How to check total CPU usage?

[pong lenis]

Is there a way to check and log the TOTAL CPU usage during a certain time?(like say a few minutes). Taskmanager is shit, it only shows graphs of each core, is very imprecise, and doesn't show numbers.

And another thing about taskmanager, when I'm trying to see the CPU usage of a game, it shows that all 4 cores of my CPU were being used, even though it's a game that can only use one core.

A simple program that logs total CPU usage would be nice.

 

[bononos]

Is there a way to check and log the TOTAL CPU usage during a certain time?(like say a few minutes). Taskmanager is shit, it only shows graphs of each core, is very imprecise, and doesn't show numbers.

And another thing about taskmanager, when I'm trying to see the CPU usage of a game, it shows that all 4 cores of my CPU were being used, even though it's a game that can only use one core.

A simple program that logs total CPU usage would be nice.

Perfmon under the windows admin tools could log data depending on what windows version you are running. One or more of the other monitoring apps like realtemp/coretemp/occt could do it as well.

 

[pong lenis]

Perfmon under the windows admin tools could log data depending on what windows version you are running. One or more of the other monitoring apps like realtemp/coretemp/occt could do it as well.

Windows 7 Ultimate. How do you use Perfmon to log Total CPU usage?
Those other programs you mentioned log temperature not usage.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

Process Explorer works good. You can have it show either the entire CPU or by core. As for single threaded games being spread over all the cores, that's due to the way Windows manages threads.

 

[john3850]

I would download and use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for a intel 3770.

 

[guskline]

I would download and use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for a intel 3770.

Nice app. I used it to test stability of my 3770k in OC mode. It does show cpu usage.

 

[NTMBK]

Task Manager.

View->CPU History->One Graph, All CPUs

Don't call software shit before you learn how to use it properly.

 

[pong lenis]

Task Manager.

View->CPU History->One Graph, All CPUs

Don't call software shit before you learn how to use it properly.

Well that's surprising, but it's still shit, I still have to count the squares and use a calculator to find the percentage used at any point of the graph, cause it doesn't give numbers... or does it?

 

[videogames101]

Process Explorer

/thread

 

[pong lenis]

Process Explorer works good. You can have it show either the entire CPU or by core. As for single threaded games being spread over all the cores, that's due to the way Windows manages threads.

Okay that program seems good, but in the CPU graph, what does the smaller red graph signify? And does the green graph represent the total CPU usage?

It still would have been nice if taskmanager was capable of something as simple as giving a number when the mouse pointer is over the graph, but it's made by Microsoft after all.

 

[(sic)Klown12]

The smaller red part is the measurement of interrupts. And yes, the green is total usage. As for Task Manager being bad due to coming from Microsoft, that's not right. It's meant to be a very basic tool. Process Explorer also comes from them(they bought out Systernals a long time ago), and is meant for power users.

 

[Lorne]

The red graph is kernal hits/reads, eg. It happens alot when a program is poorly optimised and doesnt quite know what it should do next.
Its just better to have less red and lots of green.

This is just a lamens term for those that dont know why.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Process Explorer

/thread

This. It's amazing and I run it at startup on all my machines. Only downside is that the new versions require uac approval.

 

[unclewebb]

Single threaded tasks or games will be randomly scheduled on all of your available cores and threads to help spread the load out. That's why you see lots of random looking graphs in the Task Manager. It's not nearly fast enough to keep up with the speed that tasks get scheduled at.

If you have an Intel CPU, I would recommend using RealTemp to log your data. Unlike most utilities that use Windows APIs to determine load, it reads high performance timers directly within your CPU so can accurately measure CPU load over any interval. The monitoring interval is adjustable and the log file can be saved in comma separated value format so you can easily import the data into Excel.

RealTemp T|I Edition
http://www.overclock.net/t/1330144/realtemp-t-i-edition

 

[Pilum]

Is there a way to check and log the TOTAL CPU usage during a certain time?(like say a few minutes). Taskmanager is shit, it only shows graphs of each core, is very imprecise, and doesn't show numbers.

And another thing about taskmanager, when I'm trying to see the CPU usage of a game, it shows that all 4 cores of my CPU were being used, even though it's a game that can only use one core.

A simple program that logs total CPU usage would be nice.

There currently is no (Windows) program like this to my knowledge. Well, there is Intel VTune... which is overkill for such purposes and "only" $899.

I'm developing a GUI program for such short-run performance monitoring, but the project is still in the early stages. The current mockup looks like this:

I guess this is kinda what you're looking for. Sadly, I can't give an ETA for a first working alpha version, I'm working on several projects at the moment. But if you have ideas on what kind of features you'd like to see in such a monitoring program, I'd be interested; it's much easier to add features during the design phase than to retrofit them to a finished program.

However, if you can live with a console program for the time being, I've done a quick hack which will offer at least basic monitoring. The output looks like this:

Monitoring system, press any key to stop.
CPU load:   0,00% (User:  0,00%, Sys:  0,00%)
CPU load:   0,95% (User:  0,78%, Sys:  0,00%)
[...]
CPU load:  35,33% (User: 33,79%, Sys:  2,72%)
CPU load:  37,85% (User: 34,28%, Sys:  3,12%)
CPU load:  36,62% (User: 33,44%, Sys:  2,72%)
CPU load:  40,84% (User: 37,71%, Sys:  3,51%)
[...]
CPU load:   1,82% (User:  1,56%, Sys:  0,00%)
CPU load:   0,17% (User:  0,00%, Sys:  0,00%)
CPU load:   1,43% (User:  0,39%, Sys:  0,78%)

Start time: 2013-04-29 22:08:01
End time:   2013-04-29 22:11:56
Duration: 235 seconds
Loads:    CPU     User     System
Average  18,45%   14,88%    3,55%
Minimum   0,00%    0,00%    0,00%
Maximum  51,25%   37,71%   22,23%

Press any key to exit.

You can download it here, it requires .NET 4.
Known bugs: the percentage values can be funny, values are >100%, User+System don't add up to total CPU load; this is due to quirks on .NET and/or Windows 7, my program is reporting the vanilla values it reads from the system.

If this console version proves useful to anyone I'm open for ideas on how to improve it, actually it will be easier to test/debug features in the console program before adding them to the GUI version.

 

[Pilum]

I would download and use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for a intel 3770.

Thanks, this is great program!

This. It's amazing and I run it at startup on all my machines. Only downside is that the new versions require uac approval.

You can run pretty much all programs which require UAC elevation at startup without getting a prompt. Just use the task scheduler to create a task which runs the program with highest privileges everytime the user logs on (the user has to be in the Admin group for that to work, I think). This works great for e.g. RealTemp which otherwise also requires UAC prompting.

 

[aigomorla]

Well that's surprising, but it's still shit, I still have to count the squares and use a calculator to find the percentage used at any point of the graph, cause it doesn't give numbers... or does it?

Ctrl - Alt - Delete -> get a blue screen with options.

Select Task Manager -> Any tab is fine.. u can go on performance if you like to see individual core.

HOWEVER:
Look at the VERY BOTTOM of the box where it says
Processes: ## CPU Usage: ##% Physical Memory: ##%

Or under Performance Tab... you will see Resource Monitor button.
Click on that, and in that Resource Monitor it will show CPU usage next the word Processes.