.
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CCris2
New Contributor II
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Hi Jinx555 ,

I don't think this a CPU problem. It's more like a game optimization or requirements problem. If you search on youtube "watch dogs 2 CPU bottleneck" you will see that this is not the only CPU that is on 100%.

So I think this game is CPU compute power hungry, so you need more cores and frequency from what I saw. Even on i7 7700k is over 90% in some scenes ...

Also upgrading to the latest version should give you higher frame rates from what I saw.

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idata
Employee
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The thing is I'm getting high cpu usage along with terrible fps in practically all modern games, Batman Arkham Knight, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gta V, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, space hulk deathwing, planet explorers, even games like wwe 2k16 gives me off performance

I dont even really mind the lower than average fps, but what really gets to me is the stutter, going from 60-50fps to 30-20fps frequently causes micro freezes.

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idata
Employee
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Stutter and low frames since you are currently running an external video card could come from it. Probably graphics https://www.msi.com/support# support_download drivers update

 

 

Additionally, try testing the processor by running the processor diagnostic tool.

 

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool

 

 

Allan.

 

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CCris2
New Contributor II
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What is the windows version on your PC ?

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idata
Employee
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upgraded gpu drivers to their latest, and ran the diagnostic tool(passed), but I'm still getting the same issue.

Ronin Windows 7 pro

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CCris2
New Contributor II
3,890 Views

Lets try something. Go in control panel / administrative tools / services . Search for Superfetch and Windows search and disable them.

Check if intel igpu is disabled. Try and see how it's working now.

Your discrete GPU is optimized for dx12,, and the only windows that supports it and will run better is windows 10.

Skylake also works better on windows 10, so I think you should try and see how it works in win 10.

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idata
Employee
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tried your suggestions but the problem still persists.

 

not sure what I should do
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CCris2
New Contributor II
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Do you have an antivirus running on your pc ?

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idata
Employee
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Yeah I use MalwareBytes It's pretty good.

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ssote
New Contributor II
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Have you tried Vsync? Did you do a clean install of windows with hardware setup? What is the CPU utilization at idle?

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idata
Employee
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Tried a few games with Vsync both on and off, no difference.

 

Yeah I've installed Windows a few times this past couple of months, but each time the problem still persists.

 

CPU utilization is between 0-4% at idle
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CCris2
New Contributor II
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Please check that the memory is in the right slots for dual channel, and also check on the other 2 slots. I looks like a memory bandwidth starving problem.

Can you also do some memory bandwidth test ?

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CCris2
New Contributor II
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Also please verify if the memory is not filled while you game and it starts using hdd/sdd as cache.

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idata
Employee
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Just finished the windows memory diagnostic test, and it passed.

 

I'm running only 1 8gb ram stick, memory is never filled going by msi after burner stats
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CCris2
New Contributor II
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Because your system has only one memory stick it runs in single channel and not dual, and Instead of having 34GB/s (dual channel), your memory has only 17GB/s (single channel).

Your video card has only 4GB of memory, and on moderns games on maximum details it goes over those 4GB and it reads from system memory (DDR4).

Video memory has a lot higher bandwidth (224GB/s), and in your system, from DDR4 it reads on single channel with 17GB/s instead of dual channels 34GB/s ...

So my advise is to get a dual channel 2x8GB 2100 memory.

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CCris2
New Contributor II
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I suggest before you buy a dual channel memory kit, to look for memory compatibility for your mainboard here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/H110M-GAMING.html# support-mem Support For H110M GAMING | MSI Global | Motherboard - The world leader in motherboard design

Intel CPU specifications for skylake are for dual channel DDR4 2100, any higher memory then that, may work with your CPU but not guaranteed.

Higher memory frequency will have bigger bandwidth.

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