Why does the GPU Usage when running Firestrike hover at 97-98% rather than 99%?

[hsjj3]

Previously on my GTX 960, I would get a constant 99% GPU Usage when running Firestrike.

Now though, on a GTX 1060, I see that it is instead maxing out at 97-98%. Sure, it's not a major difference, but nonetheless a difference exists and I would like to know why.

I looked at the CPU usage, and it doesn't seem to be an issue during the Graphics test for Firestrike. I have an i5 3330 and the CPU usage doesn't go much higher than 50%.

I also have a PCIE 3.0 x16 slot so doesn't look it should be losing out there.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to why this happens? Would be interesting to see if I can get it back to a constant 99% or not.

 

[nathanddrews]

I would say that if you had a mountain of granular data from both setups, it might be possible to identify the exact problem, but it could be anything from driver inefficiency on the new 1060 GPU to a very infrequent CPU bottleneck (driver related). Given the anecdotal evidence presented, 1-2% could very well be within the margin of error.

I assume that your Firestrike scores are significantly better though, right?

 

[Bacon1]

Overclock your CPU and test again. Just because overall usage is under x% doesn't mean its fast enough to keep up.