i5 6400 - 100% when in load

[UniformGreen]

So I have my i5 6400 and it gets to 100% no matter what I play. GTA 5, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Overwatch (I know it's a CPU intensive game but still...), Watch Dogs 2, CSGO (100% cpu usage and 10% GPU usage.........), I even tested Minecraft. And the problem is present even in GPU intensive benchmarks, like Furmark or Heaven benchmark... Like what the fuck?! The temps are not that high (50-55 on full load, the CPU is always running on full load due to this problem...) but when a game becomes more CPU intensive, the fps would drop like crazy. Assassin's Creed Syncate for an example. The game is locked at 60 fps with vsync so I can get rid of tearing until I will get my 144Hz this month and the CPU is at 100% no matter what and the GPU is at 50-60%. I tried to use DSR and run the game to 2k and 4k. The CPU usage is still at 100% and the GPU usage didn't change... I already have the latest bios update installed.

PC Specs:
i5 6400 3.1GHz (my motherboard let me overclock it to 3.1ghz. Past that it wouldn't let me because I have a B150 motherboard)
16GB ram 2133MHz (2x 8GB Kingston HyperX 2133MHz)
Nvidia GTX 970 (150mhz overclocked over the boost clock, running at 1465mhz)
MSI B150m PRO-VDH

 

[k1114]

Check cpuz and see what speed the cpu is running at load. 3.1ghz is not an oc. 3.1ghz on all cores it default turbo speed. 3.2 on 3 cores and 3.3 on 1-2 cores so you actually made your cpu slower. I'd suggest you change any settings back to stock.

 

[UniformGreen]

Check cpuz and see what speed the cpu is running at load. 3.1ghz is not an oc. 3.1ghz on all cores it default turbo speed. 3.2 on 3 cores and 3.3 on 1-2 cores so you actually made your cpu slower. I'd suggest you change any settings back to stock.

No. It's running at 3.1 on all cores. Even if it is on default, it would still boost all cores to 3.1GHz.

 

[k1114]

That's what I said, 3.1ghz on all cores is default turbo speed. But you made it slower by only letting it go to 3.1ghz for 1-3 cores instead of 3.2-3.3ghz. Setting everything back to stock also ensures any other settings you changed isn't causing issues.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Check cpuz and see what speed the cpu is running at load. 3.1ghz is not an oc. 3.1ghz on all cores it default turbo speed. 3.2 on 3 cores and 3.3 on 1-2 cores so you actually made your cpu slower. I'd suggest you change any settings back to stock.

No. It's running at 3.1 on all cores. Even if it is on default, it would still boost all cores to 3.1GHz.

Right, but the 6400 can boost to 3.3GHz on 1 core, and 3.2GHz on 2 cores. So if you set it to 3.1 on all cores with no boost past that, you might get a slight reduction in performance.

100% load on an i5 is normal, but I see your issue. Crank up the settings in AC Syndicate (and you can try other games too) to max, even max out Anti-Aliasing with TXAA, it plays smoother because it places the strain on the GPU instead of the CPU.

*If you want to play at 144Hz you will need a faster CPU, preferably an i7. It takes a fast CPU to push high framerates at lower settings.

 

[UniformGreen]

Check cpuz and see what speed the cpu is running at load. 3.1ghz is not an oc. 3.1ghz on all cores it default turbo speed. 3.2 on 3 cores and 3.3 on 1-2 cores so you actually made your cpu slower. I'd suggest you change any settings back to stock.

No. It's running at 3.1 on all cores. Even if it is on default, it would still boost all cores to 3.1GHz.

Right, but the 6400 can boost to 3.3GHz on 1 core, and 3.2GHz on 2 cores. So if you set it to 3.1 on all cores with no boost past that, you might get a slight reduction in performance.

100% load on an i5 is normal, but I see your issue. Crank up the settings in AC Syndicate (and you can try other games too) to max, even max out Anti-Aliasing with TXAA, it plays smoother because it places the strain on the GPU instead of the CPU.

*If you want to play at 144Hz you will need a faster CPU, preferably an i7. It takes a fast CPU to push high framerates at lower settings.

Yeah I know. Like I said, I even cranked the resolution to 4K (with DSR) but I still get 100% cpu usage

 

[k1114]

Are all 4 cores showing in task manager?

 

[UniformGreen]

Are all 4 cores showing in task manager?

yes

 

[k1114]

What's using it? The hardware seems to be running fine then the issue is software.

 

[UniformGreen]

What's using it? The hardware seems to be running fine then the issue is software.

The games I'm playing it uses it at 100%... I reinstalled Windows 2-3 times and reseted the Bios 2 times and updated it again to the latest version but still, the problem is present. It is not that bad, because I don't usually get any stutters but in some games like Watch Dogs 2, no matter what settings I use, I get the same fps with the same GPU usage. If I play on very high for example, I get 40-50 fps and when I'm driving it gets to 40. If I play on low I get 70-80 but when I'm driving again, it still gets to 40...

 

[k1114]

Watch dogs is just not optimized well. Looking up benchmarks, your fps isn't too far off. Everything seems normal.