CPU usuage

[Briarknit]

I am currently using an intel e8400 running at ~3.2ghz and I have a question about my cpu usage with it. Whenver I have wow in the background (when I am looking at a website or something) my cpu usage drops to about 30%, but when I make wow my primary window my cpu usage jumps to 65-90%. Is WoW really that much of a CPU based game to where it can make my e8400 use up that much of its resources?

Oh and for the record, I can multibox with this processor just fine (5 box), I am just curious as to why 1 instance of wow can use so much processing power.

[Lindline]

Thats actually what I use to run on. I don't believe i ever got that high on CPU usage from just one instance of WoW. I think with 5 I capped at about 50%. Its been a long time though. I can remember off hand.

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by Lindline

Thats actually what I use to run on. I don't believe i ever got that high on CPU usage from just one instance of WoW. I think with 5 I capped at about 50%. Its been a long time though. I can remember off hand.

Really? wth. Ill post a screenshot in a second, this is very strange.

Edit: Here is a screenshot: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ommand/CPU.jpg

The second instance of wow is the PTR updater, but I don't think that could use the other 60% of my resources that im asking about :P. If so, ill do another test without it after it finishes.

[Briarknit]

Posted a screen

[Tim]

Go into task manager and see specifically what is using the CPU. Sort the CPU column to see the highest and take note of the soaker uppers.

[Ualaa]

Back when I was running a Q6600, for the most part warcraft was fine for 5-boxing. However, in Dalaran, Wintergrasp and some areas of Alterac Valley (with 60+ toons in one area), I'd reach 100% of CPU resources used.

I've not gone over 30% of CPU resources used, in Dalaran on the i7 920... to give you a relative measure of the CPU power.

[Tim]

A thing to note is that hitting 100% cpu isn't always a bad thing.

I 5boxed for 1.5 years on a Intel 6850 (slower than a 8400) with various stages of Pwnboxer pre-release, was always at 100% CPU, and everything still ran smoothly.

[Ualaa]

At 100%, you are pushing your resource (CPU, or whatever) to maximum.

That doesn't mean it won't be playable, just that for your given system that is currently a bottleneck on resources. As in, if you were to upgrade that resource, your play would be smoother or your frames per second would increase.

Until Dalaran/Wintergrasp, 100% on my CPU resources was fine. It frequently reached 100% in Alterac Valley, but that still was very playable.

[Nghtmr9999]

I believe I had the same issue as Ualaa. I was running 100% CPU, but I still had a playable framerate

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by Ualaa

At 100%, you are pushing your resource (CPU, or whatever) to maximum.

That doesn't mean it won't be playable, just that for your given system that is currently a bottleneck on resources. As in, if you were to upgrade that resource, your play would be smoother or your frames per second would increase.

Until Dalaran/Wintergrasp, 100% on my CPU resources was fine. It frequently reached 100% in Alterac Valley, but that still was very playable.

Right but I dont think I should be reaching 78-80% CPU usage on one active window on wow on this system.

I have:

4Gb of ram
E8400 Dual core at 3.2GHZ
Velociraptor 10,000 rpm 250gb hard drive
Dual Nvidia 8800 GTS 550MB in SLI



Im just confused as to why one wow could be using so many of my already substantial resources. I looked at the task manager and nothing else is using more than 1-3% of my cpu, so I don't think outside applications are an issue. Is my processor really that old?