Problems with CPU performance

[neewhom]

Approximately 1 year down the line from buying my computer and so far nothing has burned out which is quite suprising considering how much i use it !

However, i am noticing that my CPU seems to be having problems. I have an i7 970 overclocked @ 4.00ghz by PCspecialist.

Usually if i monitor my CPU usage, it hovers around 1-2% idle. and a maximum of about 10% when gaming (on some fairly demanding games)
Now however, the usage hovers at around 10-12% idle(with some of the 12 threads periodically spiking at 50-60%), 20% with all my typical background programs running, messenger, skype, firefox, etc you get the point and about 30-40% while gaming

This is a massive increase in usage which in itself is strange, but while gaming it sometimes spikes to 100% and temporarily freezes which ever application i am currently using.

I was wondering if anyone would know what could be the cause of this. it is quite sudden and hasnt slowly happened over time.

Any help appreciated, cheers.

 

[Pete]

i would check task manager for any processes that have crept in, often applications will install programs that run on startup to check for new versions or quick launch etc... and after a year these can add up.
To stop from running on startup: in Start button > search > msconfig (type in) and then in the Startup tab untick any of these unwanted ones.

I wouldn't worry about the processor hitting 100%, if it has a job to do then it will go all out until it's done, unlike me computers don't take it easy.

try to close any resource hungry applications whilst gaming, like you say internet browsers with multiple tabs open can use quite a bit.

hope that helps ?

Edit > If you still have performance issues then most techy / gaming type users might wipe their pc and do a fresh install.

also programs like CCleaner might unclutter any build up of unwanted and temporary files

 

[Gibbs]

I agree. CCleaner it, if that fails, rebuild. It doesn't sound like a hardware problem at this stage.

 

[neewhom]

Thanks for the replies.

I use CCleaner on a weekly basis, frequently make sure only nessecary startup programs are activated me (slow reboots are one of my pet hates) and theres definetly nothing unessecarily cpu hungry taking up any of the processing power so unfortunately none of these solve the problem.

I think if anything a complete clean could solve the problem but is hardly worth it considering the sheer amount of stuff i would immediately re-install. it basically wouldnt make a difference, i don't keep stuff on my computer unless i want it there, and the majority of the space is taken up by video/music/picture files which dont have proccessing requirements idle.

I think the main thing to point out here is that at the start of the year my computer would rarely stretch above 2% cpu usage while doing typical day to day task on the desktop with plenty of applications running, and now theres almost 10% increase, which is a little worrying that theres that much CPU usage idle when i have an overclocked i7 970 with 12 proccesing threads and 6 cores.

any more advice/info is appreciated but thanks very much for the replies guys =)