My GPU can't reach max clock speed. Is it normal?

[Ankior]

Hi, I'm somewhat new to hardware and gaming specs, so I apologize if this should be obvious.

But today I was playing Assassin's Creed: Origins, and trough MSI Afterburner I realized my GPU wasn't working at its full potential. In crowded cities like Alexandria my framerate dropped to around 45 fps, but my GPU was like 60% of capacity and around 800Mhz and my CPU was around 60%. What could be causing this? Is it normal or it's just my CPU that can't push my GPU to its limits?

My specs:

- AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Windforce OC 6G
Boost Clock : up to 1620 MHz
Game Clock : 1460 MHz
I'm using the old BIOS because the new one made my gpu pretty unstable and I was getting lots of crashes.

-Ryzen 5 1600 af

-16 gb RAM 2400Mhz

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Most Likely cpu bottleneck especially with your very slow ram.... Ryzen+ needs 3000-3200 ram to shine. I would also try to get the cpu up to 3.8-3.9ghz assuming you're not using the stock cooler.

ACO is pretty heavy on the cpu.

 

[Ankior]

Most Likely cpu bottleneck especially with your very slow ram.... Ryzen+ needs 3000-3200 ram to shine. I would also try to get the cpu up to 3.8-3.9ghz assuming you're not using the stock cooler.

ACO is pretty heavy on the cpu.

I'm using a pretty decent cooler so maybe I'll try overclocking my CPU. And yeah I should get some new RAM, the ones I have are from my older computer

 

[John Naylor]

Without knowing your resolution, not really able to give dependable advice. At low resolutions, CPU / GPU Loads won't be all that demanding.

Just to make sure ... Origins or Odyssey ?

Any event viewer messages ?

What are GPU max temps while playing ?

 

[Vayra86]

The 1600 AF is not going to bottleneck a 5600XT... I find that very hard to believe.

Storage, RAM, might be bottlenecks. Not the CPU in particular. If this happens in only open world games like AC, that is most likely the issue.

The clocking back that happened both on GPU and CPU signifies that the bottleneck exists before data gets to reach that stage, or is in transport between the two. Both components are not fully loaded, but the FPS still drops. Usually that means assets are being loaded, or you walk into a new world 'square' in Assassin's Creed, or a high number of draw calls is killing performance, which are mostly API and game engine/coding/optimization problems you can't fix. Well, maybe by killing graphics settings, but its unlikely that is preferable. The hiccup will likely not even go away, just get less pronounced.

 

[xman2007]

similar kind of setups and similar drops in crowded areas so its likely just the game/engine /optimisation, I wouldn't worry too much unless it was a common occurance in more games.