I keep seeing some users complaining that their CPU usage is high. They believe they have a defective CPU or a defective operating system causing the CPU usage to be high. The users find it very hard to deal with the CPU usage they get when they try to play their games. We all know how a bloated OS/software can slow down a computer’s speed, but how does this stack up against a compromised and non-compliant CPU? The question Why is my CPU usage so high? is quite common.
The short answer to this question is that the processor is the most critical component of the PC/electronic system. Without the right CPU, everything else will fall apart.
CPU Specifications
Before we look at how to upgrade your CPU, we need to know what CPUs are available in the market today. Generally, Intel is the market leader for both desktop and server/workstation CPUs. Every CPU Intel offers is aimed at doing one thing really well: brute force processing.
Stable clocks of 1.5GHz-2.0GHz, but beyond that, they don’t tend to do much more than that. Of course, any benchmark will show that this is not a hard or slow CPU.
By comparison, AMD focuses more on power and efficiency than on raw performance. You’ll see higher clocks and lower temperatures and you’ll get slightly better TDPs. These are all good things to keep in mind if you want a little more power, but not as much heat production as a CPU from Intel.
Why is my CPU usage so high?
The average frequency for a CPU today is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.7GHz. The only reason you don’t see faster processors in the marketplace today is that people will buy faster CPUs just to hit a “high” frequency and thus this CPU becomes available to the market in volume. However, the core/clock speed is probably not the only thing that is keeping your CPUs in the 900MHz range.
The actual processing power of a CPU is very closely tied to the number of instructions it can perform per clock cycle. Higher the core clock, the more instructions it can perform per cycle. An 8-core CPU does 8x the work of a 6-core CPU for the same TDP. Even if Intel’s higher core count CPUs are slower than AMD’s six core CPUs, you’ll end up with the same total performance simply by increasing the core count.
If you look at your motherboard’s standard documentation and your computer’s manual, you’ll see that Intel sets the threshold for speed based on its own Pentium III with 3.6GHz TDP. This means that as your CPU ages, it will tend to be more stable than newer CPUs. For example, the ASUS 990FX series of motherboards are rated to support 5GHz Core 2 processors. The Intel X58 series is only rated to support 3.2GHz Core 2 processors. There is no reason to think the ASUS 990FX boards will run into problems as long as you stick with them for the time being. You will see the same speed increase at the same voltage for all these chips. I try to explain to you Why is my CPU usage so high?
In recent years, the newest CPUs are supposed to have support for 6 cores. They will support higher clock rates and higher TDPs, but only if you buy the latest motherboards and if you keep your CPU cool. The problem with overclocking is that it is a very tricky process that requires years of experience and is very dependent on the CPU and your PC hardware. The newer CPUs are going to throttle down when they hit a certain clock rate, so you may need to keep your processor’s temperature under control to get the best out of them.
Most people don’t really have the best need for more cores or higher clock rates, because today’s processors are more than powerful enough for most users.
CPU Upgrade Options
PCs come in many different flavors and they don’t all support the same CPU upgrades.
First, let’s look at those motherboards that support six-core processors. There are really only three of these that exist at the moment: the ASUS 990FX Pro, the Asrock X58 Extreme, and the Lenovo X58 Pro. This is a very small number of motherboards.
You can easily see from the specifications of these motherboards that they are only rated to support up to five cores in their Intel X58 series. If you want to buy the latest six-core CPU, you’ll need a board from the ASUS 990FX Pro series or from a board from an Asrock X58 Extreme board. For the most part, motherboards do not support upgrades below four cores for CPU cores in the LGA775 series of chips. However, boards from the X58 Extreme series do have the ability to support up to four cores in the LGA2011 socket. This will require a more powerful CPU cooler than a normal cooler on a motherboard of this type.
Hope You know the answer Now: Why is my CPU usage so high?
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