Windows 7 Total CPU Blue Line

seekermeister · Aug 29, 2013

I generally understand the CPU activity graphs in the resource monitor, with the exception of the first one...the total CPU activity displayed on it at first glance makes sense, when looking at the area shown in green, which is the total CPU activity, but there is also a blue line above that which I don't understand and haven't been able to find any reference to. What does it mean?

Digerati · Aug 30, 2013

You either didn't listen, or you didn't understand my previous response.

Yeah, I don't think this is a problem in need of a fix either - at least not based on the information given. If the blue line indicated the CPU frequency was constantly maxed out, that would be another issue - but it doesn't.

If you look at Resource Monitor on the CPU tab where that "CPU - Total" graph is, then note on the left column where the processes are listed, you will see two tiny graphs - a green one indicating % CPU Usage, and a blue one indicating % Maximum Frequency. Those two tiny graphs correspond to the larger one in the right side column. The blue line at 50% simply means your CPU is loafing along - not a bad thing, or a problem in need of fixing.

satrow · Aug 29, 2013

I suggest that's the highest individual core/thread graph.

seekermeister · Aug 29, 2013

No, I think not, because none of the cores are anywhere near that high. Actually, all of the cores are lower than the green areas shown, which is to be expected since that is the cumulative amount of all of the cores.

satrow · Aug 29, 2013

Yes, of course.

I just took a look at Resource Monitor on my W7: it's the % of maximum frequency (100% is max. Turbo speed, not max nominal speed, cross-checked by using HWiNFO64 sensors) so I assume you have Speed Step enabled (sub-50% min.?); I further assume this would not be seen if Speed Step was disabled.

seekermeister · Aug 29, 2013

I'm not clear on what Speed Step is, but unless it is enabled in the BIOS, or set by default in Windows, it's not enabled. Where would I find it?

satrow · Aug 29, 2013

In the BIOS, it's part of the power-saving built into the CPU, it can also be controlled/modified by the CPU Power settings within Windows.

I'd recommend leaving it enabled otherwise the CPU will run at the nominal speed or higher all the time, burning more power and creating more heat - unnecessarily.

My CPU is a nominal 3.3GHZ, Speed Step drops it to a minimum of 1.6GHZ when there's nothing to do, the Turbo limit is currently 3.5GHZ (I reduced it from the standard 3.7GHZ - it's a pretty powerful chip).

seekermeister · Aug 29, 2013

I browsed through the BIOS setting since my last post, and found nothing with the name of "Speed Step". There are a number of settings for the CPU that sounds something like this, but am unsure which is which. I suspect that it must be enabled, because the CPU speed is always at about what I think that the max is. As far as setting it lower, I'm not sure that I would want to, because I have no interest in saving power. As far as heat goes, the processor always stays well within it's boundaries.

I did tinker with a couple of settings that I wanted to see what the effect would be, and it may have enabled the Speed Step , because looking at Core Temp just now, I see the processor speed jumping around between 804 - ~3600, which it didn't do before, yet looking at the Resource Monitor's graphs, the blue line is still there. The only other difference that I see is that the core loads seem to be somewhat more equal than before. However, I know so little about such BIOS settings, anything that I say is just a guess.

EDIT: Hmm, another thing has changed. Core Temp is no longer reading core temperatures. This alone will make me change it back to where it was.

satrow · Aug 29, 2013

Which 'board/CPU do you have? The low mark of ~800MHZ seems too low, perhaps CoreTemp is misreporting? Try HWiNFO64 (I use it Sensors only) to check: http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

Ralph Bromley · Aug 30, 2013

Are you sure you dont have anything running in the background from startup?
It would be nice to know your mother board/cpu so we can diagnose your problem.
It could be a sensor or something minor but its hard to say at this stage.

seekermeister · Aug 30, 2013

Ralph Bromley

Yes, I have startup programs "running" in the system tray, as most people do, but none of them are responsible for the blue line. I don't consider this a problem to be diagnosed and fixed, only understood.

Ralph Bromley · Aug 30, 2013

Well if we can diagnose it and possibly fix it then let us try.
What programs auto start with your system?

seekermeister · Aug 30, 2013

You either didn't listen, or you didn't understand my previous response.

satrow · Aug 30, 2013

We still don't know the CPU or motherboard so it would be difficult to be of any further help.

Digerati · Aug 30, 2013

You either didn't listen, or you didn't understand my previous response.

Yeah, I don't think this is a problem in need of a fix either - at least not based on the information given. If the blue line indicated the CPU frequency was constantly maxed out, that would be another issue - but it doesn't.

If you look at Resource Monitor on the CPU tab where that "CPU - Total" graph is, then note on the left column where the processes are listed, you will see two tiny graphs - a green one indicating % CPU Usage, and a blue one indicating % Maximum Frequency. Those two tiny graphs correspond to the larger one in the right side column. The blue line at 50% simply means your CPU is loafing along - not a bad thing, or a problem in need of fixing.

seekermeister · Aug 30, 2013

satrow said:
We still don't know the CPU or motherboard so it would be difficult to be of any further help.

The only relevance ti thus that the hardware involved may have is to establish a norm for the frequency. I suspect that the changes that I made in the BIOS are responsible for the low end frequency, since I know that when I enabled UCC that Core Temp was unable to read the core temps. Disabling UCC restored the temp readings, but not the previous behavior of the frequency. Since I have not observed any adverse effect from this, I'm not particularly concerned at the moment, but that could change. The motherboard is an ASRock 890FX Deluxe 4 and the CPU is an AMD Phenom X6 1090T.

satrow · Aug 30, 2013

Relevance? BIOS tuning details, motherboard sensor details, software, hardware manual downloads, ...

I won't suggest you download the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor now, perhaps AMD have something equivalent.

I'm out.

seekermeister · Aug 30, 2013

No offense was intended, I was simply trying to express that the trail that you were blazing was not one that I was prepared to set out on at this time. You were venturing into territory that I currently don't want to explore. Perhaps I should, but without perceiving how I would profit from it, I'm too lazy to expend the time.

Ralph Bromley · Aug 31, 2013

seekermeister said:
You either didn't listen, or you didn't understand my previous response.

Hey just trying to help, its hard to diagnose an issue without knowing the symptoms

Windows 7 Total CPU Blue Line

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