Solved CPU Speed remain always High even at IDLE!

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

Hey guys, I Hope you are doing well, I built this PC about 6 months ago, It is running pretty well, but one thing i can't do about no matter what i do which is CPU Clock always remain High which is over 4GHZ for no reason, even at idle, it is always high.
Things i have done is:
1. read the Motherboard Manual(Which is crap and does not contain any Info)
2. Watched Videos and configured Bios Multiple times already.
3. There is an advance Option in Bios which is similar to "OC Settings" but i am not sure how both work. I assume Advance overtake "OC Settings" if they both are same but with my experiment, even there is same option in both places, one remain different than other.
4. Nothing works, except if i reduce CPU usage from Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Advance options and setting CPU % to 50% etc.
Anyhelp is appreaciated. I am not overclocking anything except XMP is enabled. Other than that, all stuff are default.

Thank you for you time for reading this.

FreeBooter · Nov 20, 2025

If you are overclocking (pushing the components beyond their design) you should revert to default at least until the CPU high usage is solved. If you don't know what it is you probably are not overclocking.

Have you checked Task Manager for which processes causing high CPU usage?

Make sure the power plan is set to Standard power plan.

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

Here are the

FreeBooter said:
If you are overclocking (pushing the components beyond their design) you should revert to default at least until the CPU high usage is solved. If you don't know what it is you probably are not overclocking.

Have you checked Task Manager for which processes causing high CPU usage?

Make sure the power plan is set to Standard power plan.

Here are the screenshot of both

glasskuter · Nov 20, 2025

PressF5 said:
over 4GHZ for no reason, even at idle, it is always high.

I'm no system builder but I know to try a few things to test that can eliminate certain things being the issue.

1. Monitor temps. If high, reapply thermal paste.
2. with all overclocking off, boot into safe boot. If CPU is normal, look toward 3rd party drivers
3. Use a clean boot to eliminate software conflict. If it doesn't happen in clean boot it's software.

FreeBooter · Nov 20, 2025

Your CPU usage looks normal from Task Manager you posted, this means that a process is not utilizing high CPU usage so next time CPU working hard check the Task Manager again to find out which process utilizing high CPU usage.

FreeBooter · Nov 20, 2025

Also scan your computer for malware infections.

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

Well i forget to mention that, I am pretty expert myself. I have built 2 PCs before this one. I am also work in Tech. But i just cannot pin point the issue myself. I have tested booting in Safe mode, Still same thing. All Settings are default in bios. I have Clean Install and up to date drives etc. I never ran Antivirus Scan because I have Real Time Scanning at High and I have Home Server which also keep in check + i have chrome enhance protection. Even with Scanning i don't find anything. The only think i can do i lower the Clock in Bios but i will stuck on that lower CPU speed or mess with Voltages etc. If i make changes alot in bios, My bios bugged out and I have to reset bios by taking out Coin battery.

FreeBooter · Nov 20, 2025

Problem is that you claim that the CPU usage high all the time but looking at your posted screenshot picture of Task Manager the CPU usage looks normal are we missing anything?

werty · Nov 20, 2025

The base frequency of your CPU is 4.5 GHz. Task manager shows 0% usage with speed of 4.2 GHz so it's normal.

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

werty said:
The base frequency of your CPU is 4.5 GHz. Task manager shows 0% usage with speed of 4.2 GHz so it's normal.

True, Base is 4.2 GHz which is normal. But i am pretty sure that CPU does not run at base speed at Idle. It should go down around 2Ghz or something, As i have seen in many computers when they are idle their Speed go down. Even my previous built were not had this issue. But i guess it is what it is.

glasskuter · Nov 20, 2025

Have you set bios to default as well as checked for bios update?

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

glasskuter said:
Have you set bios to default as well as checked for bios update?

Yes i have, Like i said earlier, nothings works no matter what i try except lower CPU % in Power management. Either Motherboard is goofy or MSI don't no how to code motherboard. Because it does not make sense CPU running at idle doing nothing and increasing my bill and producing heat for no reason.

stormy13 · Nov 20, 2025

Better question would be what are the temps and vcore at idle?

Ghot · Nov 20, 2025

PressF5 said:
Yes i have, Like i said earlier, nothings works no matter what i try except lower CPU % in Power management. Either Motherboard is goofy or MSI don't no how to code motherboard. Because it does not make sense CPU running at idle doing nothing and increasing my bill and producing heat for no reason.

The 7700X is a 4.5Ghz processor. Turbo Boost is 5.4Ghz
4Ghz is slow for that CPU.

I have a 3700X and it runs between 3.6 and 4.4Ghz (with no overclock)

On a side note: Here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

As @stormy13 said... worry about the temps and core voltage.

CPU-Z will show you the core voltage, and a program like HWMonitor will show you the temps.
The core voltage and temps will vary... even at idle.

My core voltage varies between .7 and 1.4 volts.

Marcus Vinicus · Nov 20, 2025

Process Explorer (part of SysInternals) is better than the Task Manager for analyzing CPU usage and performance.
Resource Monitor which is in Windows 11 might be worth investigating.

I haven't tried any of this from MS but it may be useful. It says for Windows Server but it should work with Windows 11.

Guidance for troubleshooting high CPU usage - Windows Server

Introduces general guidance for troubleshooting scenarios in which you experience high CPU usage.

learn.microsoft.com

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

stormy13 said:
Better question would be what are the temps and vcore at idle?

Here goes:

PressF5 · Nov 20, 2025

Ghot said:
The 7700X is a 4.5Ghz processor. Turbo Boost is 5.4Ghz
4Ghz is slow for that CPU.

I have a 3700X and it runs between 3.6 and 4.4Ghz (with no overclock)

On a side note: Here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

As @stormy13 said... worry about the temps and core voltage.

CPU-Z will show you the core voltage, and a program like HWMonitor will show you the temps.
The core voltage and temps will vary... even at idle.

My core voltage varies between .7 and 1.4 volts.

View attachment 153716

Hmm I see, Appreciated. I was concerned that some Company force Overclock CPU to give best performance, but most of time i don't need that much performance for normal use.

Ghot · Nov 20, 2025

PressF5 said:
Hmm I see, Appreciated. I was concerned that some Company force Overclock CPU to give best performance, but most of time i don't need that much performance for normal use.

Nope. That's just a fast CPU. ^^
As long as your temps are OK and the core voltage doesn't get too high... you'll be fine.

Those 2.xGhz speeds are mainly Intel processors.
That's their Efficiency clock.

Wannagofast · Nov 20, 2025

On MSI Intel boards there is a bios setting called Enhanced Turbo that can be enabled to boost the cpu.
I have this disabled and my 14600k drops down to 2 GHz or less at low usage or when at idle.

On MSI AMD boards it "looks" to me (I am not familiar with AMD) like this is called Precision Boost Overdrive.
I'm not sure how all this works on AMD boards but you could see if have this setting and what is it set to.

You could also post your question In the MSI forum. The users on there have been very helpful to me.

peace
wanna

Helmut · Nov 20, 2025

There is nothing unusual in those screenshots. Roughly what would be expected, as other have mentioned.

PressF5 said:
Base is 4.2 GHz which is normal. But i am pretty sure that CPU does not run at base speed at Idle. It should go down around 2Ghz or something

The base frequency is 4.5 GHz, it will not go down to 2 GHz with desktop processors. It seems to be a minimum of 2.7 GHz from the specs.
The Task Manager normal sampling rate is quite slow so might not display it.

Another app like CPUID HWMonitor may catch the lowest as it stores the Min/Max clocks over the time it is run, might be educational.
You have not displayed the cores in your screenshot.
It is not like a Laptop processor which have a very wide range of clock speeds for power saving/reducing heat dissipation requirements.

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