I just received my 3080 and am extremely grateful for EVGA's queue system. That said, I've been running through some games to check performance, and I'm experiencing low GPU usage across the board on most of my games. I'll post my system specs, and then elaborate a bit further.
 
Ryzen 3600
RTX 3080 FTW3
16GB 3600MHz RAM
Corsair RM750x PSU
NVMe SSD and SATA SSD's for all storage.
 
I game on a 1440p/144Hz monitor. So far, in all of the games I've tested, only Control and Monster Hunter World have a constant 99% GPU usage during gameplay. In none of the games that I've tested is my CPU usage maxed-out, and often it hovers well below 100% during gameplay. These are the games that I've tested so far, with their typical GPU usage:

• Horizon: Zero Dawn (60-70%)
• RDR2 (70-90%)
• AC: Origins (75-95%)
• Witcher 3 (50-60% in Novigrad, 70% wilderness)
• Baldur's Gate 3 (78%)
• GTA5 (55-90%)
• Jedi: Fallen Order (50%)
• Sea of Thieves (75%)

This is rather disappointing, as it seems my 3080 is not being fully utilized and I'm not getting the FPS numbers I had expected in most of these titles. For example, Jedi: Fallen Order is getting 70-85FPS in small corridor sections, and occasionally bounces up to 110FPS, but I'm nowhere near the 150FPS that I'm seeing in benchmarks; my 2070 Super held a solid 70-80FPS. Witcher 3, while slightly modded, sees the exact same FPS numbers in Novigrad as my 2070 Super, and only a small uplift in outdoor environments (80-80FPS vs. 90-110FPS). These numbers just don't seem right at all, and while I know the 3080 can run into CPU bottlenecks at 1440p in some games, I haven't seen anything max the CPU when GPU usage is low and underperforming.
 
Interestingly, all Furmark benchmarks are running as expected: Time Spy at 17,456, Fire Strike Ultra at 10,729, and Port Royal at 11,144 (all graphics scores), with each test having 99% GPU load during the entirety of their tests (CPU-only run excluded).
 
For some additional information, when I installed the 3080, I uninstalled Precision X1, did a DDU uninstall of existing NVIDIA drivers in safe mode, rebooted, installed latest NVIDIA drivers, rebooted, installed X1, updated firmware for the 3080 when prompted to, and have left all settings in NVIDIA Control Panel and X1 at their default values (no OC, no Vsync/Gsync, no framerate limiters). The GPU is connected to the PSU with two distinct PCIe cables, one by itself and the second daisy-chained. Jacob has stated that this PCIe power cable configuration is a non-issue for the 3x 8-pin card.
 
Does anyone have any idea why my card is running with such low GPU utilization and games are underperforming?

Sounds like a CPU bottleneck to me.
Many games aren't able to utilize more than 2 or 4 threads effectively. As such, you won't get anywhere close to 100% CPU utilization before the CPU bottleneck is in force.

I do not have another PSU to test, no. I purchased this PSU specifically for the 3080, and it shouldn't be anywhere close to maxing it out.

As it is right now, nothing is overclocked. Also, I should have been more specific, but when it comes to CPU usage, I am talking about single threads. I haven't seen 100% usage on a single thread for any of the games that I've tested as underperforming.

This doesn't sound right to me. Jedi: Fallen Order isn't even close to maxing out single threads and I'm seeing way, way less FPS and GPU usage than I should be at 1440p. While I expect the 3600 to have less performance than top-tier GPU's, this is in another dimension.

Here are some example where GPU usage is low, CPU usage not maxed out, and FPS is also low, to get a better idea:

• Jedi: Fallen Order: https://imgur.com/a/ZJFtLve
• Horizon: https://imgur.com/gallery/1FyZFbg

Doesn't this look odd to anyone? Especially Jedi: Fallen Order, where we aren't even close to max usage on either the CPU or GPU.

He

Wallzii
Another bit of information here, I've got a screenshot of GPU-Z while running Jedi: Fallen Order. Again, GPU load is ~60%, with none of my CPU threads close to maximum load. FPS is sitting around 70-80FPS, waaaay lower than it should be for a 3080.
 
Looking at GPU-Z, doesn't it look like the GPU isn't even trying here? It's only pulling 284W of power. I'm on a 750W PSU with a Ryzen 3600, I'm not even close to the limit of the RM750x.
 
GPU-Z screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/LEbuusk
 
The more research I do, the more I'm encountering other people with Ryzen CPU's that have really low GPU load in their games at 1440p, with no CPU bottlenecks present. This seems to be a serious issue, and I've done everything I can think of, short of a fresh OS install, to try and fix it. Could this be driver related? It's very discouraging to have spent this much on a GPU that isn't performing when the games I'm running aren't CPU bound. 60% load on the GPU and 70-80FPS in Jedi: Fallen Order is abysmal.

Hello , according to your Screenshot from GPUZ you are power limited due to your PSU ( blue line in your screenshot , Performance cap is reason VRel )
vRel = Reliability. Indicating performance is limited by voltage reliability.
I would buy another unit and test it out . also make sure you are running 3 separate  cables from the PSU to your card using 3 different ports  .good luck 

micdoom
Hello , according to your Screenshot from GPUZ you are power limited due to your PSU ( blue line in your screenshot , Performance cap is reason VRel )

Not true.
That is not what that means.
Vrel is perfectly normal under load. It's what you usually get as a perfcap reason when nothing else is currently limiting it.
It just means that the card is running at its voltage curve and can't boost higher at that voltage without potentially becoming unstable.
It does NOT mean that anything is wrong with the power supply.

The interesting results are at the bottom of this post, below the 3rd quote.
 

micdoom
He

Wallzii
Another bit of information here, I've got a screenshot of GPU-Z while running Jedi: Fallen Order. Again, GPU load is ~60%, with none of my CPU threads close to maximum load. FPS is sitting around 70-80FPS, waaaay lower than it should be for a 3080.
 
Looking at GPU-Z, doesn't it look like the GPU isn't even trying here? It's only pulling 284W of power. I'm on a 750W PSU with a Ryzen 3600, I'm not even close to the limit of the RM750x.
 
GPU-Z screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/LEbuusk
 
The more research I do, the more I'm encountering other people with Ryzen CPU's that have really low GPU load in their games at 1440p, with no CPU bottlenecks present. This seems to be a serious issue, and I've done everything I can think of, short of a fresh OS install, to try and fix it. Could this be driver related? It's very discouraging to have spent this much on a GPU that isn't performing when the games I'm running aren't CPU bound. 60% load on the GPU and 70-80FPS in Jedi: Fallen Order is abysmal.

Hello , according to your Screenshot from GPUZ you are power limited due to your PSU ( blue line in your screenshot , Performance cap is reason VRel )
vRel = Reliability. Indicating performance is limited by voltage reliability.
I would buy another unit and test it out . also make sure you are running 3 separate  cables from the PSU to your card using 3 different ports  .good luck 

The GPU is not power limited and the RM750x is more than enough to adequately power the RTX 3080. Yes, "vRel = Reliability. Indicating perf is limited by reliability voltage," and this is normal behavior and does not indicate at all that the PSU cannot supply enough power to the GPU. Quoted from the GPU-Z developer:
 
"No, it means everything is working fine. NVIDIA's Boost algorithm thought it could increase the clocks even further, but the NVIDIA driver said that this would require too much voltage, so there was no further increase.

This is normal on all recent NVIDIA cards, and a safety feature."
 
In addition to that, in games that are running as expected for the RTX 3080, such as Control where I am seeing full GPU load and consistently high and stable framerates, my card has no issues pulling +350W of power. My PSU is not the problem, but I definitely appreciate you asking that question as a means to eliminate one of the possible explanations for poor performance in certain titles.
 

arestavo
Someone else resolved a similar problem by uninstalling their drivers in safe mode, and installed the latest while unplugged from the internet.

You can use step #2 to do this (just remember to disconnect your ethernet): https://forums.evga.com/B...mode-etc-m2504606.aspx

If that fails to work, and you used GeForce Experience to "optimize" games, those game configuration files might need to be deleted. That's an old fix, but it's one of the two big reasons why I wil never, ever install that cancer again.

Unfortunately, I have gone down this path already, with no difference. I have even tried the Studio drivers; no difference here. Thanks for the suggestion.
 

Sajin
What happens when you dsr up to 4k?

Here is a breakdown when I force 4K through DSR in Jedi: Fallen Order. Please look at the image gallery in that link for an analysis of what is going on with the supporting data, but I'll also summarize here:

• GPU load is as expected at 4K, with a consistent +90% load and 386W board power draw (compared to ~63% GPU load at 1440p with a board power draw of 285W).
• CPU load at 4K is a maximum of 75% on a single thread, with a total of three threads running at +70% (compared to max. single thread load of 71% at 1440p, with two additional threads running at 63% and 65%).
• FPS at 4K, 72FPS, in the same scene is essentially identical to that at 1440p, 73FPS.

These results only raise more questions. It is pretty clear that at 1440p, we are not CPU bound. We are not maximizing any single threads, and in fact have less of a load on the CPU than we do at 4K (oddly). Yet the GPU load at 1440p hovers in the 60-65th-percentile range in the same scenes, with the same graphical settings, and this makes little sense to me.

I'm having the same issue. 8700k @4.9 all core and a FTW3 ultra running at 3440x1440. 45-65% usage in metro exodus, 70-90% usage in RDR2. 99% in Witcher 3. 99% usage in 3D mark Benchmarks

Same issue here, 8700k XMP enabled stock clocks with Asus multicore enhancement (so I think 4300 speeds) and a 3090 FTW ultra on 3440x1440.  Outer Worlds dip into 40-50 percent usage in towns and frames plummet into the 50s, fluctuating GPU usage in VR as well (Half Life Alyx especially even with fixed resolution).  
 
The only time I've seen a locked 99 percent is in the warhammer 2 benchmarks.  Side note I'm seeing very low cpu usage across the board.  Temperature are all low, most of the time cpu stays in the 60c range and gpu tops in the mid 70s at 107 to 119 power percentage.
 
In general many benchmarks have been a bit disappointing compared to those posted by the press, I presume its due to the scatterbrained GPU usage.
 
Sort of worried this was a driver measure to prevent the crashing seen in the early days after release.

I'm starting to think Jedi: Fallen Order is just another massive CPU hog and is poorly optimized. Kashyyk seems to be the worst offender, as FPS drops there are a lot worse than any other planet.

Turn off FPS caps (In game, and in NVCP / AB / PX1). 
 
Turn off Vsync (NVCP and in games)
 
Turn off Gsync.
 
Change the windows power plan to "High Performance"
 
Test again.

arestavo
Turn off FPS caps (NVCP, AB, and PX1). 
 
Turn off Vsync (NVCP and in gams)
 
Turn off Gsync.
 
Test again.

I said in my first post that all of these options are disabled.

arestavo

Wallzii

arestavo
Turn off FPS caps (NVCP, AB, and PX1). 

Turn off Vsync (NVCP and in gams)

Turn off Gsync.

Test again.

I said in my first post that all of these options are disabled.

Change the windows power plan to "High Performance"

I've done that, zero difference.

If unable or unwilling, RMA. If the problems continue, likely it's the computer.

arestavo
Turn off FPS caps (In game, and in NVCP / AB / PX1). 
 
Turn off Vsync (NVCP and in games)
 
Turn off Gsync.
 
Change the windows power plan to "High Performance"
 
Test again.

Been there done that, doesn't fix anything
 

Wallzii

KeiroMidori
Well I've seen benchmark with the same configuration as I have getting 95% GPU usage when I'm sitting at 50%. So even if the game is badly optimized (which it is) there seems to be an issue that is not a CPU bottleneck.

Any chance you can post the benchmark you are referencing? I'd love to dig deeper on this.

Sure you can check this youtube video: /watch?v=Qr6Kg8E21rs&t=519s&ab_channel=ImSockMonkey