AMD A8-5500 performance nowhere near clock speed

[wallywalters]

I recently built a PC with a quad-core AMD A8-5500 (Trinity) CPU on an ASUS F2A85-M motherboard. The CPU speed is supposed to be 3.2 GHz, though I've never seen it higher than 1.4 GHz (and the slow speed is quite noticeable). I don't know much about overclocking, but I wondered if this might be an "underclocking" or "multiplier" problem or something; however, I get the same crummy speeds even after setting the BIOS both to its default and "optimized default" presets.

What else could be the problem? Bad RAM? It seemed to test okay. For what it's worth, the chip also seems to be running slightly hotter than I'd expect -- about 45 degrees at idle -- even after I replaced the CPU fan and thermal paste.

Grateful for any help anyone can give me.

 

[correon]

You can check your Cpu´s Multiplier with Cpu-z. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html Be sure to run in performance mode in Windows power options.

Allso check if the voltage is too high, because of the temps.

 

[wallywalters]

You can check your Cpu´s Multiplier with Cpu-z. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html Be sure to run in performance mode in Windows power options.

Allso check if the voltage is too high, because of the temps.

CPU-Z is showing core speed at 1400 MHz, a bus speed of 100 MHz and a multiplier of 14 (followed by "14-37" in parentheses, which I take to be the range of allowable multipliers. And if so, that multiplier of 14 should actually be 32, for my CPU to run at its rated speed. But why would it stay at 14 even after selecting "optimized defaults" in BIOS? And where do I change the multiplier to 32? In BIOS, I presume?

 

[correon]

In power options, is windows running in peformance mode?

 

[wallywalters]

In power options, is windows running in peformance mode?

By "power options," do you mean the Power settings in the Windows 7 Control Panel?

In any event, I just found an advanced BIOS entry for "APU multiplier," which was set to "auto." I changed it to 32 and rebooted and immediately launched CPU-Z, where the multiplier finally showed 32 -- but only for a second before it dropped to 14 again! Moreover, that "14-37" range I mentioned before also changed while I was watching, to "14-32."

I am mystified.

 

[guymarshall]

In power options, is windows running in peformance mode?

By "power options," do you mean the Power settings in the Windows 7 Control Panel?

In any event, I just found an advanced BIOS entry for "APU multiplier," which was set to "auto." I changed it to 32 and rebooted and immediately launched CPU-Z, where the multiplier finally showed 32 -- but only for a second before it dropped to 14 again! Moreover, that "14-37" range I mentioned before also changed while I was watching, to "14-32."

I am mystified.

You have solved the problem! The throttling back down to 14 after it is 32 is to save power, so the processor isn't always running at max clock speeds when it is doing nothing intensive. Try playing a game whilst having CPU-Z open to see if it jumps back up to 32, it should do. As for the temperatures, it might have been solved with the auto throttling, as it might have restored the voltage back to what it should be.

 

[Andrei-Florin Gogan]

When you select defaults in BIOS, it enables power saving features which means that the CPU will throttle down if nothing is "demanding it". See what power saving features you can disable in BIOS and the set the performance in Windows 7. A good way would be to stress test the CPU for a few minutes while watching that all mighty multipliers and see if it stays at 32.

 

[correon]

In power options, is windows running in peformance mode?

By "power options," do you mean the Power settings in the Windows 7 Control Panel?

In any event, I just found an advanced BIOS entry for "APU multiplier," which was set to "auto." I changed it to 32 and rebooted and immediately launched CPU-Z, where the multiplier finally showed 32 -- but only for a second before it dropped to 14 again! Moreover, that "14-37" range I mentioned before also changed while I was watching, to "14-32."

I am mystified.

Yes i mean the power settings, you have the Power Save mode - Balanced mode - High Power mode.

High power is found with the arrow down out to the right.