my prescot 478 3.4 P4 never gets higher than 50% processing in task manager

my prescot 478 3.4 P4 never gets higher than 50% processing in task manager.... is that normal? and yes i am a power user.

What do you define as a power user? Give us some numbers:
For example, 164 firefox tabs with 2 CSS clients in a server, Ventrilo server with 50 people in it, WMP and RARing 15 GB file.

Yes it is normal because it has HYPERTHREADING. The OS thinks there are 2 cpu's... when there is only really one.

im running cs2 with multi firefox windows while downloading a total 900kbs from 300 different sources....heh also winamp

nikhsub1 said:

Yes it is normal because it has HYPERTHREADING. The OS thinks there are 2 cpu's... when there is only really one.

Click to expand...

hmm ok thats what i was thinking... so im fine then?

As long as your seeing two graphs in task manager.

overclucker said:

hmm ok thats what i was thinking... so im fine then?

Click to expand...

Exactually, there is really only one processor. Because the O/S sees two processors and there is only one actually doing work then it thinks it's 50%.

Hyper Threading uses any empty stages of the processors pipeline that are not currently in use to simulate a second processor. The reason why the Prescott (31 stages) is more efficent at Hyper Threading than a Northwood (20 stages) is because it has more pipeline stages. (Correct me if I am wrong about this whole thing)
Your processor is in reality closer to 100% load than 50%. Install Prime95 in two seperate directorys, run one, check your max CPU temp. Then fire up the second Prime95, check your max CPU temp. You will find that the max CPU temp will increase slighty, maybe ~3-5c.

hmm ok...thanks