Is My CPU Bottlenecking My Setup (16" Defiance)? Advice on Overclocking/Performance Boost?

[IIINeoVoxIII]

Hi all,

I’m looking for some advice regarding my gaming laptop’s performance, as I feel like something is off, and I’d appreciate some recommendations.

I have a 16" Defiance laptop from PCSpecialist, and while I get good FPS and games run well, I’m concerned the CPU might be throttling the system. I’ve noticed that during gaming, my GPU is consistently running at around 97%, but my CPU usage stays at about 14%.

This makes me wonder if the CPU isn’t being fully utilized or if it's holding the system back somehow. I haven’t overclocked anything, but I’m considering it to potentially boost performance. Does anyone have experience with overclocking on a similar setup, or could offer steps to make sure the system is running at its best?

If anyone could confirm if the CPU might be a bottleneck or if there’s something else I should try, I’d really appreciate it!

Thanks in advance for any tips or insights!

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 16" Matte QHD+ 240Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560 x 1600)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 16 Core Processor 14650HX (5.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair 4800MHz SODIMM DDR5 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Battery
1 x Defiance Battery 54WH
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® KILLER™ Wi-Fi 6E AX1675i + BT 5.3
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 24H2

 

[SpyderTracks]

Did you order with windows or install your own copy?

CPU won't bottleneck anything assuming the system is correctly configured.

You're gaming at 1440p so in most games the load is more shifted to the GPU except in CPU heavy games like simulators or RPGs

Games are mostly single threaded, very few can make use of more than 1 core, this is why single threaded performance is so advantageous.

Judging by your last post which you never replied to I'm guessing windows hasn't been properly configured

Defiance Series 16" Not Using RTX 4070

Hello. I've had this laptop for a few days now. I'm still finding my way around, but come across an issue which I hope is simple to fix and an oversight for me. I can't for the life of me get the laptop to use the RTX 4070 graphics card. Games seem to be running on the integrated CPU instead...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[IIINeoVoxIII]

Did you order with windows or install your own copy?

CPU won't bottleneck anything assuming the system is correctly configured.

You're gaming at 1440p so in most games the load is more shifted to the GPU except in CPU heavy games like simulators or RPGs

Games are mostly single threaded, very few can make use of more than 1 core, this is why single threaded performance is so advantageous.

Thanks for a prompt reply.

I installed my own Windows 11 and stripped out a lot of "Windows" to make it more efficient.

I would've thought that the GPU I have should be able to handle a lot more. In this test I was playing PC Building Sim 2 and was getting around 97% usage on GPU, but only 14% usage on CPU which surprised me.

I understand that some games are more dependant on the GPU, whilst on the flip side the CPU can take more of a hit depending on the game.
Would you say there is anything I can do, or just deal with the situation. Performance wise I can't complain, but worry about the heat of the GPU whilst the CPU is "chilling"

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for a prompt reply.

I installed my own Windows 11 and stripped out a lot of "Windows" to make it more efficient.

I would've thought that the GPU I have should be able to handle a lot more. In this test I was playing PC Building Sim 2 and was getting around 97% usage on GPU, but only 14% usage on CPU which surprised me.

I understand that some games are more dependant on the GPU, whilst on the flip side the CPU can take more of a hit depending on the game.
Would you say there is anything I can do, or just deal with the situation. Performance wise I can't complain, but worry about the heat of the GPU whilst the CPU is "chilling"

I'm not really following what the issue is.

GPU should always be at 100% useage, that's normal, all the CPU does is unlock available performance on the gpu, for some games that means the CPU is hardly used, others it’s used a lot

But useage is irrelevant, it's performance, are you seeing stutters? Are you seeing low FPS?

The useage you've quoted doesn't suggest any issue, I'm not following what the problem you're having is?

How did you install windows, by what method? How did you configure drivers?

 

[ubuysa]

I installed my own Windows 11 and stripped out a lot of "Windows" to make it more efficient.

Chills always run down my spine when I hear or read things like this.