MSI Afterburner showing 100% cpu usage when I open game (Just started happening)

[akondray]

SOLVED

So even though I was in High Performance power setting through Windows, one setting was still throttling my CPU.

To fix this, I went to Windows power options. Clicked "Change Advanced power settings"

Scrolled down and opened Processor Power Management > Maximum Processor State

This value was set to 5% for some odd reason. I cranked it back up to 100% and BAM, my problem was solved.


Original Question
So some background. I had this problem before and the only way I was able to fix it was to reinstall windows 8.1

Anyways, I built a new rig a while back with these specs:

It's been awesome and I frequently play Battlefield 2 (a modded version) and World of Warships. Both games run flawlessly at 60FPS.

However, I turned my PC on today and they both are unplayable due to lag (averaging ~5FPS). Even the in game menus are laggy.

Windows 8.1 Task Manager isn't helpful as nothing seems out of the ordinary.

However, when I downloaded MSI Afterburner, it's showing my CPU usage at 100% even when I'm sitting in the menus. (GPU usage is around 30% and temps of both CPU and GPU are between 30-45c)

Here's screenshots of MSI Afterburner CPU usage vs Windows 8.1 Task Manager:

Does anyone have any idea why this could be happening? Is my CPU going bad, or is this due to a software issue?

 

[Kenneth Barker]

Trust the Task manager numbers over the MSI numbers. That looks very much like a afterburner bug. Even the temps are not right for 100% load.

Your CPU is fine

 

[akondray]

Trust the Task manager numbers over the MSI numbers. That looks very much like a afterburner bug. Even the temps are not right for 100% load.

Well is there any other software I can use that is more trustworthy?

The games are unplayable, so clearly something is wrong.

 

[James Mason]

Why's your CPU speed so low? that looks like it's idled or severly underclocked.

 

[Kenneth Barker]

If the games are suffering as well... That is very odd. The system itself is literally only showing it using a small amount of CPU. That is a bit wonky. Have you tried your listed solution for fixing this issue in the past? If it is fixed using your solution. You could potentially have some deep seated clever virus or malicious software leaching your CPU and manipulating task managers readouts.

 

[Kenneth Barker]

Why's your CPU speed so low? that looks like it's idled or severly underclocked.

^^^^ This.

That is very odd. Just noticed this. You could have a bad CPU or a faulty PSU or MB. It is difficult to pinpoint the real cause without some back tracing to eliminate some potential candidates

 

[James Mason]

Try using Intel Extreme Tuning to get more info, it's kinda the best at looking up info about Intel processors:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-boards-software-extreme-tuning-utility.html

 

[akondray]

ANSWER:

So even though I was in High Performance power setting through Windows, one setting was still throttling my CPU.

To fix this, I went to Windows power options. Clicked "Change Advanced power settings"

Scrolled down and opened Processor Power Management > Maximum Processor State

This value was set to 5% for some odd reason. I cranked it back up to 100% and BAM, my problem was solved.

 

[James Mason]

ANSWER:

So even though I was in High Performance power setting through Windows, one setting was still throttling my CPU.

To fix this, I went to Windows power options. Clicked "Change Advanced power settings"

Scrolled down and opened Processor Power Management > Maximum Processor State

This value was set to 5% for some odd reason. I cranked it back up to 100% and BAM, my problem was solved.

Someone may have changed that, got anyone who likes to troll you?

 

[Kenneth Barker]

ANSWER:

So even though I was in High Performance power setting through Windows, one setting was still throttling my CPU.

To fix this, I went to Windows power options. Clicked "Change Advanced power settings"

Scrolled down and opened Processor Power Management > Maximum Processor State

This value was set to 5% for some odd reason. I cranked it back up to 100% and BAM, my problem was solved.

Someone may have changed that, got anyone who likes to troll you?

Someone who knows what they are doing?

 

[akondray]

ANSWER:

So even though I was in High Performance power setting through Windows, one setting was still throttling my CPU.

To fix this, I went to Windows power options. Clicked "Change Advanced power settings"

Scrolled down and opened Processor Power Management > Maximum Processor State

This value was set to 5% for some odd reason. I cranked it back up to 100% and BAM, my problem was solved.

Someone may have changed that, got anyone who likes to troll you?

No, and definitely not anyone who would know to do this.

The only thing I've done with power settings recently is change when it goes to sleep (I didn't even know these advanced settings existed until just now when I was looking around for problems)

Very weird, but at least now I know if it keeps changing than some other software is doing it.