Huge CPU Bottleneck

[peter_beal]

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860k
RAM: 8GB DDR3

My CPU is sometimes performing terribly, when it should be fine. I know that these old FM2+ CPUs are outdated but... I'm hitting 100% CPU utilization when opening simple apps like Steam and Google Chrome, and it is consistently above 50% when running some games. I'm pretty sure 860k's don't do that. Does anyone know of anything that might be wrong? (It's not the temperature by the way - that's fine)

 

[kanewolf]

What do you have for RAM? What about RAM utilization?

 

[TerryLaze]

Four weak cores are going to be filled up pretty easily by newer games if you have a decent GPU,apps can also use a few cores for short bursts when they need it and starting up is pretty much the only time these apps use some amount of CPU time.
Run something like core temp or hwinfo and make sure the CPU runs at the correct clocks if they do I think everything is ok.

 

[peter_beal]

What do you have for RAM? What about RAM utilization?

I have 8GB of DDR3 so I don't understand what's up.

 

[peter_beal]

Four weak cores are going to be filled up pretty easily by newer games if you have a decent GPU,apps can also use a few cores for short bursts when they need it and starting up is pretty much the only time these apps use some amount of CPU time.
Run something like core temp or hwinfo and make sure the CPU runs at the correct clocks if they do I think everything is ok.

I've been told on the BeamNG.drive subreddit that my CPU should be doing much better. I get 2-5fps on the title screen.

 

[TerryLaze]

I've been told on the BeamNG.drive subreddit that my CPU should be doing much better. I get 2-5fps on the title screen.

Getting 2-5FPS is something very different from just getting 100% CPU usage,maybe you should have opened with that one.
Are the low FPS only in the opening scene or all through the game?
Did you check to see at what clocks your cores run as I said?

 

[peter_beal]

I've been told on the BeamNG.drive subreddit that my CPU should be doing much better. I get 2-5fps on the title screen.

Getting 2-5FPS is something very different from just getting 100% CPU usage,maybe you should have opened with that one.
Are the low FPS only in the opening scene or all through the game?
Did you check to see at what clocks your cores run as I said?

Yes, I think it's to do with temperature, because it only happens sometimes and the temperature is always high when playing the game. It also doesn't help that it's the middle of summer.
I think I'm going to see what I can do with cooling so that I can possibly overclock it. Will get back to you on that one, sorry

 

[col.frost1505]

Hey,
I also got the x4 860k overclocked to 4.2 Ghz and it works fine. But the temperatures really matter with this CPU.

 

[peter_beal]

Hey,
I also got the x4 860k overclocked to 4.2 Ghz and it works fine. But the temperatures really matter with this CPU.

Yep. I'm getting a better cooler to see if that helps. I think Chillblast put a bad cooler in because it's a budget PC. (I got it pre-built because it's my first proper PC)

 

[col.frost1505]

Hey,
I also got the x4 860k overclocked to 4.2 Ghz and it works fine. But the temperatures really matter with this CPU.

Yep. I'm getting a better cooler to see if that helps. I think Chillblast put a bad cooler in because it's a budget PC. (I got it pre-built because it's my first proper PC)

When I first got my PC, I had the stock AMD Cooler on it. I had to leave the case open, because the cpu did run like a potato

 

[peter_beal]

I got a new fan and now it's much better