High CPU usage on i5-3570K

Hey everyone, I’m still scratching my head over something here. I honestly can't wrap my head around why my CPU—which, let's be real, wasn't exactly budget-friendly when I picked it up—is showing such massive usage levels just for basic, everyday tasks. It feels like I'm throwing money down the drain if this thing is struggling with nothing.
😠

What kind of usage are you talking about? Like CPU load while you're actually using the computer?
How high is it, percentage-wise? Which specific processes are eating up most of your CPU cycles?

If all your processes are hitting 100% usage, it might be worth running a scan for viruses or Trojans—just to be safe.

patrik hey, could you give us a bit more detail here? it feels like we’re playing a guessing game trying to pull the info out of you.

Hey Bar, you should really drop a screenshot of your task manager in here!

Check which process is eating up most of your CPU. If you aren't sure, just throw a screenshot of Task Manager in here.
Maybe run an antivirus scan and let me know what comes up...

It’s honestly a bit tricky to pin down exact numbers, but I’ve noticed some patterns. For instance, when I’m deep into a session of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare while having some music playing in the background on YouTube, my usage tends to spike up to about 75%. On the other hand, if I’m just chilling and playing Minecraft, it usually settles down to around 50%.

Patrick Miller8 said:I mean, you can really see how it spikes when I'm playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and blasting music on YouTube, where my usage hits like 75%, or even when I'm just chilling in Minecraft and it sits at around 50%...

There's no way YouTube alone is pulling 75% of your bandwidth

and why are you even surprised about those numbers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Minecraft? 🤷

So, what’s a normal CPU load before you even start doing anything? Like, right after the system boots up

just open Task Manager and see which processes are eating up the highest percentage of your CPU—assuming you aren't running any games

Why are you even surprised? That's just standard behavior for Battlefield 3 and Minecraft... honestly, it's probably too small 😂 🤣
I mean, check only YouTube... I don't know, just look at how much RAM Firefox, Chrome, or whatever else you've got running is eating up... if it isn't that, then maybe Flash Player is hogging it... who knows 🤷

Everything is finally back to normal now. Turns out the whole mess was caused by a massive infection on my system; I ran a scan with AVG and found 15 different viruses lurking in there! That was almost certainly the root of all the trouble we were seeing.

Jack James65 said:Why on earth are you surprised? That kind of resource hogging is standard operating procedure for Battlefield 3 or Minecraft... honestly, even that's a bit low 😂 🤣
If you look at only YouTube... I mean, just check how much RAM your Firefox or Chrome—whatever browser you're running—is eating up... if it isn't that, then it's probably Flash Player pulling the weight... who knows 🤷

Are you seriously trying to tell me that having Minecraft—you know, that game made out of little blocks—eat up 50% of my system resources is somehow "normal"?!

Maybe run another scan with Malwarebytes? Just do a full system scan and see what happens.

Patrick Miller8 said:Wait, are you seriously trying to tell me that a 50% usage rate for Minecraft—you know, that game made entirely out of blocks—is actually considered normal?!

Man, what does it even matter if the graphics are just blocks? You’re totally mixing up the GPU and the CPU here... honestly, Minecraft eats up way more processing power than it does graphics card juice...