thinkpad t410 under heavy load

im abusing my t410 (i5-520, 4gb RAM, nvidia 3100m) to run the following:
- dexpot multiple desktops
- imagej with 1.2gb stacked tiff file opened
- VTK openGL viewing 3D image
- java3D
- adobe photoshop
- adobe illustrator
- firefox with 5 tabs opened

memory usage 2.8gb and no sign of slowing down. so far im happy with its performance..

 

that's good to know as I was deciding whether to get i5-520 or i5-540. I guess I'll settle with i5-520.

 

There is little difference in performance between the i5-520M and the i5-540M, since the difference lies only in the clock speeds. For more specific benchmarks, you can take a look at this NotebookCheck analysis.

 

darn Lenovo stopped offer i5-520 with discrete graphic card.

 

What are your max CPU/GPU temps btw?

 

how do i measure that?
i felt the bottom of the laptop. i felt cool to me. but of course this is not a scientific measure..

 

HWinfo32 is a good tool to measure both the min/current/max temps and monitor your active hardware and software status (GPU/CPU clocks, driver versions, fan speed,etc)

 

ok thanks. i will give it a go tomorrow morning.

 

i have a question about the graphic card nvidia 3100m.

i have no problem with it; its running smoothly for the applications i am using.

now, i want to see the limit of this card, say running maya or autocad. does anyone have sample maya/autocad files (preferably complex ones) that i can use to test the graphic card?

 

Looks like you're using one of the older versions of HWinfo32. It doesn't detect your CPU and GPU correctly. Try upgrading the program. Still 55C max is quite impressive.

 

did i? sorry about that.
ill update with the newer version and post it once its done.

 

No worries. And you can experiment, try other programs as well. CPU-Z, GPU-Z, HWMonitor, Everest Ultimate. Some of them have unique features. I find it's always best to combine a couple to have a full picture of your system's performance.

 

Hey eyusuf, do you have Hypertheading turned off? Just curious why your Task manager only shows two logical processors when it would usually be four (dual cores + HT).

 

His Task Manager is open on the Performance tab and there is no info about the number of cores AFAIS. On the right is the HWinfo monitor and it's probably the older version that can't read properly the i-core CPUs.

 

Here some true heavy load images... T410 620m

First image was after running 7zip benchmark for about 15 minutes. All 2/4 cores at 100% solidly, with massive CPU and memory usage as large chunks of data are compressed. Not sure if the benchmark uses it, but 7zip uses the new AES instructions so I thought it would get a real workout.

The minimums are interesting because they are from an hour of idling. Weird wattage max was around 25.8 and then at some point went to that random number.

Second image is after I started taking screen grabs. The fan suddenly ramped up so I started the temp display again and took another capture. This happened when the temperature finally hit 81. The CPU fan ramped up to the fastest I have ever heard it go. The temperature came well under control at that point.

Third is simply a system summary.

NOTE: BIOS 1.12 appears (to me) to have reduced the peak 'Turbo Boost' from 3.33 GHz to 3.06 GHz. When new (with 1.09) it ran at 25x multipler often. x23 is the new peak. This is a disappointing change. I would expect the temperature to limit this, not a lowered ceiling. Hopefully they will address this in the upcoming release.

 

Nice!
So as I understand from the pics your system only uses Intel IGP for graphics?

 

Yes. I don't game on a PC so IGP is plenty for everything else. Battery life is more important.

 

Than it's perfect.
It means that you hit 80C @load, when both the CPU and the IGP are heating up and the IGP temps are even lower. You still have some reserves.
Moreover, you can improve your temps lowering them by another 10-15C by replacing the thermal compound. The stock one seems ok, but it's much worse than the high-end paste you can buy for 10-15$ and do the perfect job.

 

Yes. I would like it to run at 3.33 again... when I first got it I was impressed that it actually ran all 4 threads at 3.33 - I expected the new Turbo Boost feature to run 1 or 2 threads at 3.33 and scale down to 2.6 when running all 4. Instead it just ran all 4 at 3.33 which was great.

Now it runs 4 threads at 3.06 and never goes to 3.33 GHz.

My suspicion is that if I ran a CPU AND GPU intensive benchmark, it would throttle the CPU back to 2.67 to counter the power usage in the IGP, but as I don't game, that's not something I've tested.

I only upgraded 2 things that might have affected the peak - BIOS and Graphics driver. The Intel Graphics driver also comes with some interesting power management driver, so it may have been that too I guess...

 

Do not rely on the CPU frequency indicators yet. It's confirmed that most of the current monitoring programs fail to read the exact frequencies from i5/i7 CPUs. So take those with a grain of salt.
I'd say wait a few months for some software updates before making conclusions. The 620M can't physically run 4 threads @ 3.3GHz. It can only run a single core at that freq. Best to rely on Intel's documentation in this matter.

 

you observed correctly sir..
i accidently clicked the number processor to be 2 on the boot option.

 

lol, nice one, Mutnat
Now I see it.

 

Their documentation actually supports the ability for both cores to run at full turbo boost.

http://www.intel.com/technology/turboboost/

The processor optimizes performance based on use... if you are not using lots of power in the GPU it can use more in the CPU.

It basically detects available power/thermals etc and 'boosts' as much as it can.

 

Note also that Intel provide a monitoring program that supports the information displayed by tools like CPU-Z and HWInfo32:

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-031441.htm

 

This is too general. Both cores can be boosted yes, but not the full 3.3
I had a link to the table with all i-core CPUs and their max boost frequencies for all cores/threads combinations.
Gimme some time and I'll dig it up.

 

Reading around, it appears that "i7-620M can Turbo Boost up to 3 bins(400MHz) to 3.06GHz in dual core mode"

This is indeed what I am now seeing.

Edit:

I have found a table, and I hate to refer to Wikipedia, but they list 3/5 as the turbo capability for 2 cores/1core in the 620m

You are correct in saying that it run 4 threads at 3.3 GHz.

 

Every now and then I get something right. Woot!