Bug 629097 - Low CPU Frequency Intel i5 430M Turbo boost support?
Summary: Low CPU Frequency Intel i5 430M Turbo boost support?
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: cpuspeed
Version: 13
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Petr Šabata
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-08-31 22:19 UTC by Tamas Toth
Modified: 2010-09-02 21:40 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-09-02 21:40:02 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Tamas Toth 2010-08-31 22:19:27 UTC
Description of problem:
CPU frequency is running lower then technical specification from Intel for i5 430M. The Intel tech.spec. shows the following figures for i5 430M.

Processor Number	i5-430M
# of Cores	2
# of Threads	4
Clock Speed	2.26 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency	2.53 GHz  

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Fedora 13

How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
  
Actual results:

acpitool --cpu
CPU type               : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 430  @ 2.27GHz 
Min/Max frequency      : 1199/2267 MHz
Current frequency      : 1199 MHz


Expected results:
I would assume that the Min frequency would be 2.26GHz and the max frequency 2.53GHz as opposed to the 1199/2267 MHz.

Additional info:
Frequency scaling is not set for anyway higher then 2267MHz

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies 
2267000 2266000 2133000 1999000 1866000 1733000 1599000 1466000 1333000 1199000 


Is the Turbo Boost supported for this CPU in Fedora 13? If so, then how can I set it up to use higher frequency range (2.26-2.53GHz). If turbo boost is currently not supported then when can it be expected to be part of any Fedora release?

Comment 1 Petr Šabata 2010-09-01 06:34:34 UTC
As far as I know, Turbo Boost is currently completely managed by BIOS (or alternatives). Also, the maximum clock speed isn't reported to kernel, therefore there's no way to see it this way. [1]

Check your BIOS settings. Also note that if BIOS is configured to manage your clock speed, OS scaling will have very little to no effect.

[1] In case you're using BIOS managed frequency scaling (with or without Turbo Boost), you can check the current clock speed by cpufreq-aperf. Check if it reports higher speeds under heavy load. In addition, you can try i7z tool (not in Fedora): http://code.google.com/p/i7z/

Comment 2 Tamas Toth 2010-09-02 21:40:02 UTC
Hi Petr,

Appreciate your quick response. I have checked the BIOS and there is no option to manage Turbo boost in it however I have tried the i7z tool and this indeed shows different values. I have put some load on the system and CPU freq went up to ~2.5GHz so turbo boost is working.

Thanks for suggesting the tool, actually the command line version is really great.

I have closed this request now...works for me.

Regards,
Tamas


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