Monitoring CPU load relative to max capacity for a variable-speed

[dtronvig]

So, I have this Athlon 64 that throttles back its clock speed when its full
processing capacity isn't needed. The speed changes quickly and drastically,
even under a pretty constant load. The CPU utilization—based on the clock
speed at a given moment—then bounces around accordingly, which makes it hard
to gauge the real load on the CPU and the available headroom. Windows Task
Manager and every other CPU-monitoring software I've looked at just show the
CPU utilization as a percentage of the CPU's capacity at its current speed.
What I'm hoping to find would be software that shows how much work the CPU is
doing as a percentage of the CPU's processing capacity at its maximum clock
speed.

This apparently can look a little confusing at first, but basically, the
software would first have to know what the maximum clock speed is. If the
software couldn't figure that out, then the user would have to tell the
software what that maximum speed is. Once the software knows the maximum
speed, it would periodically take the current CPU speed, divide it by the
maximum CPU speed, then multiply that by the conventional CPU utilization.
The result would show how much of the CPU's maximum capacity is being used,
so you’d know how much overall headroom you have. Unless someone has a better
term for it, let's call the resulting percentage the Percent of Maximum
Capacity.

Let's say the CPU's maximum speed is 1000 MHz. If the CPU were running at
500 MHz with a CPU utilization of 100%, then Percent of Maximum Capacity
would be 50. If the CPU were running at the full 1000 MHz with a CPU
utilization of 50%, then Percent of Maximum Capacity would likewise be 50. If
the CPU were running at 500 MHz with a CPU utilization of 50%, then Percent
of Maximum Capacity would be 25.

So is there any software available that will do that math and show the
processing power being used as a percentage of the maximum potential
processing power of the CPU? We aren’t talking overclock potential, just the
processing power at the maximum clock speed for given settings, which then
gets throttled down according to load.

Thanks for any help,
Drew

 

[Andrew E.]

Try downloads.com The site has just about anything related to pcs

 

[dtronvig]

I appreciate the suggestion, but so far I haven't been able to find anything
at download.com that does this. There are something like 100 programs that
say they display CPU utilization. None of the 20 I've tried so far will
display CPU utilization as a percentage of CPU capacity at maximum clock
speed. I was hoping I wouldn't have to download and install the other 80 or
so programs to see if there's one that will do this.

Thanks,
Drew

 

[Onsokumaru]

Can't you turn off the clock throttling in the BIOS.

Anyone interested in knowing performance based on stated max CPU speed will
just turn off any throttling mechanisms.

I appreciate the suggestion, but so far I haven't been able to find
anything
at download.com that does this. There are something like 100 programs that
say they display CPU utilization. None of the 20 I've tried so far will
display CPU utilization as a percentage of CPU capacity at maximum clock
speed. I was hoping I wouldn't have to download and install the other 80
or
so programs to see if there's one that will do this.

Thanks,
Drew

<snip>

 

[dtronvig]

Sure, it's easy to turn off the throttling function--AMD calls it
Cool'n'Quiet--but the throttling capability is generally a good thing. In
particular, I'm trying to run really quiet, with slow fans and a really
effective CPU heatsink, without raising the CPU temperature too high too
often.

I could try running various combinations of programs at full bore, with the
clockspeed at maximum, to see what processing power each of those
combinations require, but I'd really like to see realtime readings of
processing power being used, even when the clockspeed (and thus heat
production) is allowed to adapt to the current load.

Thanks,
Drew