Why is my Quad Core QX6700 CPU @ 1600MHz?

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:15

The Halk said:
A few seconds is plenty.

Othos has been running now for 40 mins & I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for or what it should be doing as it's still saying 1000MHz FSB in the CPU speed field.

The Halk · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:26

Close CPUz and restart it once Orthos is running, that should measure the CPU speed accurately.

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:32

I have Orthos running a Stress CPU with Gromacs core test, closed down CPU-Z then re-opened & it isn't budging off 1600MHz.

It been running now for over 10 minutes.

My memory speed is also a concern though.

ns400r · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:35

Notorious Lee said:
But why is CPU-Z showing that my memory bandwidth is at 400Mhz?

I am know expert at all but to me the settings in my BIOS are all wrong.

What do you think?

400MHz, That is correct.

1.6GHZ (6 x 266) is also correct when SpeedStep has reduced the CPU speed on idle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep

Read the manual for your motherboard and set the default muliplier for your CPU to its correct value. Turn on or off certain bios features as already mentioned earlier to enable or disable the Speedstep features of the CPU.

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:39

The motherboard I have is the Asus P5N32E-SLi & it doesn't state anywhere in the manual what the correct multiplier setting is.

In the BIOS I have the AI Tuning set to auto which should load the optimal settings for the system.

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:43

Should the multiplier be set to x10 in the BIOS (10 x 266) = 2.6 GHz.

Also, in CPU-Z it stated a bus speed of 266.7 MHz & a rated FSB of 1066.7 MHz. Is this correct?

ns400r · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:51

CPU Multiplier = 10x

'Base Bus Speed' = 266

FSB = 266 x 4 = 1066

10 x 266 = 2660

Memory = 'Base Bus Speed' x Number set by you to match your memory. i.e. 266 x 3 = 798 (400 x2 as reported by CPU-Z as its DDR) = 800 (rounded).

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 17:58

Ok.

So I am a complete beginner as you already know when it comes to tweaking, etc.

Therefore, is it just a case of entering my BIOS & changing the CPU muliplier to x10?

Do I need to change anything else such as voltages, etc?

Also, does this mean that when speed step is enabled slowing down the cpu when idle that the slowest it will get would be the base speed which would then be 2.6GHz or would it still drop lower than that when idle keeping my temps down?

The Halk · 16 Jun 2007 at 18:28

Notorious Lee said:
Ok.

So I am a complete beginner as you already know when it comes to tweaking, etc.

Therefore, is it just a case of entering my BIOS & changing the CPU muliplier to x10?

Do I need to change anything else such as voltages, etc?

Also, does this mean that when speed step is enabled slowing down the cpu when idle that the slowest it will get would be the base speed which would then be 2.6GHz or would it still drop lower than that when idle keeping my temps down?

Turn off AI. Switch to to 10x. Speed step won't increase the speed, it'll only slow it down. You should never "feel" speed step running, it should be seamless.

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 18:49

Thanks for the advice.

However, please tell me if i'm wrong but if I had AI tuning set to auto then surely this should set the multiplier to the correct value automatically to suit the speed of my cpu?

ns400r · 16 Jun 2007 at 18:50

Notorious Lee said:
Thanks for the advice.

However, please tell me if i'm wrong but if I had AI tuning set to auto then surely this should set the multiplier to the correct value automatically to suit the speed of my cpu?

Not if you have the default multipier manually set to something other than 10x.

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 18:56

Like I said earlier all I have done is updated the BIOS & haven't touched a thing.

The AI tuning has always been set to auto but for some reason the muliplier is set to x6.

The Halk · 16 Jun 2007 at 19:01

Notorious Lee said:
Like I said earlier all I have done is updated the BIOS & haven't touched a thing.

The AI tuning has always been set to auto but for some reason the muliplier is set to x6.

It's possibly a default setting to avoid problems, by setting it to x6 every CPU will work... that way people can change to the appropriate setting in BIOS themselves.

In any case, you should be up to speed now, right?

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 19:11

Yeah.

I really appreciate everybodies advice & I will now enter BIOS & change the multiplier.

Thanks again.

chaparral · 16 Jun 2007 at 19:16

The Halk said:
It's possibly a default setting to avoid problems, by setting it to x6 every CPU will work... that way people can change to the appropriate setting in BIOS themselves.

My evga motherboard was default in a safe mode the first time i used it and after i flash the bios....if i remember right...

Notorious Lee · 16 Jun 2007 at 19:27

A very strange thing has happened since I have increased the multiplier to x10.

Since I have done this I cannot access the welcome screen, vista control panel or even other applications.

However, when I change it back to x6 I get those applications back.

Why do you think this is?

The Halk · 17 Jun 2007 at 03:57

I'm at a loss. However, given that the multiplier wasn't on spec, I'm thinking perhaps other settings aren't what they should be.

If it was an A64 I'd say to get A64 tweaker, and screenshot it, since that would show a whole lot of settings at once.

I do not know if there is something similar for Intel.

Something I don't remember being mentioned is telling the BIOS to reset to defaults, have you tried that?

Notorious Lee · 17 Jun 2007 at 13:03

I will deffinately try that.

Obviously worse things were going through my mind like a damaged processor becuase it's as if the system is unstable running at 2.6Ghz & that's only the CPU's stock speed.

I will default the BIOS & let you know how I get on.