OC'd + Speedstep

[bfdd]

Was just curious who else leaves Speedstep on while running an overclocked machine? I have my e6600 running at 3.2ghz 8x400 for everyday 24/7 use so when the multi drops to 6 I'm still running my stock 2.4ghz speed. Was just curious who else is running an overclocked machine with speedstep on?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

That's interesting that you can do that -- requiring me to reconsider symptoms I experienced last month.

I had been able to set SpeedStep on at the stock multiplier and an over-clock of a Q6600 to 3.2 Ghz ( and a 3.0 Ghz over-clock as well at stock mult = 9). Of course, the feature will drop the multiplier to 6 when the machine is idling.

I was working with mild over-clocks to my graphics card, using ATI_Tool. At one point -- and these are VGA settings that are just "testing the water" for the 8800 GTS -- +25Mhz/+100Mhz core/DDR3 -- at one point, I got a BSOD, and my game would lock up.

I disabled SPeedStep, but I also quickly started VGA overclocking with RivaTuner. The error "went away."

That's "one thing." Here's the other.

With lower multipliers, my OC's were unstable with SpeedStep enabled. I had concluded that Speedstep required a stock multiplier, since this was the parameter that it changed to save power.

And you say you're totally stable running a 8 multiplier when the stock value for the E6600 is 9? Keep me posted on this. I like saving money on our electric bill.

 

[harpoon84]

Yeah, I leave it on, but it only partially works when overclocked. The multi drops to 6x when idle, but the voltage remains the same. 'True' Speedstep at stock speeds reduces the voltage down to 1.15V when idle, but you lose this function as soon as you overclock 1MHz apparently.

 

[Xvys]

My cpu voltage goes way down with C1E and Speedstep enabled. I o/c my E6300 to 500 FSB x 7 @ 1.375v. At idle it drops to 1.165v with the multiplier at 6. I reached 3.73GHz with both C1E and Speedstep enabled with my unmodded Asus P5B vanilla on air (100% o/c).

 

[Spikesoldier]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
That's interesting that you can do that -- requiring me to reconsider symptoms I experienced last month.

I had been able to set SpeedStep on at the stock multiplier and an over-clock of a Q6600 to 3.2 Ghz ( and a 3.0 Ghz over-clock as well at stock mult = 9). Of course, the feature will drop the multiplier to 6 when the machine is idling.

I was working with mild over-clocks to my graphics card, using ATI_Tool. At one point -- and these are VGA settings that are just "testing the water" for the 8800 GTS -- +25Mhz/+100Mhz core/DDR3 -- at one point, I got a BSOD, and my game would lock up.

I disabled SPeedStep, but I also quickly started VGA overclocking with RivaTuner. The error "went away."

That's "one thing." Here's the other.

With lower multipliers, my OC's were unstable with SpeedStep enabled. I had concluded that Speedstep required a stock multiplier, since this was the parameter that it changed to save power.

And you say you're totally stable running a 8 multiplier when the stock value for the E6600 is 9? Keep me posted on this. I like saving money on our electric bill.

i doubt you will able to see a measurable difference in your electricity bill just by switching on speedstep, even if you leave your computer running 24/7 for a billing cycle.

speedstep truly shines in mobile circumstances though.

 

[Tempered81]

i keep speedstep on. i have an e4300 at 3270mhz x9 and 2154mhz x6. when i open cpuz-id and minimize it into the taskbard, the button shows the core mhz at both speeds, haha just now as im typing this message, i see this.

 

[GundamF91]

I don't use speedstep. Does your speedstep make the multiplier and voltage run up and down about every other second or so? When I have EIST speedstep/C1E enabled on my E4500 (default 200x11), the system somehow goes up to 11x and down to 6x, and then just keeps going up and down even when I'm idling. I see verything because I run RightMark Clocking tool. The speedstep does not seem to want to stay at 6x which is what idling should do. My CPU load is about 0-1% when idling, and it should not trigger anything that'll hit x11.

That said, this is not the main reason I dont' use Speedstep. The issue that made others and myself turn it off is the factory default multiplier. My E4500 has x11 multiplier and 200mhz FSB by default.. If I want to run higher FSB, ie. 400mhz, that'll translate to 400x11, 4.4Ghz, that's way too high to be stable. When I have EIST speedstep/C1E enabled, the board boots up 400mhz because I set the FSB to this value in BIOS. But....even though I set the BIOS multiplier to be a lower value, the Intel processor driver that loads with WindowsXP would override board's set up on multiplier (for example, x8), and make the CPU run the default multiplier at x11. This will cause Windows to hang. So that's the reason people disable these, because they have multiplier headroom that they can't use.

Now the only way I can leave EIST speedstep/C1E on is to use slower FSB for the overclock. I could use 300mhz, and x11 gets me 3.3Ghz. This would work fine for making CPU faster, but it takes away the memory access speeds and makes the whole system slow. So what I am doing now is disabling EIST speedstep/C1E, and then set the mainboard to boot at 333mhz FSB and x9 multiplier. This gets me a very cool running 3.0Ghz. I don't have EIST/C1E, but I also don't miss the wild swinging of the voltages, which probably hurts the processor and motherboard and powersupply more than any savings.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
That's interesting that you can do that -- requiring me to reconsider symptoms I experienced last month.

I had been able to set SpeedStep on at the stock multiplier and an over-clock of a Q6600 to 3.2 Ghz ( and a 3.0 Ghz over-clock as well at stock mult = 9). Of course, the feature will drop the multiplier to 6 when the machine is idling.

I was working with mild over-clocks to my graphics card, using ATI_Tool. At one point -- and these are VGA settings that are just "testing the water" for the 8800 GTS -- +25Mhz/+100Mhz core/DDR3 -- at one point, I got a BSOD, and my game would lock up.

I disabled SPeedStep, but I also quickly started VGA overclocking with RivaTuner. The error "went away."

That's "one thing." Here's the other.

With lower multipliers, my OC's were unstable with SpeedStep enabled. I had concluded that Speedstep required a stock multiplier, since this was the parameter that it changed to save power.

And you say you're totally stable running a 8 multiplier when the stock value for the E6600 is 9? Keep me posted on this. I like saving money on our electric bill.

Try rightmark CPU clock if you're not. Lets you control the voltage at each multiplier setting. I increased my laptop battery life from 5.5h to 6.5h (sempron 3100+) by undervolting. On my Desktop, it's 100% stable at 2.3Ghz, and 100% stable at 1Ghz too (4*256), since I can control the voltage for each multiplier setting. Basically, find the min voltage it's safe on when OC'd. Then set the mult to the lowest setting, and find the min voltage that's solid there as well; then let Rightmark fill in the in between voltages and you're set.

 

[Ika]

I left it on for a while, but lately my system has been randomly BSODing for absolutely no discernable reason and no pattern followed (maybe one BSOD every week or so; I leave my comp on all the time). I turned of SpeedStep and C1E to see if that causes the problem (the last crash I had was coming out of CoD4, which would possibly trigger a multiplier drop... and a crash).

 

[bfdd]

I used to have problems with it early on when I built this machine, after a few BIOS versions and what not it works fine. No errors nothing. I figure I can extend the life of the CPU since the speed and voltage drop a bit when I'm not doing anything intensive.

 

[badnewcastle]

I left C1E on and EIST off.

 

[spinejam]

Originally posted by: badnewcastle
I left C1E on and EIST off.

me too, and it works great by lowering the CPU freq. & voltage (heat) during non-intensive tasks (email / websurfing / etc.)!

 

[jmmtn4aj]

I run F@H 24/7 in the background, so I don't see a point in enabling it..

 

[secretanchitman]

nope....speedstep always somehow freezes my computer, so i just turn it off...i leave it at 3.4-3.6Ghz.

 

[VirtualLarry]

SpeedStep (EIST) and C1E are the first things that I disable on a board. In theory it works nicely, at least at stock speeds, but who runs their Intel rigs at stock speeds?!?

I'd rather disable it, and then use the extra CPU time to run DC in the background, than have it idle and slow down.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

When properly configured and supported by the BIOS, C1E and EIST can dynamically lower Vcore and core speed to reduce heat and stress on CPU when it is idling.

For example, the VID of my E4300 is 1.325 @ 1.8GHz. My Vcore is set at 1.465 in BIOS. Under full load, the CPU sees about 1.425V @ 3.49GHz (due to Vdroop). At idle, Vcore drops to 1.290 @ 2.32GHz. At no time will the CPU be subjected to the full 1.465V set in BIOS.

If C1E and EIST are disabled, then the CPU will run at 3.49GHz all the time with 1.46V @ idle, and 1.425V @ load.

To avoid stability problem, always use default CPU multiplier with C1E and EIST enabled.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
SpeedStep (EIST) and C1E are the first things that I disable on a board. In theory it works nicely, at least at stock speeds, but who runs their Intel rigs at stock speeds?!?

I'd rather disable it, and then use the extra CPU time to run DC in the background, than have it idle and slow down.

it works with OC'd cpu's as well as with stock cpu's

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
nope....speedstep always somehow freezes my computer, so i just turn it off...i leave it at 3.4-3.6Ghz.

it probably means that your OC is unstable, my CPU is running at 395 x 9 (3.55ghz) and the multi drops to 6x when at idle and low usage

 

[jonmcc33]

Works fine with my E6400 @ 3.2GHz (2.4GHz idle). I see no problem with it. When my PC is idle it saves power and runs cooler...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: harpoon84
Yeah, I leave it on, but it only partially works when overclocked. The multi drops to 6x when idle, but the voltage remains the same. 'True' Speedstep at stock speeds reduces the voltage down to 1.15V when idle, but you lose this function as soon as you overclock 1MHz apparently.

That's interesting. It seems that there are two classes of mobos in relation to SpeedStep/C1E - those that undervolt when overclocked, and those that don't. The ones that don't are likely more stable when overclocked and running SpeedStep/C1E enabled. But that partially negates the power savings that those features provide. So these features really only provide value when run at stock settings.

 

[bfdd]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
When properly configured and supported by the BIOS, C1E and EIST can dynamically lower Vcore and core speed to reduce heat and stress on CPU when it is idling.

For example, the VID of my E4300 is 1.325 @ 1.8GHz. My Vcore is set at 1.465 in BIOS. Under full load, the CPU sees about 1.425V @ 3.49GHz (due to Vdroop). At idle, Vcore drops to 1.290 @ 2.32GHz. At no time will the CPU be subjected to the full 1.465V set in BIOS.

If C1E and EIST are disabled, then the CPU will run at 3.49GHz all the time with 1.46V @ idle, and 1.425V @ load.

To avoid stability problem, always use default CPU multiplier with C1E and EIST enabled.

My multiplier is at 8 not the stock 9 works perfectly fine and the voltage drops to around 1.2 something

 

[JBT]

Works fine on my Q6600 its only OCed to 3.06 @ 1.248 vcore though. It drops to 2.04 @ 1.15 vcore with speed step.

 

[Conjugal Visit]

I use both EIST and C1E. In fact, I've remained with the F2 bios on my board because it allows the board to be undervolted in conjunction with a reduction in the multiplier. Meaning, more recent bios versions will do the multiplier reduction, but VID and voltage does not drop. I'm not sure I see the point of reducing the multiplier without a commensurate reduction in voltage.

My normal VID is 1.28750. With EIST and C1E enabled, and using the F2 bios, VID drops to 1.0750. What this means in CPU-Z:

CPU active - 1.312V
CPU idle - 0.963v

Enabling C1E and EIST is totally stable on my rig, no matter where I set the overclock or what vcore and vdimm voltages I use. To me, it makes perfect sense to utilize these things - why would anyone want to O/C their rig, pumping up FSB and voltages, so it can run at those settings at idle? Cost...heat...longevity to sit overclocked at idle? Overclock setting are "restored" almost instantaneously. I've done various benchmarks to see if I can find lag when C1E and EIST are on or off, and I can't see any measurable difference.

Regards,

 

[nyker96]

running this E2140 with 9x at 3.1 or so, E1C drop to 6x at 2.2 or so. 1.35 -> 1.15 volt. No problem with E1C on.

 

[Saiyukimot]

My Q6600 has all the power saving functions on.

3GHz overclock with 1.275v on load, 2GHz 1.16v on idle.

Works fine and stable as a peach.

 

[Modelworks]

I don't use it.
The HLT instruction is good enough for me.