6600k nearly bottlenecking GTX 1060 6GB?!?!

olesien

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For about one and a half year ago, I upgraded to a GTX 1060 6GB, 6600K, and a monitor with 1440p@144hz. whenever I play I always game at 1440p, leading to the cpu being a non-bottleneck (obviously), however recently I decided that it might be time to upgrade the graphics card to a 1080 ti (or new gen), and looking at many posts previously and heard many say that a 6600k (especially overclocked, which I already have), should NOT bottleneck a 1080ti at 1440p, which seemed great for me as I pretty much only can afford a 1080 ti and nothing else. After doing some testing with MSI RivaTuner I found out the following:

At 1440p in games like fortnite the CPU is at around 60-70% on all cores when overclocked to 4.4ghz, with medium settings (110fps)
In other games like rainbow six siege I found that the cpu instead sat around 90%, (90fps), with mostly high settings

At 1080p, however, I noticed some pretty weird things. firstly both the cpu and graphics card were about maxed, giving a decent 200fps in fortnite, but in rainbow six siege only about 110fps (both still maxed)
Still was however not the main issue that I had. You see, I was getting these REALLY annoying stutters everytime I moved around in both games. Is this a cpu issue? How can I fix this?

Thanks a lot for reading and hopefully replying,
olesien

My pc specs: https://gyazo.com/44b1091aa148e20ba034f48c7235375f
I have it in a Cyrstal 460X (with a total of 5 coolers or 8 with cpu gpu and psu)
My PSU is a Rm750x Gold (750W)
 
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The best thing to do is use MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner (which you already have).

In the OSD, have GPU 1 usage, temp, and core clock, GPU 1 Mem, CPU usage , temp (main ones for these 2 not the numbered individual cores), and core clock, System RAM, FPS, and Frametime (Frametime only option not the suboptions). Set Frametime as a graph, the rest can be left default. Have only these options on OSD and get us some screens.

Siege is a pretty big CPU eater, but just because you have high CPU usage doesn't mean your GPU is necessarily bottlenecked. GPU bottlenecking indicators are typically lower GPU usage on areas which should show great demand. If your GPU usage isn't dipping below 90% then you need to look at the rest of the options I had you enable.

#1 being GPU usage below 90% in areas that dip FPS. If CPU is maxed during these drops and GPU is less than 90% then that is a CPU bottleneck.
#2 If the above is not the case, check temps and keep an eye on your GPU boost clock. If your temps are ok but your boost clock is dropping by a good margin it could be hitting the power limit which would cause a frametime spike causing stutter.
#3 If your CPU is overheating, hot, or voltage isn't set right and your CPU clock is dropping at all that will cause a frametime spike which will show stutter and FPS dip.
#4 If your RAM isn't set correctly and unstable, this can cause some weird issues and because of XMP being so popular most people overlook this. If you're at this step with no resolve double check timings and speed. Your screen also shows you running your RAM at 2133. If this isn't the native speed of your RAM kit make sure XMP is enabled to utilize the extra speed. 2133 should be fine, but minimum I suggest is 2400 with a maximum of 3000MHz because of the Skylake IMC.
#5 Check VRAM usage and system RAM usage. Especially under Siege, if GPU usage is 80-90% but your VRAM is capped that is a VRAM limitation problem which will causes frametime spikes as the textures are buffered. I doubt at 16GB you're having issues with system RAM but always good to keep an eye on that usage too.
#6 At any point you see a high frametime spike that isn't a loading screen, loading into the game, or the menu check the usage above. See what's what for an indicator that could be your problem. I had this issue in Rocket League where I'm sitting solid at 250fps but would have dips in the 100s which caused a high frametime spike. In the graph logs I noticed at this moment my CPU was dipping down from 4.8 to 3.6 because it was unstable for long gaming periods.

AIDA64 is your best friend for system stability. If all that up there fails, stress test the default CPU/RAM options and let it run. It'll show where your temps level out at and if there's a RAM instability it will show that too or if your CPU is throttling at all.

Finally, at 1440p a 6600k won't bottleneck at 1080ti. I have a feeling there's some issues outside of bottlenecking that need to get resolved. I'd say you're safe to stick with the 6600k for the time being. Just remember that just because your CPU is sitting at high usage doesn't necessarily mean it's bottlenecking your GPU. Newer games are made to utilize more threads than before.
 
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The best thing to do is use MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner (which you already have).

In the OSD, have GPU 1 usage, temp, and core clock, GPU 1 Mem, CPU usage , temp (main ones for these 2 not the numbered individual cores), and core clock, System RAM, FPS, and Frametime (Frametime only option not the suboptions). Set Frametime as a graph, the rest can be left default. Have only these options on OSD and get us some screens.

Siege is a pretty big CPU eater, but just because you have high CPU usage doesn't mean your GPU is necessarily bottlenecked. GPU bottlenecking indicators are typically lower GPU usage on areas which should show great demand. If your GPU usage isn't dipping below 90% then you need to look at the rest of the options I had you enable.

#1 being GPU usage below 90% in areas that dip FPS. If CPU is maxed during these drops and GPU is less than 90% then that is a CPU bottleneck.
#2 If the above is not the case, check temps and keep an eye on your GPU boost clock. If your temps are ok but your boost clock is dropping by a good margin it could be hitting the power limit which would cause a frametime spike causing stutter.
#3 If your CPU is overheating, hot, or voltage isn't set right and your CPU clock is dropping at all that will cause a frametime spike which will show stutter and FPS dip.
#4 If your RAM isn't set correctly and unstable, this can cause some weird issues and because of XMP being so popular most people overlook this. If you're at this step with no resolve double check timings and speed. Your screen also shows you running your RAM at 2133. If this isn't the native speed of your RAM kit make sure XMP is enabled to utilize the extra speed. 2133 should be fine, but minimum I suggest is 2400 with a maximum of 3000MHz because of the Skylake IMC.
#5 Check VRAM usage and system RAM usage. Especially under Siege, if GPU usage is 80-90% but your VRAM is capped that is a VRAM limitation problem which will causes frametime spikes as the textures are buffered. I doubt at 16GB you're having issues with system RAM but always good to keep an eye on that usage too.
#6 At any point you see a high frametime spike that isn't a loading screen, loading into the game, or the menu check the usage above. See what's what for an indicator that could be your problem. I had this issue in Rocket League where I'm sitting solid at 250fps but would have dips in the 100s which caused a high frametime spike. In the graph logs I noticed at this moment my CPU was dipping down from 4.8 to 3.6 because it was unstable for long gaming periods.

AIDA64 is your best friend for system stability. If all that up there fails, stress test the default CPU/RAM options and let it run. It'll show where your temps level out at and if there's a RAM instability it will show that too or if your CPU is throttling at all.

Finally, at 1440p a 6600k won't bottleneck at 1080ti. I have a feeling there's some issues outside of bottlenecking that need to get resolved. I'd say you're safe to stick with the 6600k for the time being. Just remember that just because your CPU is sitting at high usage doesn't necessarily mean it's bottlenecking your GPU. Newer games are made to utilize more threads than before.
Thank you very much for the detailed reply! ;)
After I went back to 1440p because of the stuttering in 1080p, I noticed that it.. was still there. I did however manage to fix it by completely reinstalling drivers and I also did clock the cpu down to normal (by resetting the bios). It works almost better than before now (similar fps but feels way smoother), however the cpu seems to generally sit at around 80% in most games (1440p, won't touch 1080p as it seems to have screwed up stuff). How much does that "cpu usage" thing actually matter though? What is it supposed to sit at in my situation? If I buy a 1080 ti, how much will it bottleneck in games (and which will be bottlenecked the most?) I honestly don't care about smaller bottlenecks as I will be upgrading to 8700k/8600k around christmas anyways (which do you recommend?).
 
I basically already answered all that in my previous reply. It won't bottleneck it, and CPU usage depends on the game. For instance, when testing a 2500k with my Titans BF1 kept that old dog at 100% but both GPUs were in the 85% range for both 1080p and 4k. GTA V was a different story, with CPU between 50 and 90% but lower GPU usage. I don't think reverting back to stock was really necessary, but the OC needs to be stabilized. Also make sure to check your RAM like I suggested.
 
I basically already answered all that in my previous reply. It won't bottleneck it, and CPU usage depends on the game. For instance, when testing a 2500k with my Titans BF1 kept that old dog at 100% but both GPUs were in the 85% range for both 1080p and 4k. GTA V was a different story, with CPU between 50 and 90% but lower GPU usage. I don't think reverting back to stock was really necessary, but the OC needs to be stabilized. Also make sure to check your RAM like I suggested.

Okay. I will of course overclock it when I get my new card, however I find in pointless with a 1060. My ram: 8x2gb of corsair vengeance 2133mhz. Do you think that I should overclock it or something? Also would ram errors (which I find hard to believe being the case) really affect cpu usage? o.o
 
As I tried to explain in my first post, CPU usage isn't everything. Stuttering can be caused by a multitude of things. Just double check the timings being used to what your kit is supposed to be at and the voltage. If these match no need to worry. (XMP isn't always 100%) Although the kit can probably hit 2400 no big I wouldn't try it.
 
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