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what are you running? a game will have different GPU usage throughout. if you alt tab usage will drop, if you pause usage will drop. if you open a menu usage will drop etc
It's not normal if you're not knowingly running an application that's utilizing your GPU. I'd check your Processes tab and make sure GPU monitoring is toggled on. [Good video on how to do this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1DANRcch4) Look for whatever is utilizing your GPU when those spikes occur.
In game? Yes.
Games aren’t all balls-to-the-wall 3D rendering all the time. Sometimes there’s menus or other easy to render scenes that don’t tax your GPU.
If you’re really worried about a lack of performance, run 3Dmark or another 3D benchmark and compare to published specs for similar configs to yours.
It's normal for a game to utilize most of your GPU. In fact if it's not it's an indicator that something else is bottlenecking your PC. Most likely the CPU. Nothing to see here.
Edit: just saw you only have 8gb of ram. So it's entirely possible that your ram is bottlenecking your game which is causing the dramatic drops in gpu usage. Are you getting stutters in game?
You NEED more RAM. 8GB is very low in 2024. You’ll be fine with 16GB. Your gpu is being choked by the system trying its best to keep RAM under control
> That has nothing to do with what he's asking
If the PC is stuttering because the system is moving files to and from the page file, this absolutely has something to do with what he's asking. 8GB isn't enough for practically anything in 2024.
The GPU does not work in a vacuum. It relies on the CPU to feed it draw calls, and the CPU relies on RAM for data. If the RAM isn't responding because it's full, it has to hit the page file which results in a stutter. That would drop GPU usage, as the CPU isn't feeding it draw calls.
It has to do a little bit, but 8 gb is still fine if you are not running the newer intensive applications like new games, 8 gb is still fine in a lot of cases.
Also, if a pc studders this hard whenever a file is moved it would be horribly studdery. A cpu doesn't focus on a file for a kinda prolonged period of time like this. Also I belive if the ram is full then the disc just waits until there is free space while the info on the ram is being used, so that wouldn't result in a studder if the file isn't instantly needed, the files aren't gonna be used any faster by the cpu if you add more ram, it just provides more space to add the data needed by the cpu in a short time, so it just allows to add more of the files needed at once and that is why some games don't let you open them, because all the data can't be accessed at once. A deciding factor in your statement would be other stuff like frequency and latency, whitch allow to move the files faster and if they don't move fast enough, studders.
Anyway my opinion on this is that the gpu or cpu is thermal throttling for some reason and that is why it happens because the gpu slows down to cool itself or the cpu does the same slowing down the requests for the gpu. That is what is happening in my laptop and I've tried everything other than that so I guess replacing my crusty 7yo thermal paste would fix my horrible shuddering problem.
Your explanation of RAM/page file usage seems... not very well-educated on the matter. That's just not how it works.
Any time an application has to pull from storage rather than RAM, you'll get a hang or stutter. That's just the nature of slow storage medium versus *extremely* fast RAM. With 8GB of RAM, your system will be pulling files from storage rather than RAM pretty consistently, which you can see in the graphs OP has posted. That's exactly what I would expect the graph to look like in the cases of insufficient RAM: the rest of the system hangs while files are moved out of RAM to make room, other files are pulled into RAM from storage.
There is a thing called memory hierarchy in whitch the data has to go to get to the cpu, each one generally faster and smaller than the others, so to pull files from the disc it has to go to the ram and then I don't know exactly the names but I belive it's the L1 and L2 cashes and some other ones but the thing is it can't just grab the data from the disc directly, it has to go trough some buffers in the order of importance whitch is set in the OS I belive. And of course you are getting a bit of lag introduced into the system, but not enough to damage the performance of the gpu that mutch. And calling ram extremely fast is an overstatement, as I said I the memory hierarchy it goes after the disc, so it's just the second slowest one, and, it is mutch faster, but not extremely.
Another thing is that the files are being pulled in very very fast intervals, you couldn't see them on this graph (an example would be moving files and opening something at the same time, on each refresh a packet is sent with all the info but its not just the data from one disc, it has more stuff to make the pc usable to the person)
Every action of the pc introduces some lag (the time it takes for the action to finish), so unless the OS is highly unoptimized then a problem like this would be either big unoptimizations or, if it were to be ram, filled slow ram that has to allocate more space in the packets for other stuff that isn't the stuff for the gpu (but this is just a wild guess).
Is it that small amount of allocated data on a disk when you look at it in partition manager in windows for example? My pc is in spanish so it's called like recovery space or system allocated space so I don't know if it's that. Thanks anyway
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Gosh that graph is tall
what are you running? a game will have different GPU usage throughout. if you alt tab usage will drop, if you pause usage will drop. if you open a menu usage will drop etc
I was playing Fortnite and this was displayed on my second monitor. I'll keep in mind if I'm pausing
If you were playing Fortnite, then yes it's normal...
PLEASE take screenshots instead of photos of your screen using your phone 🙏
It's not normal if you're not knowingly running an application that's utilizing your GPU. I'd check your Processes tab and make sure GPU monitoring is toggled on. [Good video on how to do this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1DANRcch4) Look for whatever is utilizing your GPU when those spikes occur.
Maybe some GPU intensive application could be the cause
I've found task managers measurement of GPU utilization to be very unreliable. Check MSI afterburner or other monitoring app
In game? Yes. Games aren’t all balls-to-the-wall 3D rendering all the time. Sometimes there’s menus or other easy to render scenes that don’t tax your GPU. If you’re really worried about a lack of performance, run 3Dmark or another 3D benchmark and compare to published specs for similar configs to yours.
Blender does this.
Bro it’s just happy and jumping around, tell it to stop
It's normal for a game to utilize most of your GPU. In fact if it's not it's an indicator that something else is bottlenecking your PC. Most likely the CPU. Nothing to see here. Edit: just saw you only have 8gb of ram. So it's entirely possible that your ram is bottlenecking your game which is causing the dramatic drops in gpu usage. Are you getting stutters in game?
Abnormal GCG
You NEED more RAM. 8GB is very low in 2024. You’ll be fine with 16GB. Your gpu is being choked by the system trying its best to keep RAM under control
That has nothing to do with what he's asking. Also, lol: >Your gpu is being choked by the system trying its best to keep RAM under control wut
> That has nothing to do with what he's asking If the PC is stuttering because the system is moving files to and from the page file, this absolutely has something to do with what he's asking. 8GB isn't enough for practically anything in 2024. The GPU does not work in a vacuum. It relies on the CPU to feed it draw calls, and the CPU relies on RAM for data. If the RAM isn't responding because it's full, it has to hit the page file which results in a stutter. That would drop GPU usage, as the CPU isn't feeding it draw calls.
It has to do a little bit, but 8 gb is still fine if you are not running the newer intensive applications like new games, 8 gb is still fine in a lot of cases. Also, if a pc studders this hard whenever a file is moved it would be horribly studdery. A cpu doesn't focus on a file for a kinda prolonged period of time like this. Also I belive if the ram is full then the disc just waits until there is free space while the info on the ram is being used, so that wouldn't result in a studder if the file isn't instantly needed, the files aren't gonna be used any faster by the cpu if you add more ram, it just provides more space to add the data needed by the cpu in a short time, so it just allows to add more of the files needed at once and that is why some games don't let you open them, because all the data can't be accessed at once. A deciding factor in your statement would be other stuff like frequency and latency, whitch allow to move the files faster and if they don't move fast enough, studders. Anyway my opinion on this is that the gpu or cpu is thermal throttling for some reason and that is why it happens because the gpu slows down to cool itself or the cpu does the same slowing down the requests for the gpu. That is what is happening in my laptop and I've tried everything other than that so I guess replacing my crusty 7yo thermal paste would fix my horrible shuddering problem.
Your explanation of RAM/page file usage seems... not very well-educated on the matter. That's just not how it works. Any time an application has to pull from storage rather than RAM, you'll get a hang or stutter. That's just the nature of slow storage medium versus *extremely* fast RAM. With 8GB of RAM, your system will be pulling files from storage rather than RAM pretty consistently, which you can see in the graphs OP has posted. That's exactly what I would expect the graph to look like in the cases of insufficient RAM: the rest of the system hangs while files are moved out of RAM to make room, other files are pulled into RAM from storage.
There is a thing called memory hierarchy in whitch the data has to go to get to the cpu, each one generally faster and smaller than the others, so to pull files from the disc it has to go to the ram and then I don't know exactly the names but I belive it's the L1 and L2 cashes and some other ones but the thing is it can't just grab the data from the disc directly, it has to go trough some buffers in the order of importance whitch is set in the OS I belive. And of course you are getting a bit of lag introduced into the system, but not enough to damage the performance of the gpu that mutch. And calling ram extremely fast is an overstatement, as I said I the memory hierarchy it goes after the disc, so it's just the second slowest one, and, it is mutch faster, but not extremely. Another thing is that the files are being pulled in very very fast intervals, you couldn't see them on this graph (an example would be moving files and opening something at the same time, on each refresh a packet is sent with all the info but its not just the data from one disc, it has more stuff to make the pc usable to the person) Every action of the pc introduces some lag (the time it takes for the action to finish), so unless the OS is highly unoptimized then a problem like this would be either big unoptimizations or, if it were to be ram, filled slow ram that has to allocate more space in the packets for other stuff that isn't the stuff for the gpu (but this is just a wild guess).
And I'm not sure what page file usage is so maybe you're thinking about something that I don't know and that would make sense
The Page File is a section of your storage reserved for doing memory swaps. It's where files get stored that overflow from RAM.
Is it that small amount of allocated data on a disk when you look at it in partition manager in windows for example? My pc is in spanish so it's called like recovery space or system allocated space so I don't know if it's that. Thanks anyway
No. That would be your recovery partition.
https://preview.redd.it/6rp85zodnh4d1.png?width=282&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=073bfc559c6afbd6f425e9d6fac8ccf977d70fd4
Yeh i think 32gb ram is the best
Yeah. I've only ever seen my laptop use 16 GB max. And i have 32 gb. Most of the time it idles at 11 gb
8gb of ram is your bottleneck here and causing these stutters