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CPU CLOCK CONTROL
When idle, CPU-Z reported fluctuating CPU frequencies
ranging from 1.6Ghz to 2.8Ghz for the Core i7 920, so the Power Control Unit seemed to be working somewhat
mysteriously, possibly detecting slight variations in demand by the OS and responding dynamically
with overclocking or underclocking. With Prime95 load, CPU-Z reported the CPU
speed as 2.8Ghz, no matter how many worker threads were used.
With only one active core, we were expecting a higher increase in
clock speed, but that didn't happen. Turbo mode seems to be a
crude way of saying "slightly overclock mode."
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Minimum and maximum CPU states according to CPU-Z.
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Task Manger, performance tab.
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As the CPU supports Hyper-Threading, eight CPUs were detected
by Windows. With Prime95 running four worker threads, the CPU
usage of cores 0 and 3 hit 100%, while the other two remained
idle.
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Intel Desktop Control Center GUI.
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Intel's Desktop Control Center is a beta application for
adjusting and monitor system settings. It is available only on
select Intel branded boards, so it is unfortunately, not an
equivalent to AMD Overdrive. It does allow for a variety of
settings to be changed from the desktop, though most changes
require a reboot. CPU, memory, and bus settings can be adjusted
and there is monitoring available for various temperatures and
voltages via additional menus. You can also define presets for
easy switching.
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Overclocked to 3Ghz — minimum and maximum CPU states
according to CPU-Z.
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Using the Desktop Control Center, we briefly overclocked the
i7 920 processor to 3Ghz by adjusting the CPU frequency to
150Mhz. The same CPU speed behavior that was in effect at stock
speed also prevailed when overclocked: The multiplier shifted up
and down, sometimes overclocking the CPU past its set speed.
Running Prime95 with any number of threads resulted in 3.15Ghz
according to CPU-Z.
It's hard to tell exactly what is going on under
the hood as CPU-Z does not allow each core to be monitored. No
software we know of tells whether inactive cores in a multi-core
CPU underclock and undervolt or go to sleep.
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