CPU running at full power?

pinksoir

Ok. I've got a dedicated computer for music production, but I was getting a few problems with the CPU load when I have certain plugins running. It's usually fine, but I ran Everest just to check if anything was amiss and, guess what, it says that my CPU is only running at 1000mhz (5 x 200). I thought this was rather odd as I am using an Athlon 64 3000+ which is a 2Ghz CPU, which should be more than enough for my current set up.

So I'm just wondering, what is the deal? Is my CPU not running at full capacity, or is Everest lying? Are there settings in teh Bios I can adjust to make it run properly? Any help would be very well appreciated.

cheers,
karl.

snappieT

Some processors have power stepping. They automatically decrease in clock speed when it's not needed to conserve power.
You need to run that Everest program when you're actually using the CPU.

cregser

You might be running Cool'n'Quiet which throttles the speed of the CPU depending on requirement. I've had problems with it in the past regarding resuming from standby and switched to using RMClock. My 3500+, stock speed of 2.2GHz, is currently running at 1GHz.

So you may want to disable CnQ in the bios (and use RMClock instead maybe). Either that or your multiplier is set wrong. i.e. should be 10x200

But be extra carefull changing stuff like that.

pinksoir

well, i do have cool and quiet on. hmmm. and, how would one go about changing the multiplier settings?

i don't really want to change it right now because i'm in the middle of recording a whole load of stuff that needs to be submitted on monday, so the last thing i need is a full scale crud up.

you say that yours is running at 1ghz now despite changing to RMClock. why is that?

pinksoir

actually, i had a look in everest again, and it says that the CPU multiplier has a min of x3 and a max of x10. mine is currently set at x5 so it looks like therein lies the problem...

mathias

I might have the answer for you ,
Ive seen this before with AMD motherboards , go into your bios , see if there are these two options ,

" Load failsafe defaults "

" Load optimised defaults"

If so , you are running on failsafe defaults , select the load optimised defaults option and enable it , press F10 to save and exit , and now Windows should report the full speed of your processor .

If this works for you , then be aware , that everytime your pc has an actual crash , it will revert back to failsafe defaults , so when you have a crash , do the above again , hopefully crashes are rare enough , or should be.

pinksoir

thanks a million for that. like i say, i'm in the middle of work at the moment and don't want to tempt fate. but i'm gonna do it in a few days. i'll let you know if that was it.

anyway, thanks a million again. muchh appreciated.

karl.

cregser

pinksoir wrote:

you say that yours is running at 1ghz now despite changing to RMClock. why is that?

RMClock also throttles the CPU speed. By that I mean it runs it at 50% when I'm doing nothing, and steps it up in intervals according to how much I need it. e.g. when watching a video on youtube it may go up to 75%, when playing a game - 100%. It's all automatic. This is what CoolnQuiet does too - but I found it to be buggy.

The idea is to save power and your sanity by not having to run fans at full power all the time. It's also common in laptops these days, to save batteries.

pinksoir

sweet. well i shall try that too then.

is it already in the bios, or is it something i have to download?

8T8

As others have mentioned AMD's cool & quiet allows the CPU to clock down it's speed when idle to lower noise and heat output.

When the CPU is under load it automatically clocks back up to full speed.

The way C&Q is enabled is;
C&Q turned on in bios.
AMD CPU driver installed in XP.
Minimal power management set as power scheme in Windows power options control panel.

So all you have to do to get it to full speed is to change the power scheme in the control panel from minimal to something else and that will turn off C&Q.

pinksoir

so should i change the multiplier manually form x5 to x10 (the maximum) too? or would cool and quiet just change the multiplier automatically?

thanks for your help.

karl.

AlmightyCushion

There should be a way to turn off the cool n quiet in the bios.

8T8

pinksoir wrote:

so should i change the multiplier manually form x5 to x10 (the maximum) too? or would cool and quiet just change the multiplier automatically?

thanks for your help.

karl.

No don't do anything to the multiplier at all thats asking for trouble.

To disable cool & quiet all you have to do is in Windows go into the control panel\power options section and change the power scheme from "minimal power management" to one of the others it doesn't matter which as cool & quiet is disabled on all other profiles.

When cool & quiet is operational it automatically handles the slow down and speed up of the CPU so when the CPU is busy it clocks it back up to maximum speed. When cool & quiet is disabled the CPU operates at it's maximum speed at all times.

pinksoir

alright then. that could have resulted in a catastrophe. cheers, i'll do that next time i'm in the studio.

again, thanks.

pinksoir

ok, i checked the power management settings, and its currently set at home/office. so it isn't that its set at 'minimal' that is causing this...

any other ideas?

pinksoir

so i went into the bios and disabled cool n quiet and now everest reads the cpu as 10 x 200, or 2000mhz. should i leave it at that. is there any disadvantage of leaving CNQ off?