Q6600 "tape-mod" experts: CPU-Z showing different core speed!!!

[greent00th]

After the tape mod, evertyhing ran perfectly.

I checked CPU-Z, at first it shows 2995mhz +/-.
FSB upped to 1330mhz, and now fsb/dram ratio is 5:6.

It nearly felt like christmas. Then, I kept my eyes on CPU-Z readings.

Everything is seems stable, but Core Speed (under CPU) is instable.
It keeps going back and forth between 1995mhz ~ 2995mhz.
It stays in 1995mhz area a lot more, jumps to 2995mhz real quick, jumps back down. Repeats on and on.


I can swear I put the electrical tape(black one) and installed it without a mistake.

Does anyone know what the hell is wrong with it?

 

[greent00th]

Ok, I did some research and could this be Speed Step issue?

If it is, how come multiplyer remains the same?

also, is it safe with tape mod? (i heard it should be fine..)

 

[tajisi]

Do you have Speedstep enabled? When your processor is idle (not loading something or running an intensive program in the background) it will throttle back to conserve power. I'd also bet the voltage is fluctuating a little bit during that time in CPU-Z. It's perfectly normal and helps keep things cool.

If it does this -during- an intensive program (video rendering, etc) then it could be a thermal issue and the chip trying to throttle itself to prevent overheating.

 

[greent00th]

Yep, I verified that under heavy load, it would kick it back up to 3.0mhz and stay there until cpu usage is decreased.

Has to be speedstep, correct? I do not know whether it is enabled or not. Is there anyway to check?

 

[porl]

What's the tape mod.

 

[EXT64]

Check in the BIOS. If its stable though, speedstep shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[tajisi]

Yep, I verified that under heavy load, it would kick it back up to 3.0mhz and stay there until cpu usage is decreased.

Has to be speedstep, correct? I do not know whether it is enabled or not. Is there anyway to check?

That's speedstep kicking in. It's working as it should and I wouldn't worry about it. I had an old modded Core 2 would do the same. I think I threw an e4400 with the mod done to it in an old Dell Optiplex so that it'd run at 2.66 instead of 2.0. It would throttle back as well.

 

[jimmysmitty]

What's the tape mod.

The tape mod is a way to change the Q6600s FSB to 333MHz instead of overlocking through the BIOS, like I did.

And it is Speedstep, my Q6600 goes to 2GHz when its idle and 3GHz when under load. If its stable, its fine to leave on as it saves power. Speedstep is always enabled by default and you can turn it off in the BIOS, but only if its making your system unstable.

Its on every Intel CPU since the Core 2 series. It changes the multiplier. The Q6600 has a low multiplier of 6 and a high of 9. When under load it will be 9x333MHz and when its idle it will be 6x333MHz. Even the newest 2600K has it.