AMD Cool' n' Quiet ?

[RJK]

Hello, I've been trying to have a read up on this "power saving" bios
feature.

My XP Home ed., Conroe 865PE, Intel D935 cpu based machine has it, (not
sure what the label for it in bios is atm), and just made a Asrock
AlivenF6G-VSTA/M/ASR, also XP Home ed.

I've gleaned that this feature can reduce cpu voltage and/ frequency etc. ?
....and I noticed, (can't remember where now), that the "Portable/Laptop"
power scheme has to be selected in "Power Options Properties," for it to
work ? I think that was in relation to the Intel chipset on the Conroe
865PE motherboard.

Anyone know if this applies or also aplies to the Nforce 6150SE chipset on
the AlivenF6G-VSTA/M/ASR.

Any contributions gladly accepted ?

regards, Richard

 

[Paul]

Hello, I've been trying to have a read up on this "power saving" bios
feature.

My XP Home ed., Conroe 865PE, Intel D935 cpu based machine has it, (not
sure what the label for it in bios is atm), and just made a Asrock
AlivenF6G-VSTA/M/ASR, also XP Home ed.

I've gleaned that this feature can reduce cpu voltage and/ frequency etc. ?
...and I noticed, (can't remember where now), that the "Portable/Laptop"
power scheme has to be selected in "Power Options Properties," for it to
work ? I think that was in relation to the Intel chipset on the Conroe
865PE motherboard.

Anyone know if this applies or also aplies to the Nforce 6150SE chipset on
the AlivenF6G-VSTA/M/ASR.

Any contributions gladly accepted ?

regards, Richard

EIST is explained here. This is for an Intel processor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedstep

Cool N' Quiet is the version provided by AMD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool'n'Quiet

For CNQ, you install some AMD software, and use the "Minimal Power Management" setting.
One thing missing from the following description, is the need to enable ACPI 2.0 in
the BIOS. CNQ control is passed as an ACPI object, from the BIOS to the OS. The BIOS
passes tables at some point, and they contain something that the OS uses in response to
power state changes.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/Cool_N_Quiet_Installation_Guide3.pdf

There are only a few motherboard manuals, that include a description of what to do.
I'd say generally speaking, that the tweaks that should be applied to an
AMD system are not well known and documented. Many users may not be aware of
what they're missing.

Downloads for an X2 are here. Phenom has a separate page.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html

The following one, looks like the CPU driver, to support CNQ.

"AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor Driver Version 1.3.2.0053
for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64)"

There is also a "AMD Power Monitor Version 1.2.0" application, but the link is
wrong. The last time I checked, it would be this link. Some motherboard CDs also
come with software that performs the same function - of displaying the
current running state.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/powersetup.exe

On the download page, you'll also find "AMD Dual-Core Optimizer".
There is a whole thread devoted to the Optimizer and also Update4 (KB896256-V4)
from Microsoft. (Generally, with threads like this one, it pays to read
what experiences people have had while doing the install.)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

As I don't own an Athlon64 system, I don't have any first hand
experience with this stuff. My AthlonXP machine was a lot simpler
to deal with (Plug and Play, so to speak).

Paul

 

[RJK]

Thanks Paul,

In addition to researching recent'ish wierd and wonderful motherboard
features bios settings, such as AMD "Cool'n'Quiet," Intel "SpeedStep" etc.
....it's the same old story, i.e. various manufacturers call the same thing
by different labels etc. only give a token description in bios, and often
the manual on cd just duplicates what's in the bios, and is invariably
slightly different.

e.g. It's time-consuming hunting down of bios items like, memory settings
like "Super Bypass Mode,"
which appears to only be of use on single core cpu machines:-
http://www.techarp.com/showFreeBOG.aspx?lang=0&bogno=178
....handy little pages this:-
http://www.techarp.com/freebog.aspx?sort=cat

regards, Richard