after doing more research, found that task manager doesn't accurately represent GPU processing. instead used HWiNFO64 and saw that GPU core load was maxing at 100%, power draw was higher, and temperature was up.
i have an nvidia gtx 1660 super with updated drivers. not sure if it's just me, but it doesn't appear that the gpu is being used much at all while rendering. it appears to use video memory, but that's about it. it takes about 40 mins to render a small file. is this normal?