I build PCs for a living and this has NEVER been checked on any systems by default.

This isn't a window being dumb issue. It's clear that you messed with the settings some time in the past. MSCONFIG does not do selective startup by default. This only happens if a user changes a setting, such as how many cores the computer is allowed to utilize. I know this because toyed with changing core counts before in order to see how it effects overall temps. This is simply a user forgot they changed a setting problem.

Blaming windows for something you changed yourself is like attacking the waiter for bringing you the food you ordered

I'm like 99.9% sure this was fabricated by him for the video. Neither on my i7 2600, my 3800X nor my current 5800X3D had even remotely issues like that. The option is off by default but maybe he tested something in the past and forgot or, more likely, did this on purpose. Windows ability to recognize turn off and on on the core means Windows knows the processor. Why? Because the Mainboard's BIOS passes the info to Windows on boot

You "accidentally" changed it and "forgot", and now blame it to Windows...

It's one of those thing people say "Make your pc faster by selecting the max amount of threads on MSCONFIG", so you go there and set that. Some time later you forget about that and switch to a better CPU with more cores, now your cores are limited. Setting that to the max amount of threads won't make your computer faster, it's the same as disabled, but once you have a lower amount selected, that's where problems starts. Selected max threads = disabled, selected less threads = crippled CPU. As simple as that.

Option existed since Windows 2000 (the first time NT Kernel which we all use to this day). Its a persistent feature especially if you benchmark a lot of PC components such as processors from the same vendor. The reason why the feature is even there is for debugging purposes for technicians to determine if there's an issue with the Processor itself.

User problem, not OS problem. This option is not enabled by default, and its recommended to make a clean install of your OS whenever you upgrade your CPU (on any OS)

That option is unchecked by default, unless you already have it checked previously at lower cores, then after reboot it will show you that max amount. I know this because I turned off my E cores before by choosing 12 on my 12600K system, and after reboot, it will always show 12, you can't change it back to 16 unless you uncheck that option back, do another reboot, then it will show you 16. You're not supposed to check that option anyway if you're not planning to disable your CPU cores purposedly, so if you somehow played around with that option and checked it, then you upgraded to a better CPU, then it's not Windows fault that it won't go past that core amount, because you already instructed Windows to limit the cores to that amount.

Bro thought he cooked

Things like these happen when you've fallen for placebo performance tweak tutorials. In this case, the dumb bug sat in front of the the screen :)

I think the box is by default unchecked, so it should know how many threads there are on the system. The only way it would have been checked is if you were playing with it at one time, directly.

Normally that setting comes unchecked and Windows always uses the maximum amount of cores. Either a windows update or a software must have changed that setting. I see that setting being mentioned in many "windows optimize" videos. If you followed a guide in the past, you may have changed it yourself and simply don't remember doing it so. I don't know how long you have been using the same Windows installation but I definitely recommend reformatting Windows at least every year because stuff like these happen where Windows Registry has a lot of trash in it

But does it mean that in msconfig the box with procesors (core/threads) should be checked (with maximum kr my cores/threads) or unchecked?

I have one question, Why was the box checked in the first place? By default, it is unchecked, valued 0 meaning use all cores. Any reason to manually select highest value.

As others have said sounds like a user error rather than windows. But anyway, would it not make more sense to do a fresh install when doing a system upgrade like this? Start clean and have less risk of these kinda issues?

That option is not even checked by default why would you enable it following some placebo tweaks ? can you really blame Windows if you set this yourself and forgot to change it ? am i missing something?

Ctrl + Shift + Esc > Performance. Check if the system recognizes all your CPU cores and threads (including E cores for intel CPUs) and also if the RAM speed is actually running at it's OC profile. Some updates might bring them back to native speed so you have to run your profile back up again. I've never had any problem with my CPU but my XMP profile did set down to 2666MHz once 😂 thanks for this video

Mine was already unchecked. i have the option for 16. Should i click 16 or leave it unchecked ?

At the default option of unchecked, zero tampering to msconfig. Would be interesting to know could this be an issue to those upgrading CPU with more cores on the same socket?

hey vex, since the new gpu generation have little peformance and efficiency increase compared to previous gen, wouldn't it be interesting to test their peformance on same wattage like, for maybe 65, 75, 100, 125. or even 45w to compare it to a igpu?

This box shouldn't be ticket in the first place. On a standart fresh install of any modern windows this is off by default.

I didn’t understand I’m going to msconfig, I deselect the reboot box and then I don’t touch anything anymore or do I have to go back there and put the flag again?

Do all of those test again, we still like your videos even tho it was 6 cores still love it

That option comes disabled by default. You might have changed it at some point and forgot about it.

Weird.. By default it doesn't checkmark that.. Must've changed it and forgot or some program did it. Either way good info.

so what about latency ? as i play fps games.. some says use only cores to minimize latency and cores with threads are for editting

I wonder if it is the motherboard bios not responding to windows properly. I've had a similar problem with RAM, but when I checked to see through comand line, windows could see all my RAM, when in task manger it would only show up as half the RAM I installed.

Windows is not stupid, you did this to yourself

A side note: I have a 13700k for my office pc and I like the extra E-cores. I dedicate the 8 P-cores (16 threads) to a large task and then I dedicate the 8 E-cores to my browser through task manager so I can watch youtube, social media etc and it's a smooth experience. I tried dedicating cores with my 5800x3d and it doesn't work nearly as well.

Just curious, what testing Utility is that? I prefer the dark UI when monitoring GPU and CPU. Thanks.

What's crazy is the 7800xt is being marketed as a 1440p card, whereas my 6800xt was advertised as a 4k card.

No one should have this issue by default unless they messed around with the setting cause out of the box that option comes unchecked in fresh windows so its not really a windows problem rather it's an user created problem, the video is extremely misleading

Hey bro where you get that picture of mile morales I'm new to pc gaming and getting a pre build one tommorow

What if mine was unchecked but it was only running 1 core? What happens if I use it an click 8 cores?

That trick allows you to test with CPUs of less cores without installing a different CPU. Which for benchmarking is a useful tool.

I upgraded from a 5600x (6 core) to a 5800X3D without any issues. What I suspect is that when you had the 6 core you were messing around with it and you changed that setting in msconfig, and forgot about it. Normally that setting is ALWAYS disabled. It's only enabled manually by the user for troubleshooting (or testing purposes). So, no, Windows is not stupid. (Well, it is stupid sometimes, but not about this). That was straight up user error.

how about freeware driver booster? or game booster they works or else?

Great video. My system was setup to 6 cores and 12 thread and after this fix I now have 16 thread and 8 cores. New system, nothing changed and windows setup it wrongly. Incredibad by windows to have such function. Many people are probably unaware on this issue.

The option is on because you've checked it before,usually is disabled and windows detects automatically the number of cores that can use, just uncheck the option and you will see that windows detect 16 cores

When you had the Ryzen 5 1600 you may have used msconfig to select 6 cores because it is a 6 core processor thinking it would help windows boot speed (like some old guides were saying). Unfortunately as you have worked out it is actually the maximum threads and ends up limiting your physical cores. This sort of thing is why reinstalling Windows when you do a major system upgrade is a good idea.

Mine was unchecked by default and when I checked it the number displaying by default was 1. Ryzen 9 5900X. What am I supposed to do?

Is this a AMD issue? I just checked mine and I do have a older, something like i9 10850K (cheaper 10900K with same performance and OC ability) a 10 core that shows up non checked in that box, and all my 20 cores are showing up in task manager... I am running windows 11, as far as I know updated and fresh install about a year ago. I do a total reinstall every November on my birthday as a gift to myself, with a litle hardware update like swapping or adding something and the last one was a larger SSD for my windows install with space for my favorite games and programs. So maybe that fresh install just fixed it? I honestly never changed processor, or motherboard even, without a fresh install of windows. Maybe that is why, like it never knew I had something else installed kind of? What are your thoughts?

This is not a bug, this is USER ERROR. The fact the box was checked, means at some point you "Manually" had to have set this option when you had your 6-core installed. As this is unchecked by default, and can only be checked manually, nothing else is ever going to check the box. Thus it will always be 6-cores due to this being checked. Obvious that you carried the same windows install across CPU swapping. If it was a fresh install this would not happen, or you remembered that you checked the box in the past. To top that off this means when you had your 12-core Ryzen installed between the 6-core and your X3D 8-Core, you were also only using 6-cores, thus leaving half your CPU cores on the table. Seems like you missed this as well.

Very good observation. It’s def one of the reasons I suggest having a clean slate when you are a hardware tester or reviewer. Every time I do a new cpu/board or gpu I’ll alway always do a clean install and then re apply all my tweaks and settings and then test… tedious but so worth it for a perfect 1:1 comparison

I'm having this problem with high cpu usage (R7 5800x) but also with my gpu (RTX 3070) not maxing out. Is my cpu bottlenecking my gpu?

How could you not notice right away? Windows task manager would be the first thing I'd check after upgrading a cpu. Then run a bench like cinebench r23 or cpu 3:19 z. Also, did the 5900x only run six cores after upgrading from the 1600? Or did you not check lol.

As a system engineer this is a clear case of layer 8 error

I actually had this problem within the past year in my 7 year old build, I have never changed the processor. I just randomly felt like things were getting weird and checked the device manager performance graphs and noticed cores missing on my 6700k. I guess its possible that its always been happening and it just wasn't bad enough for me to notice, but I do feel like it was a pretty sudden change. Its technically true that I may have changed something and forgotten but its only had one processor the whole time so that doesn't make sense. Could it be some other program? Thats possible too, but if that is the case then its still something I didn't do and its a good idea to check.

I keep coming back for the Gen V music so nostalgic while listening to some interesting tech bits

Why are the corners on the KZfaq videos cut (rounded) from today?

I see a ton of commonts about how this video is about an issue no normal gamer would have but this actually happened to me granted I went from a 4 core to a 6 core, i did some optimizations that might have turned that setting on but i knew when i started my PC to check task manager to make sure all cores were reconzied and they were not. So yes this issue is rare and happened to a very select few people its real.

Best advice for PC gamers who still don't feel comfortable with Linux for whatever reason: try to keep everything away from C: and keep only the bare essentials there. Move Steam library, Documents Folder where a lot of games save files to another drive so it becomes very easy and painless to do a full reinstall. And then, every year or two-years or when upgrading CPU always do a full reinstall. Many less headaches to deal with.

WTF mine too. this random video popping up in my feed is a blessing. Thank you bro

Guys, this is absolutely bullshit

YOU BRICKED MY PC @VEX STOP DELETING MY COMMENTS

Would the 5800x3d still get higher fps than the 5900x specifically when Obs streaming at 1080p eSports games such as dota 2?? , also having Chrome,Firefox and Edge all opened while livestresming? Who would push the highest fps there?

Interesting, ive never actually caught any of my systems not reporting the correct amount of cores and threads

Let's go, I love your videos.

why is advanced boot option already set a fixed core number ? the standard is this option is already unchecked. Maybe it was checked with an old CPU before upgraded to the new one ?

How does your recording follow your mouse? What software do you use?

I am an old Windows user and have never seen Windows (or any other OS) not utilizing the correct amount of cores on a CPU by default. I asume the problem occurs with people who benchmark a lot of CPUs with a lot of different settings (including with x cores turned off) and forget to switch the settings back. Still it's not the operating system thats stupid ;) Also this would work a lot better as a short 20-30 second video than an 8 min one.

That option is normally always turned off by default so this suggest that those MSCONFIG settings have been set manually at some point in time. Nothing weird there.

ive noticed in the past that my core were goimg to sleep and i was not able to even wake them back up. i noticed this years ago on my old ryzen 5, ive upgraded my cpu twice since then and whem i went to the config menus and found my way there the box was already unchecked for some reason. couldnt tell you why

You're all good. I like your uploads. Thanx!

Bad take. You had to previously change that setting in order for the system to not recognise all of the cores. That option is greyed-out and in auto by default. You could have made a video of how you had an old setup that was messing up with your new setup, but making this as 'windows is dumb' is a terrible take.

Not saying windows isn't stupid but isn't that check off by default?

something's wrong here... How can i have that issue on... well my laptop somehow (Ryzen 5 5600H).

Thanks for letting me know about this screen. I didn't have this issue as I do fresh installs quite often, thats why being able to manage windows installs from this screen is nice. and now I know about it.

When i upgrade i will keep this in mind, thanks vex cool vid

this is not windows being dumb, that checkbox comes unchecked by default. this is a you problem.

Did you do an inline upgrade from a previous version of windows to 11? This setting is normally off by default. Sometimes weird stuff like this gets enabled after inline upgrades if you didn't do it in the past and forgot that is. Its why I always do a fresh install.

i didn't understand. i had to uncheck the max logical cores count? why?

Had this exact problem with the 5800x3D, upgraded from the 2600X. Ran a few benchmarks and saw the performance was lacking. Looked into it and saw that yes, it was running my new 8 core as a 6 core. All I had to do was install and run Ryzen Master, which told Windows what CPU it was and from then it was all good. I even had to update the BIOS to be sure it would recognize the 5800x3D, I figured that would be a fresh start. But I had to keep my 2600X in while doing this which was my problem. Good video, a lot of people bought the 5800x3D as a final upgrade to milk the older AMD platform. I'm sure it will help some of them.

Hello! I just want to say I appreciate your transparency about this! Everyone makes mistakes it's just whether they're addressed or not. Props for that. I also have the 5800X3D and when i went to msconfig the box was already unchecked. I upgraded from a 3900X (also a 12 core processor like your 5900X) quite a bit ago so there was an upgrade involved like your situation. After looking at some of the comments I see people saying it most likely was user error. We had similar situations and it only happened to one of us. Not saying that solidifies the theory but it does make it more likely. Either way, I'm thankful you addressed it. Also side question: Have you ever looked into PBO2Tuner and setting custom curves on each of your cores with the 5800X3D? It's a great way to improve your performance and I've had all my cores running on a -30 curve ever since. Essentially, it lets you achieve lower voltages alongside higher core frequencies. Temps are way better too.

I'm using i5 9600k and when i go to system config. and advanced options, it show me that number of processors is unchecked and it's on number 1?!?!? When i checked it I can only put 6 max, but i have 8 cores?!?!?! What is going on with my pc?!?!?

How did you get GPU Busy time on MSI afterburner?

Video is unneccesarly too long

So I should click it & use 16 cores & restart?

Did you upgrade from a 6 core 12 thread processor previously? most likely a bug showing the old processor cores and details, thats if you didn't reset bios or update bios because mine through task manager says 16 threads on an 5800x3d.

As a lot of people have pointed out already this is a user error not an OS issue. However id also like to point out that the default "timeout" setting is 30s instead of his 3s so its even more obvious he played around with these settings before. Him still denying all of that just further discredits him.

I think this is why they say to have a clean system when you upgrade so that you don't carry over any problems. Especially with a cpu upgrade.

Everytime I do the processor part, when I restart, it shows me that I have less logical processors.

after you restart your pc and open msconfig and check the box did you apply again?

I upgraded from a 5600X to an 5800X3D and the upgrade felt very underwelming. I checked out many benchmarks of people who had the same setup and I was not getting the same boost they were getting in the games that I play (online racing games). Thanks to your video I now know that Windows was thinking I'm still on the 6 core 5600X. I am now seeing the expected boost in ACC. Thank you.

He turned that on with the old cpu and forgot but it is silly.

I had this issue, I upgraded from a 3900X which had more cores to a 5800X3D a few months ago and didnt even realize it. Thanks for the video. Subbed and liked

i did this and now my pc says i have 1 core and its slow as hell, how can i revert this?

Actually this might be caused by Ryzen Master. I had a 3900X and it had an optional game mode that made the cpu only use 6 cores in game mode. It's possible Ryzen Master accomplishes this by ticking that simple check. Just a thought.

So just another reason to keep avoiding Windows 11?

You mind telling me what app you are using to get your computer data put on your screen during gameplay?

If I have a i7 12700k what should I have it set to?

Nice clickbait, Windows on default doesn't have "Selective startup" option checked. It's always on "Normal startup". You did something in MSCONFIG before and messed up. My Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022 with an i7-12700H and RTX 3070 150W always had "Normal startup". You probably installed a modded Windows.

Now imagine if all the games had native Linux ports

I like that this video helps prove that more cores actually make a big difference in gaming performance

so do i want to have 1 selected or 16 ?

A certified Windows moment

Thanks for showing me this, my computer had this exact problem and I was wondering why my 7900x was showing as a 6 core cpu ( I was beginning to think it was supposed to be like that or I had some old drivers) now I literally get double the performance in cinebench

Acutally helped so much man. Thank you. Had a ryzen 5 5600x before and upgraded to i9 14900k. I didnt understand how my fps still were kind of the same.

Good practice is to always do a fresh Windows installation after changing major hardware parts. Honestly, if a user would ask me to troublehoot and I find a system like this - I would not bother to deepdive and waste my time. Just tell him to reinstall and have a clean start. As you see yourself, there could be a lot of things going wrong or causing issues... I'm a bit disappointed that a techtuber doesn't go that route. A regular user might think this is fine but someone with an idea of configs, drivers, rights, ectcetcetc. should not.