Windows 11 does not seem to report CPU usage correctly

Professionals, gamers or simple enthusiasts with more attentive eyes than the average may have noticed a curious problem affecting Windows 11, which would not correctly detect the load for the CPU of the running software. The anomaly was made known on Twitter through the account of the well-known capturing tool CapFrameX, which was discovered during a performance test of a Ryzen 7 5800X3D with Shadow of the Tomb Raider (SotTR).

join us on telegram

In one of the most expensive phases of the game in terms of required resources, Windows 11 detects an unusually low CPU load: only for one of the 16 threads the load that would be expected is reported, while all the others, to trust the tool monitoring, are not used for more than 10% of their maximum capacity, an unlikely hypothesis to say the least. A screenshot was attached to the tweet that documents the anomaly through two different detection systems.

According to CapFrameX, the bug is independent of the game and the statistics app. However, there seems to be a common thread: both CapFrameX and, probably, HWiNFO use Event tracing for Windows (ETW), and it is possible at this point that ETW is generating the wrong signal. CapFrameX has announced that it has used a machine with the build 22621 beta of Windows 11. Who knows that the patch may not arrive with the expected 22H2.

Leave a Comment