Very high CPU usage when gaming

Discussion in 'Operating Systems' started by H83, May 11, 2023.

  1. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    So, more than a week ago i decided to reinstall Windows to see if my system would perform better when gaming.

    But the opposite happened and now when i`m playing a demanding 3d game, my CPU usage becomes very high, more than 80%, sometimes hitting 100%!!!

    And when the CPU usage hits very high values, the opposite happens with my GPU, that only runs at 50/60% and in some extremes cases, the GPU usage tanks to below 10%!...

    Because of this, every game has lots of stutters and slowdowns, becoming almost unplayble.


    I`ve already reinstalled Windows several times but i can`t fix the problem and i simply don`t know what`s happening, this is the first time something like this has happened to me.


    Even worse, before the first reinstall, i could run every game without any issue like this, with the CPU rarely going above 60% usage and the GPU always hitting 99% usage.


    So i really need some help because i`m losing my patience with this issue and i don`t know what else to do...


    Thanks in advance for all the help.
     
  2. Undying

    Undying Ancient Guru

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    Put as much load on the gpu as you can. Play your games using vsr at 4k highest possible settings until you upgrade your cpu.

    When people see 7600k paired with 6950xt basically everyone will say there is only one solution to the problem...
     
  3. cucaulay malkin

    cucaulay malkin Ancient Guru

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    need a new system, 6/12 at least. maybe a 11400f on b560, if you wanna go cheap and still use that 6950xt a lot more. or better, a 5600 on b450/b550.
     
  4. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    I already play games at 3440x1440 and some games, like Doom reboot, i even play at 5120x2160 at max settings, that`s why i`ve bought a card like this.

    For example, before the reinstallation of Windows i could play Doom at 5120x2160 with max settings with a framerate well above 144hz, the game was buther smooth and a joy to play. Now the game runs at around 120fps and stutters like crazy and even has some slowdowns.

    And it`s the same story for every game, my system even struggles to run Counter Strike right now!...



    I know very well that i need a better CPU to unlock the full performance of my GPU but that`s not the problem, the problem is that before i could play every game without any issue with my 7600K and after the reinstallation i can barely play the games on my library, and most of them don`t need powerful hardware to run well.

    But if i try to play Crysis3, Cyberpunk, Doom, Metro Last Light, Prey or even Counter Strike, my CPU usage shoots to absurd values while my GPU can barely reach an 80% usage and after a few minutes, it disp to below the 50% mark.
    Before all this my 6950XT was always hitting 99% usage.

    So my question is: what cause this issue and how can i solve it?

    Even worse, imagine i buy a 7700X and this issues persists, what them?


    I simply don`t understand what`s going on and this is becoming so frustating, even more when i think that i`ve spend some serious buck on my GPU...


    My remaining options are now installing my 1080Ti or installing a Linux distro. Maybe one of this options will help me troubleshoot this issue...
     

  5. Undying

    Undying Ancient Guru

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    Problem will be gone if you get mentioned 7700x or even 7600x. You need cpu headroom and not being 100% usage all the time. You can take out the gpu and test in your friends other pc if you can and see for yourself.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2023
  6. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    @H83

    Problem with identifying the issue is we can`t be sure what went wrong by recent Windows reinstallation.

    Was it the same version of Windows as before?
    Was Internet connection live during installation (which can screw something during installation)?
    Storage drive`s health is OK?
    Any high CPU usage processes on background?
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2023
  7. vestibule

    vestibule Ancient Guru

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    Try formatting the windows drive with Linux or something to make sure it is well and truly empty.
    I have gone blank but there are programs out there that will return the drive to a factory reset.
     
  8. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    Maybe you`re right but that doesn`t answer why my system went from perfectly fine to a crap that has difficulty running any demanding game just because i`ve resinstalled Windows, something i`ve done several times before...

    And i don`t even want to think about buying a new CPU and then continue with the same problem...


    I`ve reinstalled Windows as usual with the internet connection on and just letting Windows do it`s stuff. This last time i even installed Windows without any controllers, but nothing changed.

    Maybe Windows installs a different version now that messes up with my system but i don`t keep track of what version i`m running.

    And everything else runs just fine as before, i only have problems when gaming.

    Maybe i should try to install Windows offline, to see if something different happens.



    I usually format the drive during the Windows installation but i have an idea that Windows never formats the drive completely.

    My Asus MB has an utility to format drives, maybe i could use it and try to reinstall Windows again but the issue seems to be other.


    And like i wrote before, i can also try to use my old 1080Ti to see if the issue continues to happen or i can install a Linux distro as last option...


    One thing is for sure, i`m not happy with this and i`m getting angry with this issue!...
     
  9. vestibule

    vestibule Ancient Guru

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    I see you have an Asus mobo.
    This could be mobo related.
    Asus are in the dog house over their bios??
    Thats all I know, cannot comment on Asus anymore than that.
     
  10. goat1

    goat1 Ancient Guru

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    How old is your SSD drive? Is it an SSD? I've had a couple fail. Could be a sign its going bad. Obviously if your games were running fine before and after you installed windows again something happened to make your games run terrible, its either windows or your hard drive..
     

  11. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    The board never gave me any problem so far and i haven`t changed anything.

    I`ve also thought about my CPU overclock becoming instable but it seems to work as normal. In gaming reaches 5.0Ghz easily when i`m playing, causing this situation...

    I`ve also considered that it could be my GPU or it`s drivers but it was working just fine before and trying different drivers didnt`help.

    The hardware is the same as before the reinstal, so i don`t think the hardware is causing this but i could be wrong.


    My drive is an WD black sn850 1Tb that also never gave me any problem so far but i could check if there`s any issue with it.


    From what i can tell, there seems to be some software conflict that is making my CPU going to overdrive when gaming but i simply can`t find out what it is...


    I`m going to continue to try to solve this issue, with some luck maybe i`ll solve this by chance...
     
  12. Chade

    Chade Member Guru

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    Any update on the issue?

    I'd suspect a driver issue personally, it's possible you had different, older drivers installed previously that played more nicely with your motherboard chipset? I'd try that, install motherboard chipset drivers, MS default drivers are fine but are tuned for compatibility and aren't tuned around specific quirks some motherboards can have. Download the chipset drivers from your motherboard manufacturers site and try them all, one at a time starting with the latest, then go back to an earlier version each time to see if things improve. Even things like NIC drivers can cause weird conflicts, try different versions of those too.
     
    Raserian likes this.
  13. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    Did you have spectre fixes and what not enabled or disabled prior reinstall? what about virtualization security stuff windows has
     
  14. johnny_walker

    johnny_walker Active Member

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    The "Core isolation / Memory integrity" feature can produce high CPU usage while playing games. Check if it is enabled on your system.
    upload_2023-5-26_22-1-25.png
     
  15. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    So i reinstalled Windows again but this time i did offline, so i could the drivers without any interference from Windows.

    And the situation improved by a great margin. It`s not perfect but it`s much better and now i can game again.



    I wish i knew that! I`ve never payed attention to that but i also considered that possibility and i wouldn`t be surprised that my "first" Windows reinstall also installed Spectre mitigations, making my CPU slower.

    As for virtualization security, i think i`ve never enabled that stuff.



    My Windows copy says that system doesn`t have all the hardware security features possible, including Core Isolation.


    Anyway, i`ve been testing to see if i could find the reason for this and i tried to play at the max resolution possible (5120x2160), in order to shift the load from the CPU to the GPU and that made the GPU run at full speed while lowering the CPU usage.

    This seems to indicate that the problem is really my CPU (7600K), like others had already told me before.


    So now i`m going to build a new system and hopefully everything will work as it`s supposed.


    Thanks for all the help!
     

  16. Raserian

    Raserian Master Guru

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    This,
    If it worked before and you just reinstalled windows, it's not hardware related, you just forgot to install driver of some kind. Make sure you get updated drivers for motherboard components as well as GPU. It can also be caused by device not game-related, as he mentions, broken NIC card, USB and so on can cause havoc too if they are problematic and load the CPU with unnecessary work. Just update drivers for everything and see how it goes.
     
  17. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    Personal I have Spectre/meltdown stuff enabled I even i have bios update specific to it, I know for for fact it does reduce cpu performance but I general dont notice so i never cared, I dont play game that heavy on cpu. mostly cause i dont have them.

    I generaly just install what current gpu driver i was using, and modified Realtek drivers i have for DTS/DD and RTS storage which at this point are from 2016 and lan drivers that came with mobo rest is all installed by windows, but works for me might not work for other setups
     
  18. cucaulay malkin

    cucaulay malkin Ancient Guru

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    wait, what happens when you use 1080Ti and drop quality to low/med to have the same fps as 6950xt at max settings ? cpu usage any lower on nvidia ?
     
  19. H83

    H83 Ancient Guru

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    With my 1080ti, CPU usage was almost half.


    But i`ve already ordered an AM5 system, hopefully that will solve this issue.
     
    cucaulay malkin likes this.
  20. cucaulay malkin

    cucaulay malkin Ancient Guru

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    you mean at same fps ?
     

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