is it normal for cpu speed to run below base when little use?

[ExoMale]

thought i would look at the task manager on my laptop and i have never known a processor speed to run less than base during minimal use and by minimal all ive done so far is use browser for this site .

its the ryzen 5 3550h, the base clock is 2.10, but currently its running at 1.38, even on weak laptops ive had with atoms, celerons and so have never run below base speed, also with laptops ive had with dedicated none gaming gpu chips.

 

[benjii]

Yep, that's normal. It's a power saving measure, if you start something that requires more CPU usage the voltage and speed will jump back up. The reason why Atoms or Celerons don't clock down as much, if at all, is because they have to work a lot harder just to do basic tasks. Your Ryzen chip isn't breaking a sweat while browsing the net.

As an aside, when idling or browsing a single tab, my CPU sits at 800Mhz!

 

[linktoinsanity]

AMD's all run slower clocks than their base...









And so do Intel's, in their world it is called Speedstep, in AMD's it's Cool n' Quiet I believe. As Benjii says it is a powersaving measure and is there to save on your electricity bill. You can alter the power settings on your PC to disable this, but there is no real advantage doing this.

 

[~>Dg<~]

actually there is some games it can cause fps spikes or lag. change windows power settings to high performance.

 

[ExoMale]

thanks for replies.

ah that would make sense then ha, this is the first laptop that barely needs to run much when doing basic tasks, so as you can imagine im not used to it ha, so far i think despite downloading/installing things, the only other use my cpu has need to up the anti for is coming out of sleep mode, quite nice how this laptop runs with its smoothness and speed with minimal power .

i would always have speedstep or cool & quiet enabled if any computer i owned had the option, though still never noticed a drop in speed, interesting though.