i3 2100 Low Clock Speeds

Hi all,

Sanity check time! I have an i3 2100 which is rated at 3.1 GHz. Tonight I installed and ran 3d Mark 11 a few times just out of interest.

On the results of each benchmark, my processor speed always showed as 1.6 GHz. This I thought was strange as I thought it should read 3.1 GHz. So after a little Googling I found out about the Intel Speed Stepping application. Thinking that this might be hampering my score I went into the power options and selected "high performance" mode which switches the lowest CPU frequency to 100%. So with this setting I should be running 3.1 GHz all the time.

Ran the test again, still showing as 1.6 GHz! Then thought about checking CPU-Z. Guess what, 1.6 GHz with 16x multiplier. Argh!

Now the sanity check, am I missing something obvious? Is this behaviour normal? Any help much appreciated as my PC is only 1 month old and I don't really have any reference point as to whether the CPU has always been at this speed or not.

Cheers folks.

This is normal, there is a setting in BIOS to change, i would just leave it as is though.

There is no lag in switching so you are just getting free cooling and money off you leccy bill

Run something CPU intensive (e.g. wprime) with CPU-Z in the foreground to check that the CPU is throttling upwards normally. If it isn't, going into your BIOS and check that the multiplier isn't set manually to 16 in the BIOS (I've had a couple of motherboards decide to set the multi to something random instead of the correct value!). If that's right, turn EIST off in the BIOS then go back and load up the CPU and check it is running at the correct speed.

Let us know how all that goes!

Cheers Jim. Tried running that and right enough it jumped up to 3.1 with 32 x multiplier.

I take it it's normal to see the speed reading within 3d mark as 1.6 GHz though? I would have thought the CPU tests within that would push the clock speed up the same as WPrime does?

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Originally Posted by mitchgixer6

I take it it's normal to see the speed reading within 3d mark as 1.6 GHz though? I would have thought the CPU tests within that would push the clock speed up the same as WPrime does?

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Yes, but it only reads the speed when doing the system analysis rather than during the heat of the testing.