What followup action(s) do I need to take after replacing my dual core CPU with a quad core?

[jtbowman51]

Just finished replacing my AMD Athlon II X2 250 with an AMD Phenom X4 945. My motherboard is an ASUSTek Computer M4A78LT-M-LE (socket- AM3 938, chipset- AMD 780G) and I checked on the ASUS website prior to upgrading to ensure the X4 945 was compatible with it.

I'm able to start up Windows just fine but everything is just... significantly slower than before when the X2 250 was in. Which doesn't make sense since, looking at the CPU hierarchy article on this site, I went from a 9th tier to a 5th tier CPU, so there should be a substantial speed increase if anything.

I scraped off the old thermal gel from the bottom of the fan, used new thermal gel on the top of the CPU when I put it in, checked Task Manager to make sure the CPU usage isn't out of whack or anything (it's currently bouncing between 0 and 5%). I tried changing the BIOS settings to their factory defaults since I had read it could subsequently sort itself out with the correct settings for the new CPU, but that hasn't helped at all.

I figure I need to do something in BIOS to ensure my CPU is running optimally, but I don't know what to actually change. I have CPU-Z in case anyone needs any more information in order to resolve this issue.

 

[COLGeek]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from jtbowman51 : "What followup action(s) do I need to take after replacing my dual core CPU with a quad core?"

Just finished replacing my AMD Athlon II X2 250 with an AMD Phenom X4 945. My motherboard is an ASUSTek Computer M4A78LT-M-LE (socket- AM3 938, chipset- AMD 780G) and I checked on the ASUS website prior to upgrading to ensure the X4 945 was compatible with it.

I'm able to start up Windows just fine but everything is just... significantly slower than before when the X2 250 was in. Which doesn't make sense since, looking at the CPU hierarchy article on this site, I went from a 9th tier to a 5th tier CPU, so there should be a substantial speed increase if anything.

I scraped off the old thermal gel from the bottom of the fan, used new thermal gel on the top of the CPU when I put it in, checked Task Manager to make sure the CPU usage isn't out of whack or anything (it's currently bouncing between 0 and 5%). I tried changing the BIOS settings to their factory defaults since I had read it could subsequently sort itself out with the correct settings for the new CPU, but that hasn't helped at all.

I figure I need to do something in BIOS to ensure my CPU is running optimally, but I don't know what to actually change. I have CPU-Z in case anyone needs any more information in order to resolve this issue.

 

[Airplaneotaku]

Dual core cpus on the same socket as quad cores are just quad cores with one or two defective/mediocre cores, disabled at the factory and sold for cheaper as a weaker model.

Anyways, you say "slow" and I think "boot drive issue". Are you on a solid state?
Regardless, you should generally reinstall windows after a motherboard/CPU change to clear up registry errors, I sense that's the issue.

Check BIOS to make sure multicore workload is on, and check RAM speed to make sure it's not way too low by default.