I was reading this thread and became curious.
Every time I run Parallel pi, my 8700k jumps to 100% or high 90's load, no matter the priority. Perhaps a bios setting would allow it to run at half load that I'm not aware of.
Leeghoofd would understand this better than me, but this does show the beauty of software like Bench Mate for competitions with restrictions. Very nice indeed, IMO