was running at lower now im not, still confused?

[Spindoc]

Hey, so I built my first desktop about a year ago and am FAR from understanding most things about it. I have a Asus max hero VI mobo; I THOUGHT I read quite a bit about how to optimize settings, besides overclocking (want to do it but just not there yet). So far I understood I needed to enable xmp profile, turn off hibernation so my ssd didnt get used up, and manually set my ram to its highest speed with the 1.5V I was given. I just set up my second ssd (my 256gb ran out) and was scrolling through Samsung magician menus when I saw "rapid mode"! knew nothing about it, so read about it and eventually decided 'ya sure lets do THAT', unfortunately for me it said it required 1Ghz (recommended 2) CPU speed for this to work and that I only was running 800MHz....WHAT. I have a 4770k and SHOULD be been running at 3.5ghz and APPARENTLY have not been, i guess? I dick'd around in the BIOS for a while and couldnt figure it out, finally deciding on clicking 'load optimal default' then 'save and boot' and going back to look in magician menus. THEN I noticed all of a sudden I could enable rapid mode and it said I was now running at 3.5ghz for some reason (figured that 'load optimal defaults' had something to do with it).

My question is what the hell!? Why was my cpu not running at 3.5 to begin with and how could I have changed it manually? In addition, what else am I NOT doing? lol, I realize thats quite vague but part of the problem is I dont actually know whats bad or good, and what I should be looking for. So far I have:

Enabled xmp-profile and manually set my ram to 1600 (highest mine goes)
Enabled fast boot
Installed my OS on my first ssd (in an attempt to make it run faster here than on my HDD)
And now just recently clicked 'load optimal defaults'


Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, am I missing something ELSE as obvious as running my cpu at 800mhz instead of 3.5? Furthermore WHY was is running that low instead of being 3.5 right off the bat?

Thanks for the help, and sorry for the novel

 

[Deuce65]

Unless you specifically fixed your cpu speed (unlikely based on what you wrote), your CPU will automatically downclock itself based on load. This is normal functionality.

 

[Spindoc]

Unless you specifically fixed your cpu speed (unlikely based on what you wrote), your CPU will automatically downclock itself based on load. This is normal functionality.

Right and I knew that the speed changes with the load, but my concern was that the program didn't even recognize that my cpu could go any higher than 800mhz and was then therefore ineligible to enable 'RAPID mode' even though it DID have the capacity to enable it. My worry was that it had NOT been changing with the load and was actually just set/stuck at 800 this whole time out of the box. Making my follow up question, if this is the case and I actually have to SET my hardware to run at their advertised speeds, was there anything else I am forgetting that maybe super obvious to a more seasoned enthusiast

 

[Deuce65]

Based on the selections you stated you used, your CPU was working fine. 800 is what it runs at with no load.
If Rapid Mode wasn't working, that would be a problem in the application itself, not your MB or CPU. I would suggest checking with samsung or just doing a google search for "unable to turn on rapid mode" or something like that; it will probably come down to reinstalling the latest version of the application.

 

[Spindoc]

Based on the selections you stated you used, your CPU was working fine. 800 is what it runs at with no load.
If Rapid Mode wasn't working, that would be a problem in the application itself, not your MB or CPU. I would suggest checking with samsung or just doing a google search for "unable to turn on rapid mode" or something like that; it will probably come down to reinstalling the latest version of the application.

Thanks for the help, will do!