Hey everyone, I've been dealing with a peculiar issue for a while now. In both CS2 and GTA V, my frame rate seems stuck around 150-160 FPS no matter if I'm playing at 4K or 720p, and I've set all the visual settings to the lowest possible. It seems like it could be a CPU bottleneck, but my CPU utilization looks normal in the graphs. Plus, I notice stuttering when the frame rate goes over 120 FPS.
Here are my PC specs:
* GPU: Zotac RTX 4090
* CPU: Intel i5-13600KF (water-cooled)
* RAM: 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
* PSU: 1000W Gold
* Monitor: ASUS ROG 4K 240Hz OLED
I've already tried a bunch of troubleshooting steps like enabling/disabling XMP, checking for thermal issues, doing a fresh Windows install, reinstalling the games and clearing the cache, resetting BIOS, updating drivers, using Display Driver Uninstaller for clean GPU driver installs, toggling V-Sync/G-Sync/VRR, adjusting in-game/NVIDIA Control Panel frame caps, swapping cables, and messing with Display Stream Compression. I've also made sure no background apps are running and changed settings like eCores and Resizable BAR in BIOS. I'm really stuck here and would appreciate any advice or ideas!
4 Answers
Don't forget that sometimes console commands can be needed in CS2 even if everything looks good in the menus. It could be worth trying some of those out.
It sounds like you've hit one of GTA V's engine limitations. Once you go above a certain FPS, performance can take a dive regardless of your settings. For CS2, have you played around with the FPS cap settings? Try setting "fps_max" to 0 and then to a higher number to see if that helps. Just a hunch, but it's worth checking!
I've set fps_max to 0 and 235, but it hasn't changed anything. It's odd with GTA V too because I'm on the lowest settings.
Check your GPU usage while gaming. If it’s under 100%, you might be facing a CPU bottleneck. At lower resolutions like 720p, your CPU can struggle to keep up even if everything looks okay on the surface. Consider overclocking; if that improves GPU performance, it definitely points to the CPU as the bottleneck. Also, ensure your BIOS is fully updated and check if your CPU is degrading by reviewing symptoms at the linked resource.
My GPU usage is about 50% at 4K and 40% at 720p, while CPU usage is around 25% for both. I don't see any CPU cores hitting 100% in HWINFO64 while gaming.
I recommend making sure all your storage drives are fresh and efficient. I keep a secondary drive handy for clean installs. If you haven't done a fresh wipe on your main drive, it might help!
I have two M.2 SSDs and have tried both with a clean Windows installation.
I have tried using console commands, even -autoconfig, but that hasn't resolved my issue.