CPU low load even when doing something - I want it faster!

[z0diac]

I just went from XP on an Athlon X2 5000+ to Win7 (64bit) on a Core i7 930.

I've noticed that when doing CPU intensive things, such as batch-converting resolutions on 700+ hires images, or encoding h.264 HD video, that both Task Manager and "Core Temp" (3rd party program) are showing very low CPU loads.

When encoding video (using AVS Video Encoder - which their support says DOES support multicores), I only usually see 1 core running faster than idle, and it's usually only between 10-20% load. While the others are down less than 10%.

My old Athlon encoded a video in 4mins, the same video (same settings) took 3:10 on my Core i7 930.

When batch transforming hundreds of images, (using IrfanView) I see all 4 cores go up, but less than 30%, usually around 20% each.

I've tried editing the power mode where you can set your minimum CPU utilization (it's 5% by default), but even at 80 and 100% on that setting, my CPU core loads never go up very high.

My question is, why are my cores not running at 100% load when doing CPU intensive tasks such as resizing images or encoding video ?

 

[z0diac]

PS I know about SpeedStep - but when under load (ie: doing a task) the CPU should jump up to maximum performance, right?

 

[z0diac]

Ok I've disabled SpeedStep in BIOS, re-encoded that same test video, and same thing - same speed.

Screenshot here taken WHILE encoding was occurring:
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[Herr_Koos]

Simple answer: If your CPU isn't running at 100%, the bottleneck is somewhere else. Quite likely the software simply cannot go any faster. Also, just because someone claims to have multi-core support, doesn't mean it works very well in practice.

 

[Blckhaze]

AVS video converter runs my cores at 100%, so I know for sure that program makes use of 8 threads.

I have speedstep on and turbo on, AVS used 4.2gb of 12gb 1600mhz ram installed.

Velociraptor HD

Not sure if this helps any but thought I'd throw it out there for ya

Just out of curiousity, have you looked at HWmonitor and CPU-Z? Check and see how many volts are going through. I'm not for sure what would happen if say the PSU was bad and the CPU wasn't getting enough volts.. I'd guess system crashes, or if not that, then not enough juice to amp up all of the cores of the CPU? Just a guess

 

[Vampyrbyte]

Yep, I would say something else in your system is holding up your video conversions. Possibly a lack of RAM, or a slow or poor performing hard drive.
Perhaps if you could post a full system spec, we could help identify the issue better.

 

[z0diac]

Wow thanks for the replies guys/gals! 'First time on this forum and am very impressed!

re:
"Yep, I would say something else in your system is holding up your video conversions. Possibly a lack of RAM, or a slow or poor performing hard drive.
Perhaps if you could post a full system spec, we could help identify the issue better."

Core i7 930
6GB 1800Mhz DDR3 RAM
Corsair Solid State Drive (+ 6GB/sec SATA 1TB)
ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard
700W Thermaltake power supply
Radeon 5770 gfx

I just converted a 1920x1080 file last night and saw all 4 cores shoot straight to 100%. But any of my lower res files (720x400, 640x480) all use only like 20% of one core. Same output settings (h.264), just different resolution and bitrate (5000kbps video bitrate for 1080HD, and about 1000kbps for 720x400/640x480).

It's GOT to be the software. I installed "Performance Test" by Passmark Software, and all 4 cores were at 100% when doing a CPU benchmark.

So it's got to be the software. Frustrating!