Software Underclocking & Overclocking

tom2u

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2010
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Using an Asus P5Q and E4300 stock but contemplating moving to a quad core.
I don't mind changing the motherboard if need be - looking at a DDR-3 Socket 775 board.
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It would be great to be undervolted most of the time as I don't need the power working on documents. But its a hassle to restart the computer every time I want to change the clock setting. Is there a software solution that can do this? Or is it motherboard specific? The Asus board has something called AI Suite which looks like a software solution but I haven't played with it yet as I'm new to changing clock speeds. I do notice that sometimes the e4300 is running at 1200mhz instead of its stock 1800mhz when the System Idle Process in Task Manager is about 87% or higher. In Physical Memory it seems I'm using about 1/3.

Suggestions?
 
Intel's SpeedStep automatically down-clocks (and under-volts) your CPU when its full power isn't necessary, as you have seen on your E4300. This will happen on any current Intel processor.

AMD also has the same technology with a different name, so their current processors will also automatically down-clock and under-volt.

In other words, just get a new processor and mainboard and don't worry about it. You won't have to change a thing for it to work.
 
The only way to run longer at lower speeds is to spend less time loading the CPU. Also, the processor you have may have an older less efficient version of SpeedStep. A newer CPU would be better at choosing when to down-clock.

All CPUs with SpeedStep have a minimum clock speed. My 2500K has a default clock of 3300, a minimum of 1600, and my current overclock of 4800. My processor spends the majority of its time at 1600 and only jumps to 4800 when something loads one or more of the cores.