My CPU is being lazy.

[T2A`]

For some reason my CPU, an Intel E6850 (a 3.0 GHz unit), is running at only 2.0 GHz.

I have no idea how long it's been like this as I'm not one to check up on this sort of thing except very rarely. I noticed CoD4 starting to lag in ways it didn't before months ago but I chalked it up to aging hardware.

However, my machine isn't that old -- I bought the parts and put it together in December 2007 so it's not even two years old. If anything I figured my GPU was being lame but apparently it's because my CPU is only running at 66% its default clock speed.

I checked my BIOS and it said the thing is running at 3.0 GHz with a multiplier of 9. But programs like Core Temp and CPU-Z insist the thing is only running on a multiplier of 6 for a speed of 2.0 GHz. Most of the time, at least. For a few seconds the multiplier will shoot up to 9 but it'll drop down soon enough.

My BIOS also says the voltage is set to 1.35v or somewhere near there. CPU-Z says it's running ~1.12v.

What gives? I haven't changed a thing on this computer since I built it. Pretty sure I haven't updated the BIOS and I rarely update drivers. Point is I haven't changed anything recently, so what would cause my computer to underclock itself?

 

[Zur]

Problem with PSU giving too low voltage ? BIOS adapting clock speed using some weird stepping option ? Failsafe activating because of high temps or voltages ?

 

[DarkED]

Sounds like Intel Speedstep or whatever. It throttles down your CPU when it's not under high load to save energy. You can disable this in your BIOS if this is the problem.

EDIT: Could also be a dying PSU/mainboard.

 

[T2A`]

The PSU is 500 or 550 watts. Can't remember which. Antec something or other with dual 12v rails. Surely that's okay...? How would I check that it's putting out proper power?

Current temps. on the cores are 33-34° C.

CPU-Z says the stepping is "B" but I don't have a clue what that means.

Could a rogue program be doing this? I don't understand why the BIOS would say one thing while once I'm in Windows other programs report differently.

 

[Phopojijo]

Definitely speed step -- look at CPUz or something while running SuperPi.

As for the BIOS -- the BIOS says what the processor is SET to... the Processor will DOWNCLOCK itself from that value if Windows says it's AOK to do so. Telling the BIOS to disable SpeedStep will make the CPU STAY at the settings the BIOS set it at.

 

[T2A`]

Wow.

False alarm, guys.

Sine/Phop appear to be right. I set my CPU on a quest to calculate pi to the four millionth digit and as soon as I started the program the voltage jumped to ~1.3 and the multiplier went up to 9 for the full 3.0 GHz.

Hooray technology. And for me not knowing anything about it. D:

 

[Phopojijo]

One cool thing about Core i7 -- Intel took the technology a bit further. When it sees that the program you are running is very single-threaded... it'll shut down the extra cores and overclock your primary core by itself. ((Assuming that the other cores will not heat it up))

 

[SleepyHe4d]

Okay now that that's solved, thread hijack!:

Sometimes when I close Firefox the process stays running and it takes up 25 cpu even though when it's running it only uses 0 or 1. Wtf?

Also another problem is the nSvcAppFlt.exe process sometimes takes up 75% of my memory. Wtf again? D:
When I check its services it's only the ForceWare Intelligent Application Manager service. Could it be a motherboard driver problem? :\

Anyone know anything about these problems?

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

is your GPU using shared memory?

 

[SleepyHe4d]

No idea.

Btw I'm using a quad core Q9400, 9800 GTX+ and have 4 gigs of ram so it's really taking up a lot of memory.

Also the problem still happens with FF if I disable all my add ons, so I don't think they are the problem.

 

[TurdDrive]

Okay now that that's solved, thread hijack!:

Sometimes when I close Firefox the process stays running and it takes up 25 cpu even though when it's running it only uses 0 or 1. Wtf?

Also another problem is the nSvcAppFlt.exe process sometimes takes up 75% of my memory. Wtf again? D:
When I check its services it's only the ForceWare Intelligent Application Manager service. Could it be a motherboard driver problem? :\

Anyone know anything about these problems?

I have the firefox problem.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

No idea.

Btw I'm using a quad core Q9400, 9800 GTX+ and have 4 gigs of ram so it's really taking up a lot of memory.

Also the problem still happens with FF if I disable all my add ons, so I don't think they are the problem.

no, then you shouldnt have shared memory. because that could have explained the ammount of ram the nvidia process used. really dunno then.

 

[NRG]

Agreeing with most of this thread: definitely a typical Intel Speedstep scenario. Wouldn't worry about performance lost either, as it's pretty fast at switching.

Okay now that that's solved, thread hijack!:

Sometimes when I close Firefox the process stays running and it takes up 25 cpu even though when it's running it only uses 0 or 1. Wtf?

Also another problem is the nSvcAppFlt.exe process sometimes takes up 75% of my memory. Wtf again? D:
When I check its services it's only the ForceWare Intelligent Application Manager service. Could it be a motherboard driver problem? :\

Anyone know anything about these problems?

Sounds like Firefox is having trouble dumping (freeing) memory and a CPU thread is stuck in an endless cycle. Try using Firefox in safe mode for a while. If Firefox exits in the task manager just fine, then it could be something like an add-on or extension preventing Firefox from completely exiting. If it still happens, then I'm not sure. Try reinstalling or looking for people with the same problem on their forums.

nSvcAppFlt.exe is part of the Nvidia Firewall. Common on ASUS boards or any motherboard with an Nvidia northbridge. It's notorious for having memory leaks, especially if you have Nvidia Firstpacket (packet priority) enabled. You can disable it in Nvidia control panel, as I've never really heard of anyone getting any measurable gains with it. You can get away with ending the process in the task manager without doing any real damage too.

 

[SleepyHe4d]

Firstpacket was already disabled, so I guess I'll just shut off the Forceware service since it's nothing important. I have a router as a hardware firewall anyways.

As for Firefox, I guess I'll mess around with it some more, I didn't try disabling the plugins, just the extensions.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

what's strange tho is that i have the same CPU and i never had it change clocks. im not sure if the power saving stuff was off before i overclocked it (now they are off for sure) but i didnt turn them off at least. maybe its motherboard specific.