CPU not being utilized fully

[shakirmole]

Hello everyone,

I have been having this issue for a very long time now. I installed a new CPU (E7400 2.8Ghz C2D) to my existing Mercury PVM900M motherboard but it did not seem to have a great effect in games.
I run emulators and also play some games like the latest AC3 which is really slow although I have a GTS 450 card. It bcz both these require more of the CPU than the GPU and hence slowdown.

Now when i switched to Windows 8, i noticed that the performance tab in Task Manager shows that the utilization is 1.56Ghz and not changing. Although its capable speed is 2.79Ghz, it never increases to that level.

Therefore, is there a way to 'optimize' the CPU more? The BIOS does not have an update on the Mercury website so I can't do that.

Thanks

 

[richi3d10]

What does task manager say your CPU usage is?

 

[navalweaponsofficer]

run prime 95 and cpuz at the same time you should see the CPU clock speed go up when you start prime 95. if the clock speed does not go up check the BIOS settings. your multiplier should be set to 10.5 and your FSB should be set to 533.

 

[shakirmole]

it says its 54% max never more.
am going to try the things together and the settings u have told me.

EDIT: Okay miracle, reaches 57% and 1.59Ghz. I am trying the BIOS settings next.
CPU-z showing me multiplier as 6 and bus speed as 266 hence the 1596 MHz result. Am I correct?

EDIT 2: Multiplier in the BIOS shows 10x but on CPUz it shows 6x. Incompatibility? No speedstep? Plus the option to set the dram timing is on 533MHz now.

 

[americanbrian]

yeah, your multiplier seems stuck low. Check the BIOS hasn't been set to 6x. Also turn off "cool n quiet" if it is there.

 

[shakirmole]

nope cant change the multiplier in the BIOS and its showing 10 on it. Is it possible my motherboard doesnt support the CPU?

 

[bignastyid]

Skakirmole is right, your board doesn't support the e7400, it only supported the Conroe based core 2 duo not the wolfdales.
The cpu support list can be found here
http://www.mercury-pc.com/p-mainboards-list.php

 

[djscribbles]

Wait, task manager doesn't tell you your clock speed. CPU utilization is shown as a %, if your utilization is 54%, that likely indicates that your dual core CPU is fully using one core (50%) and barely using the other (4%), it does not mean that your clock speed is 54% of the CPUs 2.79Ghz. Your utilization never gets higher than 54% because your game uses a single CPU core (50% of the processor), and windows and background tasks are using 4% or so for other stuff.

 

[Nedal0]

Motherboard Limitation

Always make it a point to check Software and Hardware compatibility before Updates and/or Upgrades

 

[shakirmole]

Thanks a lot guys for some definitive answers

 

[shakirmole]

Best answer selected by shakirmole.