Intel i7 9700f CPU 100% usage most of the time

[Brent744]

For the record, I've been working in IT for several years and have built well over 30 desktops and servers at both the consumer and corporate level. I recently put together an Intel i5 9600K build (see signature). As the i7 9700f went on sale I decided to purchase one for the extra cores and hopefully extra performance. Upon installation I had wiped my SSD and reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows 10 (with the most recent updates). First I noticed the PC was extremely slow to boot, especially since the OS is installed onto an SSD. Running chrome with only 1 tab was extremely slow and while scrolling, I'd experience screen tearing.

 

After starting HWmonitor and running Task Manager it turns out the CPU is running at 100% most of the time. Chrome takes up 56% cpu usage with 1 tab open. Windows Defender takes up 23% while idling, when it initiates a scan, it jumps to 80% and the machine locks up shortly after. With absolutely nothing else running besides background processes, I ran a CPUZ bench, and this is my result.

 

I ended up placing the i5 9600k back in, and the machine runs normal again. Any ideas what would cause a CPU to operate like this? First time I've ever seen this type of thing. Everything was at stock settings.

[Cloaked]

That’s extremely weird. The base clock of the 9700F is 3GHz, which is starting to lag behind even some budget CPUs these days, but I wouldn’t blame it on that. You could have just recieved a faulty CPU, because I can’t think of any other common reason for that to be happening.

[Brent744]

Forgot to mention, The cpu temps never exceed 51C. So I know the chip isn't thermal throttling.

[Brent744]

5 minutes ago, Cloaked said:

That’s extremely weird. The base clock of the 9700F is 3GHz, which is starting to lag behind even some budget CPUs these days, but I wouldn’t blame it on that. You could have just recieved a faulty CPU, because I can’t think of any other common reason for that to be happening.

Definitely strange. The base clock speed is lower however, it has a 4.7 turbo boost and 4.4 all core boost. Even if it was 3.0 it should perform better. I have an HP Z400 server with a Xeon E5640 (base clock of 2.66ghz) which can still run most modern titles at a smooth frame rate.

My thoughts was a faulty chip as well. It's just so strange, intel has always produced such great cpu's.

[Cloaked]

Well, there’s always a bad apple in the tree, as they say (I don’t know if they say that, I just made it up)

1 hour ago, Brent744 said:

Definitely strange. The base clock speed is lower however, it has a 4.7 turbo boost and 4.4 all core boost. Even if it was 3.0 it should perform better. I have an HP Z400 server with a Xeon E5640 (base clock of 2.66ghz) which can still run most modern titles at a smooth frame rate.

My thoughts was a faulty chip as well. It's just so strange, intel has always produced such great cpu's.

 

[Brent744]

For anyone else who experiences this same issue. I have resolved the issue. After I reinstalled Windows 10 again, the second time around everything seems to function as it should. CPU now performs great and rarely reaches 100% usage. Maybe the first time around there was a corrupted system file? Maybe a corrupted boot drive? not exactly sure. I made a new Windows usb boot drive with the software on the Microsoft site, to ensure I had the latest version. Reinstalled, and everything's good to go.