Question My CPU is not reaching its base speed

[Gaming_Artist]

So my Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 is overclocked to 3.6Ghz but it always hovers around the 3.2Ghz even on a stress test. My CPU is quite old so it doesn't support Speed Step but I have disabled the C1E from the bios settings, yet I dont manage to reach the base frequency. I have even checked the windows power plan and everything is 100%

Motherboard - Asus P5QC
RAM - 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz
GPU - Geforce GTX 660
PSU - 500W
Storage - Western Digital Green 240GB, Seagate Barracuda 2TB

My CPU temps on idle are about low 30 and on load it's around 50-60.
I have stress tested using Cinebench and prime95

 

[TerryLaze]

The base clock of your CPU is 2.66 GHz, the reason it doesn't hit the overclock of 3,6 is probably thermals or might even be due to degradation of the CPU if you have it overclocked for many years. (And if it ever was able to reach 3.6 in the first place)
Stress test are called that because they stress the CPU meaning that during that time it would be normal to have lower clocks compared to doing something less stressful.

 

[Gaming_Artist]

The base clock of your CPU is 2.66 GHz, the reason it doesn't hit the overclock of 3,6 is probably thermals or might even be due to degradation of the CPU if you have it overclocked for many years. (And if it ever was able to reach 3.6 in the first place)
Stress test are called that because they stress the CPU meaning that during that time it would be normal to have lower clocks compared to doing something less stressful.

I have recently overclocked to 3.6Ghz, but now that I have noticed it never really reached 3.6Ghz

 

[Gaming_Artist]

So, I underclocked my CPU back to 2.66Ghz but it still doesn't want to run at it's base speed, it's running somewhere between 2.35Ghz - 2.5Ghz. I have checked the thermals and it's well below 55C on a stress test. I have double checked the Windows Power Options and it's on 100%. I would really aprreciate it if someone can help me out

 

[Gaming_Artist]

So, I underclocked my CPU back to 2.66Ghz but it still doesn't want to run at it's base speed, it's running somewhere between 2.35Ghz - 2.5Ghz. I have checked the thermals and it's well below 55C on a stress test. I have double checked the Windows Power Options and it's on 100%. I would really aprreciate it if someone can help me out

Task manager and CPU-Z seem to say it's around 2.35Ghz and 2.5Ghz, but HwInfo says it's on a stress test that it's on 2.66Ghz, so I don't which software to believe. I am going to overclock it back to 3.6Ghz and see what the softwares have to say

 

[Gaming_Artist]

Task manager and CPU-Z seem to say it's around 2.35Ghz and 2.5Ghz, but HwInfo says it's on a stress test that it's on 2.66Ghz, so I don't which software to believe. I am going to overclock it back to 3.6Ghz and see what the softwares have to say

So I Ran CPU-Z as administrator and voila it shows everything as normal it shows my frequency as 2.66Ghz after overclocking it to 3.6Ghz everything seems to be fine.