[SOLVED] CPU at 100% while gaming

Sep 20, 2020
5
0
10
Hello. I was really hoping someone could help me. I've been having this problem where when I play a game my CPU would just go to 100% then my game would lag out like crazy, meaning I can barely look around with out it stuttering and with some games it would be even worse. My frames would be 58-60 and not drop at all during this time. I wanted to try Warzone with a friend but once in game it goes to hell. If I open menu I have a hard time just moving my mouse around. This is running the game on medium settings. I have been having the same problem in The Division, Even dropping the graphics setting down only helps for a little while.

My Specs are:
Intel i5-6600k
MSI H170A Pro Motherboard
32GB Ram
NVidia RTX 2070

Thanks for any help
Zac
 
Solution
100% CPU usage while gaming is an absolute fact of life for any 4c/4t CPU with any game above classic Solitaire...

YOu may be able to cap your FPS just to make sure you are not lagging out strictly on your connection with a server in question, or, play a LAN game or single player game (not reliant on good connection to server) to see if the same issue exists..

geckovic02

Reputable
Jan 21, 2019
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4,615
Hello. I was really hoping someone could help me. I've been having this problem where when I play a game my CPU would just go to 100% then my game would lag out like crazy, meaning I can barely look around with out it stuttering and with some games it would be even worse. My frames would be 58-60 and not drop at all during this time. I wanted to try Warzone with a friend but once in game it goes to hell. If I open menu I have a hard time just moving my mouse around. This is running the game on medium settings. I have been having the same problem in The Division, Even dropping the graphics setting down only helps for a little while.

My Specs are:
Intel i5-6600k
MSI H170A Pro Motherboard
32GB Ram
NVidia RTX 2070

Thanks for any help
Zac
Hey!
For the 100% usage: Your CPU is a bit weak for the RTX 2070. It's an older 4c/4t processor after all, so upgrading it sooner or later wouldn't be so wrong.

Also, can you measure the tempreture while gaming (HW-Monitor)? It could help resolving this issue.

And one smaller thing you could try, is playing your games in windowed mode. I had a similar issue with valorant, where my screen got stuck at 30fps in fullscreen, but worked in windowed.
 
What’s your cpu usage while at Windows desktop and nothing else open? Have you tried overclocking your cpu?

A 4 core/thread i5 is very limiting in modern AAA games. Best you can do is ensure other programs are not hogging cpu resource and that you have overclocked as much as possible. This may help a little but ultimately you need a cpu upgrade. Unfortunately 4 core/thread CPU’s have not aged well over the last 4+ years.
 
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Sep 20, 2020
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Thanks for answer. My CPU is running at 30% with Discord and web browser open. Why I was bothered by this is while playing with my friend that has much lower spec pc than me on same game with same settings I get this problem.
 
Sep 20, 2020
5
0
10
Hey!
For the 100% usage: Your CPU is a bit weak for the RTX 2070. It's an older 4c/4t processor after all, so upgrading it sooner or later wouldn't be so wrong.

Also, can you measure the tempreture while gaming (HW-Monitor)? It could help resolving this issue.

And one smaller thing you could try, is playing your games in windowed mode. I had a similar issue with valorant, where my screen got stuck at 30fps in fullscreen, but worked in windowed.

I usually play on Windowed borderless as I have 2 monitors, making it easier to switch between them. But the problem is in that mode I cant control the resolution so my primary monitor is 4K so the games with auto select that Resolution. So I tried running the game in Fullscreen at lower resolution then it will run fine for a while before my CPU with spike to 100% and I can feel the pc lagging as I can barely look around.
 
I used to play with i5 3570 + RTX 2070 and yeah it was painfull.
You should try to get a CPU upgrade (perhaps a i7 6700 if you can get it a reasonable price) or replace CPU+Mothebroard+RAM for something more up to today standards, meaning at least 6 cores / 12 threads cpu + 2x8GB/2x16GB DDR 43200 (Ryzen 6 2600/3600/3600XT or Core i5 10400/10600/10600K).

If you play a 4K any of those CPU will be really great for an RTX 2070, but keep in mind that the RTX 2070 is more of a 1440p card.
 
Thanks for answer. My CPU is running at 30% with Discord and web browser open. Why I was bothered by this is while playing with my friend that has much lower spec pc than me on same game with same settings I get this problem.
30% usage is very high. Nearly a 1/3rd of your cpu resources are used up before you even load a game. Try and close everything you don’t need. Your aim is to get under 10%.
 
100% CPU usage while gaming is an absolute fact of life for any 4c/4t CPU with any game above classic Solitaire...

YOu may be able to cap your FPS just to make sure you are not lagging out strictly on your connection with a server in question, or, play a LAN game or single player game (not reliant on good connection to server) to see if the same issue exists..
 
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Solution
Sep 16, 2020
9
0
10
You might still want to check your temperatures with HWInfo. If your CPU is overheating it could be throttling, which would drastically change what 100% CPU means in absolute terms. Your experience with 4c/4t should be sub-par, but nowhere as bad as you are describing.

Get a can of compressed air and clean out your heat sinks (do not use a vacuum cleaner), including your GPU. That may be all you have to do. If that doesn't work, your CPU thermal paste may be old. Clean it with TIM Cleaner or isopropyl alcohol 91% (good luck finding that right now), and then replace it with good thermal paste.
 
Sep 20, 2020
5
0
10
You might still want to check your temperatures with HWInfo. If your CPU is overheating it could be throttling, which would drastically change what 100% CPU means in absolute terms. Your experience with 4c/4t should be sub-par, but nowhere as bad as you are describing.

Get a can of compressed air and clean out your heat sinks (do not use a vacuum cleaner), including your GPU. That may be all you have to do. If that doesn't work, your CPU thermal paste may be old. Clean it with TIM Cleaner or isopropyl alcohol 91% (good luck finding that right now), and then replace it with good thermal paste.

I have liquid cooling for CPU. Temp on CPU after an hour of playing Division 2 was 30 Celsius. Running game on Medium to low setting with everything closed in background. Then it runs +-90% spiking everything now and then.
 

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