Speedstep Question

Booshist · 4 Jul 2008 at 05:01

I am new to owning an Intel, and was a little confused when i saw my CPU Multiplier jumping around in CPU-z, and later found out this was Speedstep adjusting it.

Just wondering what peoples opinions on it are? Is it worth keeping on, is there much of a delay between when you need the extra Hz and when it applies it etc? And basically should i keep it on or off on an overclocked Q6600?

Cheers for any help

ViRuS2k · 4 Jul 2008 at 05:10

I have my Q6600 @3.6ghz with speedstep disabled.

between the time you need extra mhz its a nanosecond thing, you wouldnt notice it.

i have been told when you overclock to disable it from people over at extreme systems.
as it tends to give instability when your clocking ;P

if your running stock then yes its a good idea to have it enabled + it cuts the powerusage and high electric bills

you wouldnt notice the speed switching its something like a nanosecond

if your overclocking then enable it and if you dont like it or it causes instablity then you know what to do, disable it

MadMatty · 4 Jul 2008 at 08:46

On my board I can safely use C1E at my current overclock. Only the multi changes (6-9) probably not much of a power saving, but every little helps

EIST seems to have been auto dissabled by the board so its not an option for me when overclocked.

Pneumonic · 4 Jul 2008 at 09:01

Well run all my clocks with it on makes on seems to make no difference on Asus boards

Corasik · 4 Jul 2008 at 12:12

ViRuS2k said:
I have my Q6600 @3.6ghz with speedstep disabled.

between the time you need extra mhz its a nanosecond thing, you wouldnt notice it.

i have been told when you overclock to disable it from people over at extreme systems.
as it tends to give instability when your clocking ;P

if your running stock then yes its a good idea to have it enabled + it cuts the powerusage and high electric bills
you wouldnt notice the speed switching its something like a nanosecond

if your overclocking then enable it and if you dont like it or it causes instablity then you know what to do, disable it

Speed step only affects overclocking, if the CPU cannot run at the speedstep's reduced voltage. On the whole, as the reduced voltages are only applied when the CPU's running at reduced speed, everything remains stable. I overclock, and still have speedstep enabled. It does wonders for idle temps and has no impact on my systems stability.

IMHO only disable speedstep if your certain its causing system crashes. If the system is stable with speedstep enabled, then its doing more good than harm.

Tetras · 4 Jul 2008 at 12:17

Just wondering what peoples opinions on it are? Is it worth keeping on, is there much of a delay between when you need the extra Hz and when it applies it etc? And basically should i keep it on or off on an overclocked Q6600?

Keep it on... keep it on... keep it on... keep it on...

Admiral Huddy · 4 Jul 2008 at 12:21

I keep mine on.. makes no sense on retaining the overclock on idle.

pastymuncher · 4 Jul 2008 at 14:13

I have C1E and CPU TM function and speedstep all enabled on my rig. Like the Admiral say's, no point in keeping the high clock at idle.

DrSteve · 4 Jul 2008 at 21:16

This thread came at just the right time. I was just about to ask the same question.

Got my Q6600 up to 3.5GHz with all the speedstep settings disabled. Was wondering if I should turn it back on when everything is stable. I wasn't too worried about the multiplier dropping but was a bit worried about the voltage that gets set when at idle. Anyone know how this is worked out? Is it just a % of the load voltage?

Booshist · 4 Jul 2008 at 21:22

Thanks for the replies, having this Speedstep and the EPU6 engine on my P5Q-E it gets quite confusing as theyre all constantly changing voltages and multipliers! Good in the long run though i guess

Corasik · 5 Jul 2008 at 11:31

DrSteve said:
This thread came at just the right time. I was just about to ask the same question.
Got my Q6600 up to 3.5GHz with all the speedstep settings disabled. Was wondering if I should turn it back on when everything is stable. I wasn't too worried about the multiplier dropping but was a bit worried about the voltage that gets set when at idle. Anyone know how this is worked out? Is it just a % of the load voltage?

I think it will drop the voltage by around 10-15%, but it will also switch the multi on the chip to 6, so your 3.5ghz clock would drop to 2.33ghz. Odds are as long as the voltage during speed step is > 1.15V it would still be stable at your clock. But the only way to find out, is try it. Dont bother priming after, as all that will do is load up the cores and up the volts. Just use the computer as normal, as its only liable to crash when lightly loaded, and imho it wont crash anyway.

DrSteve · 6 Jul 2008 at 17:00

Corasik said:
I think it will drop the voltage by around 10-15%, but it will also switch the multi on the chip to 6, so your 3.5ghz clock would drop to 2.33ghz. Odds are as long as the voltage during speed step is > 1.15V it would still be stable at your clock. But the only way to find out, is try it. Dont bother priming after, as all that will do is load up the cores and up the volts. Just use the computer as normal, as its only liable to crash when lightly loaded, and imho it wont crash anyway.

Seems to be running ok so far with speedstep turned on. Managed 3.6Ghz which drops to 2.4 when the multi drops. Also keeps the temps just above room temp when idle.

Mick-1965 · 8 Jul 2008 at 12:44

Pneumonic said:
Well run all my clocks with it on makes on seems to make no difference on Asus boards

Corasik said:
Speed step only affects overclocking, if the CPU cannot run at the speedstep's reduced voltage. On the whole, as the reduced voltages are only applied when the CPU's running at reduced speed, everything remains stable. I overclock, and still have speedstep enabled. It does wonders for idle temps and has no impact on my systems stability.

IMHO only disable speedstep if your certain its causing system crashes. If the system is stable with speedstep enabled, then its doing more good than harm.

The reason ASUS boards are stable with speedstep enabled.
In the earlier days when system instbility was first being reported during overclocking. ASUS modified their BIOS`s to not drop the core voltage when speedstep kicked in, if the system was not running stock.
So if you are overclocked on an ASUS board, when speed step kicks in it only alters the multiplier.
I cant vouch whether other venders have followed suit not having owned anything else other than ASUS boards.

G_Wizz · 8 Jul 2008 at 14:12

Mick-1965 said:
So if you are overclocked on an ASUS board, when speed step kicks in it only alters the multiplier.
I cant vouch whether other venders have followed suit not having owned anything else other than ASUS boards.

Would go along with that, I notice on Gigabyte boards that the voltage does drop on idle when speedstep is enabled.

CraigN · 8 Jul 2008 at 14:28

My skulltrail speedsteps and i cant seem to turn it off

saves on power though.

DrSteve · 8 Jul 2008 at 16:47

G_Wizz said:
Would go along with that, I notice on Gigabyte boards that the voltage does drop on idle when speedstep is enabled.

It drops both the voltage and the multi on my Abit.

MadMatty · 8 Jul 2008 at 17:26

voltage doesnt drop on my Gigabyte board, not a high clock (Havent looked at default). All speedstep options on in bios, but eist gets auto dissabled (everest shows Supported,Dissabled). so only multi changes.

Tuvoc · 8 Jul 2008 at 23:46

Mick-1965 said:
So if you are overclocked on an ASUS board, when speed step kicks in it only alters the multiplier.

Confirmed, P5Q Deluxe only alters the multiplier when CPU is overclocked via the FSB and voltage manually set.

Exception: when overclocking with just the multiplier on my extreme chip, stock FSB, the board does reduce both vcore and multiplier.

What I haven't tried - is to try different northbridge strap settings. Perhaps a 266FSB CPU, with FSB at 333 and Northbridge strap at 333, maybe that is enough to fool it into thinking the CPU is as "stock"

Mick-1965 · 9 Jul 2008 at 08:37

Tuvoc said:
Exception: when overclocking with just the multiplier on my extreme chip, stock FSB, the board does reduce both vcore and multiplier.

If you think about it there is no need to. When speedsteps kicks in and drops the multi to the minimum its effectively putting the cpu back to stock during the speedstep state. so it can safely run at the lower voltage.

( Just me thinking out loud) What would be a nice inclusion from ASUS for the more power saving concious of us. Rather than having a fixed full core voltage all the time, the ability to set core voltage during the speedstep state would be good.

Montegue · 25 Jul 2008 at 10:35

What setting is speedstep on IP35 Pro board?
Must try this out to cut these temps down a tad whilst its pretty toasty these past few days and over the weekend.