Why isn't the CPU always at full usage?

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This may sound like a stupid question but, just out of curiousity, why doesn't the CPU always use it's full potential? For example, even on desktop, shouldn't it still be at full load and at the same temps as while gaming?
 
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not exactly. gpu's aswell have auto throttling. if your playing a game the doesnt require huge amounts of graphic power you will notice its only probably running at half clock. intense graphics games use it to its max.
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No because most processes don't need that much processing power. This is when the CPU is at idle state and not doing anything. It's still running at full speed, if that's what you're thinking, but it's just sitting there waiting for something to do :)
 
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Just like the difference between your car idling in the driveway, and cruising down the highway at 100kph, or going up a steep hill towing a trailer.

The full power is not always needed
 
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Why? If the CPU does not have anything to do, why waste power on doing nothing when it can simply go into sleep states to reduce its power from 40-70W to 1-10W?

You have to go all the way back to the 486 or possibly earlier for x86 CPUs that lack any form of sleep states.
 
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not exactly. gpu's aswell have auto throttling. if your playing a game the doesnt require huge amounts of graphic power you will notice its only probably running at half clock. intense graphics games use it to its max.
 
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So if I overclock my CPU and set the voltage to 1.2 will that automatically drop down when on idle? From what i've seen it seems voltage is what determines heat levels in components, am I right?
 
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So the more voltage, the more stable; but the more voltage the hotter?
 
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But the OS will still be telling the CPU to go to sleep whenever there is no actual work to do so the CPU load itself will remain 0-5% most of the time when just sitting there.
 
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more voltage does not mean more stable it the other way around. the higher the voltage goes the closer to unstable and causing issues. thats why when overclocking everyone says to go step by step until you find the right oc that is stable. good cooling is the second part of this that hasnt been mentioned yet to achieve good higher stables clock one needs a good cooling system to battle the rise in temps from the higher voltage.
 
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Sorry, I assumed that you could keep going up in clock speeds, raising the voltage to the appropriate ammount until your cooler could no longer keep it at safe temps.

Is this still correct?
 
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each cpu is different on its limitations. a voltage of 1.3 might be fine on your rig but could cause mine to be unstable with exactly the same specs and setting as you. you have to find your perfect oc.
 
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