I was wondering if anyone could help me, I have been using AMD overdrive to monitor my system but not for overclocking and I noticed that while playing a game the GPU was at 98 % temp around 76

I did not experience any problems the reason i checked overdrive because a fan kicked on in my computer and it was sounding kinda loud.

Does 98 % GPU usage = The game I was playing was too much for my graphic card?

I dont know if this is relevant but I have windows 7 AMD six core t1045t with a AMD hd 6450 512mb ddr graphic card and I was playing Rage on lower resolution.

Either the game was too much for your graphics card (or just about to be), or the game is programmed to max out the card anyway. Did the graphics stutter? If yes, then it's likely the former. If the graphics were very fluid, then look for a way to clamp the framerate.

Thanks for your response, sometimes is get distorted waves but no shuttering I turned on vsync but GPU went right back up to 98%, its kinda weird but maybe ill try some different games and see if the same thing happens. It could just be the overdrive program.

a 6450 isn't much of a card tbh (consider the integrated GPU in trinity is thought to be a 6550 equiv) especially for modern games I'd have recommended a 5770 at the least (which is a 6770 without some UVD parts) or a 6850...

... isn't Rage horribly optimized?

If other games don't make the card act like that, then it could be that the game is maxing out your card.

... isn't Rage horribly optimized?

If other games don't make the card act like that, then it could be that the game is maxing out your card.

it says the minimum is Video Card: GeForce 8800, Radeon HD 4200 max Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, Radeon HD 5550

I ve got over 100 hrs on Skyrim, I know this card isn't the best that why i usually play at lower resolutions but no game is worth blowing up my card for. I am not sure about the optimization so far once in a great while I get lag for a few seconds then its speeds back up, not really that big of a deal for me. I guess i will run some test on other games to see where it takes the GPU to.

Rage can't be directly compared to any other recent release because it uses OpenGL instead of Direct3D. It is the first non-indie OpenGL game in years (I think the last was Doom 3 in 2004) so video card drivers simply aren't optimised for OpenGL.

Performance might improve in future drivers but there's no incentive for the manufacturers to do so since only one upcoming game is using OpenGL (Doom 4). The end result of id's refusal to move with the times is that Rage runs noticeably worse than visually comparable Direct3D games on the same hardware.

Thanks again everyone for your input, I did run a test playing Skyrim at the same resolution and was only getting 24 % GPU so I do think it is the new ID engine I will just watch my temp closely.