What could be causing my GPU to only be at 70 percent usage on a heavily modded Skyrim?

[Jailhouseblues]

For some reason, the most usage I can get out of my GPU is 70-75 percent, and I have a heavily modded Skyrim with the frame rate capped at 30 FPS so that it doesn't go all over the place. Without the cap I put with RivaTuner, my FPS is around 30-50 on exterior cells and 60 at all times in interiors. Here are my specs.

 

MSI Twin Frozr GTX 970

Intel i5 4690k 3.5ghz

8 gigs of RAM

 

 

Now I am not sure if my GPU absolutely has to be at 99 percent usage while running the game. Maybe everything is actually working fine therefore the usage doesn't need to exceed 70 percent. However I highly doubt that's the case, because as far as I can recall, even without the FPS cap the usage would be the same and I still wouldn't be able to run this particularly heavy setup at a constant 60 FPS.

 

Not that I expect it to run at 60 FPS but shouldn't the frame rate improve at least a little bit as the usage rises? Well obviously yes, and that's my problem. I never exceed 70 percent usage, so I feel like I could squeeze more FPS out of my 970. 

 

I am using MSI Afterburner to monitor my performance. So far I have tried doing the following:

 

- Setting "Power management mode" from Adaptive to Maximum Performance

- Creating a custom profile for Skyrim in Nvidia driver settings and choosing the maximum performance option for it as well.

- Downloaded Nvidia Inspector and navigated to the overclocking settings to set the performance level to P0, which should be the maximum. However it was already defaulted at that value.

 

None of these managed to solve the issue, so I am posting this here as a last resort. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Edited March 9, 2016 by Jailhouseblues

[TechAngel85]

First, stop using third party programs to do that what can be done with what you already have installed. ENBlocal.ini has a FPS Limiter that can be used. There is also one in the drivers that can be accessed with Nvidia Inspector. So get rid of RivaTuner unless you're simply using it for overclocking (which Nvidia Inspector can do as well). Second, drop MSI Afterburner. These are programs which are not needed and can interfere with things. Use Skryrim Performance Monitor to monitor your performance which has support for ENB/ENBoost in the settings.

 

Basically, eliminated the unnecessary programs to rule them out.

[hishutup]

I will disagree with tech on this. Having msi afterburner(requires rivatuner) doesnt affect performance and if it does it so miniscule that it doesn't affect the experience enough for it to be noticeable.

Rivaturner could affect ENB however that is caused by its osd stuff.

 

I have fairly modern specs by today's standards and I do have to say skyrim is still affected by CPU clock speeds.

I could get some numbers but I noticed similar things with my old amd phenomii. After upgrading to 6700k I noticed that the GPU gap was reduced and my fps increased.

I did observe that there was still a gap that could be filled as I was around 50fps and the usage was around 85%.

I oc'd from 4GHz to 4.5GHz and found my average to increase to about 55-60fps and my usage was pretty much pegged.

 

Like I said I can probably show it by downclocking but I no longer have the old hardware.

[TechAngel85]

I basically have the same CPU and have not noticed the GPU not maxing out, but I'm running a GTX 760 too. Of course I've not really looked for it either. Once I'm up and running again, I can look. My suggestion for the removal of the software was due to the user's listed use of it which can be done with things that should already be installed (ENB and drivers). No need to use a hammer when you can simply use your thumb, so to say. That and it interferes with ENB presets. It's the first thing Boris is going to say...."too much crapware. Can't help you." Haha!

[hishutup]

Boris is thinking with old hardware, I would 100 percent agree with him 10+ years ago.

Modern hardware can handle so much today.

 

Honestly, i think you may brealy notice the gap with a 960.

I'll see what I can crop up though