Core 2 quad Q6600 "low power" acting oddly

[Rigsta]

I just finished putting my new rig together, but a couple of things are odd.

We'll leave the matter of the XP x64 service pack 2 installer falling on its arse repeatedly for another day.... I think I'm on my way to fixing that anyway. </gripe>


In short, The CPU clock speed keeps changing. It's specced for 2.40GHz out of the box, and says so in the CPU name/description in the BIOS and CPU-Z.

The actual clock speed and multiplier keep changing. On the POST screen, it states 1866MHz with a multiplier of 7. In CPU-Z it alternates between a 6x and 7x multiplier, 1600MHz and 1866MHz respectively.

Is something wrong here or am I seeing the results of some power-saving technology or the like? Note this is the first intel CPU I've owned for years.



Other specs:
650W Akasa PSU
XFX nforce 790i mobo
4GB PC2-8500 RAM
XFX Geforce 8800 GTX
2x 10,000 RPM (in RAID 0) and 1x 7,200 RPM HDD
6 USB devices attached, no significant power-eaters.

 

[RJC]

What your seeing is speedstep, the multiplier drops when the cpu is idle then raises when stressed, run an stress test programme like prime or orthos and see what the multiplier raises to.

If you want to disable this you need to find EIST & C1E in the BIOS.

Edit: You may need to check the multiplier in the BIOS, check that it is set to 9.

Rob

 

[-iceblade^]

as above, it is some sort of power saving tech... follow the instructions above to get rid of it...

 

[Klo]

Under stress it should read 9 hopefully. For me it dropped to 6 when in power saving.

 

[crazyDAJT]

as above, it is some sort of power saving tech... follow the instructions above to get rid of it...

but there is no real reason to turn it off, unless you can prove it is creating system instability, its virtually instantaneous.

 

[The Asgard]

I always leave it on regardless of my OC. Never any issues

 

[-iceblade^]

i agree, but the OP sounds like he doesn't like it and it disturbs him

i frankly think it's better to leave it on.

 

[The Asgard]

-iceblade^
Love the sig mate. Spot on !!

 

[Dangerous Dave]

If its the BIOS post screen showing 7x at 1866 its picking up the wrong multipler go into the bios at set the multiplier to 9, the BIOS post screen should always show the speed of the CPU without speedstep so it sounds like its set to 7 in the BIOS.

When in windows speedstep is then dropping it to 6 speed however at full load if its only going up to 7x due to the BIOS either having the multiplier set to 7x or not automatically picking it up correctly.

 

[V|per]

If its the BIOS post screen showing 7x at 1866 its picking up the wrong multipler go into the bios at set the multiplier to 9, the BIOS post screen should always show the speed of the CPU without speedstep so it sounds like its set to 7 in the BIOS.

When in windows speedstep is then dropping it to 6 speed however at full load if its only going up to 7x due to the BIOS either having the multiplier set to 7x or not automatically picking it up correctly.

Quoted for absolute truth, do what this guy says!

 

[Rigsta]

Cheers m'dears, I left C1E turned on now I know what it is (speedstep was actually disabled already) and upped the multiplier to 9 in the CMOS, which is as high as it would go. It caught me out because it's the first time I've had to change an option to get a chip running at its default clock speed. That and the multiplier was on a different sub-menu to the one I originally found >.>

The windows update problem was due to a corrupt initial download. I "solved" that by downloading an offline SP2 installer and reformatting. I discovered Nlite while researching, and what a useful app it is too I now have an XP x64 setup CD with SP2, core and RAID drivers for my system all included


It scored 12,003 in 3DMark '06 at defaults, it'll be nice to see how it scores with a good defrag, CPU/RAM tweaks and that extra 8800 GTX fitted