Whats up with my CPU? - A SpeedStep F.A.Q.

[thenewguy001]

obligatory lolcat picture

[Eagle Eye]

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

Great job chilly, one possible suggestions is another colour for the text above the pictures thats a tough read even for us young guys with not as bad eye sight as the ol'wise ones around here.

Done, I made it a darker grey.

Originally Posted by thenewguy001

obligatory lolcat picture

Who names their cat "SpeedStep"??

[matsta31]

Wow great job.

even if the next ''new to overclocking poster'' does not read it, we can just make answer with a link !!!

If we were on NCIX I would tip and rate your post !

[Jake_HT]

Where's the rest? !

[miggs78]

Nice info Chilly.. Lots of people keep asking around about this, very informative.

[WolfBane]

Ok so i read your post:)
very informative ! If i understood it lol speed step powers down my chip when nnot needed ???
But is this a really good thing?
Should i disable speedstep or leave it alone?
and if i do disable it , How do i disable it ?

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by WolfBane

Ok so i read your post:)
very informative ! If i understood it lol speed step powers down my chip when nnot needed ???
But is this a really good thing?
Should i disable speedstep or leave it alone?
and if i do disable it , How do i disable it ?

I suggest you re-read the post again, I answer the "should you disable it or leave it on" in the "leave it on or off" section . But yes your correct, all SpeedStep does is power down your chip when its not needed/not in use. Once you re-read the part about leaving it on or off, and if you decide to turn it off, there are 2 ways to disable SpeedStep. The easiest way is through software.

Seeing that your using Vista, here is how you do it; Post above updated, read above post for how to "disable" speedstep in Vista.

I'll work on and finish the "How to disable" sections later today. I really should get around to finishing this thread.

[somecanadianguy]

Good info!

A couple things I've noticed...
Voltages don't appear to change unless they're set to 'auto' in BIOS.
I have EIST and C1E enabled and don't see any voltages drop when bclk and multi drop.

Also, with EIST and C1E enabled in BIOS and "high performance" power setting in Vista, idle wattage still appears to drop even though nothing else does.

Am I doing something wrong?
Is this safe?

[Chilly]

Working on updating posts, will be adding some information how turbo is affected/works as a part of SpeedStep in the other notes section.

Originally Posted by somecanadianguy

Am I doing something wrong?
Is this safe?

You are doing nothing wrong, voltage drop during idle periods while the multiplier is dropped is a feature of SpeedStep, but one I've never seen implemented outside of laptops.

As for why your seeing the wattage drops, despite no voltage change, this is because EIST and C1E and change the state inside your CPU, effectively turning off unused parts to save power. There is nothing wrong, and it is entirely safe.