throttle CPU usage never reaches 100%

[migatron]

Greetings to everyone!

 

I recently upgraded an old computer's cpu to a q9650 (lga 775) to breathe some more life out of the system for my little sibling to use. The issue I think I'm having is the fact that no matter what I do, in Task Manager during games, benchmark apps (I used prime95), or probably anything I could try for that matter - my cpu never shows in the graphs to be using 100% utilization. It only pegs at 90% max - was never able to make it go past even at stock, right out-of-the-box, default clocks/settings with the CPU. I'm hoping it's not an unlucky, bad CPU.

 

Things I've tried (which have not solved it):

- disable all power savings related options in the bios

- tried adjusting fsb for slight overclock

- reset to default bios settings

- ThrottleStop program (BD PROCHOT fix?? no idea how that works)

 

I've read in places online that if utilization never reaches 100%, i have a power issue and so I thought maybe my 450 Watt psu is the problem but I'm not so sure because I've been using it for 3 years without a problem with the old cpu (e5800), but who knows. Would appreciate any help! Many thanks in advance.

 

Parts in the system:

Motherboard: Intel DP43BF Desktop board

CPU: Q9650
GPU: Palit StormX Dual 750 Ti

One (1) HDD (a 1TB Firecuda)

2 Case Fans

CPU Heatsink: CoolerMaster T20

Optical Drive

PSU: 80+ FSP Hexa+ 450

 

I attached a screenshot of task manager showing 89-90% usage while running prime95. Really wondering what else I can do about this

[minibois]

You are out of memory, 98% memory usage means there is nothing left

[Sakkura]

It can actually be tricky to reach 100% utilization on modern CPUs, especially in "real" workloads like games. This does look like a pretty hard wall though, suggesting some limiting factor. The power supply isn't it; the symptoms of an overloaded power supply would be much less benign and more unpredictable. A power limit of some sort would be more likely, but I don't think Core 2 had anything like this.

 

Your memory does also seem to be completely full, so maybe that's bottlenecking. Seems a bit weird it'd peg the CPU so tightly around 90% though.

[Lenovo1984]

What do other programs say about CPU usage? I had a machine a few years ago running a Core 2 Duo E8400 that was being used for a specific project. It was running Windows Server 2012 R2 and I had the CPU pinned at full usage 24/7, but Task Manager never showed anything above ~93%. It never went above that. It didn't matter how hard I was pushing the machine (I even browsed the web on it while it was running at full load sometimes), it wouldn't go past that figure. 

[Beowulff83]

Think i also read somewhere that you may need to increase voltage to cpu as it does not have the voltage to sustain all of the threads.  Not sure about your board but keep in mind a lot of them were released well before the Q9xxx came out and were never meant to run them and only did after you updated to the last bios upgrade available.  Also is this really an issue?  What percent is your gpu running at during gaming.  As long as your maxing out your gpu there should be no problem.

[migatron]

many thanks to all for the insights! cleared a lot of the uncertainty. you guys think it's just a fluke of the board/cpu match huh?

 

Lenovo - any program wont seem to push it past 90% too, yes - i wonder if its a similar problem?

 

Beowulff - yeah it's actually not that much of an issue i realize. I haven't checked gpu utilization yet but fairly dated games run pretty decently on the thing (tried Borderlands 2) with the 750 Ti, altho i think it is bottlenecked as i get a good additional ~8fps with a tweak up of the host frequency thing in bios. still a consistent 40+ fps anyway so if theres nothing that can be done about it, then I'm happy keeping it like this.  cos it looks like my old board cant do anything to tweak cpu voltages in the bios?

 

the monitor being used is just at 768p 60Hz too anyway, so i guess this isn't too bad; and ok yeah, I'll probably try to fill another 4gb stick of ram in it to help out crazy use of chrome tabs.

 

Many, many thanks for the sanity check and the ideas!

Cheers

[migatron]

PS. Core voltage reads out on CPU-Z says 2.004 V. normal? isn't that... a lot? at least from what i always see from other people talking/posting online, but thats not looking to be a problem too anyway, is it? Thanks again!

[ROX SAVEEN]

Reset your bios settings.

[ROX SAVEEN]

On 12/26/2019 at 9:18 PM, Lenovo1984 said:

What do other programs say about CPU usage? I had a machine a few years ago running a Core 2 Duo E8400 that was being used for a specific project. It was running Windows Server 2012 R2 and I had the CPU pinned at full usage 24/7, but Task Manager never showed anything above ~93%. It never went above that. It didn't matter how hard I was pushing the machine (I even browsed the web on it while it was running at full load sometimes), it wouldn't go past that figure. 

Operating System?