How to Enable Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA) on Both Cores of a Core 2 Duo

Question about the Minimum Processor State: Is this in the Control Panel on XP somewhere? As far as I'm aware that option was new with Vista, and I'm not seeing it in XP anywhere. Not too concerned as I usually run WCG that pegs the CPU at 100% anyway, but that might cause an issue if I tried this on startup without WCG running the work units yet, or disabled WCG for benchmarking.

Sounds quite exciting, though, and I'll be trying it on my Dell tomorrow (several hour long full anti-virus scan is most of the way done and don't want to reboot to enter the BIOS now). I couldn't justify IDA all the time with one core at 2.4 (instead of 2.2) but the other at 600 or 800 MHz, but 2.4 all the time would be excellent.

 

Windows XP is a little different. You still have to go into the Control Panel -> Power Options but now there will be an option for Desktop computer Power Scheme or Laptop/Mobile Power Scheme. Set it to Desktop so ThrottleStop can control things without having to fight against the operating system.

When I run my XP laptop later on I'll try to post a pic of this.

 

Thanks. I got the power settings set, but unfortunately Dual IDA does not appear to work on the Dell Inspiron 1520 (Santa Rosa, T7500), even with setting the BIOS so that ThrottleStop can enable/disable EIST. IDA is enabled in the BIOS, and I have tested that it works (on one core) with RMClock in the past. So probably just a limitation to one core at a time on IDA on the 1520. Unfortunate, but can't complain too much as that is what it was marketed with.

 

If you can, post a screen shot of ThrottleStop when you are trying to enable Dual IDA. It might be a setting that needs to be tweaked. If you manually disable EIST, what does the multiplier get locked to?

Don't use RMClock when you are trying to enable Dual IDA. I can't get this trick to work with RMC.

I haven't tried this yet with XP but in theory it should work with any OS.

 

I'll post a screenshot tomorrow - just switched EIST back on tonight. But the EIST was actually toggling on and off every two seconds or so when I tried the Dual IDA mode on the right-click. While testing I had EIST disabled in the BIOS (if it was enabled, the EIST check box was grayed out), and I could lock the multiplier at anywhere from 6.0 to 11.0. If I had it set to 12.0, it would be locked to 11.0.

I didn't have RMClock running at the same time, I'd just used it before to lock one core to 2.4 GHz (with IDA). I did notice, however, that if I turned ThrottleStop off after running it with EIST disabled, and then started RMClock, it could control the clock as it normally does, giving me the benefits of SpeedStep despite it being "disabled" in the BIOS.

Whatever you're doing to enable this is pretty nifty. I noticed the WinRing0.sys and .dll file in the directory, so I reckon you're doing something to get into ring 0 despite not being a kernel program. Also unusual is that you can adjust the multiplier that is supposedly locked at the "minimum multiplier" and not adjustable by the "native OS driver" when SpeedStep is enabled, according to my BIOS.

I suppose I could also try this on the WinServer2K8R2 install I have on another partition but rarely use, and see if that makes a difference. Going to wait till tomorrow, though, and do other activities this evening.

 

The WinRing0 library is needed so ThrottleStop can access the Rdmsr and Wrmsr commands in an operating system legal way. Without WinRing0, if you try to execute either of those two commands, the CPU will throw an exception and your code will come to a halt.

On the T8100, writing the highest IDA multiplier into register 0x199 and turning the EIST bit off in register 0x1A0 is all that is needed to lock the IDA multiplier on both cores.

The Dual IDA Mode right mouse button menu option toggles EIST on and off and tries to lock it at the highest multiplier. If it can find the highest multiplier, it will turn off EIST and stop toggling it so both cores of the CPU are locked at the IDA multiplier. That's the theory. I might have to adjust this a little to better support your CPU.

When EIST is enabled, what sort of multipliers is ThrottleStop showing at idle? Are they averaging somewhere between 11 and 12? That's a sign that IDA is working and being rapidly cycled on and off. My screen shot in the first post of this thread shows average multipliers of 11.16 and 11.17 which is about half way between the 10.50 default multiplier for a T8100 and 11.50 which is the IDA multiplier.

When I was testing RM Clock, I found that it is not accurate at reporting the IDA multiplier so don't put too much faith in what it shows you. On the T8100, IDA can be enabled over 95% of the time on a single core and RMC will show a nice flat line at the default multiplier with no movement whatsoever to indicate that IDA is being used.

You usually need to have ThrottleStop enabled with the set multiplier option checked and set to the highest (12) multiplier. Your CPU also needs to be fairly idle for this trick to work. When you manually disable EIST in ThrottleStop, does it always lock to 11.00?

 

Is it possible to have Dual IDA automatically enabled when ThrottleStop is on?

EDIT: Looks like I just need to edit the ini file to set DualIDA to 1 or 2.

Another question though, would throttle stop be able to change the multiplier of a X9000 since its unlocked for people who's bios doesn't have this option?

 

The bios needs to support a higher multiplier for QX CPUs. ThrottleStop can only adjust the multiplier between 6 and the multiplier that you boot up at on a QX CPU. If the bios doesn't have any multiplier options then the most ThrottleStop can use is the CPU's default multiplier.

Great to here that Dual IDA mode is working on your T9500.

 

trying to get this trick to work on my T400 but no luck

i've disabled Speedstep in the BIOS. my P8600's FID gets locked to 6 even after altering the Set Multiplier settings.

 

What OS are you using? Do you have the Power Options -> Minimum processor state set to 100%?

When you boot up and manually enable EIST in ThrottleStop, are the reported multipliers both stuck at 6.00? I assume that ThrottleStop is enabled and not just in Monitoring mode. If you can, post a screen shot of ThrottleStop. Disable EIST in the bios but enable it in ThrottleStop.

This trick seems to work great on the Dells that have the SpeedStep/EIST bios option and not so great on other manufacturers laptops.

 

Oops i left out one important detail: EIST is greyed out in Throttlestop even after disabling Speedstep in my BIOS. sorry about that.

After reading the guide, I was under the notion that the ability to turn off Speedstep in the BIOS would lead to the EIST function in Throttlestop to be functional.

I am using Windows 7 Home Premium and I have set to 100% the minimum processor state. Both multipliers are stuck at 6 even when running Orthos and Throttlestop is enabled.

Thanks.

 

If EIST is grayed out in ThrottleStop then that means the bios has locked it and after you boot up, there's no way for any software to adjust it. Damn Lenovo engineers.

So far, the Dual IDA trick only seems to work on Dell laptops.

Edit: And somebody's Compaq Presario, the guy that taught me this trick.

 

awww... I guess I'm out of luck with this trick

anyway, props to you and your work with Throttlestop

 

I love this utility and can't thank Kevin enough.

Some questions if anyone knows the answers:

The manual and reading here says that SLFM works only with 45nm CPU's. I have a 65nm CPU (T7500) and turning on SLFM seems to make a difference.

With "Power Saver" ticked (and EIST as well) my laptop will idle at a FID of 6.00.

If I then also tick "SLFM" my laptop will idle at a FID of 4.00. It then seems to stay cooler than it ever used to before I discovered ThrottleStop (warning: That could easily be placebo effect!)

Can anyone clarify what the SLFM option does on an Intel T7500? Is it supposed to work?

Does anyone know what Disable Turbo does?

And finally, does anyone have knowledge of what the "Best" options are for a low-power, low-heat setup but one that will happily "ramp up" as required?

At the moment I have

Clock Modulation: 100%
Chipset Clock Mod: 100%
Set Multiplier: 11
Voltage ID 1.0875 (any lower and I get crashes)

Power Saver: Ticked
SLFM: Ticked
EIST: Ticked
C States: Ticked

 

I better update those docs someday. The T7100, T7300, T7500, T7700, T7800 and T7900 all support SLFM mode as you discovered.

What actually happens on these CPUs is the Bus Speed gets dropped in half from 200 MHz to 100 MHz and the FID / multiplier gets set to 8.0 for a total of about 800 MHz.

It's difficult for software to report this accurately because cores are going to sleep which screws up the timers used to measure MHz. For that reason, ThrottleStop reports this a little funny.

100 MHz x 8.0 = 800 MHz
200 MHz x 4.0 = 800 MHz

Same total MHz but instead of adjusting the bus speed which is what actually happens, it adjusts the reported multiplier in half. If your laptop is showing a 4.0 effective multi, SLFM is definitely working.

Edit: I need to make an adjustment to TS so you will also be able to access a minimum speed of 600 MHz for people with the T7000 series that like saving power.

The other good thing about SLFM mode is that it allows you to access a lower VID voltage when that is being used. You can use CPU-Z or RealTemp if you want to monitor VID.

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLA44.html

A T7500 has a default multiplier of 11 and an Intel Dynamic Acceleration multiplier of 12. IDA is called turbo boost in the newer Core i CPUs so Disable Turbo blocks access to this multiplier. By default, when a single core is in the active state and the second core is in the C3/C6 sleep state, the multiplier will jump up to 12.0. When the second core wakes up the maximum multiplier drops down to 11.0 for both cores. This is going on constantly so the average multiplier will be somewhere between 11 and 12. The more time the second core can be asleep, the bigger percentage of time the other core will be able to use the IDA multiplier.

All of this is trial and error. You'll have to do your own testing to see what works best for you. I use the Windows Performance Monitor and I measure Battery Usage. Set up ThrottleStop to minimize Battery power consumption if that's what you're looking to do. The newer 45nm CPUs seem to do this automatically regardless of your settings. The older 65nm T7000 series seems to be more dependent on the correct settings. You seem to be getting things figured out.

One thing to keep in mind is that when you disable EIST, ThrottleStop looses control of your FID and VID and they will get locked at their previous setting.

 

I'm working on a new feature to unlock Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad Extreme CPUs so you can raise the multiplier and VID to the moon even if your bios doesn't support these options. Testing is looking excellent so far. Send me a PM if you have an Extreme CPU and want to join the fun. I'll probably be starting a new thread for this incredible new feature in a day or two.

 

I have an i7-820QM, anything to get a little more oomph out of it?

 

Doesn't an i7-820QM have enough oomph? You might want to use ThrottleStop to see if your R2 is throttling and slowing down while gaming. That's the biggest problem with many Alienware laptops. Run a log file and send it my way if you want a second opinion.

This thread is about Intel Dynamic Acceleration which is a Core 2 feature. The tricks for the Core 2 can't be used on Core i7 CPUs.

The latest trick is an adjustable multiplier for Core 2 Extreme CPUs. The skies the limit now; with or without bios support. I just started a new thread in the Acer section and I'm looking for some feedback. If anyone has an Extreme CPU then head over there and post your results. Early testing looks great.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/489140-how-unlock-core-2-extreme-multiplier-windows.html

 

Hey, I have an Acer Aspire 6935g, a T9400 and I enter bios but can't find anything useful.

Does this mean I'm out of luck? thanks for reading!

 

If there is nothing in the bios to control EIST / SpeedStep then you are out of luck.

 

Using throttle stop, I can successfully enable IDA frequency on both cores without all the additional steps. It only requires me to adjust the multiplier up from 10x (maximum) to the IDA multiplier (11x). I can also undervolt by around 0.3v on IDA frequency.

 

All you have to do to lock both cores is to manually disable EIST. I added a menu option to automatically do this to help users out in case something wasn't set correctly. As long as EIST can be toggled, Dual IDA isn't too hard to get working.

 

Too bad I'm at work! Can't wait to get home and try this out on my M1730 tonight. *crosses fingers for a cooperative BIOS*
Unclewebb you are the man.

 

Most of the Dell laptops seem to have the necessary option in the bios to disable SpeedStep and then they leave it unlocked so after you boot up, you should be able to get Dual IDA mode working as long as your CPU uses IDA mode. Most do. For the Extreme CPUs that don't, you can use ThrottleStop to crank the multiplier up as high as you like now and voltage too.

 

Is there commandline version of throttlestop? I would like to have the ability to change the profile with a shortcut.

 

There isn't. You can however set "IDA=2" in your ThrottleStop.ini file and it'll enable Dual IDA mode then exit.

The included .html file is quite useful

 

My purpose is to change profiles in throttlestop via commandine, not enabling dual IDA mode.

The EIST box is grayed out for me, so i used a different way to enable dual IDA mode in throttle stop.

 

Interesting, can you post more details about how you're doing this? I'm sure there's many people that would like to try it out.

I'm one of the lucky ones, my M1330 lets me disable EIST so I can toggle it at will in ThrottleStop. Most others aren't so lucky it seems, so bypassing this limitation would be very useful.

 

I haven't done any command line options for ThrottleStop. To be honest, I don't know too much about programming command line options but I'm sure that it wouldn't be too difficult if I ever have some spare time and get around to doing this. I'll put it on the things to do list.

Show some screen shots of CPU-Z and ThrottleStop while using Dual IDA mode when the EIST bit is locked and tell us your secrets so other users can try and do the same thing. I always like learning about new tricks.

What sort of command line options would you like to see?

 

For getting dual IDA mode working when EIST checkbox is grayed out:

1. Download ThrottleStop 2.00 Build 27 and set your powerprofile to max performance and set min and max processor state to 100%
2. Tick set multiplier, adjust to the IDA multiplier
3. Set the Voltage ID to any amount you want. E.g. I undervolt on IDA frequency, so I set the voltage ID to 1.000 at 11x multiplier
4. Make sure Power Saver, SLFM, Disable turbo, BD PROCHOT(optional), C States, Log file(optional), More Data(optional) is unticked.
5. Click Turn on

If you want to close Throttle Stop and still enable the dual IDA mode.
1. Click Options
2. Check "Do not Reset FID/VID on exit
3. Click Ok
4. Exit program

 

A command line feature that I would like to see is

E.g.
C:\Throttlestop.exe FID 11 VID 1.000 Powersaver Yes SLFM yes Disable Turbo No ..etc

My purpose is to use autohotkey to change the settings via keybaord shortcut. Right now there's a work around by using the "mouse click" commandto achieve almost the same goal.

 

Your screen shot shows that you do not have Dual IDA enabled. CPU-Z can be a little misleading. The FID column in ThrottleStop clearly shows that your multipliers are not locked at 11.00. The Intel recommended method to determine the correct multiplier is by using high performance timers within the CPU. ThrottleStop uses this method and does not round off the calculated multiplier.

Try running 2 threads of Prime95 Small FFTs and post a CPU-Z / ThrottleStop screen shot of that.

This is an example of Dual IDA mode working correctly. The default multiplier for a T8100 is 10.5 and the IDA multiplier is 11.5. With both cores fully loaded running Prime95, the C0% is reporting 100.0% which confirms that both cores are fully loaded and the FID column in ThrottleStop confirms that both cores are running at the same IDA maximum multiplier. You need to be able to toggle the EIST bit to make this happen.

 

You're right. When I'm running prime 95, the multiplier drops down to 10x. This change seems to be occuring on average when the cpu is around 75% percent loaded.
E.g. watching 720P video, dual ida mode stays on. Watching 1080P, dual IDA mode is off.

 

Dell XPS m1730, it all works.
The reason my cpu usage is so high is because I was running Prime95 in the background. With Prime95 off, my CPU temp is running at 40C at idle.

Mad props to unclewebb, I had a blast reading your posts and a lot of fun setting this up. Worked flawlessly.

 

I think CPU-Z is misleading you. What you have discovered so far is Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA). The way this works is that one core can use the IDA multiplier but only when the second core is asleep in the C3/C6 sleep state. As soon as the second core wakes up, this immediately drops the multiplier for both cores down to the default multiplier which is 10 for your CPU.

On a Core 2 CPU that supports IDA mode, each core can constantly be going to sleep and waking up and the maximum multiplier for each core can be cycling back and forth between 10 and 11 a hundred times a second. CPU-Z rounds the reported multiplier off so it looks nice but it's not a great tool to understand IDA.

If you run a single thread of Prime95 Small FFTs and lock that to a single core using the Task Manager Set Affinity... function, it will be a lot easier to see IDA mode in action. One core, as reported by the ThrottleStop FID column, will be mostly asleep using the 10 multiplier while the other core will be mostly working and mostly using the 11 multiplier. ThrottleStop might report an average for this core in the FID column as 10.90. This means that core was using the 11 multiplier 90% of the time while it was using the 10 multiplier the other 10% of the time so the average multiplier during that one second interval was 10.90.

(11.00 x 90%) + (10.00 x 10%) = 10.90

This number can be constantly changing. When there is more background activity that needs to be processed, that wakes up the second core, the multiplier drops and the average decreases. With less background activity, the second core can stay asleep for a bigger percentage of time so the CPU is allowed to use the IDA multiplier for a bigger percentage of time.

The only way to get both cores to use Intel Dynamic Acceleration at the same time is to trick the CPU by disabling the EIST bit. If you don't do this, there might be a few microseconds or milliseconds when both cores are using the IDA multiplier but the CPU is designed to drop both cores back to the default multiplier as soon as possible.

With the Dual IDA trick, both cores are locked on the IDA multiplier, 100% of the time regardless if the CPU is idle or fully loaded.

Reveers: Nice work. The T9300 has a default multiplier of 12.5 and you've got both cores locked on 13.5 at full load.
Now that's Dual IDA.

You can use GPU=1 in the ThrottleStop.ini file if you want it to monitor and report your Nvidia GPU temps and you can use TJMax=105 if you want it to report your core temperature instead of the DTS column.

Here's the latest version of RealTemp. Looks like you could use an upgrade.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/RealTempBeta.zip

 

Works awesome on my T9300 in a M1730
went to 2.7 GHZ from 2.5 GHZ

Thanks alot unclewebb !!

 

By enabling this IDA thing, will it run at full speed 24/7 ?

 

Yes. With the Dual IDA trick mentioned here, both cores can be locked at the highest Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA) multiplier whether your CPU is idle or fully loaded. As long as core voltage is also adjusted, additional heat at full load will be minimal and at idle it will probably make zero difference since these CPUs usually go into the C3/C6 power saving mode when idle so these adjustments will have no significant negative affect to the core temperature.

It's also easy enough to switch into and out of Dual IDA mode.

A T8300 has a default multiplier of 12 so the Dual IDA trick should let you run both cores locked at 13 which is 2600 MHz.

 

Yes great program unclewebb. I have Throttlestop autostarted by using regedit to add it to autostart, so now windows always boots up my CPU at 2.6Ghz

 

I made a shortcut and dragged it into the startup folder (in start/programs)
no need to mess in regedit ...

 

If you use UAC then you have to get real complicated and use the Task Scheduler method.

XtremeSystems Forums - Task Scheduler Method

Hardly anyone knows about the startup folder anymore. It is definitely the easiest way and safer than registry editing.

 

Isn't UAC for noobs? ppl with overclocking skills shouldn't use UAC in the first place, lol. First thing I do after a fresh install is turning that crap feature off ...

 

UAC drives me nuts too. The first time a warning message pops up, I'm quick to turn that off. Some people like it though because they have kids running wild on their computers so they think that's going to help. If you use UAC then you are forced to use the Task Scheduler to get ThrottleStop to start up correctly so it can get the necessary approval from mother Windows without triggering a UAC nag requester.

 

Finaly I got some time to show some results. My T9500 in my Latitude D830 is running stable @ 2.8GHz and lowered my Voltage ID to 1.1Volt.
I did some stress tests without issues. It's awesome.

 

I disabled SpeedStep but I can't seem to change the multiplier at all?



What am I doing wrong

I used the right click hidden menu
T9300 now running at 2.7Ghz



+rep 10/char

LOL maybe next time

 

My Q9000 is showing change according to TS, prime testing it now.

Dang, locks back to stock at 100% usage, although i dont have EIST available in TS, i've disabled in bios, the cores are clocking up while idling though :/

 

catacylsm: That's called Intel Dynamic Acceleration. It will boost the speed of 1 or 2 cores on a Quad when lightly loaded. Run a single thread of Prime95 or similar and you will see this higher multiplier but load all 4 cores with Prime95 and that higher multiplier will be gone.

If you can't toggle EIST in ThrottleStop then it's impossible to get the Dual IDA trick working on your laptop.

Kris @ JKA: If you toggle EIST back on, you can adjust the VID to a lower number to keep the heat down at full load. Once you have that reduced then you can do the Dual IDA trick again to lock it at a high multi with the thermal benefits of a low VID. The best of both worlds. Fast and cool. You might be able to run your CPU reliably with about 1.10 volts or so at that speed. Do some Prime95 testing.

 

works great on my Dell E4300 with SP9400

 

Thanks for this utility, will give it a try now

 

I posted a couple pages back (in 20-posts-per-page mode), when I couldn't get this to work on my Inspiron 1520. Good news - I must have been doing something wrong! Tried again tonight, and I was able to get it to run at a full 2.4 GHz on both cores. Maybe I misread something earlier, I don't know, but it is working. I'll be doing some benchmarking tomorrow or Thursday as an extra verification of the extra speed, but RightMark giving me 2.4 GHz in monitoring-only mode is quite exciting already! After that I'll have to do voltage-limit testing, as well - I've been running at 1.0125V at 11x on the T7500 for years (1.0000 causes restarts), but I doubt that would suffice at 12x. Still, even at 1.2000V and 12X I'm at 80ºC, which I don't consider too bad for stock cooling. And of course, after that, I'll have to read through both the ThrottleStop threads in detail.

Many thanks indeed - I've been wishing I could overclock my CPU for close to two years now, and tried many a PLL strategy without success (even looking to see if I could find one on my own on the motherboard). 200 MHz is definitely a nice bonus.

Now I'm very tempted to buy an X7800 so I can try your unlocked multiplier trick. X9000 prices do seem to have gone through the roof beyond what I could justify, but the X7800 is oh-so-tempting with the promise of 3 GHz+ with a bit of cooling compound improvement.

Truly you have earned the title of Notebook Deity.