Need help finding a bottleneck in my system- what to upgrade?

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I’m a little confused.
I’m recently playing horizon zero dawn in “cinematic mode” 20-30FPS. I just got a new job so I thought it’s about time to fix that.
I’m also getting ready for cyberpunk 2077

I was thinking about updating my 1070TI to 2070… but I recently updated MangoHud and it started working in HZD - and I noticed something strange.

GPU is around 90-99% and CPU around 30-50% most of the time- so far pretty normal. But sometimes the GPU falls into 70-80% but im still getting 20FPS during that time.

Does it mean that my CPU is bottle necking the GPU? I was sure that this won’t happen as I use [email protected] which I thought is pretty much as much as you can get in terms of CPU speed.

Now I’m not so sure that updating the GPU will help.

So the question is : What should be my upgrade path?
Will spending money on faster GPU will really fix the FPS or will something else stop me from utilizing it to the full? Or maybe it’s my memory or something else that is to blame for low FPS?

I play using always up to date Glorious-Eggroll Proton.
Current specs below
([email protected], GPU at 125 core offset and 495 offset on memory - more is unstable):

inxi -Fxz(cleaned and shortened, added ram info)
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.18.5 
       Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME Z370-P II v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1203 
       date: 09/26/2019 
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i5-8600K bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Kaby Lake rev: A L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070 Ti] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia v: 455.45.01 bus ID: 01:00.0 
       Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia resolution: 1920x1080~144Hz 
       OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.45.01 direct render: Yes 
Drives: 
 A-Data model: SX8200PNP size: 476.94 GiB 
 Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
RAM: 2x 8GiB DIMM DDR4 @ 3000 MHz CL15
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That’s plenty of cpu. The gpu utilization drops are probably from Poor software optimizations

Are you playing at 4k? That’s the only resolution where those numbers make sense, unless you’ve got tesselation cranked up like a goon.

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Possibly yes.

It also could be waiting for data from vRAM, or the CPU could be waiting for data from RAM, or waiting for data from disk.

Never underestimate how inefficient people can make code.

There are some games where CPUs could be run at 10ghz and they would still be bottlenecked by the CPU, not by the GPU (for say a 1060 or better). There are other games where a i3 could keep up with a 3090 (quake RTX perhaps?). The lower the resolution, the more the CPU is used compared to the GPU. The ratio of CPU to GPU bottleneck can also depend on what graphics settings you have.

So bottlenecks are really really complex.

I’d wait and see how CP2077 plays. I’d do this even in normal times, and definitely in the current computer part shortage (although it has more to do with greater demand than any decrease in supply).

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@SgtAwesomesauce

No 4k - playing at 1080 and don’t see (pun not intended :smile: ) any need for more considering screen size and distance from my face.

I also noticed that changing graphic settings does not have much impact on FPS, even switching between low and ultra results in maybe 5fps difference

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That seems wrong. Is horizon zero dawn really that intensive?

Not sure familiar with the game though.

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@SgtAwesomesauce I also can’t figure that out - in contrast gta V gives me consistently 100 FPS+ on medium/high. HZD is newest game I play… so I was thinking that’s a good measure for future titles

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Are you turning antialiasing waaaaay up or something?

Frankly, I would ddu and try reinstalling the drivers from nvidia, not microsoft.

Oh wait, you tagged Linux… Are you running this in proton? That’d be why you’re getting poor frames. It’s a new game, so the quirks need to be accounted for. Gta v is like 8 years old?

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AA is set to “camera mode”- turning it completely off gives me maybe 3-5 fps more(expected bigger difference from my experience), motion blur is off… - maybe its just software/DXVK/Proton issue with this specific game?

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Probably. You could ask on the Linux gaming subreddit if other people are having similar issues.

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