Processor clock speed vs. CPU speed
 

Question regarding "processor speed" in specs displayed after boot-up screen and actual CPU speed.

For CPU, I'm running an Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz /533 fsb/512 kb/skt-478. (i686 ?).

CPU/DRAM speed is 100/100Mhz

I have Redhat 9 (Shrike) 2.40.20-6 for my OS (old, yes, but it's a stand-alone glorified word processor, so it works for me, and I cannot install programs, let alone update a kernal).

When booting, the screen displays that my processor clock is 1.8 Ghz.

1. Can I make processor clock match CPU speed?

2. Do I want to make processor clock (1.8Ghz) match CPU speed (2.4Ghz)? (Basically, what happens if you do do it?)

3. If I do, how can I do it? I poked around in the BIOS and didn't find any way to change the processor clock setting.


Thanks,

Moxieman99

Moxieman99,

That's interesting. You shouldn't have to do anything at all to get the processor up to 2.4ghz. The only thing that I can think of is the Front Side Bus being underclocked. Are you absolutely sure it's a 2.4ghz and not a 1.8?

That command in a terminal will give you more information about how linux sees your processor.

--Shade

Clock Speed
 

Thanks, I ran the cat and it reported the below results. As you can see, it IS clocked at 1.8 Ghz, but shows the model as being 2.4GHz.

1. How can I change the clocking?

2. WHY would a builder underclock the system so much?

Here's the data:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 1792.760
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat p
se36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
bogomips : 3578.26

Hmm,

Assuming a multiplier of 18

100Mhz*18 = 1800Mhz

Assume the FSB for this CPU should be 133 and the multiplier normally can't be changed then

133Mhz*18 = 2394Mhz which sounds about right. So the bios will correctly identify the CPU as a 2.4 Ghz CPU as it interogtes the CPU for model numbers etc, but its actually clocked at 1800 as the FSB is 100.

See if you can goose the FSB up to 133, though you probably need to make sure the memory stays at 100 unless you have memory that supports going faster.

Q2, incompetance?

Q1, get your motherboard manual. It'll hopefully be a bios setting, you should have a setting for FSB or "bus speed". It may be combined as bus/memory and you may have choices like 100/100, 100/133, 133/133 etc.

The best thing is to check the manual as the settings are often different for different motherboards.

That's it
 

Q1, get your motherboard manual. It'll hopefully be a bios setting, you should have a setting for FSB or "bus speed". It may be combined as bus/memory and you may have choices like 100/100, 100/133, 133/133 etc.


______________________________
I did find those options in BIOS and wasn't sure what they meant. That's it! T[hanks.

MM