I'm looking at Resmon on Windows 8 Basic. I have chosed the "high performance" power plan, which I thought would keep my CPU at the highest levels possible.
When the machine is (mostly) idle, the CPU Frequency is at 95%+, and the CPU usage is under 10%.
When I put the system under heavy load, the CPU frequency starts jumping around between 10% and 110%. The CPU usage jumps around as an inverse of the CPU frequency (which makes sense).
Why would my CPU frequence DECREASE when the system is under load? Is this some kind of thermal management issue (the CPU is getting hot, so the system slows the CPU to allow heat to dissipate)?
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UPDATE: I will try to post a screenshot later (security policies getting in the way of me doing my job...). HWMonitor is reporting CPU temps in the 60-70 C range. Max is no higher than 70C.
UPDATE-2: The CPU is an i7-3770, according to HWMonitor