What Percentage CPU Utilisation should I have in the middle of games?

sniper007 · 23 Feb 2006 at 17:56

I have only the other day actually fired up a second screen to monitor temps and stuff whilst actually in the middle of a game. I noticed that during Counter Strike - Condition Zero (so not even as hardcore as CS:S) im getting 100% CPU Usage all the time. i.e. It never drops. If I exit game it drops back down again.
Now with a more intense game such as Quake 4, I notice that the CPU Usage is sometimes 100% but often drops down to 60% and 80% in burts - so varies much more. Why is Condition Zero using 100% CPU ? This is even when playing a local game running bots so I dont think this is Steam related.

My rig is no slouch with a Single Core Opteron running @ 2.9ghz and 2x1gig Ram on a DFI Ultra-D all watercooled.

What about other modern day heavy games like Fear etc, should they warrant 100% CPU Utilisation permanently when in a game?

Cheers

Andelusion · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:08

It's normal to have 100% usage.

Memphis · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:12

Your CPU usage will be the percentage of exactly what the game is using. 100% is perfectly fine.

Vtec9k · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:25

perfectly normal for 100% cpu. Most games have a main loop something like this... If your using Vsync to cap the fps then it might go lower than 100% ofc

while(message != Quit)
{
if(any windows messages)
{
do windows stuff
}
else
{
do game stuff
}

HangTime · 23 Feb 2006 at 18:34

Depends on how the game is coded. Some games hog 100% cpu all the time, in totally unnecessary situations. Some of the later versions of Championship Manager were terrible for this, you could be sat just staring at the main menu screen, with no background processing going on, and it would be maxing out any cpu no matter how fast (causing huge heat production).

Quake4 is an example of a game where cpu usage is actually a good indication of how hard your cpu is being worked, because in less intense situations it will drop down.