I'm playing Dota 2 at 1080p on high settings with a Ryzen 7 5700X, Radeon RX 9060 XT, 32 GB of RAM, and a B450 Aorus Pro WiFi motherboard. During matches, CPU usage is only around 11–13%, memory usage is 48–50%, and GPU usage is roughly 20–25%, but my frame rate stays between 100 and 140 FPS. Windows is set to the High Performance power plan, the CPU runs at about 4.05 GHz or higher, and I'm not using PBO, Curve Optimizer, or any overclock. I have four memory sticks installed: two rated at 3200 MT/s and two rated at 3400 MT/s, though they currently run at 3200. Is this performance expected, and what can I do to improve FPS and frame-time consistency?
3 Answers
Low total CPU usage does not necessarily mean the processor has plenty of headroom. Dota can be limited by one or two CPU threads, so overall usage may look low while the busiest core is near its limit. Check per-core usage, CPU clocks, temperatures, and frame times rather than only the total CPU percentage. At 1080p with a low GPU load, the game is probably CPU-limited or restricted by its settings or frame-rate cap.
Before changing hardware, check the in-game frame-rate limit, V-Sync, Radeon driver settings, and whether the monitor refresh-rate setting is limiting output. ReBAR is worth enabling if your motherboard BIOS and graphics card support it, but it usually will not create a dramatic improvement in Dota. Updating the BIOS and chipset drivers, then testing with a clean graphics driver installation, can also rule out configuration problems.
The mixed memory configuration could be hurting stability and 1% lows. Using four sticks with different rated speeds forces the system to run at the slower setting and can make memory training and timings less ideal. If possible, test with one matched 2-stick kit, enable the motherboard’s XMP/DOCP profile, and verify the actual memory speed in a monitoring tool. This may improve smoothness more than average FPS.
I’ll test the two 3400-rated sticks by themselves, but I’m mainly concerned that the overall performance is lower than it should be.
With a 5700X, 100–140 FPS can be reasonable depending on the match, camera location, effects, and whether a frame limit or synchronization setting is enabled. Compare in the same scene after disabling any FPS cap and check the busiest CPU core.