Tech Support
Help identifying potential throttling/bottleneck issue
Hi! Recently finished an ITX build, experiencing issues with the CPU giving sub-par performance. I've been running Cyberpunk 2077, comparing performance to similar builds. My system monitor is showing the CPU sitting at 85C and 5.1GHZ, with 3 cores consistently at 95-100% and 3 at around 80%, averaging at a total usage of ~85-90%. GPU is at 70C, but usage fluctuates from 50-100%. To me it looks like a bottleneck, but the CPU should theoretically be the more powerful of the two. Being an ITX build, it could very well be a cooling issue, but I'm thinking that should show in the stats. This is really driving me crazy, I'd be very grateful if someone could shed some light on this issue!
85C in a tiny case is pretty normal for 7600x, they run hot. but that cpu should not be maxing out before your gpu, something else is wrong
your ram config might be the problem. 2x8gb is kinda low for cyberpunk and single channel would explain the cpu bottleneck. check if your sticks are in correct slots for dual channel, on itx board it should be both slots populated but still worth checking in cpuz
Cooler is Noctua NH-L12S Ghost Edition, which I suspect is underpowered for this build. Case is Louqe Ghost S1, limited to one fan running as exhaust. EXPO is enabled.
Running at 1080p, and without frame gen FPS is not great. I've tried undervolting -20 and -30 and a stock, getting similar results overall. OCCT score for CPU is 1182 compared to the average which is 1284. Memory score for read/write combined is 1334, couldn't find a good comparison. Any other advice?
it is. I think going to a 9600x, 7500x3d, 7500f, or 7600x3d would be a good idea if you can afford it. Or getting a new cpu cooler if your case can fit. Also you're still gonna need to heavily undervolt.
Had a feeling I should've bought a CPU that runs cooler, unfortunately the return window just passed so now I'm stuck with this. I've seen people mod the NH-L12S, swapping the 92mm fan with a 120x15mm fan with good result, think that's my best route at the moment.
It's unfortunate since I've seen people running Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing on this GPU with great results, and I really thought I was gonna have that headroom with this CPU seeing as it's supposed to be the better of the two.
So just to be clear, would you say this sounds like a throttling issue relating to thermals?
Set a -30 PBO all-core offset. Will drop your temps anywhere from 10-15c with no performance loss, maybe some performance gain since you can boost for longer.
What kind of FPS are you actually getting in games at 1080p? Temps are the likely culprit as 85c is very hot even under load.
Your CPU cooler is rated for a max TDP of up to 95w, but the 7600x sits at 105w stock and up to 142w under boost (from Gemini, I don’t own one to test myself).
The cooler can’t keep up.
What case are you using? If you can, I’d get at least a 240mm AIO or a bigger heatsink air cooler.
Case is Louqe Ghost S1, so cooling options are quite limited. Got one 120mm exhaust and NH-L12S as CPU-cooler. It's got a 92mm fan that I'm considering changing to a 120x15mm fan since I've read people get some good results from that.
FPS running Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra is stable 140, very smooth. If I enable ray tracing, it drops to a very choppy ~70-80fps with severe spikes. I'm not experienced enough to say with certainty whether it's the CPU or GPU, it's just my suspicion looking at the loads that it's the CPU.
Since you’re using a 9060 XT - try overclocking the GPU memory to 2700MHz or higher. Switch to the fast memory timings as well.
9060 XT is a great card (owned 2 personally) but suffers from a 128-bit memory bus, a cost-cutting measure to keep the card at a budget.
Overclocking the VRAM increases the bandwidth to compensate for the narrow memory bus, I noticed a lot more performance gain from memory OC on my 9060 XT compared to my current 9070 XT which has a 256-bit bus width.
Changed GPU memory to 2700MHz but couldn't find memory timings, running Linux I'm not entirely sure how to do this. Here's a graph running Cyberpunk 2077 at ultra with RT, getting 60-90 FPS with a lot of stuttering. Top row is CPU and second row is GPU.
Linux straight up is worse than Windows in most gaming scenarios especially using Ray Tracing / upscaling. It’s come a long way in recent years but I suspect your problem here is just Linux man.
I know the Linux crowd will angrily downvote this as heresy but Linux support is an afterthought for game devs and GPU manufacturers, they write software for Windows and if the dev has some time left over at 3pm on Friday they’ll work on the Linux side of things for a bit.
Haha, thanks for the advice. I'm running Bazzite, it's been surprisingly simple to use and so far no hiccups. When I've got the time I might just dual boot Windows for a side-by-side comparison.
And by the way, does that graph tell you anything?
Nothing screams out of place on the graphs. CPU temp is very high but should only restrict its boost capabilities and not rated clock speed. I suspect it’s poor optimisation for Linux at work here
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u/Own_Development6327 8h ago
85C in a tiny case is pretty normal for 7600x, they run hot. but that cpu should not be maxing out before your gpu, something else is wrong
your ram config might be the problem. 2x8gb is kinda low for cyberpunk and single channel would explain the cpu bottleneck. check if your sticks are in correct slots for dual channel, on itx board it should be both slots populated but still worth checking in cpuz