What are the multiplier's available to me on a QX6700?

[Zak33]

Lo people

My trusty old QX6700 is unlocked, as they all are. On my old (rock 'ard) 965 chipset mobo the multiplers vary from 6x to 10x on a 266 bus, so the clocks varies from 1598 to 2667.

But all the AMD AM2's and 3's have a much lower multiplier setting on their version of speed step... to the point where the 3.2 gig that Serious Sam and I built two weeks ago dropped to 800MHz when idling.. and using my trusty Power Meter plugged into the wall, I saw his power use drop way under mine.

Would a newer chipset mobo drop my multiplier any lower?

Just a thought really.... trying to really cut the power drain down when in 2d mode.. even swapped out the trusty 4870 Toxic for a few weeks to a lower draw card.. a 5750 lowered the use at tickover by nearly 50W!! which is a lot for 6 hours use per day!

[scaryjim]

Don't think so, tbh. I've always noticed that the multiplier drop under speed step is significantly less than that under C&Q. AFAIK all AMD processors will drop to a x4 mutliplier, whereas 6x seems to be as low as Intel will go...

[Zak33]

bugger... shame really.. quite a big electricity differance too...

[scaryjim]

I'm surprised, tbh - I always thought the big advantage of socket 775 was that it had very low idle power draw - or is that just the newer chipsets? You may find that a newer motherboard lowers power draw all-round, if that is the case... Checking back on Hexus reviews a Q9300 + P45 mobo idles @ 10W less then a PII X4 940 + 790GX mobo...

[Zak33]

I'm surprised, tbh - I always thought the big advantage of socket 775 was that it had very low idle power draw - or is that just the newer chipsets? You may find that a newer motherboard lowers power draw all-round, if that is the case... Checking back on Hexus reviews a Q9300 + P45 mobo idles @ 10W less then a PII X4 940 + 790GX mobo...

I'll try one this week... I'm just suprised in the multi difference,..

[scaryjim]

From memory the QX6700 had a pretty high TDP which Intel brought down a lot for the 45nm quads, so maybe that's playing a part as well? *shrug* Since I don't have any kit to test that assumption I'm going with wild conjecture here

I will have to plug my power meter into Kali at some point and see just how much she pulls at idle...

[Terbinator]

As Scary, the Core's always had lower power draw than the Phenoms. I think your's may have a higher multi due to the bus speed. I think my E6550 (2.33GHz/333MHz bus) used to idle at around 1.2GHz so a multi of x4-ish.

[arthurleung]

Try undervolting your QX6700? should be able to knock something like 0.2V off the vcore?
The multiplier doesn't really do much because the C1E is where most of the power saving is from.