Question My CPU usage spikes to over 100% when doing basic tasks ?

[OfficeJerk]

I have recently got a used gaming laptop running an intel core i7 4710hq at 2.6ghz. I am noticing lag and frame stutter, slowness when opening videos on youtube for the first few moments and then things iron out. More lag when i try to take a screenshot using the windows key function and scrolling through some pages give strange lag. This was not present in my previous laptop which was running a slower processor which was the i7-3610QM @ 2.3ghz.

I have the resource manager open and have seen it spike well over 100% during these strange spikes, after that, it returns down to 40% or so when watching the video. What could be the cause of this strange kind of lag? Feels like my more powerful CPU is struggling when opening up applications and not sure what the reason for this is?

Ram is 8gb, have another 8gb on the way but im doubtful its that. Running an m2 SSD for the OS so again doubtful this has anything to do with it. The laptop does everything else very well including running highly demanding games... it just takes a bit of an ugly start-up to do basic things which my old laptop could do at the bat of an eye.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

What gpu does it have? What power settings is windows using?

 

[OfficeJerk]

What gpu does it have? What power settings is windows using?

GTX 980M and full power

Games dont seem to have an issue, its just general windows use and chrome

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

You can try going to device manager, display settings, intel hd graphics, click on it on disable the hd graphics. This should off load any video work to the gpu. In chrome check settings to make sure that hardware acceleration is enabled. See if this helps.

 

[OfficeJerk]

Another example of the issue is, i will be watching twitch for along time and everything is smooth, then i move the mouse and everything starts to lag for the next few seconds whether its just moving the mouse or opening up a page

 

[OfficeJerk]

I did some tests with another machine today. Just a basic desktop with 2.8ghz cpu and same 8gb ram. Opened chrome and loaded up a couple of videos and noticed the cpu hovered around 15-35%! While the memory was near 80% as well as HDD.

Is a 2.6ghz just not good enough for browsing in 2022?

 

[OfficeJerk]

You can try going to device manager, display settings, intel hd graphics, click on it on disable the hd graphics. This should off load any video work to the gpu. In chrome check settings to make sure that hardware acceleration is enabled. See if this helps.

Sorry didn’t even see this! I have tried hardware acceleration on and off and it made no difference. I don’t think it’s a chrome thing, as even windows screen snips have a strange lag to them. It’s almost like the system can’t handle the load yet it’s such a basic task in 2022?

 

[mdd1963]

I'd double check that you are at least in Balanced Power plan...(Economy power would cripple performance, too)

You might also install and view HWMonitor, just to make sure normal clock speeds are shown, and that you are not stuck at default 800 MHz as happens with some laptops without correct chipset drivers installed...

Tinkering at your desktop, opening and closing various apps, you should see momentary spikes of up to 3.5 GHz, with lower clock speeds, perhaps as low as the 2.5 GHz base clock, when under an all-core induced loading. (You can test this by installing/running CPU-z/bench/stress CPU, which will load all cores, and, I'd think you'd see ~2.5 GHz on all cores)

 

[OfficeJerk]

Can confirm i am definitely on High Performance for the power plan. Ill download HWMonitor and see if i can find anything unusual.

Is it true that laptops cant be overclocked?