Core Duo Issues?

[krishtr]

Hey guys!

I have been reading many posts here and on other websites, warning the Core duo owners abt the possibility of not harnessing the complete power of Core duo processors. Have you guys come across any tools or ways that will help identify if the Core Duo processors actually give a good performance? Do post your thoughts/opinions on this issue.

-Krish

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E1505, T2400, 2G RAM, WSXGA, X1400 256MB, 80G HDD 5400RPM, Win MCE 2K5.

[Yoob@NBF]

You'll never get the full processing power and effiency of a Duo core CPU because programs are not optimally threaded for it. Otherwise a 1.66ghz Duo Core would technically be faster than a Pentium M 3ghz in everyway.

[krishtr]

My concern arose after reading this article..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256/en-us

How do we know if our core duo notebooks are running with optimised performance?

[Yoob@NBF]

I had a core solo version of the 1.66ghz chip before dell swapped it for me. Trust me theres definetly a difference =)

[spaceweasel]

After reading your post, I looked into the registry, and found that key already there, but with a value of 1. I changed the value 0, and the notebook is faster. I am posting this right after rebooting, and getting back online, so I haven't done any further testing.

[zoom_zoom]

Is that safe ..... messing with the registry like that?

[spaceweasel]

Is that safe ..... messing with the registry like that?

Not unless you back up the registry first, and have some idea of what you are doing. I have eleven years experience messing with the registry. I can always get myself back to where I was if I make a mistake.

[spaceweasel]

However, changing this value does not allow the CPU to throttle down, automatically, under light workloads. This means under battery power it will use a lot more juice, and with AC, there will be more heat and wasted energy. I think it is best to leave it at 1, the default setting.

[Ceelo]

If you want MAXIMUM performance, go to your Screen Saver setttings -> Power Settings and change the setting from Laptop to Always On. This disable SpeedStepping and keep your processor running at full speed (max. multiplier). This will increase your overall performance. My benchmark scores have increased dramatically with this setting.

You can get a program called CPU-Z (Google is your friend) to monitor the current speed and voltage of your processor, among other things.