The colder it is, the faster the cpu?

[Erick Solis]

Hey guys, so I have a Quadcore i7 laptop, and I tend to do lots of video processing or converting, my laptop tends to get really hot.. today I checked the frequency that it runs while converting and i noticed it sometimes drops from 2.9 ghz to under 1.0 ghz, so the temperature stays cool. I put my computer outside and was running the same process (its 40F outside) and the frequency stayed above 2.4 ghz. Does the laptop run faster (when processing) in cold weather? i know when in idle or just doing normal things there won't be significant change in speed, but what about when the computer is trying to run at full capacity,.. does 0.9 ghz -> 2.4 ghz make a huge difference when processing and converting>

 

[Gam3r01]

Its not so much when its cold, but rather when its not overheating

When temps get too high it will throttle down like you are describing. Once it gets below its temp, getting any colder wont help it.
Overall, higher clock speeds are better than lower speeds comparing the same processor.

 

[caqde]

Hey guys, so I have a Quadcore i7 laptop, and I tend to do lots of video processing or converting, my laptop tends to get really hot.. today I checked the frequency that it runs while converting and i noticed it sometimes drops from 2.9 ghz to under 1.0 ghz, so the temperature stays cool. I put my computer outside and was running the same process (its 40F outside) and the frequency stayed above 2.4 ghz. Does the laptop run faster (when processing) in cold weather? i know when in idle or just doing normal things there won't be significant change in speed, but what about when the computer is trying to run at full capacity,.. does 0.9 ghz -> 2.4 ghz make a huge difference when processing and converting>

Basically what you are seeing is that your notebook's cooling solution is not sufficient enough to keep the system cool during that type of process. To keep your system from overheating it is dropping the core clock to avoid damaging the system.

There are certain things that can be done to keep a system cooler

1) lower the ambient temp of the room (Say by moving it to a colder area or running AC in the room)
2) remove any built up dust in the system using a can of compressed air
3) apply a better thermal compound to the chips to allow for quicker transfer of heat from the chip to the heatsink
4) Install a better heatsink (Not really possible on a notebook)
5) Install better or additional fans to move air in and out of your notebook removing the heat that gets built up.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

It drops below 1GHz because the system throttles the Cpu to prevent damage, as you noticed the cooler you keep the Cpu the longer it will be able to perform at higher frequencies safely, upgrading cooling is a solution but laptops are limited in that area compared to desktops, unless you feel like modding some watercooling onto it hehe which obviously would have an effect on weight and portability
Moto **Edited because my phone confused 'C for GHz lol**

 

[4Ryan6]

Hey guys, so I have a Quadcore i7 laptop, and I tend to do lots of video processing or converting, my laptop tends to get really hot.. today I checked the frequency that it runs while converting and i noticed it sometimes drops from 2.9 ghz to under 1.0 ghz, so the temperature stays cool. I put my computer outside and was running the same process (its 40F outside) and the frequency stayed above 2.4 ghz. Does the laptop run faster (when processing) in cold weather? i know when in idle or just doing normal things there won't be significant change in speed, but what about when the computer is trying to run at full capacity,.. does 0.9 ghz -> 2.4 ghz make a huge difference when processing and converting>

That's an excellent example of how ambient air temperature affects even a CPU setup that has not been overclocked.

The colder temperature outside allowed the CPU to operate without throttling to protect itself, and under those circumstances the CPUs output workload performance is significantly increased.

Many that overclock their CPUs and add additional heat to their desktop setups, can go along thinking all is well, until they run performance tests and the end resulting score is lower than the not overclocked score, simply because the CPU stayed cool enough, not to activate throttling to protect itself.

The throttling protects the CPU, but also decreases actual CPU computing capability to lower the CPU temperature, benchmark scores are lower, processing time takes longer, encoding times take longer, etc. etc. etc.

Of course with a laptop you cannot very well spend your days outside computing in 40F temperature as there is a problem doing that, and that problem is condensation which is not a problem going out into the cold, but when you bring that laptop back inside the warmer environment, after it has had time to cool down to the 40F itself, so be careful in your experimentation discoveries.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Bubblewrap the Laptop Ry?
😛
Moto