My RTX 3060 usually sits around 30–60% usage while gaming, and I get noticeable stuttering. This has been happening for a couple of months, although the GPU previously ran closer to 80% usage and gameplay felt smooth. The issue appears in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, where usage reaches about 60% even during intense scenes, and in Overwatch, where I also get occasional severe stutters. I have tried low settings in Darktide with DLSS on Quality and V-Sync disabled, while Overwatch is set to Medium.
My system is an AOC 24G15N monitor, GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, Intel Core i5-12400F, ASRock B660M Pro RS motherboard, and 16GB of RAM. What should I check to determine whether this is a CPU limit, a configuration problem, or faulty hardware?
3 Answers
Run a benchmark such as 3DMark Time Spy and compare both the separate GPU and CPU scores with systems using the same hardware. That can quickly show whether the graphics card is underperforming independently of the games. Also make sure the monitor cable is connected to the graphics card, not the motherboard, and verify that the NVIDIA driver is cleanly installed and the correct power-management mode is selected.
GPU usage by itself does not show whether the system is performing correctly. Running games at low settings, especially competitive games, can shift the limit to the CPU, so the graphics card may not reach high utilization. Darktide is also demanding on the CPU and can stutter even when the GPU is not fully loaded. Check per-core CPU usage, GPU and CPU temperatures, clock speeds, frame times, and RAM usage with an overlay rather than looking only at total CPU usage.
Since the stuttering happens in more than one game, check the basics that can affect frame pacing: confirm both RAM sticks are detected and running in dual-channel mode, enable the motherboard's XMP profile if stable, watch for overheating or throttling, and close overlays or background recording software. A driver cleanup and reinstall may also help if the problem began after a driver change. If the benchmark score is normal, the issue is more likely game settings, drivers, or frame-time behavior than a defective GPU.
The specific games and settings matter a lot here. A low GPU percentage is not automatically a problem if the CPU or the game engine is limiting the frame rate.