[SOLVED] My CPU is not running at full capacity.

[Agwebberley]

My CPU won't run at full capacity (36%). I have tried everything in other forums but nothing works. When I try to run a CPU heavy game my PC maxes out at 36% as if it were 100%. My Pc doesn't crash or overheat.

My Build

MotherBoard: Crosshair Formula-Z W/ the latest BIOS.

CPU: AMD FX-4130 Quad Core (Although Windows is reading it as two cores and 4 logical processors)

RAM: 32 GB DDR3

GPU: AMD Radeon R9 390

SSD: 128GB Seagate W/ my operating System on it

Hard Disks: Various hard disks pulled from many different computers

Power Supply: 550W CoolMax ZX-600

 

[logainofhades]

First and foremost, that PSU is a dangerous piece of hardware, to the rest of your system. Get a quality unit, before your system catches fire. What titles are you playing specifically? What is your GPU usage?

 

[Agwebberley]

I play a lot of simulator games (e.x Space Engineers, Train Simulator, American Trucking Simulator, Extremely modded Minecraft) Minecraft being a game that relies on the CPU is giving me the most trouble. My GPU usage I don't usually pay attention to but I don't think that It ever seems to go above 50%. As far as the PSU I can't do much about that at the moment.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Whats actually happening is not that your system is running at only 36%, but most likely a single core of your system is running at 100% and one of the other cores is running some background tasks at low capacity. If you consider each of the 4 cores as 25%, if one of them is full load and another is running at say 25% of its capacity, there you go 36%.

Your system is heavily mismatched, that CPU is a lower end model built on an architecture known for poor single core performance. In your case you are taking a game like Minecraft which is HEAVILY single core biased and adding mods which really beats up on it and expecting it to perform well. I've seen people with new Intel processors have problems with that, yours has no shot.

As mentioned also your PSU is junk. Unfortunately for you there is NO upgrade path on the platform you are on to get to a good single core processor. Your Motherboard can support an 8 core FX chip like the FX-8350, however that CPU doesn't have much more single core performance.

You need to consider cutting your losses and selling those parts to upgrade to a more current Intel or AMD Ryzen based system.

 

[logainofhades]

Minecraft, I believe, is not very well threaded. Those other titles probably aren't either. You will never see full usage, if said titles are very single core heavy. Looking at the system requirements, for some of those, I believe that to be the case.

 

[TechyInAZ]

As the other's have said above, you need a CPU and PSU upgrade asap.

Save up for a system upgrade to say a $80 B450 motherboard, $80 1600AF CPU and a $70 16GB 3000mhz DRAM kit plus a good 550W PSU. All your problems should be gone and you'll have way way way better performance.

 

[digitalgriffin]

My CPU won't run at full capacity (36%). I have tried everything in other forums but nothing works. When I try to run a CPU heavy game my PC maxes out at 36% as if it were 100%. My Pc doesn't crash or overheat.

My Build

MotherBoard: Crosshair Formula-Z W/ the latest BIOS.

CPU: AMD FX-4130 Quad Core (Although Windows is reading it as two cores and 4 logical processors)

RAM: 32 GB DDR3

GPU: AMD Radeon R9 390

SSD: 128GB Seagate W/ my operating System on it

Hard Disks: Various hard disks pulled from many different computers

Power Supply: 550W CoolMax ZX-600

And?

A lot of things affect CPU usage. Temperature, and if the CPU is waiting on the system (memory/disk/interrupts), and how many threads the program can successfully use.

If you want to find out if your system is running at full capacity properly, use Prime95.

 

[digitalgriffin]

As the other's have said above, you need a CPU and PSU upgrade asap.

Save up for a system upgrade to say a $80 B450 motherboard, $80 1600AF CPU and a $70 16GB 3000mhz DRAM kit plus a good 550W PSU. All your problems should be gone and you'll have way way way better performance.

$80 + $80 + $70 + $80 PSU = $310. That can be a lot of scratch for a kid. And I'm guessing that's who this is.

 

[Agwebberley]

Thank you all for your help... This system I have slowly worked off from a friend (I bought the PSU and CPU myself). None of the cores ever get above 36% not just a single core.

 

[TechyInAZ]

$80 + $80 + $70 + $80 PSU = $310. That can be a lot of scratch for a kid. And I'm guessing that's who this is.

I completely agree. But I'm just throwing this out there if there is a possibility he can get better hardware.

Even a FX 8350 would be a decent upgrade all by itself.

I see so none of the CPU cores go above 36%, I would try to reinstall windows.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Thank you all for your help... This system I have slowly worked off from a friend (I bought the PSU and CPU myself). None of the cores ever get above 36% not just a single core.

What are you using to monitor that?

 

[Agwebberley]

What are you using to monitor that?

Task Manager

 

[Rogue Leader]

Task Manager

The utilization in task manager only shows total CPU, the graphs will show everything but there is no way to determine that its only exactly 36% on one core from the graphs.

Please show us a screenshot of what you are seeing in task manager when you play Minecraft.

Lets assume though that you are correct, the only way that could happen is if the system was overheating and throttling. What are you cooling the CPU with? Have you monitored the temperatures using AMD Overdrive?

 

[Agwebberley]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/r2SoZ7vUkd3A279JA

It never goes over that line.

 

[Rogue Leader]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/r2SoZ7vUkd3A279JA

It never goes over that line.

ok your CPU is not clocking up.

Fresh Windows install?

Cooling?

Reset CMOS on the board?

 

[Agwebberley]

ok your CPU is not clocking up.

Fresh Windows install?

Cooling?

Reset CMOS on the board?

I tried resetting the CMOS
My cooling is fine
I have not reinstalled Windows but I am Loath to do so.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I tried resetting the CMOS
My cooling is fine
I have not reinstalled Windows but I am Loath to do so.

You are saying your cooling is fine but you telling me that doesn't make it fine and clearly something is wrong.

What is your CPU cooler? How many case fans? have you monitored using AMD Overdrive and if so what are the temps?

Your Windows install is it new to this machine or did you swap in a hard drive with a Windows install from another machine?

 

[digitalgriffin]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/r2SoZ7vUkd3A279JA

It never goes over that line.

That's ugly. It's possible your cooler may need to be remounted with fresh paste. Use CPU-Z to give us the CPU Temp. If it gets too high, it will throttle back to slow speeds.

If temps look good, I would check the bios to see if the CPU multiplier was set to 38x. Then if that's okay, then I would reinstall windows.

 

[Rogue Leader]

That's ugly. It's possible your cooler may need to be remounted with fresh paste. Use CPU-Z to give us the CPU Temp. If it gets too high, it will throttle back to slow speeds.

If temps look good, I would check the bios to see if the CPU multiplier was set to 38x. Then if that's okay, then I would reinstall windows.

CPU-Z will not give the proper temperature on an FX processor.

 

[Agwebberley]

You are saying your cooling is fine but you telling me that doesn't make it fine and clearly something is wrong.

What is your CPU cooler? How many case fans? have you monitored using AMD Overdrive and if so what are the temps?

Your Windows install is it new to this machine or did you swap in a hard drive with a Windows install from another machine?

I have a low end DEEP COOL and One case fan (my case side is currently off due to the fact that the power button on my case is broken so I have to turn it on via the mother board) . My temps at 36% (The maximum it will go) is 59 F or 10 C.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I have a low end DEEP COOL and One case fan (my case side is currently off due to the fact that the power button on my case is broken so I have to turn it on via the mother board) . My temps at 36% (The maximum it will go) is 59 F or 10 C.

What software are you using to read that?

And please answer my question regarding your Windows install.

 

[Agwebberley]

The hard drive was in another computer but was wiped before installing windows onto it. I used Quick CPU to read that (Found out it was incorrect) The actual temps according to the bios are about 90 F just in the bios around ~30 C

 

[Rogue Leader]

The hard drive was in another computer but was wiped before installing windows onto it. I used Quick CPU to read that (Found out it was incorrect) The actual temps according to the bios are about 90 F just in the bios around ~30 C

Only measure in C, F is irrelevant to us.

Use AMD Overdrive and measure the temps under load, while you are trying to play a game.

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/4645-amd-overdrive.html

It measures something called Thermal Margin, what that is is the difference in the current temperature to max temperature.

So for example if you run this and under load it says -40C? Thats good, means its cool
If it says -5C ? Thats bad means 5C left to overheat and its throttling.
if the numbers are in RED thats really bad.

 

[Agwebberley]

I installed AMD Overdrive and it says my core multiplier is 7. Is that too low?

 

[Agwebberley]

I ran a stress test and the temp margin is 60 C.