Clock Speeds ?

[FLEX42]

I don't know how many of you out there have used Pitstop Pro, but I've found it a useful tool for checking my PC. On running the tests on my laptop I'm confused as to why the measured cpu speed is so much slower than the nominal, or published speed. On the pc, the measured speed is always very close to the nominal. Can anyone shed some light on this for me.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/


Brand/Model AMD Duron
Nominal Clock Speed 1000 MHz
Measured Clock Speed 552 MHz
External Clock Speed 100 MHz
CPUID Information 0x0671 0x383F9FF
CPU Load 0%
Level 1 Cache 32 KB
Level 2 Cache 64 KB

[pilot-lite]

Most modernlaptops have "SpeedStep" or similar. Basically slowing down the CPU when all the processing power is not needed in order to save battery life. You can usually disable it, or try the benchmark again while running on mains power, as this tends to set the CPU to full speed.

pilot-lite

[FLEX42]

Thanks PL, I am running on ac mains. I just checked in power schemes and tried changing it from laptop to desktop, et voila 1000Mhz :) on the cpu.

I'd heard of speedstep and various power saving schemes but thought they only applied when on batteries, obviously not.

Thanks again for the help ;)