Question Should my i7 9750 be at the same clock speed all the time?

[tuffluck]

I notice in cpu-z it's always at or near 4.0 ghz. i thought with speed step it is supposed to fluctuate and drop down to lower clock speeds when not being fully utilized? task manager says utilization currently is 10%, and speed step is enabled in the bios, but still it is running max mhz in cpu-z and hwmonitor on windows 10 balanced power. even in power settings it says minimum 5% but it does not get far from 100% at any time. Is there a way to fix this?

 

[Thunder 57]

I notice in cpu-z it's always at or near 4.0 ghz. i thought with speed step it is supposed to fluctuate and drop down to lower clock speeds when not being fully utilized? task manager says utilization currently is 10%, and speed step is enabled in the bios, but still it is running max mhz in cpu-z and hwmonitor on windows 10 balanced power. even in power settings it says minimum 5% but it does not get far from 100% at any time. Is there a way to fix this?

I'm guessing you meant "Minimum processor state" is 5%? I don't follow something though. You say in task manager it stays around 10% but that it does not get far from 100% at any time? I don't follow. What is it showing in "Resource Manager" and/or "Performance Monitor"?

 

[tuffluck]

Sorry, I meant in the task manager the utilization may say 10%, but CPU-Z or HW Monitor show the clock speed at 100%, or around 4,000Mhz even while the utilization is at 10%.

And yes, I meant "Minimum Processor State" at 5% within the power options of Windows. Sorry for the confusion. FYI right now Performance Monitor shows about 15%, but the processor speed in HW Monitor is still showing 4,000Mhz (max).

 

[Thunder 57]

Sorry, I meant in the task manager the utilization may say 10%, but CPU-Z or HW Monitor show the clock speed at 100%, or around 4,000Mhz even while the utilization is at 10%.

And yes, I meant "Minimum Processor State" at 5% within the power options of Windows. Sorry for the confusion. FYI right now Performance Monitor shows about 15%, but the processor speed in HW Monitor is still showing 4,000Mhz (max).

I think CPU-z shows the max frequency any one core is running at. That may explain the discrepancy. If Intel's tool is anything like Ryzen Master, it could help you see what's going on. I think HWinfo64 might be useful as well. Come to think of it, I just remembered CPU-z should help as well. Click the down arrow next to "Tools" and then select clocks. That will show all of the core's individual frequency.

Looking at mine in CPU-z I see it's very common for a core or two to max out frequency-wise while the rest remain at low power levels. That's probably what's going on in your case.

 

[tuffluck]

Thanks, but even when I do that in CPU-Z they all show pretty much at the max. The multiplier goes to 42 and they are constantly between 38-42 even though I have nothing running at all. And once again utilization shows 10%. I would think they would downclock??

 

[DrMrLordX]

Use HWiNFO64 to look at your core speeds.

 

[tuffluck]

yes, using that too it shows they are almost always clocked at 100%. speed shift is on in the bios and balanced power is selected. shouldn't they be down clocking? when the pc isn't running anything hard?

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's abnormal. How much power is the system using under those circumstances?

 

[coercitiv]

yes, using that too it shows they are almost always clocked at 100%. speed shift is on in the bios and balanced power is selected.

If Speed Shift is enabled and you have HWInfo64 installed, don't bother watching clocks anymore: look at C-State Residency report instead.

Here's and example from my i7 8700 - even though it's a desktop CPU, my system is no longer configured as stock, both deep sleep states and Speed Shift are enabled.



If your C-State Residency looks somewhat similar to this, then you're fine.

And yes, I meant "Minimum Processor State" at 5% within the power options of Windows. Sorry for the confusion.

Also, if Speed Shift is enabled, don't bother with "Processor power management options" under the Power plan settings. The CPU no longer obeys the OS in terms of frequency control.