In most games, lowering the graphics settings or resolution barely changes my frame rate. Sometimes I only gain around 5–10 FPS, and in some cases there is no improvement at all. My system has an Intel Core i3-10100F, a GTX 1660 Super, and 8GB of RAM. What could be limiting performance, and how can I confirm the issue?
3 Answers
Use an overlay to monitor GPU usage, individual CPU-core usage, RAM usage, VRAM usage, temperatures, and frame time. If GPU usage is near 100%, the graphics card is the limit and lowering settings should help. If GPU usage is low and RAM is nearly full, the system may be paging data to the drive, causing stutters and poor frame rates. Moving to 16GB of RAM would be a sensible first upgrade for modern games.
The GTX 1660 Super is still usable for 1080p, so you probably don’t need to replace the entire computer immediately. Start by adding another 8GB of matching RAM, then consider a faster compatible CPU if monitoring confirms a processor bottleneck. Also make sure background applications are closed and that the game is not limited by a frame-rate cap, V-sync, or another setting.
That usually points to a CPU bottleneck. Lowering settings mainly reduces the workload on the GPU, but if the CPU is already limiting how quickly frames can be prepared, the GPU has nothing to do and FPS will barely change. Your i3-10100F and especially 8GB of system RAM could both contribute. Check GPU usage while playing: if it stays well below 95–100% while one or more CPU cores are heavily loaded, the CPU or memory is probably holding things back.
A CPU bottleneck is likely here, but low overall CPU usage can be misleading because one busy CPU core may limit the game while the total usage percentage looks moderate.