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why is 2.4 throttled even on AC????

P

pitt1717

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 13, 2007
306
37
this has been boggleing me for a few days and i searched the forums for an answer but came up empty. when i check to see what my processor is (no matter what setting i have the energy saver set to), this machine is never running at 2.4ghz. i can understand it going down when its not plugged in but it always seems to be a 1ghz. if i launch a program it goes up and comes back down.

again all that is fine if it were just on battery but when i am plugged in i want full power all the time. what am i missing here?

2.4 SR MBP
 
The computer adjusts processor speed to better suit what you are doing. If you aren't doing anything it will slow down the processor to save you a few bucks on your electricity bill. It basically only does what it has to and what you require it to do.
 
it throttles to 1ghz when you take the battery out, has nothing to do with saving power when its plugged in ;). If its throttling to 1ghz and you have the battery in you might want to call apple.
 
yea, i may have to. as im typing this, i have 5 streaming videos up, mail, iphoto, itunes, garageband and chess open up and running and im not getting past 2ghz. its holding steady right there. cpu's are going from 89 to 98% load so it should keep throttleing up to 2.4 with the load i got on it but its not.

im a new switcher and im not very happy right now! this is my second MBP as the first one went back due to bad opticle drive. i like the OS, havent even gone back to windows. but these issues are killing me
 
If you're playing 5 streaming videos without a hiccup, then your processor is running at full speed. The software you're using to find current clock speed probably hasn't been updated for the Crestline series of processors.
 
i thought about the program not registering correctly (using ministat2), but havent found anything to tell me what its running at.

i also tried reseting the pram, as well as unplugging, takeing out the battery and holding the power button down for 5 seconds. came back reran the tests and still the same..

so anyone know a utility to tell me what the processor is truly running at? i appreciate all the help so far
 
well downloaded the program and it confirms also that the comp is running at 2ghz. mini shows 1ghz mazi shows 2ghz and current also 2ghz. something is telling the machine its only a 2ghz.

machine does state 2.4 in the about mac. jeesh this just sucks
 
pitt1717 said:
well downloaded the program and it confirms also that the comp is running at 2ghz. mini shows 1ghz mazi shows 2ghz and current also 2ghz. something is telling the machine its only a 2ghz.

machine does state 2.4 in the about mac. jeesh this just sucks
Click to expand...

Go to the energy preference panel, and select the "Power connected" setting or whatever its called. The CPU should be set to automatic, set it to "high performance." That should get it up to 2.4. If it doesn't then yea, take it back.
 
This is weird I just tried it and loaded up all the programs I have on this computer, along with 40+ videos on youtube, and two terminal windows doing yes > /dev/null, and I got 90+% CPU usage, but 1.83GHz throughout. Now that I've closed all the programs, it is still 1.83GHz.

I used the CoreDuoTemp program. New MBP SR 2.2GHz.

And the Energy Saving panel's Better Performance is not related to CPU speed. This has been brought up before. One reason is that if you change any of the default sleep time or something, it becomes Custom. The Energy Saving is merely that, energy savings.
 
maybe we are onto something here. maybe the title should be changed so others can try and report back. what do you think.....
 
I've been using Hardware Monitor, which will graph any of it's sensors. Then, you can look at the clock speed during actual use over time. I'm sure the behavior you are seeing is normal. It will "throttle up" as necessary.
 
well i set the interval to 1 sec so any little burst i should see that, but when i see it move from 1 to 1.5 to 1.83 up to 2 and sty there, it leads me to believe it doesnt know about the extra speed availible

created a thread on the apple forums to see if someone over there can check this out as well

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1044762
 
hmmm was curious so i dl'ed coreduotemp as well..... under frequencies it says mini: 1GHz and Maxi:2.0GHz with a current frequency of 2.0 GHz under 'better performance' (when i put it to normal, it changes to 1.5....). i have a 2.4 SR.... i have not tried it yet under 100% load though
 
well, thats all the frustration i can handle for the night. tomorrow ill be going away, so i wont have any time to look at this further so i hope you guys come up with something:).

and on a side note, i shot the author of coreduo app an email to see if maybe his app doesnt recognize our chipsets correctly. and if someone has a utility that is showing it correctly, please share.


thanks for the input guys. ill check this thread before i leave tomorrow, otherwise it will be thursday.
 
pitt1717 said:
yea, i may have to. as im typing this, i have 5 streaming videos up, mail, iphoto, itunes, garageband and chess open up and running and im not getting past 2ghz. its holding steady right there. cpu's are going from 89 to 98% load so it should keep throttleing up to 2.4 with the load i got on it but its not.

im a new switcher and im not very happy right now! this is my second MBP as the first one went back due to bad opticle drive. i like the OS, havent even gone back to windows. but these issues are killing me
Click to expand...

I'm not completely sure about this but it kind of looks like you have a couple of terms mixed up. Could you answer a couple of questions?

1) Are you using the CPU load percentage as a percentage of maximum speed?
2) Where are you finding the actual 'speed' of the chip when it is running?
3) Is everything that you have open running smoothly?

Sopranino
 
Sopranino said:
I'm not completely sure about this but it kind of looks like you have a couple of terms mixed up. Could you answer a couple of questions?

1) Are you using the CPU load percentage as a percentage of maximum speed?
2) Where are you finding the actual 'speed' of the chip when it is running?
3) Is everything that you have open running smoothly?

Sopranino
Click to expand...

Since I am experiencing the same thing:
1. There is a % as well as a number in units of GHz.
2. A program called CoreDuoTemp, linked earlier in this thread.
3. When I tried mine (scroll up), it was very laggy, and still 1.83GHz (2.2 SR).
 
This could all just be because the frequency monitoring program has not been updated to the new processors yet. The best way to look at the core frequency would probably be in windows where people (intel?) will more than likely have released updated programs which show the correct frequency of the processor.
 
pitt1717 said:
this has been boggleing me for a few days and i searched the forums for an answer but came up empty. when i check to see what my processor is (no matter what setting i have the energy saver set to), this machine is never running at 2.4ghz. i can understand it going down when its not plugged in but it always seems to be a 1ghz. if i launch a program it goes up and comes back down.

again all that is fine if it were just on battery but when i am plugged in i want full power all the time. what am i missing here?

2.4 SR MBP
Click to expand...

If your processors run at full speed, they produce heat, which means the fans will start running, and a fan at full speed is a major distraction. You waste energy, the computer gets hot, and it wears out quicker. Do you want that? And what for? An MBP sitting around doing nothing does that fast enough at 1GHz. And as you said yourself, whenever you launch a program (and speed is needed), the speed goes up.
 
gnasher729 said:
If your processors run at full speed, they produce heat, which means the fans will start running, and a fan at full speed is a major distraction. You waste energy, the computer gets hot, and it wears out quicker. Do you want that? And what for? An MBP sitting around doing nothing does that fast enough at 1GHz. And as you said yourself, whenever you launch a program (and speed is needed), the speed goes up.
Click to expand...

I'd say his issue is the fact that it never actually gets to full speed. I like that my CPU downclocks itself when not running a full load but it better get to 2.4GHz when i'm busy.

Although i still think that it is displaying 2.0GHz but actually running at 2.4GHz because the monitoring program hasn't been updated yet.
 
sopranino, beginnier hit it on the head with his response. not only am i using the coreduo app which is linked but also ministat2 widget from the apple widget download section.

gnasher, not sure you fully understand, though appreciate your response. just because it running at 2.4 (which is what i paid for and want availible when plugged in!!!!) does not neccessarily mean the fans will kick in. it can run at 2.4 with lets say 5-10 percent utilization. fans should not kick in.
and your assesment of things wearing out are wrong. yea maybe the fans opticle drive and hard drive can wear out, but i dont think any solid state material including mutherboard/processor are going to wear out. i have 486's that still run for petes sake. and if anything, the constant cooling/heating is actually worse because solder joints are heating and cooling which has a greater chance of cracking with the climate differences.

TBi- good point and something i will investigate. however if the EFI (controlling the system i believe/ replaces bios) is wrong and is telling the system the wrong data. then windows will be wrong as well
 
This has to deal with the new FSB of the SR chips being at 800mhz. The program's you're using are made for the older chips running at 667mhz.

800mhz/667mhz =1.1994

The max you should be seeing in the programs you're using right now sounds right if they can hit up to 2ghz.

2ghz * 1.1994 = 2.39ghz
 
ok the wife is getting mad at me cause i wont put this down and we need to get on the road for vacation(LOL). anyway, i booted over to XP(man i do not miss it) and ran 3 different programs....

cpu speed, cpumon and speed switchxp.

ALL show max of 2.4ghz as the max speed!!!!! i also set for dynamic switch and can see it move up and down the scale. so all this i believe was for nothing. sorry. if i would have justed booted into windows this would have been cleared up, but like i said, i want to make a true switch to mac and it pains me to boot into this

nate i think you got it right with that, and if you saw in an earlier post, i emailed the author of coreduo app. so we will see if its the case or not if i hear back.

i think the case is closed here...thanks again for the support guys. still getting used to osx and its availible programs so bear with me. but gotta say, im making the switch and aint lookin back
 
nateDEEZY said:
This has to deal with the new FSB of the SR chips being at 800mhz. The program's you're using are made for the older chips running at 667mhz.

800mhz/667mhz =1.1994

The max you should be seeing in the programs you're using right now sounds right if they can hit up to 2ghz.

2ghz * 1.1994 = 2.39ghz
Click to expand...

thats a very interesting and good observation...

beginner0 said:
This is weird I just tried it and loaded up all the programs I have on this computer, along with 40+ videos on youtube, and two terminal windows doing yes > /dev/null, and I got 90+% CPU usage, but 1.83GHz throughout. Now that I've closed all the programs, it is still 1.83GHz.

I used the CoreDuoTemp program. New MBP SR 2.2GHz.
Click to expand...

with the above 1.1994....1.83 * 1.1994 = 2.19...
 
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