Pentium 4 Clock Modulation: What does it actually do?

DJ Shaji · 04-29-2011, 06:15 PM

I mean yeah, I know what it does. But what does it actually do?

Suppose I set the scaling governor to powersave. It slows down my clock from 1493 MHz to 353 MHz. So, does it mean:

The cpu core temperature will go down?
As per the above, the cpu will not overheat if kept on for a long period of time?

I want to download some stuff overnight, and as that doesn't require too much power, I'm thinking that turning down the CPU clock is a good thing to do. I'm just curious if it actually accomplishes anything.

TobiSGD · 04-29-2011, 06:22 PM

Yes, the core temperature will go down.
Yes, the CPU will not overheat. In fact, it shouldn't also overheat if running at full power for a long time. If it does your cooling system is not sufficient.

If you do tasks that don't need much CPU power (like downloading) the ondemand-governor should automatically clock down your CPU. I always use it and never use a different governor.