90% GPU load on a starting screen and in the menu with 240 FPS on 4080 super

Excellent question. This is a very common point of confusion, especially for owners of high-end hardware like your RTX 4080 Super. What you're experiencing is not necessarily a sign of poor optimisation, but rather a specific and intentional behavior of how games and graphics drivers work.

Let's break down the reasons, starting with the most important one.

1. The Primary Culprit: No FPS Cap (Originally)

This is the absolute #1 reason for this phenomenon. In the vast majority of games, the menu and loading screens are incredibly simple for a modern GPU to render.

• In-Game: The GPU has to render complex 3D worlds with high-resolution textures, lighting, shadows, particles, and other expensive effects. This is hard work that limits your FPS.
• In-Menu: The scene is often just a 2D image, a simple 3D model, or a basic UI. There are no complex physics, AI, or world geometry to calculate.

Because the menu is so simple to render, your GPU can generate an astronomically high number of frames per second (often 1000+ FPS) if left unchecked. Your GPU, being the powerhouse that it is, will happily try to render as many frames as it can, as fast as it can.

When you saw 90% load, your GPU was essentially screaming: "This is easy! I'm going to render 2000 FPS until the game gives me something harder to do!" The high usage was simply it pushing itself to its maximum frame rate limit, not a graphical fidelity limit.

By capping your FPS to 160, you gave your GPU a hard limit. It now only needs to work hard enough to hit 160 FPS, which is why the load dropped to 55%. It's still high because 160 FPS at QHD is still a significant workload, but it's no longer being asked to render thousands of unnecessary frames.

2. Why 55% is Still "High" and Perfectly Normal

You are correct that 55% might feel high for a menu, but it's completely expected and even optimal. Here’s why:

• High Refresh Rate Target: You have a 165Hz monitor and are targeting 160 FPS. To deliver a stable 160 FPS, the GPU must prepare a new frame every 6.25 milliseconds. Even a simple menu scene requires it to work consistently at that pace.
• Uncapped Power & Clock Speeds: Modern GPUs like the 4080 Super are designed to boost their clock speeds to very high levels when they detect a workload. Even at 55% load, it's likely running at or near its maximum clock speed to ensure the frames are delivered on time for your high refresh rate. It's prioritizing low latency and high responsiveness over power savings in this scenario.
• "Load" vs. "Utilization": Think of it this way: The GPU is 100% dedicated to the task of delivering 160 FPS. It's using 55% of its computational power to draw the menu, but it's 100% utilized in its duty of maintaining that frame time budget. It's not slacking off.

3. Potential Minor Contributors (Less Likely with a 4080 Super, but Possible)

• Animated Menus: Some games have menus with high-resolution video backgrounds, particle effects, or complex animated 3D models. These are more demanding than a static screen.
• Super High Resolution Assets: The game might be loading and displaying 4K or even 8K textures on menu elements, which takes VRAM and processing power.
• Shader Compilation (First Launch): The first time you run a game (or after a driver update), the game may be compiling shaders in the background during the menu, which is a very GPU-intensive task. This should subside after the first run.

Summary and What You Should Do

Your initial high GPU load was not a problem; it was just your GPU operating without a frame rate limit. Your solution of capping the FPS was exactly the right thing to do.

Why capping FPS is beneficial:

1. Reduces Power Consumption and Heat: Your GPU won't draw 300+ watts rendering a menu at 2000 FPS. It will run cooler and quieter.
2. Reduces Load on Other Components: It takes stress off the CPU and can prevent potential instability.
3. Prevents Screen Tearing: A cap just below your monitor's refresh rate (like your 160 cap on a 165Hz monitor) is a core part of the G-Sync/FreeSync best practice setup.

Final Verdict: The game is likely well-optimised. The behavior you observed is standard for PC gaming. The 55% load you see now is your GPU efficiently and correctly delivering the exact performance you asked for (160 FPS). There is no need to worry. Enjoy your game and your fantastic GPU

Also try this setting in EA App toggle to On and does it give your FPS a boost in Battlefield 6 as reported below. I can confirm it did for me. 

Enable App In-Game Overlay