Discussion Working With Power

[jnjnilson6]

1. What do you use your CPU for? Gaming / Programming / Reading / Writing - the list goes on indefinitely. Write up!
2. What CPU percentage is usually being filled up while working on your computer?
3. Happy with your components? If not - which would be the components you would like to retain?
4. How old is your machine?

I would be glad if you could answer at least one of the aforementioned questions and feel happy to write about anything CPU and hardware related that interests you in general. Thank you!

 

[punkncat]

I utilize two (or more) systems in my day to day. One of them is my "main" rig which I mostly use for gaming and surfing/whatnot. The second is for gaming and movies/Plex, and casual surfing and consumption. I also use a laptop exclusively for work when not at the office.

For my gaming rig, it doesn't use much of the CPU power for many of the things that I do outside of gaming. The Plex server is about the same. I don't track that load for the machines I use for work. All of them are more than capable for their use case.

I am happy with my current setup(s). I will touch more on that below.

Current systems are 2X 11th gen Intel, 8th gen Intel, and 2xxx mobile AMD, so all fairly new. (My at office work enviro is a mix of 3rd and 4th gen Intel machines of the Optiplex flavors)


My next "to do" project is changing my ISP from Cable internet to Fiber. The ISP I am with just went bonkers on pricing. The company that just ran fiber through my neighborhood is running a "two year" deal on their connection. My home network isn't set up for the second, so I have been exploring options for hardwire/wireless options to maximize the speed increase this change will bring.

Aside from that, I am in a good place in regards to my current hardware and have no real issues aside from failure until W10 EOL.

 

[Tac 25]

pc 1

10600K

primarily for gaming.

also a video encoder with Handbrake and Xvid4psp

satisfied with the pc

1 year old, almost all parts purchased brand new.

__

pc 2

2600K

primarily for gaming,

also a photo editor with Gimp

satisfied with the pc

3 years here in the house, but real age older than that since I got it second hand.
____


pc 3

Q9500

primarily storage, it has a duplicate of many important files in the other two pc

also a photo editor with Gimp

light gaming enough to keep me entertained

satisfied with the pc

7 years here in the house, but real age older than that since I got it second hand.

 

[Lafong]

Q1; 90 percent of the time, I use it for entertainment...to pass the time and amuse myself. Web browsing, listening to music; staying more alert than I'd prefer to current events. All of my "TV" watching is done on my monitor through a USB TV tuner. No gaming; no "work" beyond tracking investments, which is the other 10 percent.

Q2; CPU percentage not closely tracked, but it has to be under 10 percent at least 90 percent of the time. Right now moving between 2 and 5 percent while reading this forum, according to HWInfo64.

Q3; Happy? Yes. I have not had a parts failure or significant software issue in over 5 years. Not even a mouse.

Q4; CPU, RAM and motherboard approaching 7 years and 35,000 hours. Drives 4 to 10 years old. No video card. I rarely upgrade unless something breaks or I run out of drive capacity. Current hardware is plenty fast enough, but I keep telling myself I should upgrade shortly purely due to the hour count...and just as easily say that's foolish because new parts could fail at any moment.

 

[KyaraM]

I currently own 3 PCs and have a company laptop. That one is, obviously, work only; specifically, telework and training. I honestly never cared about what's in there; it's fast enough for what I do, and that's all I care about. But I think it got an 8th gen i7. The CPU is used for Office (Word, Excel, Access), ESRI ArcGIS (both the old Arc Desktop and Pro), and database management and development (including SQL queries, Python programming). The CPU isn't stressed very often, only when I have to compile code. I think total load should be around 30-50%, maybe? I reserve really heavy workloads for days when I am at work and have access to my Xeon workstation.

My main rig has a 12700K in it. The CPU is mostly used for gaming, but I also use it for programming my own projects, own GIS projects, CAD design, Adobe software and other semi-professional, but hobby workloads. Also for watching videos and web browsing. Since gaming is the main activity, though, this CPU isn't normally getting very stressed, either. Depending on the game, I would estimate between 5-30% while gaming (1440p, 144Hz, RTX 3060Ti), with individual cores going up to close to 100% at times; for the other workloads like compiling, definitely higher. These are estimates, though. I don't know the exact values. No need to change anything, honestly, the system does what I want from it.

Next up is my old gaming rig. Since it couldn't keep up anymore, it was actually just upgraded the other day. Got a 12100, some new RAM and SSDs. Kept the old GPU and one drive. The jump was quite noticeable with HZD FPS increasing by an average of 5, which, with a 1070, is definitely noticeable. I don't currently want to switch anything out considering I just got it. Load is gaming, web browsing, maybe some coding now or then.load between 30-60% since it only got 4c/8t.

Last is my laptop. This is the lowest-end system I have with a Ryzen 5 3550H and a 1650. It does what I want, plays the games I care most about, which have low requirements; the big games are for the other two, especially the main rig. If I want to switch something out, it's the OS. The Windows installation has issues...

 

[Tac 25]

@jnjnilson6

sorry, forgot to answer Question number 2 which is cpu utilization.

here's my observations. Mostly using Handbrake as the testing program.

pc 1

10600K

encoding, Handbrake with Nvenc - takes about 8-10 min to encode an 11 GB file at 720P Super HQ quality

Spoiler

encoding, Xvid4Psp

Spoiler

multitask, encoding + gaming. Handbrake with Nvenc + Genshin Impact with all graphics settings on highest

Spoiler

multitask, two encoders. Handbrake with Nvenc + Xvid4Psp both encoding

Spoiler

gaming, Genshin Impact with all graphic settings set to the highest

Spoiler

gaming, Dead or Alive 6 with all graphics settings on highest

Spoiler

pc 2

2600K

Handbrake with Nvenc - 100% all 4 cores. It's slower by about 10 to 15 min than the 10600K on encoding a video file of similar size. But probably not a fair comparison, because the 10600K is assisted by a 3050, while the 2600K is helped only by a 1050ti.
Dead or Alive 6 - 60%-100% all cores.

pc 3

Q9500

Handbrake with Nvenc - 100% all 4 cores. Believe it or not, it can actually encode. Probably thanks to Nvidia's "nvenc" function in Handbrake, the 1650 helps the weak cpu encode at a decent speed.
Dead or Alive 6 - 100% all cores, and the game is almost unplayable. The reason why I don't have DOA 6 in my Q9500 youtube videos, is because this pc cannot handle this game.

 

[CountMike]

1. What do you use your CPU for? Gaming / Programming / Reading / Writing - the list goes on indefinitely. Write up!
2. What CPU percentage is usually being filled up while working on your computer?
3. Happy with your components? If not - which would be the components you would like to retain?
4. How old is your machine?

I would be glad if you could answer at least one of the aforementioned questions and feel happy to write about anything CPU and hardware related that interests you in general. Thank you!

CPU for everything and anything you can think about.

8core/16 threads some times used 1 or 2cores at about 1-2% and at other times all cores/threads 99%.
Happy but not happy enough to always look for possible upgrade.
How old. well, that depends on which parts we are talking about. I rarely build whole system at once but keep on upgrading when opportunity presents itself (read that as money) I0m almost sure I have at least some screws since my First"Real" PC, a 386 from 1980s

 

[drea.drechsler]

1. What do you use your CPU for? Gaming / Programming / Reading / Writing - the list goes on indefinitely. Write up!
2. What CPU percentage is usually being filled up while working on your computer?
3. Happy with your components? If not - which would be the components you would like to retain?
4. How old is your machine?

I would be glad if you could answer at least one of the aforementioned questions and feel happy to write about anything CPU and hardware related that interests you in general. Thank you!

Originally built it for video rendering/transcoding but now it's high-end utility is mostly gaming as I'm not engaged in that video editing/transcoding activity so much anymore. Otherwise, word processing, email, internet browsing, spreadsheets and powerpoint charts.

Utilization or Utility are among the most mis-leading of metrics when trying to deduce performance. All it means is the CPU is busy doing something and that something could be very simple, even unproductive. A poorly coded app that leaves the processor in constant pipeline stalls will result in very high utilization for even the most powerful of CPU's. It's like a car...whether driving on a racetrack at maximum speed, or sitting at a stop light it's fully utilized. I don't keep track of it much so don't really know.

I'm very happy as it's mostly far more powerful than I need. About the only thing that would need to be upgraded is the CPU...a 5800X. But to what? A 5800X3d were I interested in more FPS in games (I'm not). A 5900X or 5950X if faster video transcodes were needed (they aren't). So if I were to upgrade again everything except the CPU would be retained.

It was originally built around a 1700X and RX480 almost 6 years ago. But, obviously, it's been upgraded a lot since then: new motherboard to B550, CPU to 3700X then 5800X, video card (twice, to RX5700 then RX6800XT). The upgrades have come at various times so one date wouldn't work. The only components that have remained the same are memory (an excellent GSkill B-die 3200 kit that clocks to 3600 flawlessly) and PSU (Corsair RM650x). Only just recently it was upgraded to new, faster/more capacity NVME's (a Gen 4 500GB for system, 2TB Gen 4@3 for games/data). AMD's got to have loved the AM4 platform since it made it so easy to piecemeal upgrades over it's life.

The way I know it's way more powerful than needed is the parts I upgraded go into a machine for my son so I'm able to compare "seat of pants" performance. It's perfectly good, quite enjoyable, 1080p (some 1440p) gaming and respectable enough video transcode performance would make make me quite happy still. Further, I drug out the old computer (circa 2012) I originally started from, paired the CPU out of it (FX-6300) with a used high-end AM3+ motherboard my son had, bought 16GB of DDR3 and built a "gaming" machine with the old RX480. Although I have to overclock the 6300 to 4.6Ghz to do so it's probably as good at entry level gaming as many of the low-end pre-built machines/GPU's most people can afford today. As far as video transcodes though, well that's a different matter

 

[Unolocogringo]

My use case is probably different from most folks .These are still in use daily.

Oldest is wifes computer.
Phenom2x6@3.4, M5A97, 8 gig 1600cas10, 650TI boost 2gig. 500gig SSD.
She uses it for Email, surfing the web,picture editing, Selling on Etsy, solitaire etc.....

I5 6600,Prime z170p, 16gig 3200cas 15, GTX 1070, 256gig NVME. Seasonic 550w Folder 50-60% CPU,100%GPU

R5 3600,Prime x570 ,16gig 3600 C18.GTX 960 4gig, GTX 1060 6gig ,256gig NVME. Superflower Leadex3 850w, Folder 25-35% CPU, 100% GPUs.

Daily driver.
R5 5600x Prime X570 16gig 3600 C16, RTX 3060TI, 1tb 970+ NVME, 500gig 870 EVO Corsair RM850x 12-15% CPU when Folding 100% GPU, Folder, Gaming, Youtube, Music etc.....
Plays all games I have tried @ 1080p max/ultra/movie settings

Dell G5 I5 8750, 16 gig 3000 C18 , GTX 1050TI, 256 gig NVME, 1tb hard drive. Used for Gaming. solitaire, info etc while traveling in motor home.

And another 10-15 older pc's that still boot and run but are retired in basement. These get scavenged to repair friends/family's older computers.

My main metric is PPD/Watt for folding. And still have an enjoyable gaming experience. All desktops run 24/7/365.

 

[punkncat]

Oldest is wifes computer.
Phenom2x6@3.4, M5A97, 8 gig 1600cas10, 650TI boost 2gig. 500gig SSD.
She uses it for Email, surfing the web,picture editing, Selling on Etsy, solitaire etc.....

That is a pretty dated machine. Does she not use any of the other machines, like in a "doesn't know what she is missing" kind of way?

Even a bump up to that 6th gen i5 would be significant.

 

[Unolocogringo]

The Phenom2 X6 multi tasks much better than the I5 6600.
She always has PSP, a few web pages on Firefox open, Thunderbird open, Hearts or Solitaire running
The photo editing is mostly cropping and a few color corrections, nothing major. She makes and sells pottery on Etsy.
She still prefers Paint shop Pro 5 over newer versions. It is simple and does what she wants.
So her needs for speed doesn't exist. And it is quite responsive with an SSD.

My grand daughter plays her Robolox Stables/horse riding games on it max settings. Grandson claims my system for Rust and Escape from Tarkov when they are here.
That is the most power needing thing it does.

I will probably retire it with the microcenter deal. Prime 550 -p m and R5 3600 next week when I go to Atlanta to pick up clay for her again.
I just retired my Phenom2 x6@3.6 system last summer when I upgraded to the 5600x system. the R5 3600 system replaced it.
It folded all of its life. just like all of my systems starting in 2004.

The I5 6600 and R5 3600 live in a finished basement closet along with the other non used computers and parts.

 

[punkncat]

I would suggest checking the Duluth location. That deal has been gone from Marietta. I checked on all of the special priced combos earlier today and they were all sold out.

 

[Unolocogringo]

I go very close to the Duluth location on my way to Chamblee/Atlanta. 400/141/Peachtree Industrial inside 285 route.
I see that is out but they have plenty of the Prime B450m with a 5600x for $200.
Not one of their "cheap" deals but I go near there about once a month or so.
Marietta Store
https://www.microcenter.com/search/...4294807575+4294809069+4294812530&myStore=true

 

[Tac 25]

I know this is an old thread, but only managed to test it today.
adding this info to my previous post on cpu utilization.

tested if it's possible to use Handbrake with the 2600k, and multitask with another encoder or play a game.

the answer is sadly no. If Handbrake is encoding something, even with the help of Nvenc. Trying to play Genshin is not possible. Also trying to use another encoder like Xvid4psp is also not possible. All 4 cores of the 2600k are 100% stiff. The only pc here in the house that could use Handbrake.. and have another encoder active.. or game at the same time is my 10600K. With the weaker cpu's, 2600k, and the Q9500. Have to stop gaming for awhile, if I'm going to use Handbrake.