Copy files causes 100% CPU load

Joined
Jun 11, 2022
Messages
19
Hi,
I have a strange problem. Copying files through Windows 11 causes my CPU frequency to go to its maximum and Task Manager Performance tab says CPU is at 100% utilization. Simultaneously Details tab says System Idle Process is at 98%. I have installed the latest drivers from MSI Center. This happens when I copy files from all drives, external and internal. What could be the problem?
 
Please list all your hardware in detail.

The only time i heard about something like this was with a pre-built MSI PC:


See at around 22:30 mins, it has customized "Ultimate" power plans (instead of Balanced) which "simulate" 100% load for certain operations, like copying files, and needlessly increase power draw.
So check your power plans if you have something similar going on. Normally it should be on "Balanced" which is the preferred one.

It could also be some third-party antivirus program or the like, so check your installed software.
 
Please list all your hardware in detail.

The only time i heard about something like this was with a pre-built MSI PC:


See at around 22:30 mins, it has customized "Ultimate" power plans (instead of Balanced) which "simulate" 100% load for certain operations, like copying files, and needlessly increase power draw.
So check your power plans if you have something similar going on. Normally it should be on "Balanced" which is the preferred one.

It could also be some third-party antivirus program or the like, so check your installed software.

Thank you for replying. You are right. When I checked the power plan it is set to "ultimate performance". The strange thing though is that as I am looking at the power plans they literally keep shifting on their own from 'balanced' to 'ultimate' to 'power saver' like every few seconds. The check box just keeps moving on its own. I clicked on the balanced plan and then it continued to change it to the others. I have no idea how this is happening. I initially was just using windows defender so I doubt the antivirus has anything to do with it. I dont think its any of my software. It must be windows... or maybe something in the BIOS...

My hardware is:
MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI
Intel Core i5-12600KF
32GB (2x 16GB), DDR5, 5600MHz, Corsair VENGEANCE
MSI Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 8GB
SSD 1TB Western Digital Black SN850
18TB WD Ultrastar DC HC550
Seasonic Focus GX-850, 850W
Noctua NH-D15 chromax black
Be Quiet Pure Base 500DX Black (BGW37)


Its a brand new computer.

PS:
I dont mind if it wastes energy. Im just worried that it might impact gaming performance. I have not had a chance to test it with games yet. But Im thinking if will probably mess things up. But if it will actually give me higher performance I would prefer it. Either way there is no way to know since I cant get it to stick to the balanced plan...

PPS:
Ive tracked down the culprit. In MSI Center, Features, I have "Device Speed Up". It has 2 options - USB boost and storage boost. When they are turned on the strange behavior occurs.
So the only question remaining is does the Device Speed Up work properly this way and does it really speed up things? Should I keep it on? Or is this behavior considered a bug?
 
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Ive tracked down the culprit. In MSI Center, Features, I have "Device Speed Up". It has 2 options - USB boost and storage boost. When they are turned on the strange behavior occurs.
So the only question remaining is does the Device Speed Up work properly this way and does it really speed up things? Should I keep it on? Or is this behavior considered a bug?


Interesting find. I knew that MSI Center can mess with the power plans, but i didn't know this precise feature was one of the causes. This is neither a useful feature nor a bug. It's a useless implementation that suggests a performance advantage where there is no performance to be gained. In trying to go for a laughably miniscule theoretical performance gain, this feature unnecessarily drives up the power consumption, which directly translates into more heat production. So this "Ultimate Performance" amounts to snake oil, even more so than "High Performance".

There have been numerous tests made with the different power plans "Balanced" vs. "High Performance", and the broad agreement is that "Balanced" gives you 99.9% of the performance. "High Performance" will mainly cause higher power draw in idle and higher temperatures, but the performance will not improve. It can't, really, because with Balanced, the CPU uses its turbo modes in the optimal way. With other modes, you just force high CPU frequencies to be used all the time, which makes no sense without the appropriate CPU load. I've also talked about this here before.

"High Performance" perhaps has some kind of justification in a server scenario, where you don't want any power saving mechanism causing even the slightest delay. But even there it might amount to placebo, as the CPU is extremely quick to come out of the power-saving modes, way faster than the blink of an eye.

In the end, this counterproductive "Drive speed up" feature is just one more reason to dislike MSI Center, in addition to the other ones.
 
Interesting find. I knew that MSI Center can mess with the power plans, but i didn't know this precise feature was one of the causes. This is neither a useful feature nor a bug. It's a useless implementation that suggests a performance advantage where there is no performance to be gained. In trying to go for a laughably miniscule theoretical performance gain, this feature unnecessarily drives up the power consumption, which directly translates into more heat production. So this "Ultimate Performance" amounts to snake oil, even more so than "High Performance".

There have been numerous tests made with the different power plans "Balanced" vs. "High Performance", and the broad agreement is that "Balanced" gives you 99.9% of the performance. "High Performance" will mainly cause higher power draw in idle and higher temperatures, but the performance will not improve. It can't, really, because with Balanced, the CPU uses its turbo modes in the optimal way. With other modes, you just force high CPU frequencies to be used all the time, which makes no sense without the appropriate CPU load. I've also talked about this here before.

"High Performance" perhaps has some kind of justification in a server scenario, where you don't want any power saving mechanism causing even the slightest delay. But even there it might amount to placebo, as the CPU is extremely quick to come out of the power-saving modes, way faster than the blink of an eye.

In the end, this counterproductive "Drive speed up" feature is just one more reason to dislike MSI Center, in addition to the other ones.

I suspected you will say so.
I will probably run an FPS test in some game at some point to see if it can make any slight difference.
Thank you for your help! :)
 
You're welcome. But i can explain it in a bit more detail why i don't think it can make a difference. What "High" or "Ultimate" power plans do is, they disable power-saving mechanisms of the CPU and other devices, forcing them to constantly be on high alert. The theoretical idea behind that is to prevent any kind of potential delay when coming out of the power-saving modes and entering full load. But as i explained, these delays are minimal, they are measured in nanoseconds for the most part. And for gaming, this cannot have an advantage, because as soon as you launch the game, both your CPU and GPU get loaded and clock higher anyways. So there is no delay to prevent anymore.

This is something you could use for a server in some cases, if you have lots of short accesses from many different users and want to prevent the CPU from clocking down in between. But even there, i would question if there is significant enough performance to be gained.

The idea for this "Drive speed up" probably goes back to a time where a simple file copy (without any on-access Microsoft AV scanning etc.) didn't cause enough CPU load to make it switch into a higher gear, so the power-saving actually cost you performance. But nowadays you easily reach the maximum transfer speed of any drive your transfer from/to, even in Balanced mode. So how can you make it faster than what the drive physically can achieve? That's why i think this is snake oil nowadays.
 
You're welcome. But i can explain it in a bit more detail why i don't think it can make a difference. What "High" or "Ultimate" power plans do is, they disable power-saving mechanisms of the CPU and other devices, forcing them to constantly be on high alert. The theoretical idea behind that is to prevent any kind of potential delay when coming out of the power-saving modes and entering full load. But as i explained, these delays are minimal, they are measured in nanoseconds for the most part. And for gaming, this cannot have an advantage, because as soon as you launch the game, both your CPU and GPU get loaded and clock higher anyways. So there is no delay to prevent anymore.

This is something you could use for a server in some cases, if you have lots of short accesses from many different users and want to prevent the CPU from clocking down in between. But even there, i would question if there is significant enough performance to be gained.

The idea for this "Drive speed up" probably goes back to a time where a simple file copy (without any on-access Microsoft AV scanning etc.) didn't cause enough CPU load to make it switch into a higher gear, so the power-saving actually cost you performance. But nowadays you easily reach the maximum transfer speed of any drive your transfer from/to, even in Balanced mode. So how can you make it faster than what the drive physically can achieve? That's why i think this is snake oil nowadays.

Yes you are probably right. :)
 
@JackieChan1415a202e2 Mate, you are a hero, I've spent ages wondering why file transfer is so diabolically awful on Windows 11, any transfer maxes CPU and then high temps & fans go nuts......just unticked USB boost and CPU has dropped from 100% to < 5% with no visible impact on performance.

Last week I had to change the fan profiles in the BIOS because the last update to msi centre randomly forgets to apply the profile selected -that one piece of software has been a major downer on my shiny new PC!!

Thank you.
 
Same s...t on my side, and was slowly loosing my mind every time I connected my external usb disk because CPU will jump to 100% every time I wanted to copy anything. When I disabled "device speed up" cpu went down to few %....
 
That's expected behavior when USB boost enabled, the CPU assist for faster transfer speed.
 
It's just that USB transfer speed depends largely on the drive that's attached, as well as the USB interface capabilities (20/10/5 Gbit etc.).
The CPU has an easy job during all of that. You can easily max out the interface speed with a fast drive, without the CPU having to do jumping jacks in the background.
There might be a slight performance increase in some scenarios, but the cost/benefit ratio is just not there for me.
 
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