Processor Scaling

[Derek Broughton]

Ray Parrish wrote:

> Steve Flynn wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 10:25 PM, Lubbers, Nicholas
>> <nlubbers at shopthepig.com> wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> I have discovered that my sytem has processor scaling, and most of the
>>> time my system is running at half speed. How do I disable processor
>>> scaling so I can run at full speed at all times?
>>>     
>>
>> Unless you're experiencing an issue with processor scaling, you want
>> your processor to run as the slowest speed possible to conserve
>> energy. By turning it off, your machine will be sucking more juice and
>> running hotter. The processor will ramp the speed up as it's required.
>>
>> However, if you really want to do this then it's quite possibly a
>> setting on your bios. Failing that, you can read
>> http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2005/11/04/enabling-cpu-frequency-scaling/
>> and follow the instructions there.
>>
>> Really though, you're not gaining anything other that a higher
>> electricity bill or significantly lower batters life on a laptop.
> 
> I'm not worried about the power bill, and this isn't a laptop.

Damn.  That's the problem with North America.  Power is so cheap, nobody 
cares.

> I want
> the most erformance I can get at all times, so I now have it set to
> always run at 2gig.

And if your processor is now running at 20% instead of 50%, how exactly have 
you improved performance?

If CPU scaling is working as it should, as soon as you put a load on the CPU 
it'll up its frequency to keep working at its optimum.  Yes, there are 
specific cases where this causes problems, but there's no "performance" 
reason for turning it off in the general case.