Why is my graphics card not at full load.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

It's a bit of an academic question for me personally, but I'm a curious kind of person, so I'll ask anyway.

Recently I bought a new computer, (i7 3770K, GTX670, 16GB) to replace my struggling old one (AMD X64 3800+, 9600GT, 3GB).

I notice on my new computer I can get the graphics card to work on full load, pushing out as much fps as possible and getting quite warm while doing so. This surprised me, since on the old computer I never got a load higher than maybe 50% and temperatures not higher than 50 C, nowhere near its limit.

Both cards have the latest drivers.

The temperature difference is really because of the load on the cards, I'm pretty sure about that. The new computer has a better and higher airflow.

I'm just guessing, but is it because of the slower CPU and lower RAM not being able to feed the GPU fast enough? Anyway, if someone has any ideas I'd like to hear.

3ds max (when rendering) had no problems loading the old card 100%.

EDIT With full load I mean in the OC/performance/monitor etc tool by Asus, it gives a GPU usage of 100%. Like flooring the accelerator of a car I guess. Just working as hard as it can.

I didn't overclock the card, it's my workstation for the next couple of years so I don't want to stress it really, it does have a stock boost.

[Storm Clarence]

You have some great specs.  It is very easy to over-clock your GPU perhaps you are or it was built as the default.  I don't think the old AMD CPU was such the bottleneck in your case, but you never know.   When you say "I get the graphics card to work at full load..." I am not sure what you mean; are you banging against it with an app like furmark?  If so you will see gpu throttling high using stress test apps like this.  

 

[Lindal Kidd]

If you find the answer to this, let me know.  I have a similar card, a notch or two below yours.  It does not get stressed by SL at all...but on the other hand, SL is not giving me near the frame rate this card should be able to handle.