Underclocked?

[Lysimachus]

So I got this new computer;

2.5Ghz quad-core
4GB RAM
NVIDIA 9800GT

And I installed Knights of Honor. Was playing it, and was actually quite choppy considering how past the spec it was. I looked on my ASRock OC tuner and it said the processor was running at 2Ghz?

Why has it underclocked?

Plus how come it doesn't overclock when I adjust the settings in the BIOS?

[Ishan]

Quad core as in Core 2 Quad or Extreme or AMD processor? Unistall that software crap they are just nonsense for Ocing CPUs.
Do it only by Bios. Use cpu-z and post the screenshots here so that we can see at what frequency it's running.
About Bios tell us the Exact model no of RAM, CPU & MOBO. Cpu-z can also do that for you.

And why the hell you didn't ask me before you bought 9800GT it's not the card to play latest games Lysi you broke my heart.

[Lysimachus]

Quad core as in Core 2 Quad or Extreme or AMD processor?

Intel(R) Core (TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs) [from dxdiag]

Unistall that software crap they are just nonsense for Ocing CPUs.

^ite

Do it only by Bios

Well I tried that. I set the CPU frequency from 333 to 450 and I don't think there's been any difference.

Use cpu-z and post the screenshots here so that we can see at what frequency it's running.

I hope this will work:

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1544180

And why the hell you didn't ask me before you bought 9800GT it's not the card to play latest games Lysi you broke my heart.

Well it came with the computer, and when I first got it, M2TW, ETW and RTW played quite nicely. Something seems to be making my computer slow down recently though.

[Musthavename]

Do Intel have a feature similar to AMD's "Cool & Quiet"? That feature deliberatly underclocks the CPU when it doesn't think it's doing anything (something I disabled quite soon after getting my AMD chip ).

[Lysimachus]

How did you disable it? I think mine has that too.

[Musthavename]

There was a simple option in the BIOS for me.

[Ishan]

ok found the problem thanks for providing the screeny lysi.
You need to change the multiplier value to 7.5 i think in your Bios it's set to auto and somehow it's showing 6.0. So Bus Speed is 333.86 which is fine.

So CPU frequency = 333.86 x 6.0 = 2003.16 that is 2Ghz.<--Your problem.
No if you change the multiplier value to 7.5 then
So CPU frequency = 333.86 x 7.5 = 2503.95 that is 2.5Ghz.<--Your goal.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hope this helps.

[Lysimachus]

goddamnit there's a problem

So I went in to the CPU Configuration section of my BIOS and it had the following:

Overclock Mode [Auto]
CPU Frequency (MHz) [333]
PCIE Frequency (MHz) [100]
Boot Failure Guard [Enabled]
Spread Spectrum [Auto]

Ratio Actual Value 7.5

The CPU/PCIE Frequency options are greyed out but I can activate them by changing overclock mode from Auto to CPU,PCIE Async. There's also an Optimized option. Fiddling with the frequency doesn't seem to do anything though.

Ratio Actual Value; I have no idea what this is, but i'm under the impression it's the multiplier? It's greyed out

blargh

[Big Boss]

May need to update your bios. Whats the mobo?

[Musthavename]

If the multiplier is greyed out it's probably because "Overclock Mode" is set to Auto, meaning the BIOS decides on setting it to the 6.0 instead of 7.5. Try and see if there's a "Manual" option here and it'll likely allow you to choose the multiplier.

Ofcourse, this is providing your BIOS isn't locked. Certain MOBOs, mostly for prebuilts, are often locked.

[Lysimachus]

OK, I clicked some button in the BIOS with the word performance in it (can't remember the precise wording) and it seems now the cores are working consistently at 2.5GHz. This button I clicked changed the Overclock Mode to Optimized too, and made the 7.5 button available and revealed some other button next to it too.

How would I now go about overclocking the computer?

[Ishan]

Damn i was late.
Anyways do you use a CPU cooler or a stock cooler?
3.0 it the max you can reach in 8300 i think and also your max core voltage is 1.225V currently is 1.08V.
More voltage means can over clock more and more heat so if stock cooler leave it at that you already over clocked it by .5Ghz technically.