Question Intel Core 10700F CPU 0 at 100% constantly

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Jan 19, 2021
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Hey, I'm wondering whether this is normal behavior or not, but one core is idling at 100%.
My build is brand new and I tried updating drivers/bios/restoring windows/reseating GPU/safe mode/sfcscan/healthcheck/disk check.

The CPU usage lingers around 8-15% whilst idling as well. When I turn off Turbo Mode in my ASUS UEFI, it goes down slightly to 6-8%, but my clocking rate also goes down to 2,9GHz.
Yes, I have tried every possible BIOS settings on/off, including turning off devices.

The only thing that actually causes a difference is when I enter advanced power settings in Windows and turn down the Maximum Processor State anything between to 5-99%.

When I lower this, CPU usage goes down a lot generally, and 1-2 cores no longer keep peaking.

Usage in normal mode:
View: https://i.imgur.com/jfJUkBa.png

Usage in safe mode:
View: https://i.imgur.com/atM1fuE.png

Usage after reducing state:
View: https://i.imgur.com/JSShs6N.png


Maybe the energy option thing is utterly stupid and only proves that "reducing cpu speed reduces the speed of the cpu" lol... But I'm pretty new at all this, so you'll have to excuse me.

Anybody has similar experiences? And ideas on how to diagnose this further?
I will also add that my temps are fine and CPU heavy processes seem to function smoothly. My fans are quite lively though, they speed very dynamically when I do small tasks such as browsing.

Oh and upon analyzing the processes, the main load is from "System" and "System Interrupts". Within "System", the load (and quite a lot of latency I think) origin from ACPI.sys. My gut feeling is that it all somehow has got something to do with power.

Would be very grateful for any ideas and help!
 
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Jan 19, 2021
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Right now, after not touching anything for a minute, I have one core constantly peaking at 100% and another core sitting at 70%.
The rest of them are barely active.
 
on a new system this is normal. it'll take a few days for the system to get caught up on on Windows Updates, drivers and antivirus patterns. also if you left things like Windows telemetry etc... it will broadcast these in the background. I wouldn't turn down the max CPU value, it just mean the processor spends a little more time doing these small tasks before returning to truly idle - and decreases the maximum performance when you need it
 
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Jan 19, 2021
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on a new system this is normal. it'll take a few days for the system to get caught up on on Windows Updates, drivers and antivirus patterns. also if you left things like Windows telemetry etc... it will broadcast these in the background. I wouldn't turn down the max CPU value, it just mean the processor spends a little more time doing these small tasks before returning to truly idle - and decreases the maximum performance when you need it

even in safe mode?
 
Jan 19, 2021
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Was this a complete new build with fresh/pristine/FULL/NEW WIn10 install, or a 'reboot with new hardware and hope all chipset driver updates work out ok' scenario? :)

Hey, I'm not entirely sure what you mean. My build was built by professionals and shipped to me 1 week ago.
I know I should probably not have recovered Windows and updated the BIOS, but I kind of got a bit manic trying to solve the CPU usage issue. The reset and updates didn't help though.

Today I've been running high end games at maxed out settings with two 144hz monitors and heavy music producing software for hours without any problems temperature/usage wise. So I guess I'll just have to get used to the fact that 1-2 threads always use 60-100% of my CPU, even when I'm idling.

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Update:
Forgot to name my mobo: ASUS ROG STRIX B460-F

Asus own clocking and monitoring service, AI Suite 3, show different numbers. According to this, CPU 0 uses 60% constantly, and CPU 15 around 40-50%. All other threads are at 0-1%.

So if anyone in the future is curious, my conclusions so far (for my specific case) are:

1. Windows monitoring services show incorrect thread usage. More specifically, 100% isn't 100%

2. Tuning the fan routines with AI Suite 3 (real glitchy software in my experience, be aware) or in BIOS seems to get rid of occasional high fan speed in idle (without high temps)

3. The 8-14% CPU usage in idle is connected to the motherboard and bios settings, more specifically the power management for the CPU. For some reason, "System Interrupts" and "System" (acpi.sys) run at 5-10% always when using standard BIOS and processor settings.

The good news is that these idle usage numbers don't seem to affect gaming or other cpu heavy activities - when other processes utilize a lot of CPU, their usage is reduced. My guess is that the system is communicating with the bios/mobo to run the CPU power settings.

Feel free to correct me! I don't know that much tbh. These are just guesses based on experimenting with this for 3 days in a row, barely sleeping and panicking over a non existent problem.
 
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Jan 19, 2021
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Update: Turns out this was actually a problem, and not a small one.

I had to go into BIOS and turn ON Discrete Thunderbolt Support.
Then I had to go to device manager in Windows and turn off the newly added PCI E Root Port Device.
For some weird reason, this works.

By usage is at 0-1% now and my temperatures literally went from 48C to 32C whilst idling. AND TurboBoost started working properly.

would love if someone could explain this better, and maybe tell me how to prevent it from happening again?
 
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