Question Unexplicably high CPU usage all of a sudden i5 7600k

Dec 26, 2019
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So, first things first, thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this desperate cry for help.

These are my specs: i5 -7600k | GTX 1080 Ti 11gb | 16Gb RAM | SSD 250gb | Cooler: Kraken X62 | 750W gold PSU

My rig is two years old, I am very fond of my electronics and know my way around PCs fairly well, I am no pro, though, therefore I come to you to see if you can help me.
I have been playing a lot of games in the last two years in 2.5k resolution ultra at a fairly accceptable framerate 100 - 144 fps.

Thing is, a few days ago I noticed my CPU reving up randomly having huge clock speed spikes (from 800-4200) and my processor speed being fixed on 4,17 (i5 base speed is 3,79) overperforming for no reason, so I reset my energy plans and now i have two options: high performance on a constant 4200Mhz or balanced where it goes to 800Mhz base speed and spikes randomly up to 4200Mhz an down again, 30 times per minute. This is new to me, but maybe an update messes something up?

When I opened games like Fortnite I used to have around 65-75% CPU usage in total and now I get 100% being Fortnite alone around 85-90%.

So if I cap the framerate to 60, CPU load goes down to 50%. And if I put all of the settings on low in 2.5K it struggles to maintain 200fps. The weirdest part is it should be perfectly possible for me to play in 1920x1080 with 240fps, but my PC struggles to get over 180 even in low resolution...

The same in CSGO a very CPU heavy game, where I normally used to get 280fps, I now get 100 - 150fps, so there is clearly something going on.

So I did the usual, update drivers, closed programs to see if any of them was messing with the cpu, updated the BIOS and I even reset Windows...

NOTHING has helped, and I am so lost. Task manager says that fortnite or any game in question is the sole user of all that processing power. And there is nothing I can do to change it.

Process monitor from windows does not show anything abnormal, there is though always about 15 - 20% of CPU usage that remains somehow hidden or invisible (without that i would be sitting at 70% cpu usage playing on 2k in ultra, which is just fine.

Oh, CPU temp is a steady 49C (even with prolongued 100% use) and GPU around 75C, all this measures with CPU-Z and Hardware monitor.

My ram is working at the intended 2400 (confirmed by bios) and XMP is on. Overclocking will not help, as this has happened just a few days ago.

I noticed that putting things in fullscreen made the processor go up, and in window mode just go completely down.

I did a userbenchmark where you can see that appareantly nothing is wrong: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/23180385

Last option is to do a completely clean wipe of the ssd and star anew...This is just stupid.

Thank you again, and have a nice Monday!

Edit: forgot to say that my voltage is just fine sitting on 0.8 on idle and around 1.150 - 1.235 with use.
 
Going from 800-4200 MHz several times per second on a few cores is quite normal in Balanced mode, assuming normal WIndows functions/things are occurring in the background, which, could including file indexing, syncing of one or more cloud storage accounts, downloading WIndows updates, etc., can occur quite frequently, especially for the first several minutes after bootup.

WIndows 1909 was pushed out fairly recently for most folks...; you'd have to find out if other folks took similar hits, but, certainly drivers could have been botched, etc.

You can try a fresh installation (OS, chipset/GPU drivers, games), or, a restore from an earlier image, checking performance for comparison....

With new versions of WIndows (Spectre/Meltdown code mitigations,etc.,, no one can be certain your current lower levels of performance you have now are not the 'new normal'...

As for actual levels of CPU usage/utilization, I'm surprised you have not been at 100% usage for many months in pretty much any game, especially with your 4c/4t CPU likely long struggling to supply a 1080Ti all it is capable of...
 
Dec 26, 2019
4
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Going from 800-4200 MHz several times per second on a few cores is quite normal in Balanced mode, assuming normal WIndows functions/things are occurring in the background, which, could including file indexing, syncing of one or more cloud storage accounts, downloading WIndows updates, etc., can occur quite frequently, especially for the first several minutes after bootup.

WIndows 1909 was pushed out fairly recently for most folks...; you'd have to find out if other folks took similar hits, but, certainly drivers could have been botched, etc.

You can try a fresh installation (OS, chipset/GPU drivers, games), or, a restore from an earlier image, checking performance for comparison....

With new versions of WIndows (Spectre/Meltdown code mitigations,etc.,, no one can be certain your current lower levels of performance you have now are not the 'new normal'...

As for actual levels of CPU usage/utilization, I'm surprised you have not been at 100% usage for many months in pretty much any game, especially with your 4c/4t CPU likely long struggling to supply a 1080Ti all it is capable of...

Thank you so much for your answer!

Damn! (Pardon my french) here goes my suspicions, did I buy a processor incapable of keeping up with the 1080ti s capabilities?

That is not nice, as that would mean having to upgrade the MB and the processor...welp...what are you gonna do?

I have been thinking about the spectre patch, a friend of mine told me as a "wild guess" that this could be the reason.

I am about to take the pc apart, clean it and wipe the SSD. I have no older file, sadly, but I really don't need anything in this pc so a wipe makes no diference to me.

It is true though that I installed 1909 two weeks ago, and it gave no performance issues whatsoever, but a few days ago, without no warning or anything, I started getting 100% cpu in occasions always when using program in fullscreen or when stressing the GPU.

Every hardware value is where it is supposed to be, i just found it weird that from one day to another my CPU starts to bottleneck the GPU, so weird...

As a last question if possible: can I boot a Windows iso trough the boot menu and THEN wipe the ssd during the instalation program just pressing "delete" in the hardrive format window?

Thank you so much for your answer! Have a nice day!
 
Dec 26, 2019
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I would see if you can stress test the cpu in windows and then with a linux live cd and see if there's a difference. If there isn't, it's hardware. If there is a difference, it's probably a windows issue.

I am going to reinstall, a linux live cd would be a little to much for me to handle ^^ I appreciate your answer, though! Thank you
 

dirkrgriebel54

Prominent
Mar 21, 2018
14
1
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Check for viruses. Bit miners are insane these days. Check with adwcleaner, Malwarebytes, and BitDefender to be save. You've had it for a long time and I think it's time to check. Do full scans with all and I bet you will find something bad.

If nothing is found report back and send me a pic of the task manager.