CPU giving 1/3 performance compared to same CPUs

cpu-speed

I have a laptop Dell D820 with Intel Core Duo T2500 @ 2.00 GHz, more than four years old, still in good condition.

When I benchmarked the CPU using the PerformanceTest 7.0 from http://www.cpubenchmark.net and compared the results (of the CPU only) to same Dell laptops, I found out that my score is about 1/3 compared to others.

My score is ~ 350 and other Dell laptops with same CPU have about 950 – 990.

I ran the test at least three times with no other (significant) programmes/services in the background.

Does anyone have an idea why my CPU is slower than other comparable CPUs? Thanks for any hint.

UPDATE: The laptop is plugged to power and not running any background services like antivirus.

UPDATE: I ran a memtest to check if RAM could cause it and it's probably not causing it. Two comparable laptops were about 2-3 times better and third laptop was about 1/2 worse than mine (in RAM test). All of them, including the worse, are still about 2-3 better in CPU benchmark.

UPDATE:

Intel T2500 @ 2.00 GHz
Measured speed: 1995.0 MHz
Number of CPU: 1
Cores per CPU: 2
Multiplier: 6x
Bus speed: 167 MHz
Front side bus speed: 667 MHz

Can it be caused by 167 MHz bus speed? FSB and RAM is @ 667 MHz

UPDATE: I ran diagnostics in BIOS (except the looong RAM test) and everything passed OK. The only settings in BIOS related to CPU were:

Current clock speed: 1.000 GHz
Minimum clock speed: 1.000 GHz
Maximum clock speed: 2.000 GHz
Processor cache size: 2048 KB
None of theese fields are changeable
SpeedStep Enable (set to Enable)
Off = Place the system into the lowest performance state and prevent the Intel SpeedStep applet or native operating system driver from adjusting the processor's performance.
Enable = Allow the Intel SpeedStep-enabled CPU to operate in multiple performance states.
The factory default setting is Enabled.

Tools like Speccy or RightMark CPU Clock Utility are telling me that both cores are @ 997.5 MHz (core clock), @ ~ 695 MHz throttled; multiplier 6x, temperature ~ 38 celsius. It's not overheated but it seems to me throttled and I don't know by what. Any idea?

Best Answer

Thanks everybody who tried to help me. Finally the problem was solved.

Other people reported that Current clock speed in BIOS is the same as Maximum clock speed. Which was different on my laptop - I had Current clock speed same as Minimum clock speed. There was something wrong with it not in OS, not in BIOS but "deeper".

Current clock speed: 1.000 GHz
Minimum clock speed: 1.000 GHz
Maximum clock speed: 2.000 GHz

I also updated BIOS and nothing changed. When I set BIOS to default values and restarted, message was displayed saying

A 65W AC power adapter has been determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery may take more time to charge.

The adapter was already a suspect after about 7 hours of investigation, what might be the problem. This was the final evidence. What can cause CPU to operate slower? CPU speed can be set in BIOS, in OS, so something really deep in the system is the cause.

I use 65W car/air adapter all the time, it's small and great. I asked my friend to give me my old big 90W adapter back and.. The CPU works now at 2 GHz and is not throttled down.

Related Solutions

Linux – How to get an ARM CPU clock speed in Linux

AFAICT the clock of a S3C2416 looks just like that of a S3C2443, or similar processors of its family. The Linux source code for it suggests that there are a number of closely-related clocks.

Choice snippet:

    pll = get_mpll(mpllcon, xtal);
    clk_msysclk.clk.rate = pll;

    fclk = pll / get_fdiv(clkdiv0);
    hclk = s3c2443_prediv_getrate(&clk_prediv);
    hclk /= s3c2443_get_hdiv(clkdiv0);
    pclk = hclk / ((clkdiv0 & S3C2443_CLKDIV0_HALF_PCLK) ? 2 : 1);

    s3c24xx_setup_clocks(fclk, hclk, pclk);

    printk("CPU: MPLL %s %ld.%03ld MHz, cpu %ld.%03ld MHz, mem %ld.%03ld MHz, pclk %ld.%03l MHz\n",
           (mpllcon & S3C2443_PLLCON_OFF) ? "off":"on",
           print_mhz(pll), print_mhz(fclk),
           print_mhz(hclk), print_mhz(pclk));

Update from OP

I have been looking for this output from dmesg, but I could not find anything - the dmesg output was littered with debug messages, and the beginning was missing. Clearly the kernel message buffer was too short to hold all messages until I connect by telnet. By putting /bin/dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.log early in the startup process, I was able to get this output, confirming what I wanted to know:

Linux version 2.6.21 (gcc version 4.2.2)
CPU: ARM926EJ-S revision 5 (ARMv5TEJ)
Machine: SMDK2416
...
CPU S3C2416 EVT3
S3C24XX Clocks, (c) 2004 Simtec Electronics
S3C2416: mpll on 534.000 MHz, cpu 534.000 MHz, mem 133.500 MHz, pclk 66.750 MHz

Why is the CPU speed lower than it should be

Your CPU speed is showing correctly in the Specification row of CPU-Z. But your number of multiplier seem to be very low, it was suppose to be more than 12 but in your case it is only 6. First check whether your power plan is configured correctly to High-performance mode. Go to Control Panel and search for Power options, select Change plan settings, find Processor Power management then select Maximum processor state to 100%. Restart your PC and check whether it fixes your problem.

If the problem still persist then I will recommend you to use this application through which you can manually configure your processor different configuration (Multiplier, Clock Modulation, etc). If you use it remember to read the help file before and of course as the application developer says: "Use it at your own risk" :)

Direct download link of ThrottleStop 2.99.9

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – How to get an ARM CPU clock speed in Linux

Why is the CPU speed lower than it should be

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