Question Ryzen 5 5600 + Arc B580 — Low GPU Usage in Games

[Blancnoir]

Hi everyone!
I’m having some performance issues and would really appreciate any help figuring them out.

My system:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600
• GPU: Intel Arc B580
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite
• RAM: G.Skill Aegis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz (I think this could be the problem)
• Storage: 3 SSDs
• PSU: Chieftec CTG-650C (I know it's bad, but 12V is alright)
• XMP: Enabled
• Resizable BAR: Enabled
• PBO: Enabled
• Temps: All normal

In general, everything runs fine, but in some games (like Spider-Man Remastered and God of War), I’m getting noticeably lower performance compared to YouTube benchmarks with similar setups.

I’ve been monitoring usage with the Steam overlay, and I noticed this pattern:
In demanding scenes, my CPU usage is around 70–80%, while GPU usage drops to 50–60%. However, in cutscenes or when facing a wall (i.e., when the CPU doesn’t have much to process), the GPU shoots up to 90–100%.
This suggests a potential CPU bottleneck, but I'm not entirely sure why this happens when others with the same setup show stable GPU usage near 100% even in gameplay.
Any thoughts on what might be causing this?
Is there something else I should check or tweak?

Photos for example in the same location in God of War. Pretty much the same in Spider-Man. Link 1 and 2
But a number of other open world games have 100% load on the gpu (Far cry 5, Forza 5, Witcher 3).

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU: Chieftec CTG-650C (I know it's bad, but 12V is alright)
What you've said is paradoxical, at the very least. I don't' know what you're expecting out of that unit. That unit isn't something that should be paired with a PC, unless you're looking for an excuse to ruin the rest of your build so you can go buy a new system.

Source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built 750W unit and run your system through tests. To add, Intel's drivers haven't exactly matured much with bugs being found right, left and center.

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? The B550 platform would've been best paired with a DDR4-3600MHz, tight latencied, dual channel ram kit to get the most out of your platform.

 

[stavman]

They did extensive testing on the B580 and it just doesn't perform as well on older, lower end CPUs
I have a 5600x and was excited when I saw it coming out, until all the reviews

 

[Blancnoir]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

PSU: Chieftec CTG-650C (I know it's bad, but 12V is alright)
What you've said is paradoxical, at the very least. I don't' know what you're expecting out of that unit. That unit isn't something that should be paired with a PC, unless you're looking for an excuse to ruin the rest of your build so you can go buy a new system.

Source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built 750W unit and run your system through tests. To add, Intel's drivers haven't exactly matured much with bugs being found right, left and center.

Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? The B550 platform would've been best paired with a DDR4-3600MHz, tight latencied, dual channel ram kit to get the most out of your platform.

Yeah, I’ve finally accepted the PSU reality — time to retire the potato and upgrade to a be quiet! Pure Power 12M 750W.
BIOS - American Megatrends International, LLC. FE, 22.03.2024

They did extensive testing on the B580 and it just doesn't perform as well on older, lower end CPUs
I have a 5600x and was excited when I saw it coming out, until all the reviews

I watched a bunch of YouTube benchmarks, and I wasn’t expecting miracles from the Arc with a Ryzen 5 5600. But still, I expected similar FPS to what I saw in those video. Mine’s noticeably lower in comparison, even on the same settings. So yeah, trying to figure out what’s off here.

 

[Lutfij]

BIOS - American Megatrends International, LLC. FE, 22.03.2024
So you're on PCB revision 1.3;

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-AORUS-ELITE-rev-13/support#dl

you have BIOS versions pending update. Best flash to BIOS version FFf, clear the CMOS. Then try and use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(AMD, Nvidia and Intel) in Safe Mode, then manually install the latest GPU driver sourced from Intel's support site.

I watched a bunch of YouTube benchmarks
Consume anything off of YT with a grain(or more) of salt.

 

[Blancnoir]

BIOS - American Megatrends International, LLC. FE, 22.03.2024
So you're on PCB revision 1.3;

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550M-AORUS-ELITE-rev-13/support#dl

you have BIOS versions pending update. Best flash to BIOS version FFf, clear the CMOS. Then try and use DDU to remove all GPU drivers(AMD, Nvidia and Intel) in Safe Mode, then manually install the latest GPU driver sourced from Intel's support site.

I watched a bunch of YouTube benchmarks
Consume anything off of T with a grain(or more) of salt.

I’ve updated the BIOS and went through all the necessary settings (XMP, Resizable BAR, Above 4G, PBO, etc.). Also did a full GPU driver cleanup with DDU and installed the latest Intel Arc drivers.

The good: I now have the latest BIOS and clean driver setup.
The bad: now I’m getting 15–20 FPS less in God of War than before haha.


One thing I noticed — my GPU power draw never goes above ~100W, even under heavy load, which also points toward my low-quality PSU being the likely culprit

 

[Lutfij]

One thing I noticed — my GPU power draw never goes above ~100W, even under heavy load, which also points toward my low-quality PSU being the likely culprit
A bad quality PSU will take out more than itself.

 

[Blancnoir]

A bad quality PSU will take more than itself.

Okay okay — ordering a new PSU 😅
I’ll report back once it’s in and everything’s up and running! 'n thank you for feedback!

 

[Colif]

Bad PSU can kill everything.
I had one kill a windows install and a GPU when it went bang. Its a lesson you only want to learn once. I think PSU also killed some of my hdd about 20 years ago, but at the time I blamed the drives.

Over the course of 6 PC I went from not thinking about PSU (at time they came with the case, and at time, the case was also an after thought) to now making sure its good quality. Last time I looked for the best one available - better to over pay on PSU than to replace other parts all the time.
Early part deaths have become less frequent since I swapped to using good PSU.

 

[Blancnoir]

Bad PSU can kill everything.
I had one kill a windows install and a GPU when it went bang. Its a lesson you only want to learn once. I think PSU also killed some of my hdd about 20 years ago, but at the time I blamed the drives.

Over the course of 6 PC I went from not thinking about PSU (at time they came with the case, and at time, the case was also an after thought) to now making sure its good quality. Last time I looked for the best one available - better to over pay on PSU than to replace other parts all the time.
Early part deaths have become less frequent since I swapped to using good PSU.

Noted! Curious to hear — what are some of your favorite PSUs out there?

 

[Colif]

Seasonic generally make good PSU, I used them in a few PC. Corsair have some good models as well. I don't really look at them much unless I am buying one.

Last time I just used this website and picked one of the 1000 watt PSU

Best PSU Picks 2025 - Hardware Busters

Hardware Busters - Best PSU Picks 2025 - Best Picks

hwbusters.com

But I also looked at all the reviews of it as well, to make sure it wasn't just one opinion.

 

[Blancnoir]

Last time I just used this website

Thanks for the site! I checked out some PSUs through Cybenetics and ended up settling on the be quiet! Pure Power 13M 750W with decent price and it’s actually available where I live. Not expecting a huge FPS boost or anything, but at least I won’t be worried about frying my system anymore — and it’ll be a solid PSU for the long run (as many tests say).

 

[Colif]

I thought you had chosen one already. Glad to help with the site

You can overspend on PSU but that is more in buying one that is too powerful. Unlikely anyone needs a 1600watt PSU any time soon unless they overclock or run two GPU at once.
My PC only uses 586 watts but I decided on 1kw as I don't know what my next GPU will need.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/FyVhJn

That and my last PC had 1kw and I didn't want to go backwards from it. When I got the 7900xt it wasn't clear how much power it would need. I overshot the target.

 

[Blancnoir]

I thought you had chosen one already. Glad to help with the site

I did, but I saw that there was a newer version of the same PSU, so I ordered it.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/FyVhJn

What a monster haha. Well, thanks for the tips! As I wrote, as soon as I rebuild the pc with the new PSU, I'll let you know if anything has changed in the system stability

 

[Blancnoir]

Just installed the new PSU — everything’s working great. I’ve noticed fewer stutters overall, and my GPU now occasionally ramps up to 120W, which wasn’t happening before.

However, the performance issues in God of War are still there — in certain scenes, both CPU and GPU usage still dip down to 50–60%, which tanks the FPS.

So now I’m down to two remaining suspects:

1. Upgrading RAM to 32GB
2. Replacing my CPU — possibly with a 5800X3D.