p4 2 ghz....slow

[twistee]

Hi,

I recently got a p4 2ghz computer with winXP Home already installed. I decided to find out how fast it could encode so i started to rip and encode a movie using Gordian Knot. It started to encode the wav to mp3 and it was really fast, but after 30 seconds it just dropped down to slower than my p3 800. It then started to encode the actual movie, it started at about 30 fps, and then dropped down to about 10 fps (slower than my p3 800). Am I doing something wrong? Do i need to optimise something in XP....heeeelp

[MxxCon]

i assume you don't have anything cpu/hd intensive running in background..
i read that p4's have auto-throutle(sp?). if it exceed normal temp it will down-clock itself to cool down. i belive that's configurable in a mobo bios..you might want to look into that.

[twistee]

nah i dont have anything running in the background. Ill check out the bios settings...hopefully that will solve the problem.

[twistee]

I looked at the bios, and under the cpu settings all it had was speed: normal or compatible. It was on normal, and compatible actually makes it slower (...so its compatible with old programs). It doesnt look like the solution is in the bios menu :(

[Uli]

Check your cpu temperature, cooler and fan!!!

The p4 throttles down if it's getting too hot. Maybe your cooler isn't mounted correctly or the fan isn't running or maybe the thermal compound is missing. On only desktop activity the cpu is rather cool. When it gets to encoding, it starts fast because it's cool, but later (when it's getting hot) it's getting slower, 'coz of cpu throtteling.

greetz, Uli

[thegeezer]

last p3 i had was a 450 ive never bought 1 since always swear by amd
the results are visible at first glance all i could notice better was the p4 had nicer colours in games
plus amd in proportion are cheaper than p4:p

[twistee]

this is not a thread to compare amd and intel. i couldnt care less which is better. all i want is my p4 going the speed i want. so keep on the topic. Ill have a look inside my computer and check the fan later...although it should be properly installed....

[buba king]

What mobo do you have? I have the ASUS p4t with a Overclocked 1,7ghz@1,866ghz and i encode 640x272 movies at 30-50fps using g-knot/avisync. I'm running win xp pro. Maybe this is a driver related problem? (IDE controller etc.)

btw, the cpu temp on my cpu never gets over 37-40C under full load. I suggest you install asus pc probe, if you have a asus mobo, to monitor the temp!

[timmyg]

seach on google or somting its a prog that measures the speed of your cpu it will tell you the ghz or mhz of your cpu so run it when the p4 slows dou and see if it still says 2ghz that will tell you if the cpu is thotling

[timmyg]

sorry seach for wcpuid to find

[twistee]

thanks.ill have a look now.

[twistee]

ok...now i am confused. i got that program and checked what my computer was running at while encoding, it said it was going at 1993.9 (or close to that) even though it was only doing around 5-6 fps (i had been encoding for a while...and it drops slowly). Is there any info that i should post from that program other than the real time cpu speed?

[twistee]

I decided to do a copy paste of all the info.

[ WCPUID Version 3.0f (c) 1996-2002 By H.Oda! ]

Processor #1 : Intel Pentium 4 / 7F1C79B3
Platform : Socket478 (mPGA478 Socket)
Vendor String : GenuineIntel
CPU Type : Original OEM Processor (0)
Family : 15 (0)
Model : 1 (0)
Stepping ID : 2 (-)
Brand : 8
APIC : 0
Name String : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz

Internal Clock : 1993.98 MHz
System Bus : 398.80 MHz QDR
System Clock : 99.70 MHz
Multiplier : 20.0

L1 I-Cache : ----
L1 D-Cache : 8K Byte
L1 T-Cache : 12K uops
L1 Cache : ----
L2 Cache : 256K Byte
L2 Speed : 1993.98 MHz (Full)

MMX Unit : Supported
SSE Unit : Supported
SSE2 Unit : Supported
MMX2 Unit : Not Supported
3DNow! Unit : Not Supported
3DNow!+ Unit : Not Supported

Host Bridge : 8086:2530.04 [Intel 850]
South Bridge : 8086:2440.04 [Intel 82801BA (ICH2)]
VGA Device : 10DE:0110.B2 [NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400]
Memory Size : 384M Byte
Memory Clock : 398.80 MHz
: 50,2,M:0800,D:0A05,R:0800

OS Version : Windows XP Version 5.01.2600
-------------- : -----------------------------------
StdFunc 0 : 00000002 756E6547 6C65746E 49656E69
StdFunc 1 : 00000F12 00010808 00000000 3FEBFBFF
StdFunc 2 : 665B5001 00000000 00000000 007A7040
ExtFunc 0 : 80000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
ExtFunc 1 : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
ExtFunc 2 : 20202020 20202020 20202020 6E492020
ExtFunc 3 : 286C6574 50202952 69746E65 52286D75
ExtFunc 4 : 20342029 20555043 30302E32 007A4847
00000017h : 00080000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0000001Bh : 00000000 FEE00900 00000000 00000000
0000002Ah : 00000000 00004400 00000000 00000000
0000002Bh : 00000000 0000007E 00000000 00000000
0000002Ch : 00000000 A201F000 00000000 00000000
0000019Ch : 00000000 00000003 00000000 00000000
000001A0h : 00000000 000000C9 00000000 00000000

##--- Date 02/03/2002, Time 12:41:09

[twistee]

I just had a look at the cpu real time checker when nothing was happening and it still says its going at 1993...strange

[timmyg]

I dont know what else could be wormg with your pc but you prosseor is not slowing doun Like MxxCon sujested sorry.

[Uli]

...when encoding. The clock remains at 2.0 GHz, but internally the clock divider slows down the cpu by modulating the clock, if it's getting too hot. So again: Check the cpu temperature with a real time tool f.e. CPUCool or something like...

greetz, Uli

[twistee]

i got that cpucool program. im not really sure what i am meant to be looking at. it is going at 100% pretty much, but i cant find where it says the temp. what things should i look at?

[Uli]

After install CPUCool usually shows at least 2 temperatures. One is the cpu (the higher one) and the other is the board temperature. Make sure to select the right mobo, so CPUCool can identify the temperature sensors correctly. Normally it should show the temperature of the on die diode of the P4. Maybe you can also try another mobo-monitor too. Look for the highest temperature the monitor prog shows, it's usually the cpu temp. It should significantly rise with the cpu load. If it gets above around 50 degrees celsius, the throttleing of p4 starts to slow down the cpu.

greetz, Uli

[twistee]

i actually dont know what brand the mobo is (bought it off Dell). I guess i will have to open the box and check it out.

[twistee]

I got another motherboard program and it couldnt get the temps of my comp. And i cant actually see where on that cpucool program where the temps are listed...

[phuntyme]

Does dell offer like a 30 day satisfaction guarantee or something like that? If they do, return it. If not, complain bitterly and say that it is slower than your P3 800. If they don't believe you tell them to send a tech out and you can demonstrate. They can sit there and watch gknot do its thing lol.

If you don't get statisfaction, see if you can try a different OS. From the casual perusing on the board, I have not see anyone using XP Home Ed... I have heard lots of bad stuff.

You can probably check with dell about the cpu temp & speed throttling thingie.

[twistee]

yeah.ill give them a buzz...

[trbarry]

I don't have a link off hand but somewhere on the Intel site they offer the free Intel Application Accelerator software. I have no idea what this does but it has been said to get around some Intel/Rambus performance limitations on some machines.

- Tom

[phuntyme]

Sorry, but most systems today are intel 845 base and therefore uses SDRAM and such... Rambus based system are still available but are a lot more expensive.

Hey T, let us know what Dell say ^_^

[twistee]

I have emailed them...hopefully they will reply soon...

[SiC]

Odd, I have a P4 2.0 overclocked to 2.2ghz with the retail fan/heatsink but I've never had this problem......