G74: What controls CPU Overclocking?

Is it set at BIOS, or running software in Windows?

I'm a little confused. I used a random CPU speed test app I found with Google, and it always gives me readings around 2ghz at 100% CPU usage, but Intel Turbo Boost Tech Monitor shows readings that go up to 2.9ghz. As far as I know, that is only a monitoring app, and doesn't alter the CPU's speed.

I've installed a fresh version of Windows. The only thing I installed from the utility CD was drivers.

 

You seem to be confusing the turbo boost feature with overclocking. first things first, there is basically no way to overclock a G74 like it was done for the G73J series, too many things are using the BCLK in Sandy Bridge CPU so intel pretty much completely locked it.

Turbo boost is a feature where if you are using less than 4 cores, the CPU will "deactivate" the unused cores and boost the clock speeds of the remaining cores. 2.0-2.9GHz means 2.0GHz on 4 cores and 2.9GHz on one core. You can also turbo on 4 cores if the power consumption and temperatures aren't over the values specified by Intel.

If you want to check your actually CPU speed under different conditions, i'd suggest using throttlestop in monitoring mode.

 

That clears some things up, thanks.

So this is a feature built into the hardware, then? I would assume so, seeing as I haven't installed any software that would enable it.

 

Yes, the feature is built into the hardware. Intel first experimented with that on the core 2 architecture i think, but they got it working properly on the core i CPUs.

If you want to learn more, search for intel turbo boost and power gating.