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Is my CPU Givinig out its max?

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When I run installations of programs like visual basic and atlas I find my processor,s activity at 5-10% does that mean that its not giving out its max performance?
(Note: Its an AMD Phenom Quad core 9550 and its bottlenecking my 800 MHz RAM at 400 MHz I think that has something to do with it)

Message edited by omarko on 03-02-2009 at 07:53:53 PM

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The bottleneck is the hard disk or the DVD-RW (unless you're installing from the network). Your CPU and DDR2 800 MHz memory (2 x 400 = 800, not 400) are not the bottleneck.

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Reply to GhislainG

GhislainG wrote :

The bottleneck is the hard disk or the DVD-RW (unless you're installing from the network). Your CPU and DDR2 800 MHz memory (2 x 400 = 800, not 400) are not the bottleneck.

I wasnt running the installations through a DVD it was an image mounted on the PC
here are all my specs please tell me whats the bottleneck:
Motherboard: MSI K9A2GM-FIH
Processor: AMD Phenom Quad core 9550 2.2 GHz
RAM: Kingstone Box DDR2 800 MHZ 2GB
H.D: Western Digital 320GB(Cache:8129)
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon Powercolor HD 4670 1GB DDR3

Reply to omarko

It's your hard drive creating the bottleneck copying files during the install process. Also very few programs exist that will push a quad core to 100% cpu usage, most software just isn't programed to support quad core processors.

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Reply to loneninja

loneninja wrote :

hmm so is this normal?.if it isn't how can I resolve that?

Reply to omarko

Your CPU utilization is pretty normal for all but gaming and things like video rendering. Most times, the CPU just loafs along waiting for you to do something.

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Reply to jsc

jsc wrote :

Your CPU utilization is pretty normal for all but gaming and things like video rendering. Most times, the CPU just loafs along waiting for you to do something.

And do you have an idea on how can I deal with dis issue and make it perform the right way??

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Reply to omarko

It currently performs as expected and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

To improve CPU utilization at installation time, you could:

1. If your motherboard allows it, disable all cores but one (you might not like this solution, but using a single core will make it work harder than splitting the work across 4 cores);
2. Lower the speed of the CPU as much as you can (you probably don't like this solution either);
3. Buy the fastest Intel SSD disk that you can find (buy several and run then in RAID0 if need be, but a new motherboard with RAID support is required);
4. Buy several 15K SAS disks and a high performance SAS controller and run them in RAID0 (a new motherboard with an extra PCIe x16 or x8 slot is required for the controller).

Achieving 100% CPU utilization during software installation is just not possible, but a few thousand dollars can certainly alleviate your perceived problem.

Reply to GhislainG

Definitely do not disable all but one core. That is a bad idea, and will noticeably decrease performance. Also, don't lower the CPU speed.

The hard drives are not likely to be the bottleneck at installation if you are installing off a CD. CD drives (and DVD and blu-ray) are significantly slower than hard drives, and nothing you can do will speed them up. If you are installing things that you downloaded, the hard drive is the bottleneck, and you can speed it up by getting faster hard drives (I noticed a huge difference in install times of downloaded things when I got my current computer, with a pair of Velociraptors in RAID 0).

Realistically, don't worry about it though. Installs aren't tremendously demanding anyways, and aren't the reason to get a fast CPU. The CPU helps when doing things like gaming, compiling code, or running simulations, among other things, and unless you are doing something that is CPU intensive, don't expect your CPU to be working all the time.

Message edited by cjl on 03-03-2009 at 09:38:26 PM

------------------------------ Asus P6T deluxe
i7 965 @ 4.2GHz (200*21), 1.384V
12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 CAS 7
Reply to cjl

Ok I will just live with it.Thank you everyone for your time

Message edited by omarko on 03-03-2009 at 09:55:30 PM

Reply to omarko

omarko wrote :

And do you have an idea on how can I deal with dis issue and make it perform the right way??

Replace the CPU with a sempron. That should fix it. You should then be using more than 50% of the cpu on a regular basis. That's why I use a Sempron. :pt1cable:

Seriously though, here's the prime reason why it pays to be an educated consumer. You wasted your money and your electricity by buying a quadcore CPU if you'll never use applications that actually take advantage of it. Sometimes, less it more.

Reply to joefriday

Software needs to catch up to hardware advances.

Designing programs to take full advantage of multi-core CPUs is easier said than done. Wait a few more years for programmers to catch up.

Install a distributed computing program like Folding @ home or distributed.net. You can happily be at 100% CPU utilization 24/7

Reply to donpacific2k

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