Last week I bought a Gateway T2300 Core Duo laptop. I ran the CPU-Z program to look at the specs and frequency of the processor. Much to my surprise I noticed that the core frequency is only at 997.9 MHz. Should it not runs at 1.6GHz? I know that a laptop can slow down its speed when it does not need too much processing power. However, even if I am running a CPU intensive application, the core still stay at 998 MHz. Anyone has an idea if this is normal?
Last week I bought a Gateway T2300 Core Duo laptop. I ran the CPU-Z program to look at the specs and frequency of the processor. Much to my surprise I noticed that the core frequency is only at 997.9 MHz. Should it not runs at 1.6GHz? I know that a laptop can slow down its speed when it does not need too much processing power. However, even if I am running a CPU intensive application, the core still stay at 998 MHz. Anyone has an idea if this is normal?
Thank you!
Sylvain
Core CPUs throttle frequency down to save power when no intensive work is needed, it's perfectly normal. What application have you run to check it?
Try running something like an antivirus and you should see the frequency pop to the nominal 1.6GHz.
Try running multiple apps at once. IE: Play a movie, open a couple internet browsers, listen to music, etc. Or better yet, encode MP3s using iTunes while playing a movie. Doing this should use both of the processors and have them run at the normal clock speed of 1.6 GHz.
Try running multiple apps at once. IE: Play a movie, open a couple internet browsers, listen to music, etc. Or better yet, encode MP3s using iTunes while playing a movie. Doing this should use both of the processors and have them run at the normal clock speed of 1.6 GHz.
Thanks. I did as you suggested and am now running 2 virtual dub with some CPU intensive filter. Each one is taking 1 CPU giving me 100% of total usage in the task manager. My core still remains at 1GHz. I also run Notebook Hardware Control and it show 1GHz. I tried to change the cpu speed to "max performance" but it has no effect...
Some programs or utilities can alter how the CPU frequency scaling works. You only want ONE to do those functions, and XP has the SpeedStep governor built into it. I am not a Windows expert, but I think you want to set it to "Portable/Laptop" to let the CPU scale its frequency up and down. "Home/Office Desk" pegs the cores at full speed all the time, and "Max Battery" locks the cores at minimum speed all the time, which would act like your computer did.
