Pentium M 1.6 underclocked?

[zuper57]

I just bought an Asus M6000Ne laptop with a Pentium M 1.6GHz Dothan. I've been checking out the clockspeed of the processor, and I've never seen it above 600MHz. Even when the laptop is plugged in it only displays 600MHz (in BIOS, CPU-Z, and in System Properties). Is this the result of the Pentium M's automatic underclocking? If so, is there any way to see the Pm running at 1.6 just to make sure?

I can play games with the same settings as my desktop with AthlonXP 2200 with GF3 ti200, but I expected more from a Mobile Radeon 9700 / Pentium M 1.6 combo...

 

[gothitbycar]

It is the result of the automatic clocking, what you can do is run something processor intensive like Super Pi and then check the clock speed.

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[Crashman]

Look through Tom's articles on the P-M, I believe there's a utility for setting the thing at full speed.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

Try opening the dashboard for mbm5, then running Prime95, but make sure you are plugged in, not on battery.

 

[zuper57]

Ok, I ran some benchmarks and here are the results:

3Dmark 03: 2468
3Dmark 01se: 7474

Do they look right to you guys?

Laptop was plugged in for the test.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by zuper57 on 06/27/04 11:31 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[gothitbycar]

Those scores seem a bit low for a mobile radeon 9700, they perform like the desktop 9600 pro and the P-M 1.6 ghz should be equal to something like a 2.4 Ghz P4. What resolution were you running at? Retest it again at 1024x768 and make sure AA and AF are off. If they already are then maybe its not changing clock speed. It still would be easier to use a Prime95 or something to see if the clock speed will change.

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[jclw]

Remember that the mobility 9700 is only a 9600 core. It does not have 8 pipelines like the 9700.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.7 i815*

 

[zuper57]

Yeah I figured the M-R 9700 is like the Radeon 9600 Pro. I compared the laptop with my P4 2.4GHz / Radeon 9800 Pro desktop (all the same setting - default benchmark settings) and that's when I felt the laptop was lacking...

Prime95? I searched for it and google gave me this: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

It looks more like a research thing than a benchmark - is that the correct webpage?

What are some CPU-only benchmarks?

 

[jclw]

<A HREF="http://pw1.netcom.com/~hjsmith/Pi/Super_Pi.html" target="_new">http://pw1.netcom.com/~hjsmith/Pi/Super_Pi.html</A>

What are the clocks on your m9700? I know the core can be anywhere from 380 and 450, and the memory can be anything - but typically 250~300.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.7 i815*

 

[zuper57]

Dxdiag tells me the MR9700 core is running at 350Mhz (plugged in). Not sure about the memory.

 

[gothitbycar]

Well of course it would be lacking, a 9800 pro would rape a M9700. I'm not to sure about Prime 95, I use Super Pi.

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[zuper57]

I did all but one of the Super PI test. Here are the results:

16K - 1s
32K - 2s
64K - 5s
128K - 11s
256K - 24s
512K - 52s
1M - 2m 00s
2M - 4m 37s
4M - 9m 58s
8M - 21m 20s
16M - 44m 42s

I also ran some Sandra tests... I got about 1/3 score of the reference with the exact same CPU:

Dhrystone ALU - Me: 2579 / Typical: 6886
Whetstone FPU - Me: 833 / Typical: 2222
Whetstone iSSE2 - Me: 1065 / Typical: 2842
Integer x4iSSE - Me: 5696 / Typical: 15200
Float x4iSSE2 - Me: 6288 / Typical: 16772

I can't help but think "600*3=~1600"...

All the tests were done plugged in, on the highest power settings - ie Always On.

 

[gothitbycar]

For the Super Pi tests I meant for you to run them and see what clockspeed it said your cpu was running at. Run the 512k test again and while thats happening right click my computer and go to properties to see what clock speed your running at.

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[zuper57]

600MHz during the Super PI test.

 

[zuper57]

Good news - the issue has been fixed with a BIOS flash. Now it changes dynamically in battery mode 600-1600MHz. Thanks all for your time.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by zuper57 on 06/28/04 12:55 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I can play games with the same settings as my desktop with AthlonXP 2200 with GF3 ti200, but I expected more from a Mobile Radeon 9700 / Pentium M 1.6 combo...

With the CPu stucked at 600mhz, that PentiumM is impressive!

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-3-3-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[zuper57]

Indeed. But it's much more impressive at full 1.6GHz. The performance between them is like night and day.

3Dmark01se: 11000
3Dmark03: 2700
All Sandra tests now up to expected. Results almost equal a desktop Pentium 4B 2.4GHz.

 

[Guest]

thats sweet Im goin to buy a new laptop soon
probly goin for that Asus M6000 too nice laptop and pretty cheap.
Either goin for a mobile A64 or a PM, its nice that they released slower Dothan thats a sweet CPU. Havent checked tough...

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-3-3-8, Leadtek FX5900 w/ FX5950U bios@500/1000, 2X30gig Raid0