[SOLVED] 100% CPU usage when playing games

[Moorrach]

Whenver I play games my CPU usage increase to 100%. It doesn't do this whilst idle any help appreciated.
Full PC specs:
CPU: i7 8700k 3.2GHz
GPU: RTX 3070 8GB
RAM: 16GB
PSU: Corsair VS650
Motherboard: ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING

 

[boju]

There's nothing really wrong there, the cpu is doing what it should be doing. In some games, higher than usual usages might happen if game is quite cpu intensive. Not only in areas of, physics, AI, draw distance etc, but having to dish out frames for the graphics card too.

This'll give you some idea about frame pre-rendering the cpu must undertake.

Higher cpu clocks and faster memory would help cpu get through more work quicker. Any reason why you mentioned your 8700k's speed is at 3.2? 8700k's base speed is 3.7 and all core turbo to 4.3.

 

[Moorrach]

There's nothing really wrong there, the cpu is doing what it should be doing. In some games, higher than usual usages might happen if game is quite cpu intensive. Not only in areas of, physics, AI, draw distance etc, but having to dish out frames for the graphics card too.

This'll give you some idea about frame pre-rendering the cpu must undertake.

Higher cpu clocks and faster memory would help cpu get through more work quicker. Any reason why you mentioned your 8700k's speed is at 3.2? 8700k's base speed is 3.7 and all core turbo to 4.3.

Mistake on my end it is operating at 3.7.
I guess so it could be my memory, ive been told my RAM isn't working properly but not how to solve it.

 

[boju]

Do you know what speed your ram is running at and are they in dual channel mode?

Cpuz will tell you under memory tab. Userbench will also show you. Can you run Userbench and link to results page please.

Correctly running ram will help to a degree, depending what we're comparing to vs potential.

What games are you having high usage in and are you getting stutters as a result? Bare in mind, even though 8700k is no slouch, in some games like Cyberpunk and BF5, 6core / 12 threads cpus can show high usage. Would be much worse on quads / hex core processors. Long as performance isn't really suffering, it's fine the way it is.

 

[Moorrach]

Results of User bench:
UserBenchmarks: Game 91%, Desk 73%, Work 87%
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K - 71.9%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070 - 135.8%
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 120GB - 75.8%
HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB - 45.7%
HDD: TO Exter nal USB 3.0 2TB - 57.1%
RAM: Micron 16ATF1G64AZ-2G1A2 2x8GB - 33.1%
MBD: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING

 

[Moorrach]

Also its ran on single channel

 

[boju]

Can you link to public results page please id like to look at it in more detail.

 

[Moorrach]

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/38572272

 

[boju]

Thanks. Cpu is turboing properly.

Hmm not sure why Userbench is reporting motherboard as only having 3 slots. Do they all work?

Ram should be in slots 2 and 4 from cpu.

Can you upload a picture of Cpuz with memory and spd tabs please. Just to see what speed profiles they have. Like so, after changing them to slots 2 and 4;

 

[Moorrach]

Looking at CPU-Z it shows that RAM is in slot 1 and 2. Also that there is only 3 slots.
RAM Overall
Slot1
Slot2

 

[boju]

You have this motherboard according to userbench: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING

ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Australia

Z370 mATX gaming motherboard with advanced cooling, Aura Sync, SupremeFX, dual M.2, Intel LAN, and USB 3.1 for 8th Gen Coffee Lake.

rog.asus.com

It has 4 slots. No motherboard has only 3. I wonder what happened to it. Oh well, you'll need to open the case and rearrange memory to slots 2 and 4 if you want them in dual channel.

Ram speed is running normally @ 2133. They can't go any higher.

See how you go first trying to get dual channel to run then see how performance is like then. If all is good, maybe leave it or if you want, can invest in faster ram ~ 3200MHz. You'll enable XMP in the bios to have them run at 3200. 2133 is base speed until XMP is enabled.

 

[Moorrach]

You have this motherboard according to userbench: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING

ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Australia

Z370 mATX gaming motherboard with advanced cooling, Aura Sync, SupremeFX, dual M.2, Intel LAN, and USB 3.1 for 8th Gen Coffee Lake.

rog.asus.com

It has 4 slots. No motherboard has only 3. I wonder what happened to it. Oh well, you'll need to open the case and rearrange memory to slots 2 and 4 if you want them in dual channel.

Ram speed is running normally @ 2133. They can't go any higher.

See how you go first trying to get dual channel to run then see how performance is like then. If all is good, maybe leave it or if you want, can invest in faster ram ~ 3200MHz. You'll enable XMP in the bios to have them run at 3200. 2133 is base speed until XMP is enabled.

OK thank you I'll give that a try.

 

[mdd1963]

With adequate cooling and no VRM/mainboard power limits, the 8700K should turbo to 4.3-4.4 GHz on a all cores, and, briefly burst to 4.7 GHz on single core tasks.....;

 

[Moorrach]

Ok so tried changing my RAM slots from 1 and 2 to 2 and 4. Even after moving them it still says 1 and 2 in CPU-Z.

 

[boju]

Ok so tried changing my RAM slots from 1 and 2 to 2 and 4. Even after moving them it still says 1 and 2 in CPU-Z.

Cpuz will say slots 2 & 4. This is hard to believe knowing what Cpuz should detect. Can you take a photo of your ram please.

 

[Moorrach]

I'm gonna assume you mean the actual RAM in my PC and not a screenshot of CPU-Z.

 

[boju]

Yes of the actual ram

 

[boju]

Memory tab in Cpuz should say dual for channel # moving ram to those slots.

 

[Moorrach]

Sorry for not responding in a while been really busy with some IRL stuff. Update on the situation; I now have my RAM in the correct slots (2 and 4) and CPU-Z reads them as dual channel. When running games still my memory CPU usage jump to extremely high.

 

[mdd1963]

CPU usage will be high on games that can utilize 6c/12t, especially with a good GPU, which you have. (It would be lower if using a much lesser GPU like a GTX1060, for example, which even an i5-7400 was able to saturate as of early 2017...)

In short, unless plagued with unusually low frame rates, I'd not look at CPU usage as something in and of itself that 'needs fixing'..

 

[Moorrach]

To be fair with these kind of specs I play on the optimised settings from GeForce Experience and still don’t always get good frames. I could just be wrong in thinking optimised means ideal for smooth FPS.

 

[boju]

Optimised between good looks and frame rate. To Nvidia, 60fps is good with as much eye candy possible. GE can up some of the settings too much depending where the quality slider sits in GE settings. Games could end up having too much aa or dsr/res scaling applied amongst other ingame settings. I never use it personally for these reasons.