my cpu is being under used by steam games

[HazyHoneyBuny]

any steam game that i currently have installed have recently begun using only 35% of my processing power meaning im not getting proper performance at all if anything im un aware of how to fix it its not a cpu or gpu issue its just steam not letting my games use the processing power that my laptop can give them

[Ghost Robertson]

Is your power plan set to power saving? that'll slow it down.

Also what operating system are you using?

[Wichtelman]

1. what laptop do you have
2. how much fps do you get in which games
3. you do not want your cpu to be at 100%

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by Ghost Robertson:

Is your power plan set to power saving? that'll slow it down.

Also what operating system are you using?

my power plan isnt using power saving currently and my operating system is windows 10

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by Wichtelman:

1. what laptop do you have
2. how much fps do you get in which games
3. you do not want your cpu to be at 100%

1.one of them old dell laptops not sure which specific model but its old and outdated 2. i usually get 60 fps in atlyss,geometry dash,webfishing 3, im aware it shouldnt run at 100% usage it typically runs at 80% and up

[HazyHoneyBuny]

i must clarify its that they arent using enough cpu to perform on a stable fps they used to before this started happening

[HazyHoneyBuny]

i also have a integrated gpu being the Intel HD Graphics 4000

[Midnight Aurais]

Even today's games struggle to utilize more cores most run on 2-4 cores the activity you see on more then 2-4 is it doing a little trick to utilize more cores

This means yes a lot of games will seem to be under utilizing your cpu but as soon as you watch the first cores often those will sit 90-100% even while the overall usage of the processor might be 20-40% mine sits often under 20% since 12 core 24 threads

This is normal just looks weird for people that just started watching their performance metrics

Why developers do not use more? The question do you want that as it turns out to be in some workloads detrimental to the performance as it ain't as simple as flip a switch and done

If that 4000 series chipset is at 99-100% you ain't getting more performance even if your cpu could offer more the chipset is too weak you can only gain some performance by lowering resolutions and graphics settings

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by Midnight Aurais:

Even today's games struggle to utilize more cores most run on 2-4 cores the activity you see on more then 2-4 is it doing a little trick to utilize more cores

This means yes a lot of games will seem to be under utilizing your cpu but as soon as you watch the first cores often those will sit 90-100% even while the overall usage of the processor might be 20-40% mine sits often under 20% since 12 core 24 threads

This is normal just looks weird for people that just started watching their performance metrics

Why developers do not use more? The question do you want that as it turns out to be in some workloads detrimental to the performance as it ain't as simple as flip a switch and done

If that 4000 series chipset is at 99-100% you ain't getting more performance even if your cpu could offer more the chipset is too weak you can only gain some performance by lowering resolutions and graphics settings

the games that i play havent had an update namely geometry dash to change performance usage, my laptop has been able to handle the games and it only does it to steam games, yes ive tested other games that arent on steam or use steam in anyway and they run like they normally would theres no long continous dips to 35% cpu usage

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by HazyHoneyBuny:

Originally posted by Midnight Aurais:

Even today's games struggle to utilize more cores most run on 2-4 cores the activity you see on more then 2-4 is it doing a little trick to utilize more cores

This means yes a lot of games will seem to be under utilizing your cpu but as soon as you watch the first cores often those will sit 90-100% even while the overall usage of the processor might be 20-40% mine sits often under 20% since 12 core 24 threads

This is normal just looks weird for people that just started watching their performance metrics

Why developers do not use more? The question do you want that as it turns out to be in some workloads detrimental to the performance as it ain't as simple as flip a switch and done

If that 4000 series chipset is at 99-100% you ain't getting more performance even if your cpu could offer more the chipset is too weak you can only gain some performance by lowering resolutions and graphics settings

the games that i play havent had an update namely geometry dash to change performance usage, my laptop has been able to handle the games and it only does it to steam games, yes ive tested other games that arent on steam or use steam in anyway and they run like they normally would theres no long continous dips to 35% cpu usage

again this is very recent

[gwwak]

Most games don't use up a lot of cores. If you got a newer CPU with 6+ cores, don't be surprised if utilisation is under 25%. Also you want to check your GPU utilisation. If it is at 99%, it means you are GPU limited, not CPU limited. Ideally you want GPU utilisation to be as high as possible.

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by gwwak:

Most games don't use up a lot of cores. If you got a newer CPU with 6+ cores, don't be surprised if utilisation is under 25%. Also you want to check your GPU utilisation. If it is at 99%, it means you are GPU limited, not CPU limited. Ideally you want GPU utilisation to be as high as possible.

my cpu unfortunately only has 4, also my gpu just dosent show up in task manager so i have no way of telling if its even being used

[De Hollandse Ezel]

thats common.

way to many games still are processed to use only 1 or 2 processes.
and VERY few maaaybe 4 processes.

that means that for most games they use only 1 core...
which means if you have a standard 8 core cpu... 7/8th of it is doing doing all the time... or 12.5% load at best...

[HazyHoneyBuny]

Originally posted by De Hollandse Ezel:

thats common.

way to many games still are processed to use only 1 or 2 processes.
and VERY few maaaybe 4 processes.

that means that for most games they use only 1 core...
which means if you have a standard 8 core cpu... 7/8th of it is doing doing all the time... or 12.5% load at best...

my cpu is the intel core i5-3210m cpu and only 2 of them are utilized its starting to feel like im speaking to a brick wall my cpu isnt the issue because its running fine and has shown in other games that it will go above 35% of cpu processing power

[Midnight Aurais]

okey are you using the overlay a lot in games it is a known issue that sessions stay and pile up in the processes of steam you could turn off steam overlay for those specific games see if that changes anything

steam reinstall is worth a try careful with your games recommend just moving them out then back in after reinstall so you only have to verify unless you know what manifests belongs to which that is the only way to prevent verification after reinstall

clear the cache of the chipset can be done through finding the chipset dxcache folder in appdata or going to settings>system>storage>temporary files>directx shader cache then click remove afther you are happy with the selected options

Dont worry the shader caches rebuild themself

[nullable]

Originally posted by HazyHoneyBuny:

i must clarify its that they arent using enough cpu to perform on a stable fps they used to before this started happening

Steam doesn't control your hardware, or cause games to function differently, like limiting access to hardware. Steam launches the game sure, but the game handles itself and doesn't go through Steam to use system resources. And if the games haven't changed, this sounds like a system issue. If all the affected games have recent/major updates that may be something you have to take up with the developers. They may not be worried about hardware that's 12 years old.

So you'll need to troubleshoot, and do all the basic stuff like update or reinstall drivers, check things like thermal throttling etc. There's probably not something you can pin on an external cause and expect Valve or the game developers to fix for you.