I5 2500K clocks keep changing

[Yana3ear]

Hi all,

Just finished putting together my new system yesterday comprising of the following parts:

CPU: i5 2500K
MOBO: MSI P67A-GD53 (B3)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB
SSD: OCZ 60GB Agility 3 SSD
HDD: Seagate 1TB 3.5" Barracuda SATA-III
GFX: Gainward GTX 570 Phantom
PSU: Antec TruePower New 750W Modular
COOLER: Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced
CASE: Fractal Design Arc
SOUND: X-Fi XtremeAudio

Very happy with it so far! However, one thing I've already noticed is that the clock speeds on the CPU aren't always 3.3ghz? Does the 2500K have a 'eco' setting whilst the system is idle? Reason for the question is I've just installed Crysis 2 at the clock speeds were 1.596 (first link). However after it finished installing, it shot back to 3.3 (second link), but at the time of writing this, it's back down to 1.584?

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y140/EvoStorm1988/SS1.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y140/EvoStorm1988/SS2.jpg

Any ideas or am I just being paranoid?

Cheers!

 

[x Heavy]

In my own bios (MSI board with i7 2600k 1155) I have what is called green power. It will force a power down to save juice and also has a euro trash setting to save more power. Also there is a phase switching where you can allow the system to spool up or throttle back on it's own.

Disabling all of that power crap and going into your control panel and building a Power plan that is always on with everything never sleeping, hybernatie or suspend state. That helps too.

It seems that Factories are trying to keep us into league with tree huggers and smurfs by forcing emissions control down our throats as they did with the old 60's and 70's engines. I for one wont accept it.

All power, full power every time.

What do you think Captian Kirk screaming Scotty I want power and I want it now!

Scotty, sorry... that green tech doo hickey just throttled everything down.

 

[outlw6669]

Yes, it is quite normal for the CPU to change operating frequencies on the fly.
When it us under no/moderate load it will drop the frequency and voltage in order to save power, when under a heavy load it can automatically overclock for better performance.

 

[AdrianPerry]

As said previously it's normal for your CPU to change what Hz its running it.

Running at a lower frequency with automatic voltage selection will also save your electric bill.

If your only using your web browser your i5 doesn't need to be running at 1.4v pushing a 4.5GHz over-clock It can intelligently run with much lower consumption and ill boost itself up if it needs to.

Nice overall build by the way, how are you finding the GTX 570's performance? Have you over-clocked it at all?

 

[Yana3ear]

Ah ok, nothing major then!

Nice overall build by the way, how are you finding the GTX 570's performance? Have you over-clocked it at all?

Thanks first impressions are very good! I'm still transferring my data from my old PC across to this one so I haven't really had the chance to test the 570 properly yet, however I did play an hour or so of Starcraft 2 and Bad Company 2 last night as we all know it's just got to be done on a new machine! Performance was very impressive in comparison to my old machine, my old GTX275 used to run everything fine in fairness to it but it stuggled slightly during 200/200 army battles in SC2. Normal field combat in BC2 was fine but any close up explosions or tank fire made it cry like a little girl...

Haven't overclocked anything yet but I intend to get the i5 to around 4.0ghz. Regarding the 570, I've never overclocked my gfx before so I'm a little in the dark as to what it will take to be honest..

 

[jonpaul37]

It has been quite some time since i have overclocked my 2600k but i know you can completely disable these "features" in the BIOS for an ASUS P67 mobo by turning off speedstep, C1E, C3 & C6 etc... (not sure if those are the exact settings but close enough)

In other words, it wasn't just the "green power" setting i had to change to achieve my constant 4.6 clock, there were others...

Also, i did notice that before i changed those settings, my CPU would throttle down during idle but also while playing games as well, i would keep CPUZ up and then Alt+Tab out the game and the speed was @ 1.6 This is the reason i disabled those "C" options - so i would not have to worry about getting optimal performance...

 

[AdrianPerry]

Ah ok, nothing major then!

Nice overall build by the way, how are you finding the GTX 570's performance? Have you over-clocked it at all?

Thanks first impressions are very good! I'm still transferring my data from my old PC across to this one so I haven't really had the chance to test the 570 properly yet, however I did play an hour or so of Starcraft 2 and Bad Company 2 last night as we all know it's just got to be done on a new machine! Performance was very impressive in comparison to my old machine, my old GTX275 used to run everything fine in fairness to it but it stuggled slightly during 200/200 army battles in SC2. Normal field combat in BC2 was fine but any close up explosions or tank fire made it cry like a little girl...

Haven't overclocked anything yet but I intend to get the i5 to around 4.0ghz. Regarding the 570, I've never overclocked my gfx before so I'm a little in the dark as to what it will take to be honest..

I personally built about 2-3 months ago but went cheap and got the 560Ti. Kinda wish id spent a little more and just gone for it, but never mind Live and Learn. After all i cant complain about the 560's performance in current games, i just have nightmares about not being able to run those stunning DX11 graphics and frostbite 2 engine of BF3 at maxed details

 

[Yana3ear]

I personally built about 2-3 months ago but went cheap and got the 560Ti. Kinda wish id spent a little more and just gone for it, but never mind Live and Learn. After all i cant complain about the 560's performance in current games, i just have nightmares about not being able to run those stunning DX11 graphics and frostbite 2 engine of BF3 at maxed details

BF3 at maxed details

Exactly the reason why I went for the 570 can't wait for BF3!!