djmorgan Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad T410i it runs a Intel® Core™ i5 CPU M 540 @ 2.53GHz on a intel chipset PCH QM57 I have 8Gb of DD3 memory. Now both AIDA64 and CPU-Z show the CPU running at 3.06GHz which is the CPU's turbo mode and it is not running turbo full time. Intel turbo boost monitor 2.0 and the internal PC Doctor application do show the CPU running at rest down to 2.53GHz so is there a way I can get AIDA64 correctly report the CPU on this setup? David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Maybe the CPU senses the light CPU load that CPU-Z or AIDA64 CPUID Panel puts on the processor, and instead of leaving itself resting, it kicks in the Turbo Boost to assure it provides the maximum single-threaded performance. Please note that unlike other applications, both CPU-Z and AIDA64 CPUID Panel monitors more aspects of the system and updates those properties dynamically, hence they put a bit more stress on the CPU than other solutions. In most cases the difference is only 1-2% of total CPU time, but it may just be enough for the CPU to activate Turbo Boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djmorgan Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Yes thought of that, but if I have AIDA64 monitoring the CPU and at the same time Intel's solution then the Intel shows the CPU at rest 2.5Ghz whilst AIDA shows it at turbo! Further, if under load, then the Intel solution may show the CPU at say 2.7, then AIDA will also show the CPU at 2.7, it's as though AIDA is seeing rest as turbo and visa versa! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yes thought of that, but if I have AIDA64 monitoring the CPU and at the same time Intel's solution then the Intel shows the CPU at rest 2.5Ghz whilst AIDA shows it at turbo! Further, if under load, then the Intel solution may show the CPU at say 2.7, then AIDA will also show the CPU at 2.7, it's as though AIDA is seeing rest as turbo and visa versa! Please note that Turbo is engaged so quickly, and for such a small amount of time, then it is possible that for the fraction of time AIDA64 (or CPU-Z) measures the CPU clock the processor switches up to Turbo clock, and while Intel's tool measures the clock it switches back to non-Turbo clock. Even though it looks as if those tools work in parallel and measure the very same things, all those low-level clock measurements are done exclusively, without multi-tasking, for a very short amount of time. It's not easy to explain all that without using deep technical terms. The whole point of Turbo Boost and other performance enhancement and power saving "magic" of Nehalem and later Intel processors are designed to work very fast, by switching clock speeds in a fraction of a second. Hence the CPU can adjust to the necessary workload with an extreme response time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djmorgan Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Sounds like black magic to me! but I'll go with what you say it's not a critical issue, my i7 950 desktop behaves as you would expect, both showing same data! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djmorgan Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 I'd just like to follow up as I think there is an issue with AIDA64 and Lenovo laptops, the following 2 images show the laptop at rest with the intel turbo monitor showing the CPU at rest whilst AIDA64 shows it with a x23 multiplier and running at turbo. This is NOT AIDA64 causing turbo by polling the system. The second image shows AIDA64 stress test and AIDA64 showing the cpu at the same speed as Intel BUT lower that at rest! Now none of this is critical but I'm sure the developers would like a 'perfect' program Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I'm afraid that's still normal At rest, when only 1 of the cores are stressed a little bit (because AIDA64 CPUID Panel dynamically refreshes CPU clock, FSB, chipset info, etc) your CPU momentarily switches up to the highest Turbo setting. While at 100% CPU load all cores are under heavy load, and so the CPU cannot switch up to the highest Turbo setting. Turbo Boost is designed so you could achieve the highest performance when not all of the available CPU cores are stressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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