2600K clock speed all over the place

[dfbhd13]

Hi,

i reformatted and re-installed windows a few days ago. i installed my M\B (Asus P8Z68) Chipset driver from the Asus website (version 9.3.***). after that i still had an unidentified "SM Bus Controller" in device manager.

i looked up how to fix it and was directed to download drivers from Intel's site its self which was version 9.4.***. this fixed the unidentified problem but a while later i noticed my computer much slower and the clock speed was showing 1600MHz 100X16.0.

this is while my bios setting were at an overclock of 4.5GHz and i hadn't changed anything. i reverted to default (3.4) but still when i boot up, it shows 3.4 for about a minute and then drops to 1.6GHz.

i tried a system restore to before i installed the intel drivers, but that has not helped.
the bios shows the clock as 34X100 with turbo to 38 (default).

does anyone have a clue what has happened ?

cheers

 

[siddharthmukul007]

that is because the power saving feature (speed step) kicks in when you are not utilizing the processor.....install and run prime95 and you will see the speed bump up

 

[quilciri]

That is normal. It is feature on almost all modern processors. They ramp down to conserve electricity until you're actually doing something that needs more processing power.

 

[ewok93]

You can turn it off if you want, but it shouldn't really affect you. Just turn power saving features off.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

@ewok93.....yeah that would be the intel speed step via bios (no real benefit in turning it off though)

 

[dfbhd13]

oh ok, i know what speed step is, thing is i had it turned off, i hadn't'nt changed anything when this started happening. i will go check it out now.

thanks