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high cpu usage with streaming data program
Hello fellow bloggers,
I am baffled by an issue with my HP Pavilion dv7 windows 7 notebook using an AMD mobile m520 cpu maxing it out when running a gui real time streaming data stock market monitoring program. During peak market hours the cpu usage peaks and the program runs between 35 - 60% (8-10 at idle) cpu usage. I called HP Support and after checking the system was told to restore the os back to factory defaults and add another 4 gbytes of ram.
I had a systems engineer tune my system for performance and deleted all temp files. I have exhausted the resources available at HP and have did some testing of my own.
I shut down all but firefox, the xtend gui application and the resource monitoring program with paint at idle. i have turned off/on all startup programs and uninstalled unneeded programs and cleaned and updated the registry. The 3 programs and the standard processes in multi-user mode still shows the same results with svchost.exe competing with firefox for second position, but the xtend.exe (317 kbytes) program remains the highest by a good amount. Strangely for me, the cpu does not rely on the added 4 gbytes of ram. it never goes above 3.5 gbytes no matter the cpu usage.
I have an HP Pavilion desktop vista i use to compare with similar setups. It is 6 years old running an AMD 5600+ Live, 2 gbytes ram and similar graphics and resolution, but graphics ram may may be different on cards. It is a 64 bit design, but running in 32 bit mode. According to the TM, the kernel memory is 256 kbytes for Both cpu's and each hardware is designed for high performance to support live media. The desktop usage for the xtend.exe running the same third party programs is between 18-20% peak (4-5 at idle). Exactly what i was told to expect from the program by the techies that support xtend.
Ok, so i am going to test another similar gui program on Monday, but don't expect much difference between the two systems.
I would like to know the following:
1. why is cpu not swapping out to memory?
2. why is the same program at same time using double the amount of cpu on the newer notebook?
3. how does the maximum frequency effect the performance of the cpu?
4. any info on graphics real time streaming would help.
5. just added. system at idle for about 20 minutes. Symantics Nortons running scan in background. Note the high cpu usage, hard drive and the smooth cycle from network. Is this normal for Nortons scan while system that is idle and is not in use with no programs other than the resource monitor? This doesnt distract from the xtend program but is noteworthy for reducing other usage of the cpu.
6. my understanding of frequency is the measure of the clock speed which is an analog signal. Is this what the frequency means in the resource monitor? Wouldn't an on demand type of the speed or frequency improve the performance by running at lower temperatures during less usage? The lower the heat the stronger the signal and the less attenuation of the sinosoidal waveform and the more often it will reach its threshold level thereby increasing the performance? Or, does frequency mean something else here?
Thanks for all and any help in solving the problem. Please include recommendations as well as comments.
Pacificmike
File 1 is the notebook 49% average usage for xtend
File 2 is the desktop showing 21% less than 1/2 of notebook within minutes of each other. jpeg file type.
File 3 shows pieces of xtend not minimizing and remaining on screen until i opened another window.
File 4 shows the graphics display of the xtend program
file 5 shows system at idle with only the resource monitor running and nortons system scan in background.
Last edited by pacificmike; 05 Jun 2011 at 19:17. Reason: add text