Question on Opteron PowerNow Driver

[Will]

We installed Windows 2003 64-Bit on our first Opteron server, which will
eventually have eight cores. The HP BIOS allows you to start the system
out at 1.8 GHz, to lower energy consumption. As best I can figure, we are
supposed to download from AMD's site the Opteron PowerNow CPU driver and
install this to the OS. Questions as follows:

- After installation, is this driver supposed to raise the processor speed
automatically when the system is under heavy usage?

- What is the criteria for when and for how long it will continue at the
higher processor speed?

- Can we change default values for any part of the algorithm? There
doesn't appear to be any GUI to configure the driver, but maybe there are
registry settings? I couldn't find documentation for it.

- Does anyone know how we might graph over time what speeds the CPU is
running at, just to get a feeling for how active this technology is, and how
often we were in the power saving 1.8 GHz mode?

 

[Wes Newell]

We installed Windows 2003 64-Bit on our first Opteron server, which will
eventually have eight cores. The HP BIOS allows you to start the system
out at 1.8 GHz, to lower energy consumption. As best I can figure, we are
supposed to download from AMD's site the Opteron PowerNow CPU driver and
install this to the OS. Questions as follows:

- After installation, is this driver supposed to raise the processor speed
automatically when the system is under heavy usage?

Depends on how you configure it.

- What is the criteria for when and for how long it will continue at the
higher processor speed?

Ditto. (at least I can set this in linux, I don't do windows)

- Can we change default values for any part of the algorithm? There
doesn't appear to be any GUI to configure the driver, but maybe there
are registry settings? I couldn't find documentation for it.

I've only installed it on one old W98 machine. The control portion of it
is added on to the cpu performance thing. But I'll be #$%^& if I remember
where.

- Does anyone know how we might graph over time what speeds the CPU is
running at, just to get a feeling for how active this technology is, and
how often we were in the power saving 1.8 GHz mode?

I know what speed mine is running at, but that doesn't help you much.
IIRC, there was a windows tool that came with the MB to detect this and
other things like temps, voltages, fan speeds, etc. For Windows I've heard
MBM5, Speedfan, and several other such utilities mentioned. That's the
best I can do. Wouldn't even have replied but didn't see anyone else
replying. Good luck.

 

[Will]

Depends on how you configure it.

So this is the crux of the issue: how do I configure it? The installer
for Windows does not install documentation, does not install a Program
Group, and does not install an applet in Control Panel. There may be a
hidden management application there, but I don't see it and need help
finding it.

 

[Wes Newell]

So this is the crux of the issue: how do I configure it? The installer
for Windows does not install documentation, does not install a Program
Group, and does not install an applet in Control Panel. There may be a
hidden management application there, but I don't see it and need help
finding it.

Plug "windows powernow settings" into google or yahoo.

 

[rms]

So this is the crux of the issue: how do I configure it?

All you need do is enable coolnquiet in the bios, install the driver,
and in the controlpanel/power set the power scheme to Minimal Power
Management.

That's all. You can verify it's working by checking the clockspeed
shown in cpanel/system or a utility like wcpuid.

rms

 

[Kevin Liebowicz]

All you need do is enable coolnquiet in the bios, install the driver,
and in the controlpanel/power set the power scheme to Minimal Power
Management.

That's all. You can verify it's working by checking the clockspeed
shown in cpanel/system or a utility like wcpuid.

rms

Do you need to do this in BIOS or will driver enable the BIOS setting
for you?

 

[Ed]

Do you need to do this in BIOS or will driver enable the BIOS setting
for you?

Driver does not set the BIOS, if your mother board is decent you should have the option in the BIOS.

In case you missed it......
AMD64 Cool n Quite Instructions for Windows (.PDF - 553KB)
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/Cool_N_Quiet_Installation_Guide3.pdf


Cheers,
Ed