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General discussion

CPU not as fast as it should be?

by razor206 Aug 30, 2004 6:50AM PDT

Hi,
I recently bought a new mobo and cpu because my old mobo had died. So, I bought a Asus A7V400MX Motherboard and an AMD Athlon XP 2600 (Retail box). When everything was installed, I wanted to see how fast the CPU was actually registering at. Much to my dissapointment, XP and the BIOS says its clocking in at 1.15ghz! I believe this motherboard can't handle a faster speed, but I have no idea how to check or where to check what's tht fastest CPU it can handle. (The book mentions nothing about this) Can anyone tell me what I could do, besides return the mobo (which i think is the problem)? And where could I find the information about what the fastest CPU it can handle?
--Lester

Discussion is locked

16 Posts
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You probably don't have the memory bus
by Ray Harinec Aug 30, 2004 7:31AM PDT

speed set correctly. Not sure if that is a jumper on mobo or in the BIOS.

Terminology could be a problem, they may call it FSB. Not all mfr's use the same terminology.

The CPU speed is determined by a FIXED multiplier in the CPU [setting the multiplier on the mobo is politely ignored .LOL].

The FSB gets multiplied by that value to set the CPU speed. The FSB is determined by the speed of the memory bus. Probably using DDR SDRAM, thus memory is 100MHz, 133MHz, 166MHz,or 200 MHZ, but since it is DDR the settings may be 200, 266, 333, or 400.

What speed memory do you have??

The 2600 should run at either 2133 if the 266 FSB version, or only 2083 if it the 333 FSB version. Better find out what version CPU you have.

The 333 will actually be faster due to memory speed and probably more cache.

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The CPUID for the 266 version is 681
by Ray Harinec Aug 30, 2004 7:36AM PDT

The AMD document that I have does not give the CPUID for the "advanced 333 FSB AMD Athlon XP Processor Model 8"

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The mobo supports both the
by Ray Harinec Aug 30, 2004 8:10AM PDT

Thorougbred and Barton cores.

Your 1.15 speed makes no sense at all.

Think that the Barton multiplier is 12.5 even with 100 MHz memory it should run at 1.25 GHz.

The Thoroughbred multiplier is 16 and at 100 MHz memory should run at 1.6 GHz.

Some early Asus 400 MHz mobo's didn't actually support 400 HHz.[do not remember if this was one of them] Maybe check for a BIOS upgrade. Go to the ASUS site.

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Re: The mobo supports Athlon XP/ Thoroughbred/Barton process
by Lawrence Sep 1, 2004 11:02AM PDT

Here is some info from the Asus site:
http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V400-MX&langs=09

CPU: Socket A for AMD Athlon XP/ Thoroughbred/Barton processors
Chipset: VIA KM400A/VIA VT8235 CE

Front Side Bus: 400/333/266/200 MHz

Memory: 2 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory

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Why tell me??. I saw the same info when
by Ray Harinec Sep 1, 2004 12:03PM PDT

I went to the site. Tell Razor 206.

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Re: CPU not as fast as it should be?
by Mark5019 Aug 30, 2004 12:41PM PDT

it should be 2.13

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Depends which version of the CPU it is
by Ray Harinec Sep 1, 2004 12:07PM PDT

as I posted much earlier.

Any idea how it could be so far off???

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Shot in the dark
by Brandon Eng Sep 1, 2004 12:19PM PDT

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

What speed ram are you using? If you have pc2700, and you have your FSB set to 133, change it to 166 to run at 333 Mhz FSB. Point is, make sure you have the FSB setting to match your ram speed. Aside from that, check your bios to see if it's set at "fail-safe" settings, where the speeds are all dropped down. Ray's better at explaining all the technical stuff, so if you need an explanation, ask him. Wink Ray: am I correct in my thinking if a cpu is rated to run at 333, but if you use pc2100, you'll drag the cpu speed down? I can't put it into words well, but I hope you get my drift...

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Doh! I think I attempted to say what Ray said in his first
by Brandon Eng Sep 1, 2004 12:32PM PDT

post, upon re-reading it. But Ray said it better.

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Basically yes Brandon. The problem that I
by Ray Harinec Sep 1, 2004 1:19PM PDT

see is that the speed that he mentions doesn't seem to match any incorrect memory speed settings, that is IF my calculations of the CPU multiplier are correct. Simple calculation Divide the speed that AMD gives by the highest FSB that the CPU supports.

One issue in the fact that there are two versions of CPU chips that AMD calls 2600+ One only supports the 266 FSB and one supports the 333 FSB. They have different "design" speeds. [not by much].

One is the Thoroughbred core the other is the Barton core.

I bought a 2500 [333FSB] Barton because I thought that the cheapy mobo I bought only supported 333. Found it supported 400. I had bought two of them SOYO from newegg that were Soyo version 1. Went back to get a third one. Only Soyo at the same price, bought it, turns out the first two were Version 1 mobos. newegg probably sold them all so then priced the veresion 2 at the same price and I didn't notice it. I'm talking low priced mobos [$35]. Want to buy my Barton cheap???

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(off topic)
by Brandon Eng Sep 1, 2004 2:20PM PDT

No, I didn't get the Barton chip. I've been thinking about it for about 6 months though. My Asus A7V8X-X board only supports a fsb of 333. Miraculously, my 2000+ chip survived the blackout from last yr.

Do you think I'd get a good speed jump going to a 2500+ with a 333 fsb? I keep waffling about doing a major overhaul (will NOT make wife happy, lol), or just a minor upgrade. I've been thinking about the 3000+ or 3200+ chip also. Can't make up my mind. Also thinking about waiting to see how the AMD 64s play out. Now that I'm doing more video capturing and making DVDs, I need more power. With my last vid card upgrade, my system is complete except for rip-roaring SPEED. What's your opinion? I just may take you up on your offer. Whaddya doing with all them chips and motherboards, lol? Worse come to worse, I'm sure you can sell the chip on Ebay, but I'd appreciate your opinion. My tech guys I buy most of my stuff from tell me it's not worth the upgrade. They wouldn't even sell me the chip! Going to bed, so I'll check in t'mmw, or feel free to email me. Thanks.

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Know not your email address but
by Ray Harinec Sep 2, 2004 7:00AM PDT

we likely have a common [well she's not really common. LOL] email friend. The one and only Toni Hackler.

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Ray....
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Sep 2, 2004 9:23AM PDT

Did you check Brandon's profile for an e-mail button?

Hope this helps.

Grif

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(NT) (NT) Thanx Grif. Didn't realize that I could do that.
by Ray Harinec Sep 2, 2004 10:47AM PDT
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Got your letter, Ray.
by Brandon Eng Sep 3, 2004 10:24PM PDT

Thanks for your input. That's why I've been waffling over the minor upgrade- wasn't sure if it was worth the speed bump I'd get going from a 2000+ @ 266 fsb to 2500+-3000+ @ 333 fsb. I see the bottleneck in not being able to run my new vid card at the highest settings- the cpu.

My buddies aren't really that down on the AMD 64's; it's just that they haven't fully tested it yet. They're doing so now, and looking for just the right match with the proper motherboard where everything's running stable. On their first test system, they do say everything's FAST. So I guess I'll just wait a bit to see how everything goes. I get the feeling the prices will remain stable for awhile, so I'll wait and see how everything plays out. I'm not so sure I'm that interested in pci express- that may mean yet *another* video card upgrade- which may happen if I do a major upgrade anyway, lol. We'll see.

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PS: check jumper settings if any.
by Brandon Eng Sep 1, 2004 12:27PM PDT

.

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