I recently built my first gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 9850X3D and a Radeon 9070 XT. I play at 1440p with ultra settings and cap the frame rate at 140 FPS because my monitor runs at 144 Hz. The cap is enabled through the game's settings. Even while holding a steady 144 FPS, the GPU stays at nearly 100% usage and the CPU occasionally peaks around 90%. Is that expected when the frame rate is capped? The temperatures seem fine: the GPU reaches about 50–58°C under load, while the CPU stays around 60–70°C.
3 Answers
That behavior is normal. An FPS cap doesn’t make the hardware stop working; the GPU still renders each frame using as much power as necessary to reach the target. At 1440p on ultra settings, especially in a demanding game, nearly 100% GPU usage simply means the card is the limiting component. Your temperatures are excellent, so there’s no obvious problem.
The important detail is your actual frame rate. If it is consistently around 140–144 FPS, then high GPU usage is expected. The cap only prevents the card from rendering additional frames above that limit; it does not guarantee low utilization. CPU usage can also spike depending on the game, background tasks, and how its workload is distributed across the cores.
You can also try setting the limit through the AMD graphics driver instead of only using the in-game limiter. Depending on the game, one limiter may produce smoother frame pacing or slightly lower utilization, but it probably won’t make a major difference if you are already reaching a stable target. With those temperatures, there’s no reason to worry unless you’re experiencing stuttering, crashes, or inconsistent performance.
The game stays at a steady 144 FPS, so I was mainly wondering why usage remains so high even though the frame rate is capped.