Processor only running at half speed?

[george7378]

Hi,

I've got a HP pavillion laptop (full specs here) and it has an AMD quad-core 1.6ghz processor. However, when I go on the AMD system monitor (see attached picture) the processor only seems to be running at 800mhz, as opposed to 1600. It also periodically jumps to 900mhz, but quickly changes back. Does anyone know what to do?

Also, when I go onto the system information, it's recognised as an AMD A8-3520M 1.6Ghz processor. It just seems weird!

Thanks!

 

[MyCattMaxx]

I didn't look up your system but some AMD's have variable speed that is set in the bios.
Run an app that will make the processor work and the speed will probably jump up.

Right now my AMD is running at 1.4ghz but when I do something like video conversion it will speed up to 3.8ghz.

It is a power and heat control (performance) setting in my bios that controls it.
I leave it that way because for most things I do I don't need it running full speed.

 

[george7378]

Ah I see - that makes sense. Like i said, it does sometimes jump up to 900mhz. Thanks!

 

[byteninja2]

Yeah, my old dell would go down to 600 mhz and then in resource heavy stuff it would jump to 1.6 GHZ.