q8300 cpu speed questions

CodeMonkey

Recently built a budget gaming system with the q8300 and a G31M-ES2L motherboard. Just a little confused about what the system is telling me. The last PC I got was a pentium 4 like 6/7 years ago so I'm not very up to date with some stuff.

Ok, the initial bios setting was 333x6 so the CPU core was running at 2ghz essentially. The windows 7 property would report a speed of 2.1/2.2ghz. I am a little confused on why the numbers are different.

I have it overclocked now with the setting 400x7 so the bios and boot up screen is telling me it's running at 2.8ghz but windows is telling me that it's running at 3ghz. Google didn't give me much info so can anyone tell me what's going on?

DECEiFER

CodeMonkey wrote: »

Recently built a budget gaming system with the q8300 and a G31M-ES2L motherboard. Just a little confused about what the system is telling me. The last PC I got was a pentium 4 like 6/7 years ago so I'm not very up to date with some stuff.

Ok, the initial bios setting was 333x6 so the CPU core was running at 2ghz essentially. The windows 7 property would report a speed of 2.1/2.2ghz. I am a little confused on why the numbers are different.

I have it overclocked now with the setting 400x7 so the bios and boot up screen is telling me it's running at 2.8ghz but windows is telling me that it's running at 3ghz. Google didn't give me much info so can anyone tell me what's going on?

Don't mind what Windows is saying. Get CPU-Z (freeware) or something similar and see what that tells you.

CPU-Z here:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Solitaire

A stock Q8300 doesn't run at 333x6, it runs at 333x7.5 (2.5GHz). And sure enough, if you set the mobo to FSB1600 mode (400MHz bus speed) the CPU would run at 3GHz (400x7.5). Why would you or the OEM drop the CPU multiplier while running it at FSB1333, much less OCd to FSB1600?!?

DECEiFER

Solitaire wrote: »

A stock Q8300 doesn't run at 333x6, it runs at 333x7.5 (2.5GHz). And sure enough, if you set the mobo to FSB1600 mode (400MHz bus speed) the CPU would run at 3GHz (400x7.5). Why would you or the OEM drop the CPU multiplier while running it at FSB1333, much less OCd to FSB1600?!?

Good point. Can't you just leave the BIOS clock settings on Auto or "By SPD"? I've never seen the BIOS get that wrong before. If you leave it on automatic then chances are Windows will follow suit. Though, again, never trust Windows on its own. Use a program or two like CPU-Z to get the real story if in doubt.

PogMoThoin

Also, cpu-z will report what speeds its seeing at the time, Speedstep will downclock Your cpu multiplier in windows when there's not much happening

DECEiFER

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Also, cpu-z will report what speeds its seeing at the time, Speedstep will downclock Your cpu multiplier in windows when there's not much happening

It might be a good idea to do something to spark the CPU usage enough to give it the full clock speed and multiplier. Anything at all will do, just make sure it'll last long enough so you can get the information.

In the meantime, try setting all CPU and Memory clocks back to Auto/By SPD in the BIOS. If you can't do that, use Solitaire's 333x7.5 figures manually. You shouldn't overclock anyhow unless you have worked out what voltage to set your Vcore and Vdimm. Read up on your hardware first, get a figure to start on, then run Stress/Burn tests (Prime95/Intel Burn Test) to check if it's stable. The key is to get the lowest possible voltage where the system can run stable. Prime95 is not the best program in the world, and to test efficiently, it'll need to run without error for nearly 24 hours. Intel Burn Test is quicker, you can spend around 90 minutes doing about 20 burn rounds with that program. Beware, you should note that the Burn test will work your CPU much harder than Prime95 or any application would. This will increase your CPU and its cores' temperatures to 70+, perhaps even 80+, depending on cooling and how high the Vcore voltage is set.

Intel says:
"VID Voltage Range: 0.8500V-1.3625V"
(http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=39107)

Don't go over the max voltage on that range. And for a small overclock up to 2.8GHz, you wouldn't need to go anywhere near there at all. Again, you need to do research. Google is a good place to start.


Though, if you're happy enough with stock speeds, you can avoid all that hassle and go with the automatic clock speeds (if possible), or the clock speed and multiplier that Solitaire mentioned (again, 333x7.5) manually.

CodeMonkey

Solitaire wrote: »

A stock Q8300 doesn't run at 333x6, it runs at 333x7.5 (2.5GHz). And sure enough, if you set the mobo to FSB1600 mode (400MHz bus speed) the CPU would run at 3GHz (400x7.5). Why would you or the OEM drop the CPU multiplier while running it at FSB1333, much less OCd to FSB1600?!?

Yeah I know a stock q8300 shouldn't be running at 333x6, that's why this is kinda weird. CPUZ tells me it's running at 400 bus speed and fluctuates between 6 and 7 multiplier. That looks like the g31m0es2l mobo's energy saver thingy underclocking it when it's not stressed. It stays permanently on 400x7 when stressed which is 2.8ghz.

I think a mobo bios update might be in order as it doesn't every give me a 7.5 multiplier. The speed reported by windows looks to be not right if cpuz is accurately reporting speeds and stuff. Thanks for the leads everyone.

CodeMonkey

After bios update the 7.5 multiplier is kicking in properly now. When not under load, the cpu runs at 400x6 and when stressed it'll go to 400x7.5. Problem fixed

DECEiFER

CodeMonkey wrote: »

After bios update the 7.5 multiplier is kicking in properly now. When not under load, the cpu runs at 400x6 and when stressed it'll go to 400x7.5. Problem fixed

Glad the BIOS flash made it all work properly for you. That's a 20% overclock, though. Have you addressed the voltage issues?

CodeMonkey

DECEiFER wrote: »

Glad the BIOS flash made it all work properly for you. That's a 20% overclock, though. Have you addressed the voltage issues?

The mobo dynamically adjusts the voltage for me. When idling the core voltage fluctuates betwee 1.07 to 1.12V. When running prime95 the core voltage jumps up to 1.25V and stays there. Everything seems to be stable, will run some tests with Intel Burn test later as I am lazy now and starcraft2 is calling...

The memory is not being overclocked so no need to adjust the vdimm...that is unless vdimm is for something else

I don't see any bios option to disable speedstep which is surprising. I've read that this feature messes with windows software used to overclock the system. I am doing this overclocking through the bios anyway so I am just going to ignore it and leave it on, seems to work anyway

DECEiFER

CodeMonkey wrote: »

The mobo dynamically adjusts the voltage for me. When idling the core voltage fluctuates betwee 1.07 to 1.12V. When running prime95 the core voltage jumps up to 1.25V and stays there. Everything seems to be stable, will run some tests with Intel Burn test later as I am lazy now and starcraft2 is calling...

The memory is not being overclocked so no need to adjust the vdimm...that is unless vdimm is for something else

I don't see any bios option to disable speedstep which is surprising. I've read that this feature messes with windows software used to overclock the system. I am doing this overclocking through the bios anyway so I am just going to ignore it and leave it on, seems to work anyway

SpeedStep is also referred to with the acronym EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology). If you're having stability problems, disable EIST and C1E. Are you sure the memory clocks have not been affected by the increase in FSB clock speed from 333 to 400? CPU-Z should tell you what it set at currently.

CodeMonkey

DECEiFER wrote: »

SpeedStep is also referred to with the acronym EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology). If you're having stability problems, disable EIST and C1E. Are you sure the memory clocks have not been affected by the increase in FSB clock speed from 333 to 400? CPU-Z should tell you what it set at currently.

yeah, changed the memory frequency multiplier to 2x so it's running 400x2. The crucial memory i got are rated at 800mhz but i can probably overclock them at little, had them running at 960mhz (2.4 multiplier) earlier and they were fine but just keeping them at 800mhz for now as i can't be bothered at the moment though. There's probably a bios setting for dynamic voltage adjustment for that too. This is meant to be a very overclocking friendly mobo.

DECEiFER

CodeMonkey wrote: »

yeah, changed the memory frequency multiplier to 2x so it's running 400x2. The crucial memory i got are rated at 800mhz but i can probably overclock them at little, had them running at 960mhz (2.4 multiplier) earlier and they were fine but just keeping them at 800mhz for now as i can't be bothered at the moment though. There's probably a bios setting for dynamic voltage adjustment for that too. This is meant to be a very overclocking friendly mobo.

I normally leave the voltages on auto except for when overclocking. Any BIOS I've ever overclocked on usually overdoes the voltage. I suppose it's better for stability, but not so good for temperatures, and if it overdoes it too much, not so good for the longevity of the CPU.

Did you find options to disable EIST and C1E? Sure, leave them on for the moment and see how it goes. Just remember them for the future in case stability is a concern down the line.


Good luck with it!

Solitaire

Hopefully you can keep EIST without issue, its far more OC-friendly than old SpeedStep and AFAIK all Intel 45nm chips need EIST enabled to reach their highest multiplier. With EIST enabled you can hit x7.5 on a Q8300; I suspect if you disabled it you would only be able to go as far as x7