BIOS vs Windows 7 System Properties

Jono · 27 Jan 2010 at 21:36

Hi,

According to the BIOS it says I have an i7 2.67GHz...Frequency is 4GHz.

When I go into windows it says 2.67 @ 2.67...

What's that all about?

I'm sure when I had a Q6600 windows showed the OC'd freq....

reflux · 27 Jan 2010 at 21:37

Nope, Windows gets it wrong. Best to check CPU-Z anyway.

Jono · 27 Jan 2010 at 21:59

Well that's odd.

CPU-Z is saying something like 2.4...then something else was 3.6 in there.

reflux · 27 Jan 2010 at 22:02

Jono said:
Well that's odd.

CPU-Z is saying something like 2.4...then something else was 3.6 in there.

SpeedStep. Standard on most Intel CPUs since the Pentium III.

Jono · 27 Jan 2010 at 22:11

Que?

Anyway, here's something from the report....

Processors Information
Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 4 (max 8)
Number of threads 8 (max 16)
Name Intel Core i7 920
Codename Bloomfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 1366 LGA (0x1)
CPUID 6.A.5
Extended CPUID 6.1A
Core Stepping D0
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 2400.0 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 12.0 x 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 3600.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2666 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, EM64T, VT-x
L1 Data cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 4 x 32 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 4 x 256 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L3 cache 8 MBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes

Turbo Mode supported, enabled
Max non-turbo ratio 20x
Max turbo ratio 22x
Max efficiency ratio 12x

Still confused.

reflux · 27 Jan 2010 at 22:13

Your CPU is running at 4GHz under load. It clocks down to 2.4ghz or so when idle to save power. Windows only reports the stock frequency.

Jono · 27 Jan 2010 at 22:45

AH cool, Just downloading some 3dmark whatsit

Thank you.

twist3d0n3 · 27 Jan 2010 at 23:11

mine says i7 2.67GHz @ 2.66GHz

windows = lame

bifday2k · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:02

Re- run the windows experience score stuff..

Mine says E8400 @ 3.00Ghz 3.60Ghz

But before re-running the index score, it was showing it being stock.

Alfie · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:50

This is basic stuff. Get in the bios and disable Speedstep and C1E under CPU settings. And there you go, Windows will report 4ghz.

Windows is not "lame", It is reporting the corrrect clocks but as someone said, the CPU underclocks to save power with C1E and Speedstep and goes up to 4ghz under load.

paradisiac · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:58

Alfie said:
This is basic stuff. Get in the bios and disable Speedstep and C1E under CPU settings. And there you go, Windows will report 4ghz.

Windows is not "lame", It is reporting the corrrect clocks but as someone said, the CPU underclocks to save power with C1E and Speedstep and goes up to 4ghz under load.

agreed, its not something wrong or broken in windows, its just the way the cpu is setup in the bios. if the cpu is running as it should then does it matter what windows reports? if windows said it was running at 100GHz doesnt mean thats what its actually running at. windows takes its info from the cpu settings. turn off all the power saving functions and you will get windows to tell you what its running at.