Intel Speed Step

[jay29geo_31]

does anyone notice speed step slowing down things in general. this might just be in my head, i never really thought about it until i noticed on cpu-z that most the time it was reading like 1.8ghz instead of 4ghz that my system is running at, but then i thought about something, why does it seem slower when opening windows and running basic tasks when i just got a increase in processor speed and extra cache, yet its idling at a lower clock that my old processor, hmm, did i leave out a step in oc it ? i went from a e2160 to a e5200. can , and should i turn speed step off?


i went from 3ghz to 4ghz and 1 to 2 mb cache, everything else is the same.

 

[MaDMagik]

Not sure what did you expect as the cpu upgrade wasnt really that significant. You can disable c1e/speedstep and see if it makes the difference.

 

[jay29geo_31]

i guess im asking am i supposed to disable the c1e/speedstep and where is that, in the bios? i did the upgrade because it was free, and i wanted a puter running at 4ghz, and i thought the extra 1mb cache might help, would a x3 or 920 boot into windows xp all that much faster anyway?

 

[MaDMagik]

Whether enable/disable c1e is debatable. I had it enabled at clock speeds up to 3.2ghz, as i pushed it higher i disabled it because i dont like the clock constantly jumping by that much(personal pinion, there might be no logic in that).

Im not sure about speedstep, but you will find C1E Support in bios and you can disable it there. Im not sure whether those cpus would reduce the boot time significantly, probably 10000rpm hdd or MUCH faster ram than the one you have currently would speed things up a bit, but again im no expert and i just assume that. I heard someone say that the mobo itself plays a big role in boot time.

Regarding your initial post, I recall now that when i was running my e5200 at 4ghz, the system did seem "laggy", as if there was a split of a second lag when opening folders for example. Im running it at 3.8 now and c1e disabled and it seems ok.

Experiment with settings a bit(those that you know what they are), try things on and off and see if anything makes a difference.

 

[jsc]

SpeedStep may be listed in the BIOS as either C1E or EIST.

 

[Fruity]

SpeedStep may be listed in the BIOS as either C1E or EIST.

C1E and EIST are different things.

EIST = Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology (processor reducing its multiplier when system switched on but low work load

C1E = Enhanced Halt State (processor going in to deep deep sleep when in hibernate mode. saves a couple of watts of power)

 

[Fruity]

Ignore my last post.

The following is from Techreport

C1E enhanced halt state — Introduced in the Pentium 4 500J-series processors, the C1E halt state replaces the old C1 halt state used on the Pentium 4 and most other x86 CPUs. The C1 halt state is invoked when the operating system's idle process issues a HLT command. (Windows does this constantly when not under a full load.) Entering halt state, which is a lower-power state, will cut a CPU's power consumption and heat production. Intel's new C1E halt state is also invoked by the HLT command, but it turns down the entire CPU's clock frequency (via multiplier control) and voltage in order to work its mojo. This more robust halt state requires significantly less power than the old C1 implementation.
C1E halt cranks the CPU bus multiplier down to its lowest possible level on the 600-series processors, which is 14X, so a P4 660 processor with the C1E halt state active actually runs at 2.8GHz. I believe that C1E halt is also a binary condition invoked by the HLT command; it's either on or it's off.


Enhanced SpeedStep — SpeedStep also modulates the CPU clock speed and voltage according to load, but it is invoked via another mechanism. The operating system must be aware of SpeedStep, as must the system BIOS, and then the OS can request frequency changes via ACPI. SpeedStep is more granular than C1E halt, because it offers multiple rungs up and down the ladder between the maximum and minimum CPU multiplier and voltage levels.
Intel cites its mobile products when talking about SpeedStep, which is apt but not entirely helpful because it conjures up images of the Pentium M processor, a very different beast. The Pentium 4 doesn't contain most of the heroic power-saving measures of the Pentium M.


The info is a bit old but should still hold true.

Read full article at http://techreport.com/articles.x/7998/2

Sorry about my last post - seems i've misunderstood EIST / C1E all this time!

 

[jay29geo_31]

so, should i turn it off or not? i actually cant find it in the bios which is weird my gigabyte mb has everything under the sun in there to change , but i dont see these options anywhere = /