CPU load value in Task manager and widget may be affected by some minor BIOS incompatibility. In rare cases Task manager may show more than 100 % load.
Why my task manager shows different values from the widget on the taskbar and the app?
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Aaron Leonrdo
0
Reputation points
I already done this question but now I'm in a brand new laptop and the same occurs, it could be because some cores are different from the another? (Zen5 and Zen5c) and the task manager complicates it? It isn't have any delay or anything, it's different.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures
5 answers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(256, 10%, 34%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EIL%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Igor Leyko 110.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor2026-02-20T20:30:08.77+00:00 -
Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-03-05T00:40:20.6533333+00:00 Hello, I know it has passed much days but yes, it could be. Also it occurs to me many times and now I'm starting to think is about how the task manager measure the load, because it only happens in some scenarios like the gpu that sometimes the nvidia app says >90% but the task manager only shows ~30% because of how one measure rather than another. Thank you for your help.
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-03-05T00:43:36.06+00:00 Also I have this same issue in my other laptop but that happened by a Windows update, because before updating it was fine, the other laptop is also a Lenovo AMD brand.
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Igor Leyko 110.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-02-18T19:13:36.1133333+00:00 Please check if you have the latest BIOS. Maybe the problem is related to minor BIOS incompatibilities.
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-02-20T18:44:16.7333333+00:00 Hello, yesterday I updated the BIOS but it still showing similar (not always) but not equal CPU values, it's strange.
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-02-20T18:46:53.5866667+00:00 It only affects the CPU values, not others values, and also I remembered that with the GPU and Apple Music it shows in the process tab the same value (like 13% always), I think it is some incompatibility between drivers, hardware and software, I have all up to date.
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Igor Leyko 110.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-02-18T13:04:32.16+00:00 Please compare values in widget and at Processes tab of Task manager. Two different tabs of Task manager use different averaging intervals (as far as I know).
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-02-18T16:39:36.6266667+00:00 I though the same but it still different, in this moment the widget shows 30-35% and the task manager in the processes shows 14-19% and the performance tab, the same.
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Igor Leyko 110.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-02-17T19:48:11.8733333+00:00 I do not think this behavior was changed. May be changes in software are more meaningful.
Can you compare the data with the Process explorer result? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-02-18T02:52:46.38+00:00 I downloaded Process explorer and it appears to show almost the same values as the task manager in the performance window, so the widhget shows it different? If yes it has not sense because when the cpu is at 100% only the widget shows it. It could be another thing?
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Igor Leyko 110.3K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-02-17T15:28:43.4866667+00:00 Hi,
widget and Task manager use different averaging time periods. So, values may differ.
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Aaron Leonrdo 0 Reputation points
2026-02-17T18:38:43.4833333+00:00 Since when? Because almost one year ago it doesn't happened to me, there were the same values always and now it can differ up to widget showing 90% and the task manager 30% for a while, it's strange.
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