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Underclocking a CPU?

Matt08642

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Messages
67
So I got a new motherboard for my Athlon 64 X2 6000+, but it doesn't officially support 125W CPUS (only up to 89W cpus)

Is underclocking my CPU as easy as lowering the multiplier in my BIOS, or does it also involve changing voltages and stuff??
 
You might be suprised that your motherboard may in fact support the chip. If it doesn't all you'd have to do is underclock and lower voltages as needed.
 
You might be suprised that your motherboard may in fact support the chip. If it doesn't all you'd have to do is underclock and lower voltages as needed.

Well the CPU works in the board, but I have noticed that when I am doing CPU intensive things, movies start to stutter, which never happened on my old board that had the 125W CPU listed as compatible.

I guess I am really just worried that the CPU or Mobo will get damaged by what I am doing. Will it?
 
Well the CPU works in the board, but I have noticed that when I am doing CPU intensive things, movies start to stutter, which never happened on my old board that had the 125W CPU listed as compatible.

While you're experiencing that stutter, what's your CPU utilization like? Unless I'm missing something, since you've underclocked your CPU on the new board, it must be running at a lower clock speed compared to the speed it used to run on your old board, right? Couldn't it simply be that this speed is not enough for the kinds of movies you're playing?
 
While you're experiencing that stutter, what's your CPU utilization like? Unless I'm missing something, since you've underclocked your CPU on the new board, it must be running at a lower clock speed compared to the speed it used to run on your old board, right? Couldn't it simply be that this speed is not enough for the kinds of movies you're playing?

I haven't underclocked yet, so it's running at the full 3GHz.

I used to be able to, say, encode a movie using handbrake (not HD movie) and watch a movie at the same time, but now when I try to convert a movie, I can't do anything else while that's running.
 
I haven't underclocked yet, so it's running at the full 3GHz.

I used to be able to, say, encode a movie using handbrake (not HD movie) and watch a movie at the same time, but now when I try to convert a movie, I can't do anything else while that's running.

I see. My original question still stands: At what level is your CPU utilization when you're experiencing these stutters?
 
I see. My original question still stands: At what level is your CPU utilization when you're experiencing these stutters?

100% load, but it always used to be like that too. It seems like where it used to say "Ok, media player classic need 30% CPU to run smooth" now it's like "GIVE EVERYTHING 100% CPU!!1"

lol
 
100% load, but it always used to be like that too. It seems like where it used to say "Ok, media player classic need 30% CPU to run smooth" now it's like "GIVE EVERYTHING 100% CPU!!1"

If this is happening under a scenario with 100% CPU load, then it sounds like it could be a thread priority issue. Could it be that the video conversion process to which you're referring (using Handbrake) might be running at a higher priority today than what you had been used to under your earlier setup? You could try changing its priority on the fly through the task manager and see if it makes a difference.

I've had instances when I was running Prime95 as a stability test on my CPU (i.e., completely pegged at 100% CPU utilization on all cores) while I was able to surf the web and do all sorts of other stuff in the meantime with no noticeable sluggishness, because the Prime95 processes were all set to have low thread priority. Unless you're processor is too slow to play the video smoothly even with nothing else running in the background, it should be able to play it smoothly with other things going on as well, as long as the process priorities are defined meaningfully (i.e., everything other the video player at low priorities).
 
If this is happening under a scenario with 100% CPU load, then it sounds like it could be a thread priority issue. Could it be that the video conversion process to which you're referring (using Handbrake) might be running at a higher priority today than what you had been used to under your earlier setup? You could try changing its priority on the fly through the task manager and see if it makes a difference.

I've had instances when I was running Prime95 as a stability test on my CPU (i.e., completely pegged at 100% CPU utilization on all cores) while I was able to surf the web and do all sorts of other stuff in the meantime with no noticeable sluggishness, because the Prime95 processes were all set to have low thread priority. Unless you're processor is too slow to play the video smoothly even with nothing else running in the background, it should be able to play it smoothly with other things going on as well, as long as the process priorities are defined meaningfully (i.e., everything other the video player at low priorities).

Unfortunately I just looked, and Handbrake and the CLI encoder process are both set to have low priority :(

Yeah, I used to be able to encode a movie, have one playing, and surf the web smoothly. I might be getting some money soon, at which point I am going to buy a Gigabyte motherboard that officially supports my CPU. If that doesn't solve the problem, I don't know what will.

EDIT: I should also say that not one of the CPUs officially supported by my board is 125W. The highest wattage CPU this board supports is said to be 89W. My guess is that under load, the CPU is asking for too much power, which this POS mobo can't give it.
 
a motherboard's max CPU power rating is there because the power circuitry on-board is not rated to handle higher. it may be either undersized traces that could overheat and break, or power conditioning components not being able to handle it.

im not sure if the motherboard would self-limit and prevent failure by refusing to supply more then 89w (which could cause the problems you mentioned; not necessarily dangerous but not good for the system in general), or if by putting a 125w CPU in it, the motherboard would try but fail to supply it with enough power (this is where you risk physical damage, overheating, risk of fire). either way is not good, though.
 
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