The Last of Us Part II Remastered has finally made its long-awaited debut on PC, bringing a hauntingly beautiful world, intense emotional storytelling, and a brutal combat experience that has stuck with players since its original release. But for some players, the excitement has been dampened by frustrating performance issues. Specifically low CPU and GPU usage that tanks frame rates.
If you’re noticing that The Last of Us Part II Remastered only uses around 65% of your GPU while running on an RTX 4060, you’re not alone. Many players have reported similar low GPU usage, leading to subpar frame rates, often hovering around 60 FPS when benchmarks show the card should be pushing closer to 85 FPS. If you’re one of the many people scratching your head, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered (PC) Low CPU/GPU Usage Issue: How to fix it
There’s no official fix yet, and the developers have yet to address the low GPU usage issue directly—but in the meantime, affected players have been teaming up to share potential workarounds. We’ve gathered the most effective ones below for you to try out.
Driver rollbacks
One workaround that’s helped some players is downgrading their GPU drivers. Especially the February 2025 ones for AMD users. Some have pointed out that NVIDIA GPUs (especially 30, 40, and 50 series) are currently facing some driver-related issues with this game. Rolling back to the December 2024 NVIDIA drivers has reportedly improved performance and stability for many. On the CPU side, even high-end processors like the Ryzen 5800X3D are hitting 95–100% usage, which means older CPUs like the Ryzen 5 3600 could be severely bottlenecked. So if you’re running into low GPU usage, trying the December NVIDIA driver might be your best shot for now.
Disable DLSS
Another simple but surprisingly effective workaround is to disable DLSS. While it’s designed to boost performance, some players have found that turning it off improves GPU usage and frame rates in The Last of Us Part II Remastered. It seems DLSS can sometimes introduce performance quirks depending on your setup, so switching to native resolution or trying FSR/XeSS instead might give you better results.
Disable from launcher
A helpful trick is to disable Frame Generation (FG) in the game launcher before starting the game and then enable it manually once you’re in the main menu. For some reason, turning it on from the launcher itself can cause stability or performance issues, while enabling it in-game seems to work more reliably.
Nvidia Reflex
One player had a major breakthrough by simply turning off NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency in the settings menu. While it’s generally meant to reduce input lag, in this case, it was oddly capping GPU performance. After disabling it, their GPU usage jumped from 65% to a full 99%, instantly unlocking smoother and more consistent frame rates. Worth trying if you’re running an NVIDIA card!
Bios Related Fix
Another advanced tweak involves tuning your BIOS settings. Enabling XMP (or DOCP for AMD boards) ensures your RAM runs at its advertised speed. You should also turn on Above 4G Decoding and Resizable BAR, which can help improve GPU communication and overall efficiency. Some motherboards even have an option to unlock full performance for CPU/RAM/PCIe, usually with a description like “individual components can run at max speeds.” These changes may increase power draw but can boost performance noticeably. Features like low-latency memory support or high-transfer-rate modes—if available on your board—can also help.
Reinstall on SSD
Lastly, if the game isn’t installed on a fast drive, try moving the game to an NVMe drive if you have one. This is because The Last of Us Part II Remastered has some CPU-heavy post-processing and DirectStorage decompression, which can put extra load on your system. So installing it on an SSD might help. Several players have reported smoother performance and quicker load times after reinstalling the game on an NVMe SSD.
Well, those are all the workarounds we have for now that could fix the low CPU/GPU usage in The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Keep visiting DigiStatement for daily gaming content like this. Also, here is our guide on tackling the Out of Memory Error in The Last of Us Part II Remastered (PC).
