CPU not running at full speed

Hi

I'm doing some rendering, and my CPU is at 100% but not running at its maximum 5 GHz.

Is there any reason for this? I'm on mains power. Laptop is Dell Precision 7740.

Thanks

 

Temperatures of it!?

 

5Ghz is max clock with single core load..
Base clock aka all cores loaded is 2.4Ghz, given that you are running at 3.2Ghz, thats not too bad, you just it PL2/3/4, your CPU is now running at 45Watts, for more clock, undervolt more.

 

It did feel pretty hot but don't know how to check the temperature...

 

Ah ok, thanks. Not bothered about trying to make it faster as long as it's performing as it should do and there's nothing wrong with it.

Didn't realise the 5 ghz wasn't applicable if all cores were loaded. Thanks

 

Use hwinfo to check temperatures

 

Cool, thanks (excuse the pun)

 

Is hwinfo only checking the temperature from the sensors when it's running? Once you close it, it doesn't continuously monitor in the background or anything? Just noticed some sort of warning about temperature monitoring potentially causing performance issues...

Thanks

 

Yes, the 5GhZ only applies to single core. So, if you see 'maximum boost up to 5GhZ' in the claim anywhere, it usually means (unless stated otherwise) its for 1 core only.
All core boost will be closer to the base clocks.

But yes, you could arguably extract more performance from the CPU by undervolting it (which will drop the amount of power the CPU uses and also lower the temperatures in the process - allowing it to reach and sustain higher boost clocks for longer periods).

You will need to play around with the voltages for your CPU and test them out accordingly.

 

A couple things you can do to maximize your CPU performance ...
--Repaste the factory thermal compound on the CPU, as the factory job is usually sloppy and can result in inefficient heat transfer between the CPU and the heatsink.
--Use ThrottleStop to undervolt the CPU. There's a pretty good guide to using it on UltrabookReview.
--With your undervolting set, then you can use TS to explore the more detailed aspects of your CPU, like turbo power limits (TPL). For instance with my laptop, repasting and undervolting wasn't enough to keep it from thermal throttling, so I had to set up my own limits for its TPL values and the length of time it spent using them.

You won't learn TS overnight - I certainly didn't - but it does teach a lot about how a CPU works and how you can make the CPU work best for your usage. Spot-read through the thread I linked above and you'll see what users are doing; stick to the later pages where the posts are from the last couple of years. Not all of it will apply to you, of course, but the general concepts should start to come clear.

Charles