Why does my laptop's CPU usage randomly jump to 100% while I'm playing a game?

Question

Whenever I play a game on my laptop, my CPU usage will jump up to 100% at random times. This causes sever lag for a short time. Although short, this makes the games incredibly hard to play and its quite annoying. My CPU usage usually stays around 75-85% when I play a game but, as i said, it will just to 100% and cause my games to lag randomly. Does anyone know what causes this?

I have Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, a 2.40GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 8.00 GB of RAM, and have a 5.9 Windows Experience Rating.

Answer 1

When web browsing and such, CPU usage should be LOW, as in 2-20%. Also when playing a game this will cause an increase in CPU usage usually 70-80%. At times it may hit 100 but this doesn't cause your lag if your playing over the internet, that would be the bit rate of your internet speed.

Answer 2

you have a core 2 duo processor which may not be able to cope with the high-end games you are playing.Most new games push old processors to their limits.other than the processor your ram is excellent.but the most important part for gaming is your graphics card which you haven't mentioned !

i think you should buy a core-i5 or core-i7 processor for gaming.

Answer 3

Try lowering some graphical effects, or textures in-game.