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Why am I getting a high CPU load > 70%, even when I tell Windows that it shouldn't be more than 20%?

I frequently get a CPU load of 70% plus. I tried adjusting the power plan

Laptop cpu (as shown by CPUZ), Intel Core i5 3210M

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I am not asking why is CPU load so high.. I am asking why the load isn't being restricted when I have instructed windows 7 to restrict the load.

added

useful powershell script for loading cpu, so as to reproduce this https://www.robvit.com/windows_server/generate-cpu-load-with-powershell/

barlop
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2 Answers2

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These are two different numbers that you are comparing.

The Task Manager is showing under CPU Usage the number of CPU cores that are being used. The 100% means that all of your four cores are being used, none is idle.

The setting of "Maximum processor state" is found under "Processor power management", so relates to how much power the CPU draws. Since you have set it to 20%, the CPU is probably working very slowly, in order not to draw too much power.

For more information, see the post
What Is Minimum And Maximum Processor State In Windows 7 Power Management?

harrymc
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I did a test on two laptops one with Win7 and an i5 xxxxM processor, and one with 10 and an xxxxU processor. (U is lower power than M. Nowadays there is also a Y series that is lower power than U).

This pic shows a really good result from the Windows 10 i7 xxxxU machine.

enter image description here

In the sense that it shows a direct relationship between on the one hand, the figure for max processor, and on the other, both CPU load and CPU frequency.

Best result for lowest CPU load and lowest frequency, is no more than 30% written in for max processor percentage, in power options. Less than 30% doesn't seem to affect CPU load percentage to any greater extent. It looks like 30% is as low as it lets you go.

The result on the Windows 7 i5 xxxxM machine was a bit different, not quite as good.

On the windows 7 machine with the i5 xxxxM processor, it wasn't reducing the load, but was reducing frequency. Frequency could go down to 30%. But load remained at 100%.

more info here https://pastebin.com/raw/at9j45Fr but I will improve this answer when i've done more tests.

barlop
  • 25,198