My AMD 3.0 Ghz CPU runs at 1.8Ghz or 800Mhz in Win Xp

[mrephunk]

I just did a system build with an AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz CPU and a BIOSTAR A785GE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard and installed Windows XP on it. I did all the bios updates as well as Windows updates and when I checked in the system settings it said it had a 1.8ghz CPU. So I ran CPU-Z and at first it said 1.8Ghz and then suddenly dropped to 800Mhz. What is going on here? Please help.

Here are the results of the CPU-Z :

Processors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors 1
Number of threads 2

APICs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0 0
-- Core 1
-- Thread 0 1

Processors Information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 4)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name AMD Athlon II X2 250
Codename Regor
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 250 Processor
Package Socket AM2+ (940)
CPUID F.6.2
Extended CPUID 10.6
Brand ID 13
Core Stepping BL-C2
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 800.2 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 4.0 x 200.0 MHz
HT Link speed 2000.4 MHz
Stock frequency 3000 MHz
Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64
L1 Data cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 1024 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 5.0x - 15.0x
Max VID 1.375 V

Package Type 0x1
Model 50
String 1 0x3
String 2 0x6
Page 0x0
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 0
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 1
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 2
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 3
Attached device PCI device at bus 0, device 24, function 4

 

[MU_Engineer]

The behavior you are talking about is the the action of Cool 'n Quiet adjusting the CPU speeds when the CPU is not heavily loaded. If you want to see the CPU go all the way up to 3.0 GHz, run something that will significantly stress the CPU for a few seconds.

 

[mrephunk]

So then its not a conflict with the MOBO cause thats what I was starting to think? Are there any negative effects from have the Cool n Quiet feature enabled? Can I disable it without problems?

 

[someguy7]

You could disable it but there is no reason to. It is a GOOD thing and just leave it be.

 

[MU_Engineer]

So then its not a conflict with the MOBO cause thats what I was starting to think?

Nope, everything is working exactly as it should.

Are there any negative effects from have the Cool n Quiet feature enabled?

Not really. The only negative things about Cool 'n Quiet are that it can mess with overclocking and with applications that are extremely sensitive to tiny differences in run times of subsequent runs. If you use your machine for anything except some highly-specialized mathematical/engineering/statistical applications and leave it at stock speeds, then you won't see any negative effects. On the plus side, your CPU will run cooler and the CPU heatsink fan will run slower and more quietly since the CPU is producing less heat when not running at full load.

Can I disable it without problems?

Yes, you can, but there's not much of a reason to do so except in very specific cases. People generally turn Cool 'n Quiet off if they are benchmarking as you can get a very slightly higher score in some benchmarks if the CPU doesn't need to take the 0.03 second or so to go from 800 MHz to 3.00 GHz. The only "work-related" case I can think of is if you are compiling and running certain self-optimizing mathematical software, namely BLAS. That specific piece of software figures out exactly what options it should enable as it test-compiles parts of itself and times them before starting its final compilation. Introducing a few milliseconds of variance in between test runs throws off its optimization calculations, but the program specifically tells you to temporarily disable Cool n' Quiet/SpeedStep before the compile starts. Unless you are a guy doing a lot of heavy mathematical and statistical analysis, I doubt you'll run into anything like that.