What really Happens to the CPU
What really Happens to the CPU
I have an I-5820 cpu with a stable overclock of 4.4ghz. I'm wondering if the boosted speed remains consistent or if it drops when not under load after overclocking. Also, how does power usage affect performance?
To build on what others have mentioned, speedstep indeed reduces the clock speed of CPUs to cut power usage, though the impact isn't huge. When a CPU runs at zero load without speedstep enabled—meaning it stays locked at its maximum frequency all the time—the power draw remains extremely low, just like how a car uses less fuel when idling in neutral compared to gearing up. Based on benchmarks, the savings are typically around 10W of power. Since speedstep performs well and doesn’t affect performance when needed, it makes sense to keep it active rather than disable it.
It should lower to approximately 800 mhz when idle and then increase to your overclock of 4.4 during load.
When Intel Speedstep is active, it reduces the clock speed. If Speedstep is disabled in the BIOS, the system will consistently operate at 4.4. A stable overclock should permit keeping Speedstep enabled. Additionally, you can use CPUZ to monitor the current performance. CPUZ includes a simple benchmark feature; by switching between tabs during testing, you can observe the system clock increasing and decreasing as the test begins and ends.
It depends on your BIOS and Windows setup. If Windows is in high performance mode in Power Options, it will keep the CPU running at its turbo clock constantly, no matter the workload. Most BIOS versions offer similar settings. If you didn't activate these features, it should drop to 800MHz when not under load on individual cores. You can check this using tools like HWInfo.
Thank you for your response. It seems I didn't disable speedstep. I just didn't want to use it unnecessarily, saving power when it wasn't required.
To build on what others have mentioned, speedstep indeed reduces the clock speed of CPUs to cut power usage, though the impact isn't huge. When a CPU runs at zero load without speedstep enabled—meaning it stays locked at its maximum frequency all the time—the power draw remains extremely low, just like how a car uses less fuel when idling in neutral compared to gearing up. Based on benchmarks, the savings are typically around 10W of power. Since speedstep performs well and doesn’t affect performance when needed, it makes sense to keep it active rather than disable it.