Windows 10 Task Manager: CPU Speed Rises Above Maximum Speed when overclocking

Question

I've seen the previous thread, but it's quite different as I've overclocked my cpu to 4.7GHz in UEFI keeping turbo boost enabled. Here's what the Task Manager is telling me:

The CPU shows up as 5.5GHz, but in Aida or CPU-Z it's properly 4.7GHz as it was set in UEFI.

Question is am I actually getting 5.5GHz speed because of turbo boost or is it just a bug and I'm running at 4.7GHz?

Solution 1

I think what really happens here is miscommunication between Windows and Intel when overclocking manually and setting turbo boost enabled on top of it.

Never have I ever gotten my OS to boot at 5 GHz, Afterburner also displays the correct CPU Clock, so does Aida, but Windows 10 task manager seems to actually add turbo boost clock value to the already overclocked value, this is the only place that this clock frequency gets over 5 GHz, which is unreal.

So it's like this:

• Manual OC: normal clock speed reported
• Turbo OC: normal clock speed reported
• Manual+Turbo OC: Actually will use manual OC, but Task Manager adds freq difference of manual and turbo and then displays it.

TL;DR
Task Manager shows invalid values when doing manual OC+Turbo boost.  It actually sums up the Turbo boost gain and manual boost gain and displays the frequency that way, while in reality the turbo boosted speed clock won't go over the manually set value in any occasion.

Took me a while to figure this out, but this is the only reasonable solution.  If anybody reads that and wants to take his time, please do report this bug wherever Microsoft would hear back from you.

I really wanted to believe the performance increase is real, but it really is just miscalculation.

Solution 2

At the time that screenshot was taken, your CPU had dynamically overclocked itself to 5.5GHz.

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Task Manager shows your CPU base speed is set to 4.7GHz, as you expected. The 5.5GHz is in fact the automatic overclocking (Turbo Boost, if you're using Intel); it is unlikely to last very long as it generates excessive heat. You may also see, at times when the computer is fairly idle, the current speed drop well below the base speed; on my machine (with a 4.0 GHz AMD chip, not overclocked beyond ), I've seen the current speed go anywhere from 1.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz, depending on load and CPU temperature. Intel chips do the same thing. Manual overclocking changes the base clock speed, which all dynamic over- and under-clocking is relative to, but you shouldn't expect the CPU to reliably run at the base clock speed unless you disable the dynamic frequency scaling behavior that all modern CPUs (and GPUs) have.

Comments

[James P]

I would suggest using Intel’s own monitoring tools: intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/topics/utility-tools.h‌​tml

[olokos]

can you point me to a particular trustworthy tool?

[Ramhound]

@olokos Questions seeking software recommendations are out of scope here at SuperUser

[olokos]

@Ramhound James pointed only to a generic intel download page. I'm not asking for software recommendations, I'm asking for a way to properly check actual current frequency which CPU is running at. If you know an easy hardware way to find out CPU frequency - I'm open for suggestions.

[Ramhound]

@olokos - You asked for a trustworthy tool. I was reminding you that software recommendations are out of scope. There have been no close votes issued against your question, my comment, was simply reminding you what is within scope.

[olokos]

All of what you've said I do know already. It is rock stable on 1.45v and I can do gaming/mining/building without a problem. I specifically enabled dynamic frequency scaling so it won't be at maximum clock at all times. I'm asking which clock is real, not for tips about overclocking although thank you.

[CBHacking]

@olokos Apologies, I thought I made it clear enough but looking back, I really didn't. My edit should make the answer to your question clear.

[olokos]

My cpu stays mostly above 5GHz although it's downclocking as it should when idle. What boggles my mind is that everywhere except for that spot it's showing up proper 4.7GHz, afterburner is showing up that clock speed aswell, but never going above 4.7. It's only showing up speeds below 4.7GHz. So basically 5.5GHz is actual turbo boosted clock speed that my CPU is running at and windows 10 task manager is the one which is actually correctly showing up the frequency? That would be amazing and would explain why I have to keep [email protected] to be stable.

[olokos]

I tried disabling Turbo boost and setting fixed ratio to 55 with override voltage, but it wouldnt even post, just straight up overclocking failure; with ratio 50 it bluescreens just before showing up desktop - which leads me into thinking it's showing unrealistic values. Should I contact intel or microsoft about it?