Questioning speed on cpu-z

[djohn3853]

OK friends, I still refer to it as my "new" computer, but I started buying the components 18 months ago and built it a year ago. I haven't oc'd yet but want to now. So, I just dl and install cpu-z. Fire it up and it reports core speed 1999, multi 6 bus 333. I'm like "what???" I've been using this for a year at 2G. So I go into bios for first time and first of all, its a little diff than what I have on my older rig (asus mobo). Anyway I see multi of 8.5 withcore speed of 2830. Now I'm really confused. I decide to re-boot and now cpu-z agrees with the faster speed. But wait....as I watch cpu-z the multi switches back to 6 then back to 8.5 Its bouncing, but sits most of the time at 6. What gives?


E8400 cpu
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
Radeon HD4870
4G Gskill DDR2-1000 PC2-8000
Acer 23", H233H
Vista 64 bit
Corsair 650TX
Xigmatek cooler

 

[Sp12]

You're looking at something called speedstep (or whatever moniker they use now).

Basically drops the multiplier/voltage when the CPU doesn't need it, like when you're typing in word. It'll pop up to 8.5 when you start a game/while windows loads/load your processor.

It saves you electricity and cuts back on heat. It can also potentially increase the lifespan of your chip.

 

[Markfw]

read the sticky !!!