How do i tell if my cpu is bottlenecking my rtx 4070 super in 1440p games?

[Brandon44]

I’m trying to figure out if my CPU is actually bottlenecking my new RTX 4070 Super, but I’m not totally confident in reading the data. When I play the latest AAA titles at 1440p, my GPU usage sometimes dips into the 70% range while my older Ryzen 5 3600 is pegged at 100%.

[PatrickA]

That pattern tracks with my experience. when the cpu sits at 100% and the gpu stays in the 70s, it often feels CPU bound in that moment. with a Ryzen 5 3600 and a faster card, the game engine seemed to queue up physics and ai work faster than the gpu could chew, so the frame times got jittery even though the gpu had headroom.

[AlexanderB]

I did a few tweaks and watched frame times. I killed some background apps and nudged the cpu to boost, and the gpu usage rose a bit but not consistently. the real change was accepting that some titles simply push the cpu harder than a 3600 can feed, so the 4070 Super doesn't always run at 100%.

[AuroraJ]

could the real issue be how the engine spreads work across cores rather than raw cpu speed itself?

[ZoeyC]

I keep seeing this in a few games, and it makes me doubt what bottleneck means here. cpu seems maxed, gpu not, and i’m not sure if i should chase faster cores or focus on game patches and drivers.