AboutMike Expertise Areas of expertise: PC Hardware, Peripherals, Barcode Scanners, Printers, and Applications, Basic Networking, Microsoft Applications. I am good at researching issues and have a lot of contacts. So if I can't directly answer a question I can likely find the answer.
Areas I won't be much help in: Apple Computers, Linux, older Networking topologies like Token Ring.
Experience I'm currently an IT Support Technician for a contract circuit
board manufacturer in Oregon, USA. I've been working on PCs from a hobby standpoint for better than 25 years. I've been doing it professionally for 3 years.
Expert: Mike Date: 7/17/2008 Subject: Speedstep feature
Question Hello,
Does the speedstep feature on my Intel processor limit the CPU's performance all the time or only when it is not required. Will the CPU run at maximum core clock speed when running a CPU intensive application? If speedstep is limiting the speed all the time, how can I disable it?
Thanks in advance.
Answer Speedstepping does only throttle the cpu speed down when the processor is not being used for anything other than basic Windows stuff.
Once it get's under any kind of strain, like an intensive application it will automatically throttle up to full speed according to the demand.
If you want to mess around with the settings that control speedstepping just to see if you notice any real difference in performance they are in the Control Panel under Power Options.
On the Power Schemes tab, when the drop-down menu is set to Power Source Optimized, Portable/Laptop, Maximum Battery Life, or Home/Office Desk, then speedstepping is 'turned on'.
If you switch to Maximum Performance then that turns off speedstepping so that the processor is always running at full speed.
For the most part speedstepping is only of value on laptops when running on battery (to conserve battery life), or on desktops that are turned on 24/7 (turn cut-down on the power usage).
If neither of these is a real concern to you then there is honestly no reason not to set your Power Options to Maximum Performance and just leave it.
