CPU showing wrong speed in Windows

[rufdymond]

Hi, I recently purchased the

“OVERCLOCKED* Intel Core i7 920) 2.66Ghz @ 4.00GHz Max / Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Intel X58 Motherboard / Corsair 6GB DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz DDR3 Bundle” (Great Bundle)

Everything is working fine and stable, but there is one peculiarity that has me a bit confused. If I go into the bios and check the speed of the cpu it reads 3.89Ghz; however when I check the speed in windows under system information it reads 2.79Ghz.

Do I have a problem – or is it windows reducing the speed of the cpu to save power etc…and if so is it possible to disable this.

I’m running “Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Edition”

 

[burtie]

I believe this is speedstep which is fine.

 

[blaineoliver]

Run CPU-Z while stressing the cpu to check.

 

[HazardO]

System information only reports what it thinks the CPU is, not what it's doing. if it were speedstep it would be 2.4GHz. Use CPU-Z with and without a CPU stress application like Prime. You should see 2.4GHz idle and 4GHz load.

 

[rufdymond]

I'll dowload CPU-Z later and let you know how I get on - thanks for the advice.

 

[linktoinsanity]

Those bundles clock to 3.8Ghz unless you really stress the cpu. Run prime95 blend to whack the cpu up to full load and then read off what CPU-Z says.

 

[~>Dg<~]

yep check speed while doing something and youll probably notice its at its proper speed. believe its to save on the leccy bills

 

[Temi_D]

Windows usually reads OCed cpus wrong. I got my E6300@ 3.7GHz(cpuz and bios) but windows says its at 3.5

 

[blaineoliver]

CPU-Z does not equal windows, cpu-z will the the actual frequency, check it on that to make sure its actually at the correct speed.