Dual/Quad core CPU ultilization question

[ShePearl]

Hi.
I'm using Q6600 @ 3.6 GHz, 4GB of RAM, and 8800GTX. I've played Counter Strike Source with windows task manager minimized to see CPU utilization.

CS : Source (which is based on old Source engine) is a single threaded game. However windows task manager shows all four cores utilizing.
From this, I think windows task manager is very inaccurate method of telling/knowing CPU/cores utilizations.

Can anyone explain this behavior?
A screenshot of task manager I captured. (I use Vista x64)
http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=taskmanagercrau0.jpg

 

[ilkhan]

link (was) broken
No core ever reaches 100%, right? I expect you are seeing the result of the thread moving from core to core.

And that pattern looks like a single or dual (single + helper) pattern. Either way, you aren't CPU limited, that looks like you are fps limited by the GPU. Also, you are getting some stuff from background as well. Be it indexing, caching, something is always happening in the background.

 

[ShePearl]

Hi. I fixed the link.

Yep. You're right. No core ever reached 100%.

From my experience with Vista x64, all background tasks (be it indexing, caching etc) hardly ever takes more than 2~4% of CPU utilization. Also, I disabled "Windows Search" service in services.msc to disable indexing.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that CS : Source is GPU limited with 8800GTX. CS : Source is known for one of those heavily CPU dependent game. FYI, I ran the game with 2xAA + 16AF on purpose (with HDR turned off).