amd cool and quiet safe?

iceman7311

OSNN Senior Addict
Joined
4 Feb 2005
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is amd cool & quiet safe it just seems to me that changing the power going to the cpu so often would be hard on it

and is it still on if the dash board thingy isn't open??
 
CnQ is active when you set power setting to minimal requirements, the dashboard is just a visual reference.

It should not stress the PSU more than running the proc at full speed.
 
"Each processor in the AMD Athlon 64 processor family uses at least three or more states. Those states are a “maximum” state, one or more intermediate states, and then a minimum state. For example, the AMD Athlon 64 processor 3500+ uses four different states, each with their own clock speed and voltage settings. Those states are a maximum state, two intermediate states, and a minimum state. The maximum state uses the default clock speed of 2.2GHz and voltage of 1.5V to provide the full processing power of the system to the most resource-hungry applications. The two intermediate states are used for slightly less processor-intensive tasks in which clock speed is set to 2.0GHz or 1.8GHz, with voltage at 1.4V or 1.3V respectively. The minimum state is a clock speed of 1.0GHz with a voltage of 1.1V. This is the state that would be used while running word processors, Web browsers and other applications that don't put much stress on the processor.
"
enough said....?
 
AMD's Cool 'n quiet is different from Intel throttling and speedstep in that it doesn't slow the cpu when under load. It lets you have performance when you need it. So if you've got a temperature problem, you will find out. The throttling will not hide that. AMD clocks down when it's NOT under load, to consume less power.

Read link...

http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000301

scroll down to where it says Cool and Quiet.

Read here also:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/News+article-sid-392-mode-thread.html

This link is a bit more "in depth":

http://www.eyeit.org/articles/amdcnq/coolnquiet.php
 
Last edited:
alright i understand cool and quiet but i am asking if your cpu clock is chnaging that often it seems to me that would be hard on it could be compared to a car in stop and go trafic it is harder on the engine then on the high-way and i am asking if a cpu is the same way?



and is it possible to overclock your cpu while using cool and quiet
 
I use cool and quiet - and I fold at around 85% of my CPU - and it still gives me a quieter machine - oh yeah and my Winchester 3500 is nearing a year in age and shows no signs of any stress!
 
iceman7311 said:
alright i understand cool and quiet but i am asking if your cpu clock is chnaging that often it seems to me that would be hard on it could be compared to a car in stop and go trafic it is harder on the engine then on the high-way and i am asking if a cpu is the same way?



and is it possible to overclock your cpu while using cool and quiet


Answer to the OC issue. I have read a few links that have stated that you can OC the CPU without problems.

Cool n' Quiet is an AMD feature that allows you to save electricity when the computer is idle. When the CPU is idle and Cool n' Quiet is enabled the motherboard halves the CPU clock multiplier and throttles down the voltage. With less voltage to the CPU it runs cooler. Since the CPU runs cooler the CPU fan gets throttled down to, thus, making the system quieter. When you begin using the computer again the CPU multiplier automatically and voltage ramps back up to stock speed.

It is possible to overclock while running Cool n' Quiet and people do it all the time. The caveat is that you need to make sure you leave your multiplier at stock and overclock by increasing the HTT (FSB). Cn'Q works by lowering the multiplier to around 5x and lowering the CPU Voltage. This makes the processor run slower and cooler. Then the motherboard will sense that it's cooler and lower the CPU fan speed, thus making your system quieter.

If you overclock by lowering the CPU multiplier and then raising the HTT you'll get instability. When Cn'Q needs to restore your multiplier when the CPU is under load, it will use the stock multiplier no matter what you have it set to in BIOS. That could result in an overclock that's higher than your board supports at your settings and you'll get lock ups. So as long as you overclock with your processor's stock (maximum) multiplier you'll be fine with Cn'Q.

It was an AMD Mobile CPU thing (I think it had a different name for it) that has been put to the Desktop CPUs. A laptop's power management causes the CPU to throttle up and down many times without any problems. So now the same principal is being applied to the Desktop CPUs from AMD but as my other post stated, it does not do this when the CPU is under load. So if you are playing games, spreadsheets, word processing of imaging stuff it will not do anything. Remember the CPU is getting less voltage and the frequency is being dropped down so this in essence helps the CPU because there is less stress on it. If you OC your CPU then there is more stress on it to begin with. But when the "cool 'n quiet" kicks on then it's (the CPU) stress levels go down. And as soon as you need all the CPU's power, boom, it's there.

But one thing I have read is do not enable it if you have an AMD64 X2 CPU...otherwise you'll fry it.
I read that "cool 'n quiet" can have fatal effects on the X2 due to a bug in the Chip. There are reports that a couple of bugs result in the CPU frying itself (it's a 1 in 10 million chance but it's still a chance). The MoBo and BIOS have a lot to do with triggering it so most BIOS' now will/should have work arounds, so to be on the safe side don't enable "cool 'n quiet" with X2 CPUs. AMD is said to have a new stepping soon.

I think it has to do with the Halt CPU State that is triggered. It seems from what I've read that it can really halt the CPU. Another senario is that the CPU gets superhot and overvolted and supposedly the Thermal Protection doesn't kick on. "Cool n quiet" seems to be at the center for all this.

Hope this helps. :)
 
Cpu clocks change all the time anyways. Just keep an eye on CPUID or other tools.

There is always stresss. Notebooks do the same thing as well.

As long as you have a decent PSU with a decent 12v rail there is not going to be a problem. If you are worried about CnQ messing with your system, you can simply leave it off.
 
Mainframeguy said:
I use cool and quiet - and I fold at around 85% of my CPU - and it still gives me a quieter machine - oh yeah and my Winchester 3500 is nearing a year in age and shows no signs of any stress!

As I don't yet have an AMD 64, it might be mote to bring this up. But if the clock is throttling based on useage; one would think one of these distributed computing projects (ala Folding, SETI, Einstein@Home, and too many others to mention) are load intensive. Much like a game, it would want to leave the CPU running at max clock...

From the users standpoint, they might want it to (aka, go to some of the distributed computing projects message boards, and see just how competitive users can get. People who create whole large farms and even upgrade, it seems at times to boost their credits :D )

But from the standpoint of the applications, these science programs can be rather intensive in terms of crunching power required. It throttles the clock down while one of these are running? Hmm, bit surprised...
 
I was playing around with the AMD Power Monitor, and realised that when Idle, the voltage drops to 1.1v and clocks at 1000MHz, but a little load (say 15-20%) pushes the voltage up to 1.4v with a clock of 2200MHz which is the default clockspeed for my CPU.

Is this normal? I would have thought that it'd increase proportionately with the amount of power needed.
 

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