CPU Speed question

[GadgetEd]

Just built new system with AMD 938 (Athlon II x4 3.1 G), ASRock 870 Extreme3, GSkill 8 G RAM, XFX 4350 vid. The OC Tuner which came with the mobo indicates a frequently fluctuating CPU speed ~800 - 3300. It may sound like a dumb question but is that supposed to happen? I don't recall that with other processors.
Thanx for any help.

[bgoswick]

Re: CPU Speed question

I've been wondering myself and all I can say is...

Some software off the motherboard disc will adjust your CPU Speed based on how much processes you have going. It your gaming it will increase your CPU Speed, compressing a movie however when your idle and away from your computer I have noticed it will drop the CPU speed down to around ~800

I'm currently at 800mhz on my AMD 1090t X6.

[GadgetEd]

Re: CPU Speed question

I was wonder if it is becasue the speed sensor defects one processor at a time and the speed changes are a result of one processor at full speed and the others slower.

[absic]

Re: CPU Speed question

This is not a problem and is normally controlled in BIOS by a feature called Core Turbo Boost or something similar. The idea is that the CPU will automatically downclock when it is idle and then speed up when it is being used.

In some applications the programme might only be making use of one or two cores of the processor and they will be automatically overclocked to give the best performance whilst the other cores are downclocked.