E6850 3.0GHz shows as 2.33GHz

I'm not sure what the problem is. Can anyone diagnose via these cpu-z grabs?

Yeah, you should go into your BIOS and turn off any of the power saving features that cause your CPU to reduce power when idling.

If they are already turned off then simply change the multi to 9.

Well, don't turn off the power-saving unless you have a good reason to.


All they do is scale back the speed of your processor if it's not in use. Running it at full speed just wastes power, which translates into higher electricity bills and wasted money. Your CPU will jump right back up to 3GHz when a program puts it to use.

[Edit]

I wish CPU-Z would show which power state the system/CPU are currently in.

OK well there were no power saving options on. The only CPU SPeed modifier was "Enhanced Intel Speed Step" which was disabled.

Changing the multi to 9 DID work but I don't know WHY, this CPU, as far as I know, is not unlocked. So how did changing the multi effect it? I was sure the 333 bus speed was wrong considering its DDR2-6400 I thought it should be 400Mhz.

I'm very confused.

Speed Step (EIST) is what Intel calls its dynamic power management.


Your processor is not unlocked, it just naturally runs at a 9x multiplier to get to its max clock. Processors are generally locked upward of that point, but not down - this is how they scale down the clockspeed to save power.

The FSB was right but because of your multi being 7

333x7=2300MHz or 2.33GHz

When you bumped it up to x9

333x9=3000MHz or 3GHz

About the ram speed. You are running a divider (5/6) that is allowing your ram to run at it's rated speed of 400MHz or an effective 800MHz although the CPU is actually running slower than it.

Your ram to run in a 1/1 ratio with your CPU would have to be running at 333MHz or an effective 667MHz. I am assuming that you set your memory in your BIOS to run at an effective 800MHz unless your board natively supports it.


Another little tidbit of info is that if you notice in your screen shot of your ram SPD that it is spec'd out to run at 4-4-4-12 @400MHz but in the screen below you are running @ 5-5-5-15@400MHz. You should tighten up the timings to reflect at least what your ram is designed to do

Thanks, I know that the timings are off. I haven't manually set anything up yet. The PC is a gaming rig for my brother and as soon as its first boot he was crying to put games on it, so my time is very limited.

Plus I've been monitoring the temps under load and trying to bench the changes (first multi 7-9, now memory timings).

Is it better to leave it at 5:6 for a Core2? Conventional wisdom was always that 1:1 was best, but I want the best memory bandwidth without running the CPU or memory above spec.

The 5:6 divider is fine.

Hey thanks man. Timings are set to 4-4-4-12 1T at 2.2V. All is running really well, brought me down .414s in SuperPi