Is there any basically foolproof way that I can tell how fast my processor is running, without having to open the case? IE, a piece of software? This is for Windows on an AMD Athlon. On the Mac you could use System Profiler, but I'm not sure if there's an equivalent.
I'm not afraid to open the case, but I would both like a backup to that method, and potentially be able to avoid the hassle.
Got an answer from a friend to the above question.
It appears the "AMD Athlon 1 GHz" I ordered from Virtual Micro, according to both the BIOS and the DirectX configuration tool, is actually a "AMD Athlon 750 MHz". My "hope" is that VM was simply incompetent and didn't properly configure the processor, so I'm going to play with that first. If it turns out they just sent me the wrong CPU I will be unhappy with them, to say the least.
Hmm, check the boot bios. see what your bus multiplier is. 7.5 x 100 = 750. 7.5 x 133 = 1ghz. maybe you just need to put the bus up to 133. I know I had to do this when i got my 1.13 ghz athlon. the default was a 100 mhz bus on my mobo. i think you hit like f1 when you boot to go to the bios screen.
worth a shot.
~Blackbeard
Got an answer from a friend to the above question.
It appears the "AMD Athlon 1 GHz" I ordered from
Virtual Micro, according to both the BIOS and the DirectX
configuration tool, is actually a "AMD Athlon 750
MHz". My "hope" is that VM was simply incompetent
and didn't properly configure the processor, so I'm going to
play with that first. If it turns out they just sent me the
wrong CPU I will be unhappy with them, to say the least.
Hmm, check the boot bios. see what your bus multiplier is. 7.5 x
100 = 750. 7.5 x 133 = 1ghz. maybe you just need to put the bus
up to 133. I know I had to do this when i got my 1.13 ghz
athlon. the default was a 100 mhz bus on my mobo. i think you
hit like f1 when you boot to go to the bios screen.
worth a shot.
I tried increasing the multiplier to 8.5 to see what happened and it still ran at 750. I didn't increase it to 10, as I didn't want to set my machine on fire in the case I really did have a 750 MHz CPU.
I'll try the bus speed thing, though, because you're right that I should have a 133 MHz bus and I noticed I didn't.
Hmm, check the boot bios. see what your bus multiplier is. 7.5 x
100 = 750. 7.5 x 133 = 1ghz. maybe you just need to put the bus
up to 133. I know I had to do this when i got my 1.13 ghz
athlon. the default was a 100 mhz bus on my mobo. i think you
hit like f1 when you boot to go to the bios screen.
worth a shot.
Made the change. Boots up as a "1000 MHz" Athlon processor.
Quake3 manages to run even faster.
Thank you very, very, very much. I really appreciate the help. I don't know if I would have stumbled onto the change by myself, but even if I did it would have taken me a long time. You've saved me a lot of headache.
My newest 1.2ghz T-bird arrived from Virtual Micro and after 3 days of being awed by it's blazing speed... I saw the bios report "900 mhz" on boot-up! It had been running at "only" 900mhz!
I was pissed and called Ming. He told me how the multiplier somehow defaults to the base setting during shipping and told me how to reset it.
When it booted up as a "1200 mhz".... It rocked even more!
Btw, check that start-up screen every so often... Adding new hardware or power outages can reset it to its slower default.
Comments
I'm not afraid to open the case, but I would both like a backup to that method, and potentially be able to avoid the hassle.
Any help would be appreciated.
- Kodiak
Got an answer from a friend to the above question.
It appears the "AMD Athlon 1 GHz" I ordered from Virtual Micro, according to both the BIOS and the DirectX configuration tool, is actually a "AMD Athlon 750 MHz". My "hope" is that VM was simply incompetent and didn't properly configure the processor, so I'm going to play with that first. If it turns out they just sent me the wrong CPU I will be unhappy with them, to say the least.
- Kodiak
Hmm, check the boot bios. see what your bus multiplier is. 7.5 x 100 = 750. 7.5 x 133 = 1ghz. maybe you just need to put the bus up to 133. I know I had to do this when i got my 1.13 ghz athlon. the default was a 100 mhz bus on my mobo. i think you hit like f1 when you boot to go to the bios screen.
worth a shot.
~Blackbeard
I tried increasing the multiplier to 8.5 to see what happened and it still ran at 750. I didn't increase it to 10, as I didn't want to set my machine on fire in the case I really did have a 750 MHz CPU.
I'll try the bus speed thing, though, because you're right that I should have a 133 MHz bus and I noticed I didn't.
Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes.
- Kodiak
Made the change. Boots up as a "1000 MHz" Athlon processor.
Quake3 manages to run even faster.
Thank you very, very, very much. I really appreciate the help. I don't know if I would have stumbled onto the change by myself, but even if I did it would have taken me a long time. You've saved me a lot of headache.
Thanks again.
- Kodiak
My newest 1.2ghz T-bird arrived from Virtual Micro and after 3 days of being awed by it's blazing speed... I saw the bios report "900 mhz" on boot-up! It had been running at "only" 900mhz!
I was pissed and called Ming. He told me how the multiplier somehow defaults to the base setting during shipping and told me how to reset it.
When it booted up as a "1200 mhz".... It rocked even more!
Btw, check that start-up screen every so often... Adding new hardware or power outages can reset it to its slower default.
Happy Computing.
N8
ps.. great call, BB
I've used a little program called WCPUID for a long time, but I couldn't find it for download anywhere.
Here is a list of some other programs that might do you good...
http://download.cnet.com/1,10150,0-10001-103-0-1-1,00.html?qt=cpu&filterQuery=true&os=&ca=&li=2
here ya go
http://www.tweakfiles.com/processor/wcpuid.html