Eli5: How is it that my CPU is operating at a 3 GHz speed but utilization is 50%, and sometimes the speed is 1.8 GHz but utilization is 100%?

Question

I mean, what’s the difference between both? Why do I never see 100% utilization at 3 GHz even when using the most resource intense tasks?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Your CPU has multiple cores. If you are doing a resource intensive task that doesn’t take advantage of the multiple cores then you’ll have some cores at 100% and some cores scratching balls so the overall CPU usage is less than 100%