[SOLVED] CPU performance is awful. Could someone please give me some insight into what may be causing these issues please?

[KieranSw]

Recently I have been experiencing very slow performance in-game. At first I thought it was actually the game engine causing the problems but now coming to the conclusion it may actually be a hardware issue on my behalf. I have a pretty decent build that consists of an i5-7500, MSI GTX 1660, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 350 watt PSU. After checking my task manager I’ve become very concerned with my CPU performance after noticing that my average CPU utilisation whilst not playing any games was around 60% with it spiking up to around 80% occasionally, this is whilst browsing chrome for example. When playing a game like Fortnite I experience non-stop lag spikes and frame drops, as well as rendering issues which makes the game literally unplayable. After checking task manager whilst the game was open I was faced with 100% CPU utilisation which I found very concerning and also noticing that the CPU was running 233 processes which I’m not sure is a bad thing or not. If anybody could help me out it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Koekieezz]

I have a pretty decent build that consists of an i5-7500, MSI GTX 1660, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 350 watt PSU

You need to upgrade your PSU onto minimum Pure 450W or Pure 550W (just in case you want to upgrade to a better system), because the psu you have couldn't deliver enough power to the parts you have. Once you get your new PSU you'll feel the differences.

After checking task manager whilst the game was open I was faced with 100% CPU utilisation which I found very concerning and also noticing that the CPU was running 233 processes which I’m not sure is a bad thing or not

Its not a bad thing cause it is what cpu are build for.

 

[KieranSw]

You need to upgrade your PSU onto minimum Pure 450W or Pure 550W (just in case you want to upgrade to a better system), because the psu you have couldn't deliver enough power to the parts you have. Once you get your new PSU you'll feel the differences.



Its not a bad thing cause it is what cpu are build for.

So after upgrading my PSU my pc should run smoothly?

 

[Koekieezz]

So after upgrading my PSU my pc should run smoothly?

Yes, it is, since you have a decent gear but a bad psu.

 

[sizzling]

While you need a better psu it would not cause the problem you are seeing. 60% usage while idle at Windows desktop is wrong, it should be under 5%. This suggests you either have 1 or more programs running in the background which you need to close or you possibly have a malicious piece of software.

There is another possibility, what is your cpu temperature and speed (GHz) while at Windows desktop?

 

[Koekieezz]

my average CPU utilisation whilst not playing any games was around 60% with it spiking up to around 80% occasionally

run task manager and see what's running high in the background

 

[Karadjgne]

Malwarebytes and ccleaner from piriform.com.

With cpu usage at 60% with a browser open and spiking it to 80%, there's a strong possibility of a Trojan reporting your every move like you had 100 tabs open.

CCleaner is good afterwards to clean up any extra stuff leftover, also use the registry tool (say Yes to backups) to grab any orphans. It'll also clean out all the windows and browser temp files where Trojans and malware likes to hide.

It could also be an issue with presentationfontcache.exe