Intel Extreme Tuning Utility - Active Core Count 1?|

[VincentHanna]

Thought I would tinker about with CPU settings and I set this program in to 'monitor' mode.

Using the built in stress test it shows Active Core Count: 4.

However, I've been monitoring it using various games that I know are multi-threaded (Crysis 2, GTA IV, Mafia II) and it always states Active Core Count: 1

Any idea what's going on? Is it just mis-reporting?

 

[scaramonga]

No one knows lol? Same with me

 

[PCZ]

An active core count of 1 is reported and is correct.
You have observed the change in active core count to 4 when heavy load is put on the CPU.

The active core count is used by the CPU and BIOS to decide clock speeds and vcore etc.
With an active core count of 1 the higher turbo multi will be active.

It doesn't mean only 1 thread is busy.
It means the total load is low and the CPU can use higher turbo multi's.

A game may well use multiple threads but in most cases the total computing demands are low and the CPU reports a low active core count.
The metric used to decide active core count uses load and time sustained at load.
CPU use in games is generally peaky, not sustained long enough for the core count to increment.

Try BF4 and observe the active core count, that is quite CPU heavy.