High CPU fluctuation

[yourarnav]

Hello fokls, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post! Okay, I'll state my matter now.

I'm having this weird CPU fluctuation issue while x264 video encoding!

See this image - http://prntscr.com/1ptt3o

Things to notice -

1 - Software using - Vidcoder (uses the CLI of Handbrake)

2 - CPU - Intel Xeon 1230

3 -RAM - 16GB

4 - HDD - 2TB

5 PORT -1 GBPS

6 - Also tried other Encoding software, same error, tried diff file too!

Now it doesn't happen all the time when I encode but sometimes I see the fluctuation in CPU usage very low and random which leads to very low fps and triples the ETA of the encode.

The fluctuation is like - 10% - 30% - 50% - 25% - 0% - 67% - 23% something like this while in x264 encoding CPU has to remain constant!

I don't know why this happen sometimes.

I've rebooted, still no solution.

Anyone please Help me!

 

[ShintaiDK]

Looks normal. Remember its quadcore with hyperthreading.

 

[yourarnav]

Can you please explain in detail? I mean, I didn't get your point!

I try to do some stuff on lower CPU Intel x3440 and it works fine!

 

[fixbsod]

Shouldn't it be maxed 100% all threads (or at least all true cores) for x264 encoding?? Try Intel Burn Test or Prime 95 or something similar and see if that will max 100% all cores and threads.

 

[yourarnav]

Well, yes, at least on 2nd pass it should shoot and stay in 90's all the time! Well, I have heard those Intel Burn and Prime 95 for first time! So, will google and try! Thanks for jumping in.

Shouldn't it be maxed 100% all threads (or at least all true cores) for x264 encoding?? Try Intel Burn Test or Prime 95 or something similar and see if that will max 100% all cores and threads.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Can you please explain in detail? I mean, I didn't get your point!

I try to do some stuff on lower CPU Intel x3440 and it works fine!

It doesnt look like its throttling either. Is it the same phase of the program on both systems? And its not bottlenecked by something else?

 

[yourarnav]

Yes, the same encoding settings and files!

See the CPU usage on XEON 1230 (one with issues) - http://prntscr.com/1ptvuq

This 5 - 7 fps only at 400p resolution

BTW, I'm using settings, Audio, Video everything same on both

Xeon 3440 - http://prntscr.com/1ptvwa (Maxing out) and working fine!

It doesnt look like its throttling either. Is it the same phase of the program on both systems? And its not bottlenecked by something else?

 

[yourarnav]

Can this be related to a memory I/O resource issue thingy?

See the normal muxing which usually is completed in 20 seconds shows 9 mins - http://prntscr.com/1ptx3e

I guess, every process related to I/O works slowly!

 

[BrightCandle]

Can this happen on the same encode or is it a different encode? Because not all encodes get good utilisation in my experience.

One way to start to track down the problem is to take a more detailed performance trace to look at the difference. If you run perfmon and at the very least track memory faults, disk IO (read and write) and CPU usage then you may see another difference alongside the lower CPU usage.