Speedstep "Feature"

[dice]

/rant

OK, you know my laptop?
Wellllllllll, I've been benchmarking it and stuff and was surprised when all the programs said it was running at 1.2 GHz, instead of 2.0 GHz (bloody big difference and what is was meant to be running at).
But what annoyed me is Dell turns it down without telling me anywhere. I emailed them when I was trying to work it why it was slower and sent screenshots of the benchmark's - they sent me some copy and paste bollocks about how the default Windows benchmark lies.
They can't have followed the bloody link :mad: as it was clearly not the standard Windows thing :P
OK, so the reason it runs slower is because of this thing called SpeedStep which I only found out about it via. a review :P
I emailed Dell a week ago asking how to disable it, but eventually found a way to do it in the bios.

SpeedStep On/Off

It was on like the last page, right down the bottom.
If they had said, "Look you don't need it this fast, we have turned it down, turn it off here" etc. I would be happy.
If they got back to my emails, I would be happy.

OK, but what _really_ gets me is how they say the battery lasts 2.5 hours! That's fantastic for a 2.0 GHz 15" screen!
But wait! It's only running at 1.2 GHz and the screen gets dimmed to half brightness!
In bold because it is the guts of what I am saying, so you don't have to read the whole thing :P

Both the screen and CPU have been corrected - though I havn't seen how last the battery lasts when the thing is running at what it is meant to be.
It bloody angered me :o

/edit
Made no sense :p
I'm no racist, but the entire Phone Support appears to be Indian.
Fine with me, but it is _so_ hard to understand their accent.
Today I was trying to talk to one for over an hour (have you ever tried tog et something to work for an hour, getting more and more frustrated because it is simple but the d00d doesn't know how) trying to get the screen to come up on the TV.
He had no idea what he was doing.
At the end he was like, "I go do research get back to you in hour".
Several hours later he hasn't, didn't surprise me :P

/end rant

[KingJackal]

Ummm - DUH?

That's how laptops, like.... WORK!!

Sorry, but this is SOOOOOO obvious. Performance is secondary on laptops. No point having a fast chip if you've got no more power to run the beast :rolleyes:. Laptops aren't built for gamers - they're built for businesspeople and the like. Every so often they'll do something like search for a file ( HDD needs spinning up ) - but it'll be punctuated with large expanses of typing or the like. And during those times, using the processor at full speed is... welll.... dumb. REAL dumb.

Sorry, what's your point? :confused:

[sparkles]

good enough....

but correct me if i'm wrong, but don't dell simply rebadge other components?!

the speedstep thing is proabbly the default actions undertaken by either the harware, or by mr gate's fantastic os.

ok, sorry, i have to admit that i actually like win xp.

and the battery... well, who actually believes the battery ratings which are given by manufacturers?! they are noramlly calculated under "ideal" conditions. this of course entails not actually turing the machine on, placing your head in a particular compass heading and ensuring that your shirt is blue. or something like that. ;)

phone support. hmmm, press 1 to abuse them, press 2 to listen to elevator music for that little bit longer.....

everyone's the same like that now unfortunately.

[varkk]

I think his point is, why sell a laptop as having a 2Ghz CPU when it is running at 1.2, it is a bit of false advertising really

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by varkk
I think his point is, why sell a laptop as having a 2Ghz CPU when it is running at 1.2, it is a bit of false advertising really

Ummm - no.


It's only @ 1.2 SOME OF THE TIME. Geez :rolleyes:.

Example: Today I worked on an XP1500+ laptop ( yes, the 1500+ exists - at least as a mobile chip ). That's ( for those that can't be bothered ) a 1.33GHz part - runs @ 133MHz fsb, and a max multiplier of 10x.

I did nothing, and checked the chips speed - 530MHz! It was conserving power by shoving the multiplier down to 4x. But rest assured that despite running Windows XP, it sure as hell wasn't slow ( like any normal desktop 530MHz chip would be ). Why? Because when the extra power is needed, it cranks back up. And it makes those adjustments in microseconds - completely transparent to the user ;).

Theoretically it won't perform as well as a desktop part XP1500+. But in reality, you really can't tell without running benchmarks and comparing digits.

It's like sport mode in cars. Just because the extra boost isn't enabled all the time doesn't mean it's false advertising. You don't normally want an extra 100bhp ( or whatever ) when you're sitting in traffic watching paint dry....

....you only need it when the p***k in the holden sides up to you, and there's a hot ch1ck nearby.....
;)

[sparkles]

Originally posted by varkk
I think his point is, why sell a laptop as having a 2Ghz CPU when it is running at 1.2, it is a bit of false advertising really

meh, yes and no..... for joe average not benchmarking their computer, they won't notice the difference in processor speed- in fact joe 'dice' computer nerd ( :D ) didn't until benchmarking. but everyone does see the difference between battery life times....

you can turn off the speed step features if you go into power options, but most people will leave them on to keep their computer going when they're on the road though.....

[dice]

Heh, didn't know it was standard on laptops as I've never used or had one before...

meh, yes and no..... for joe average not benchmarking their computer, they won't notice the difference in processor speed- in fact joe 'dice' computer nerd ( ) didn't until benchmarking.

Coming from an 900 MHz I didn't really notice the difference, but I did think it was a little slow :)

/edit
No where to be seen in Power Management, thought so as I had already checked it :)

[Geek4Life]

I think you'll find that if you've got it plugged into the mains it will run at it's full 2.0GHz

[Tiggerz]

OK, perhaps I might be able to help.

Speedstep is a technology built into all mobile processors. It works by reducing the power consumption and heat output when the processor is not under load. It does this by turning down the speed of the cpu.

Basically what happens is that the CPU detects what loading you are applying to it and switches itself to a speed rating best suited to the tasks being performed. If you apply extra load to the CPU it will go faster.

Best way of thinking of it is like a hard disk with power saving. If you dont use the HD it will power off. For example, I'm typing this in, so my HD has powered off, when I hit the submit button my HD will power up again as the browser writes to cache.

I have speedstep in my dell laptop turned off, because it spends most of its time in the docking station on mains supply. However, I turn it on when going mobile.

Note that most benchmark programs don't load the CPU very much, so there would be no reason for your CPU to switch up to a higher speed, and thus you are unlikely to see the correct speed reported. Also, under normal laptop usage conditions, its highly unlikely that you will ever hit more than a 30% loading. In fact 90% of the time (your time) the CPU will be doing nothing, so there is no point in making it do nothing at full speed and using power etc when it can do nothing more slowley.

If you wonder what I mean by this last statement, its because a CPU is running all the time it has power. In order to do nothing it needs to be sent a 'do nothing' instruction which says do nothing until you are told something different. It will keep executing this instruction until a different one comes along.

While you might be bashing keys as fast as you can and running several programs at once in your time - to the CPU which is using CPU time, its had time to have a sleep, go to the shops, do the shopping, come home and make lunch. So the 'do nothing' instruction and speedstep is just a way of telling the CPU to stay in bed and save its energy while waiting for the human to get around to doing something.

I agree with some of your comments on Dell tech support. Its rubbish. However, someone not speaking good english or having a strong foreign accent is your problem not theirs. The rest of the workd has a multi-cultural society and most people get used to having talking with people they cant understand. New Zealand is a little bit sheltered in that respect and the result is that people naturally get frustrated when they believe they are not being properly understood. Is just a matter of relaxing and being a bit clearer in your communications and having a bit of patience.

[dice]

Scholar and a Gentleman, thanks for the explanation :)

[Viper_NZ]

Umm.... I think somewhere along the line people got a little confused.

KJ You are talking about AMD's system for battery conservation, POWERNOW!. Intels Speedstep works completely differently.

Plugged in = 2GHz
Unplugged on battery = 1.2GHz.

It does NOT dynamically change the processor frequency for performance. It merely drops back to save battery power.

PowerNow! will drop back to the lowest speed and voltage when the CPU is idle, and crank it back up when some load is applied, then drop back down.... etc.....

I would also be annoyed if I was deceived into buying a laptop in that way......

[FKF]

Originally posted by KingJackal


Example: Today I worked on an XP1500+ laptop ( yes, the 1500+ exists - at least as a mobile chip ). That's ( for those that can't be bothered ) a 1.33GHz part - runs @ 133MHz fsb, and a max multiplier of 10x.

;)

The Athlon XP1400+ exists in laptops also. I have only seen it in the Sony Vaios though.
I also have a couple of customers with the XP1500+ in desktop machines, they werent that uncommon a little while back.

[Tiggerz]

Originally posted by Viper_NZ
Umm.... I think somewhere along the line people got a little confused.

KJ You are talking about AMD's system for battery conservation, POWERNOW!. Intels Speedstep works completely differently.

Plugged in = 2GHz
Unplugged on battery = 1.2GHz.

It does NOT dynamically change the processor frequency for performance. It merely drops back to save battery power.


If by the last sentence you were talking about the Intel CPU then yes it does, but only between two settings.

SpeedStep has two components to it. The first is the ability to change the CPU power usage and frequency during processor idle periods - This only occurs when the laptop is detected as running on the battery. When connected to an AC outlet the processor should go back to full speed (I only put my battery in when going mobile). There should be an option in bios to override this.

The second is known as Deep Sleep Alert State which just reduces the power of the CPU to below the minimum required for operation. As soon as activity resumes on the system, the CPU powers up again.

[Jazzed]

Originally posted by Tiggerz
OK, perhaps I might be able to help.

Speedstep is a technology built into all mobile processors. It works by reducing the power consumption and heat output when the processor is not under load. It does this by turning down the speed of the cpu.



Actually not all mobile cpus have it, Intel Speedstep is a feature that you pay a bit extra for.

The way that Dell impliments it in the bios can be a bit buggy though, I have had lappy's of the same model and bios yet one of them refuses to run at full speed unless it's speedstep is turned off in the bios.

One of the pain in the arse things with Dell support is the "follow the Sun" helpdesk support, trying to understand some of them guys and gals is not good, especially when your in a room with 30 odd servers making a helluva racket.