What is a good CPU%?

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That all depends on what applications you are running and what else you are doing on your computers.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

What is a good CPU%?

It also depends on "which" meter you are using to measure %.

If you are in the Boinc Manager, most of the time 90% of the available cpus/threads is a good idea.

Tom

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A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).

I forgot to say "Welcome to SETI" earlier.

By default SETI will use ~100% of all your CPU cores ~100% of the time.
When discussing %CPU usage
There are a number of things to consider:
If you are a heavy user of CAD, graphics editing, or audio editing one may find that even the "90% rule" that Tom mentions to be insufficient. In which case setting up an exception to stop SETI running while using such applications is a good idea.
If you are a heavy word processor user then releasing more than one core.
Gaming is very similar to CAD etc - you might have to use the exception route.

Generally I keep one core available for the operating system to "play" with - this is easiest done from within the BOINC manager's GUI:
Swap to the advanced view, then select "options", followed by the "computing tab. You will now see near the top of the tab a line something like "Use x% of the CPU" - by default x is 100, reduce this to 90%, hit "OK", and close the options window.
You will now see a set of tabs - select the "Tasks" tab, and sort by "progress" - you will now see a list of tasks, those at the top are in progress, there should be one that is "waiting", and a number that have a finite amount of progress, with the rest "ready to start".
You can change back to the "pretty" view by going to "view" and select "simple view".

If you come back with what sort of user you are, or want to be, there's a whole lot more things do try.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thanks for all the great feedback. I have mine set at 10% which I now realize is way to low, and is was not making good progress. Ill set it at 80% according to the feedback, I think that should help. Thanks again.

I tend to keep my CPUs at 100%. If I'm using CAD, I find that I just suspend GPU work and it seems to run fast enough. I do 2D work, though, not 3D. If it gets too laggy, then I may suspend altogether for a brief period. I also have been running my Ryzen 3 2200G at 100% (including the integrated GPU) while running Kerbal Space Program and there is no significant performance issue most of the time. Of course that game is a little older and not as demanding; I have not played more recent games, but I would assume that they would suffer performance and would need Boinc suspended.

Unless you are concerned about energy usage, thermals, or noise from the fans ramping up, I would suggest running at 100% of the CPU time. That way you are crunching as much as you can when you are not in front of the computer. If you find that the computer is not performing as well as you would like, you can always back it off then.

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