Dell Bios Max Clock Speed: 4.4 Ghz for 5.0 Ghz CPU?

[Light]

Every time I look at the bios I find myself wondering, what does it mean on the Overview page where it says:
Maximum Clock Speed: 4.40 Ghz
Minimum Clock Speed: 0.80 Ghz

 

for a CPU that is supposed to be max 5.0 Ghz according to intel:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/228439/intel-core-i912950hx-processor-30m-cache-up-to-5-00-ghz/specifications.html

 

I don't see the 4.40 Ghz figure anywhere on the Intel or Dell site. Is that to do with laptop thermal balance, or ?

 

Is this limiting the performance of the 12950 HX CPU?

[Light]

The previous generation had the Maximum Clock Speed in bios faster than the maximum clock speed advertised by intel, so I'm not sure what to make of the latest generation having the bios maximum clock speed in bios only 88% of the intel advertised cpu speed ???

Not sure what that bios entry controls (?) (or measures?), or if it makes any difference, but it seems odd.

[jaybee83]

might that be the max multicore clocks? max boost as listed by intel is only the single core max.

[Light]

I don't know -- I guess first I have to figure out if that is a hard coded "setting" or a "report" in the dell bios. 

 

The previous generation dell precision had "Max CPU clock" 10% higher than the speed Intel advertised for the max boost of the CPU, whereas this current generation has it 12% lower than the Intel advertised max speed, so it has me really curious what that bios entry means.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

did you make sure in bios under performance menu "Intel Turbo Boost Maximum Technology 3.0" is turned on?
is that 4.4 number static or fluctuating each boot?
it might just be counting the min and max Mhz it run that session that far,
it ramped to max 4.4 and run as low as 800,

 

 

[Light]

Yes, I turned on Intel Turbo Boost Maximum Technology 3.0 and rebooted and it's still showing Max Clock 4.40 Ghz

 

The BIOS Maximum Clock Speed: 4.40 Ghz seems to be static - have not seen it change yet.

[Light]

On the previous Dell Precision, BIOS had "Maximum Clock Speed" 5.50 Ghz and that CPU was only rated for a maximum speed of 5.0 Ghz according to Intel.

 

So the previous generation Precision laptop had that number 10% higher than Intel's advertised speed, and the new one has Maximum Clock Speed 12% lower than Intel advertised speed.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

not seeing bios version, are you on the latest 1.6.3?

[jaybee83]

also wondering if that speed entry is really something read out "live" or if that is just a spec listing of some kind. what are ur actual clocks under idle, multi and single core load?

[Light]

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

not seeing bios version, are you on the latest 1.6.3?

Yes 1.6.3

[Light]

1 hour ago, jaybee83 said:

also wondering if that speed entry is really something read out "live" or if that is just a spec listing of some kind. what are ur actual clocks under idle, multi and single core load?

Real world I'm seeing a single core load (exporting a very large tiff file from a vector graphic to a raster image which is a single threaded operation and pegs one core while I wait for the menu to switch from optimized to adaptive) hover around 4.27 to 4.37 Ghz and a momentary peak at 4.43 Ghz in windows task manager.

[jaybee83]

On 10/28/2022 at 6:51 PM, Light said:

Real world I'm seeing a single core load (exporting a very large tiff file from a vector graphic to a raster image which is a single threaded operation and pegs one core while I wait for the menu to switch from optimized to adaptive) hover around 4.27 to 4.37 Ghz and a momentary peak at 4.43 Ghz in windows task manager.

dont trust task manager when it comes to clocks monitoring...rather use smth like hwinfo64.

[Aaron44126]

I haven't looked closely at how Task Manager handles Alder Lake (P + E cores running at separate speeds).  Does it just report the P cores speed?  Or does it average them all?  That could drag down what you'd expect to see since the E cores will always be running slower.  (HWiNFO will report all of the core speeds individually.)