IBT not loading my CPU to 100%

[aspiringnobody]

Hey all,

I picked up a used Dell Precision T7400 with dual E5430s yesterday. I did a BSEL mod to OC them to 3.2ghz (400*8). That seems to be working well.

I'm trying to load test it, but I noticed that neither prime or IBT are loading the CPUs to 100%. Prime maxes out at 90% and IBT at 94% or so. System is running Server 2012 R2.

Any thoughts?

Cheers - Evan

Edit: Screenshot

 

[postmortemIA]

can you increase number of threads beyond number of CPUs?

 

[aspiringnobody]

can you increase number of threads beyond number of CPUs?

I tried that, and also ran IBT and 2 threads of Prime concurrently. Same result. Hard capped in the low 90s.

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the FSB overclock (e.g. windows doesn't think the processor is at 100% maximum frequency so even though the core is at max utilization it's not reporting at 100% because it could "go faster"). Probably not but that's my best guess at this point.

Either that or Server 2012 R2 has some kind of load limiting feature to reserve a certain amount of processing power for system requests. I checked in the quotas area in the registry and there aren't any entries. So I'm not sure if there is another method of limiting cpu utilization other than the quota system.

- Evan

 

[GreenChile]

Check your Power Options. It sounds like the Processor Power Management is set to less than 100%. This setting can be found in the Advance Settings of the Power Options.

It might also be related to how the TDP level is set under the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings, also found in the Power Options.

The only other thought I have is possibly a bios setting.

 

[aspiringnobody]

Check your Power Options. It sounds like the Processor Power Management is set to less than 100%. This setting can be found in the Advance Settings of the Power Options.

It might also be related to how the TDP level is set under the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings, also found in the Power Options.

The only other thought I have is possibly a bios setting.

I don't have any options for Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings in my power options -- the other settings look good.

No obvious culprits in the bios.

- Evan

 

[aspiringnobody]

Seems maybe I was right about windows getting the cpu frequency wrong:

Seems too big a coincidence to ignore. Anyone know a way to check cpu load status independently of windows?

 

[Tristor]

Hw Monitor and similar applications should be able to report CPU utilization, but my concern is that they may end up ultimately reporting the same. I'm not sure if they simply utilize a different method of accessing the same data or if they acquire that data directly from the hardware somehow.