Question High CPU usage when gaming ?

[SteelBlood]

While playing certain games, my CPU usage is much higher than it should be. As an example on State of Decay 2 my CPU runs at 85%-95% on all low settings except textures and anti aliasing which are on medium. It acts like this on various games. Another example is Empyrion Galactic Survival, if I try to create a co op game, which the game creates a dedicated server you host on, my CPU hits 100% and the game crashes. My friend has the exact same CPU (and his other hardware is worse) and he can create a co op game just fine.

My GPU will go between 30-70% usage depending on the game, so I don't think it's a bottleneck issue. For State of Decay 2, my CPU temps only ever hit around 60 C, but usually sat at even lower temps so I don't think it is a heating issue either. My CPU is not overclocked. I've fiddled with power plans and the NVIDA control panel, haven't found any settings that helped. Updated my drivers with Driver Booster and used Advanced System Care to clean PC. A couple months ago I even got a fresh version of Windows 10, installed on SDD, and redownloaded all my games. I had this same issue before I did that on my old HDD. I have as little going on in the background as possible, while sitting on desktop my CPU runs at only 1-5%.

Would love any help because if I do something as simple as leave chrome open, there is a chance my system will crash because my CPU can't take it.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i5-7600k 3.8 Ghz Quad Core
GPU: 2070 RTX
Motherboard Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon
RAM: 16 GB
PSU: Gold 750W
1TB SDD
1TB HDD

 

[CountMike]

While playing certain games, my CPU usage is much higher than it should be. As an example on State of Decay 2 my CPU runs at 85%-95% on all low settings except textures and anti aliasing which are on medium. It acts like this on various games. Another example is Empyrion Galactic Survival, if I try to create a co op game, which the game creates a dedicated server you host on, my CPU hits 100% and the game crashes. My friend has the exact same CPU (and his other hardware is worse) and he can create a co op game just fine.

My GPU will go between 30-70% usage depending on the game, so I don't think it's a bottleneck issue. For State of Decay 2, my CPU temps only ever hit around 60 C, but usually sat at even lower temps so I don't think it is a heating issue either. My CPU is not overclocked. I've fiddled with power plans and the NVIDA control panel, haven't found any settings that helped. Updated my drivers with Driver Booster and used Advanced System Care to clean PC. A couple months ago I even got a fresh version of Windows 10, installed on SDD, and redownloaded all my games. I had this same issue before I did that on my old HDD. I have as little going on in the background as possible, while sitting on desktop my CPU runs at only 1-5%.

Would love any help because if I do something as simple as leave chrome open, there is a chance my system will crash because my CPU can't take it.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i5-7600k 3.8 Ghz Quad Core
GPU: 2070 RTX
Motherboard Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon
RAM: 16 GB
PSU: Gold 750W
1TB SDD
1TB HDD

At lower settings and 1080p it's CPU that does most work.

 

[SteelBlood]

At lower settings and 1080p it's CPU that does most work.

I have tried higher settings too. It doesn't decrease CPU usage, just increases GPU usage.

 

[alexbirdie]

Did you check in task-manager, if there are some other programs using CPU?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Is the game actually taking up most of that CPU utilization? Because if so, then you're at the limit of what your CPU is capable of with these games. If not, then start closing things that are taking up CPU time.

 

[SteelBlood]

Is the game actually taking up most of that CPU utilization? Because if so, then you're at the limit of what your CPU is capable of with these games. If not, then start closing things that are taking up CPU time.

The game takes up all but up to 10% of utilization while gaming. Also I'm fairly confident my CPU is supposed to be a lot more capable than how it is performing currently. It also doesn't make sense that my friend can run games better than I can with an identical CPU.

 

[SteelBlood]

Did you check in task-manager, if there are some other programs using CPU?

I did, nothing suspicious. Other programs combined reach at most 10% of the CPU utilization and they are pretty much all Windows or Steam programs.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The game takes up all but up to 10% of utilization while gaming. Also I'm fairly confident my CPU is supposed to be a lot more capable than how it is performing currently. It also doesn't make sense that my friend can run games better than I can with an identical CPU.

I did, nothing suspicious. Other programs combined reach at most 10% of the CPU utilization and they are pretty much all Windows or Steam programs.

Then you're at 100%, and the CPU is going to be limited with how many frames it can push out.

If you want, post a screen capture of Task Manager in the Details tab, sorted by CPU usage when you're running a game. You'll have to post the image to imgur, imgbb, or prnt.sc and share the link here.