CPU suddenly going slower

[James Crysis]

For some reason my CPU is suddenly going slow as. I can't think of anything to explain it, I just saw that it was like that when a steam game told me my CPU wasn't the recommended speed for the game, and said mine was 2.1ghz alongside the recommended speed for the game. I have an Intel E6750 (2.66ghz). In cpu-z the voltage is constantly fluctuating from 1.08V to 1.22V (mostly somewhere in-between), and the cpu clock speed seems be either on 2.133 ghz or 1.6ghz, usually 1.6ghz

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Oh and one more thing i almost forgot, I just used RivaTuner to slightly downclock my 9600gt to fix the bsod problem I was having. I don't know if these things are related. Could the downclocking of my video card have had an effect on my CPU aswell?

 

[Rory Buszka]

What you're looking at is Intel SpeedStep Technology in action. On my older Core Duo laptop, the operating system dynamically changes the CPU clock speed between 1 GHz and 1.6 GHz (the CPU is a 1.6GHz Core Duo T2300) depending on the system load. This is done as a power-saving measure.

To resolve your issue, I'd look in your motherboard BIOS to see if there are any options for disabling SpeedStep, and then select the option to disable it if possible. It's not really necessary on a desktop PC -- it makes much more sense for laptops.

 

[On_Wisconsin]

^ Yup, it's only problem if it doesn't go back after launching a program.

 

[Rob Williams]

If you want to keep it at full speed all the time (makes a small difference in power consumption), you can go into the BIOS and disable C1E support.

 

[James Crysis]

Oh really? Haha. I was almost hoping that there was something wrong with my CPU. That would give me an excuse to get a new one. Been kicking myself for not getting quad core
I guess I just thought it was weird that it just popped up like that suddenly and I've never seen it before. Whenever I went into system specs it always said it was 2.66ghz. I'll go into BIOS later and check it out.
Thanks guys.