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Son of the Wai-Pan
Asked: 2012-06-21 17:27:52 +0800 CST

Why does cpuinfo report that my frequency is slower?

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My machine is running off of a AMD Sempron(tm) X2 190 Processor. According the marketing copy, it should be running at around 2.5 Ghz. Why is the cpu speed being reported as something lower? Spec description (in Chinese)

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor   : 0
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model       : 6
model name  : AMD Sempron(tm) X2 190 Processor
stepping    : 3
microcode   : 0x10000c8
cpu MHz     : 800.000
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 2
core id     : 0
cpu cores   : 2
apicid      : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save
bogomips    : 5022.89
TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

processor   : 1
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model       : 6
model name  : AMD Sempron(tm) X2 190 Processor
stepping    : 3
microcode   : 0x10000c8
cpu MHz     : 800.000
cache size  : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings    : 2
core id     : 1
cpu cores   : 2
apicid      : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save
bogomips    : 5022.82
TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate
central-processing-unit

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Your CPU was most likely idle at that moment. Modern CPUs (if configured correctly) will alter their clock rate to save power when they're idle.

    Throw some load at the CPU, and then check /proc/cpuinfo again, at it should give you figures that match the "spec" for your CPU model.

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