Why is the maximum frequency of the CPU set to 65 percent?

Question

The power saving options are set to 'high performance', yet Resource Monitor claims that the 'maximum frequency' is 65 percent. How can I make it be 100 percent? Also, what really is the maximum frequency? (As you can see in the attached image, the CPU usage can go slightly (1 percent) above it)

Answer 1

What that "65%" maximum frequency means is that your CPU is currently clocked at 65% of it's highest RATED frequency by the manufacturer. An example would be the FX-8350 that is RATED to run at 4 GHz by AMD. 65% of the rated frequency would mean that at that exact moment and time, the CPU's effective clock speed is (.65)(4000MHz) = 2600MHz OR 2.6GHz. So the CPU would be running at 2.6 GHz and not 4GHz at that time.



Is this a bad thing? Sometimes, yes, because the algorithms they use to determine how to throttle the CPU cores (and shut them off) are not always efficient, nor do they always work properly. An example would be when you open a game and at certain points the CPU frequency drops to 10% when no frame needs to be rendered, then jumps to 95% - this causes stuttering and sometimes system instability.



If you don't like it, you can disable it. The reason why it happens is because you have power-saving features enabled in BIOS like:



Cool n' Quiet/Speedstep

C-States

Core C6 mode

etc.



If you don't like it, disable it in BIOS. Also, I disagree with Wilson; your CPU life likely won't be reduced by disabling power-saving features. You are NOT overclocking. I've also found my PCs to consume LESS power and run COOLER with Intel SpeedStep and AMD Cool n' Quiet OFF (C-states still enabled for IDLE). In my case, the power-saving features worked in a way that was not beneficial in any scenario. I've disabled them and haven't ran into ANY issues.

Answer 2

It's not. All that 65% means is that the CPU was under a 65% load when that screen grab was taken. It has nothing at all to do with what speed the CPU is running at.



An analogy would be the relationship between a car's engine and the gas pedal. The cars engine might produce 200 HP (the speed of the CPU). But you usually aren't giving the engine full throttle (100% load) all the time. In your case the gas pedal (load) was 65%. But the engine (CPU) was still producing (running at) it's stated clock speed (amount of power).

Answer 3

it will go up to 100% when it needs to, it pulls back so it doesnt use as much power or produce as much heat thus prolonging the life of your processor

the maximum frequency is the frequency your processor is currently running at, so if you have a 2.4ghz core it could run between 2.4ghz and i think around 0.9ghz

Answer 4

it isn't it is 65% OF maximum frequency probably due to stepping