inxi -F shows one core running faster than the others

[rufwoof]

In another post by Billtoo I saw the use of inxi -F and thought I'd run that for myself. Wasn't installed so I ran apt-get install inxi and then ran it ... and noticed that one of my cores is running at twice the speed as the other three (3 is running at 1800MHz whilst all the others are running at 900MHz).

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root@debian:/home/user# inxi -F 
System:    Host: debian Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: N/A 
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8 
Machine:   System: Acer product: Aspire M1200/3200/5200
           Mobo: Acer model: RS780HVF
           Bios: American Megatrends v: R01-B2 date: 08/15/2008
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom 9150e (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 900 MHz 2: 900 MHz 3: 1800 MHz 4: 900 MHz

That doesn't look right to me, as though this hand-me-down might have at some point be overclocked or something like that. Or is that 'normal'?

If it is overclocked then how do I go about undoing that?

In Xfce I do have a tray 'icon' that shows CPU activity along with bars for the 4 cores and loading appears to be relatively evenly balanced under general usage (not noticed any one core tending to be more over-used compared to the others).

TIA.

[James C]

Looks pretty normal to me.....

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t# inxi -F
System:    Host: puppypc12956 Kernel: 4.1.11 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: JWM 2.3.4 Distro: tahrpup64 6.0.5
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A97 LE R2.0 version: Rev 1.xx serial: 150545593600028
           Bios: American Megatrends version: 2601 date: 03/24/2015
CPU:       Hexa core AMD FX-6300 Six-Core (-MCP-) cache: 12288 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2500.00 MHz 2: 2500.00 MHz 3: 1400.00 MHz 4: 1400.00 MHz 5: 2000.00 MHz 6: 2500.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210] 
           X.org: 1.15.1 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: vesa) tty size: 68x23 Advanced Data: N/A for root 
Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA ver: k4.1.11
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel 
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 1c:87:2c:5a:bb:e2
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (5.6% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SV300S3 size: 120.0GB 
           2: id: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB 
Partition: ID: swap-1 size: 8.60GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 156 Uptime: 5 min Memory: 657.0/15927.2MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 1.9.17 

This cpu is advertised as 3.5 GHz , generally the os throttles everything down to a base frequency and speeds up cores as a load is added. Apparently the load on your machine only needs to speed up one core.

The AMD Phenom 9150e is listed at 1.8 GHZ, so it's not showing any overclock, looks like it was under a light load and only speeding up the one core.

[Moat]

CPU load and clock speeds are always bouncing around - it's likely inxi just so happened to record that core's speed at that very instant... and an instant later, likely would have recorded something different. May be better to real-time monitor freq/load via an open task/process manager of some sort (or conky), in order to spot any anomalous trends.

IOW - Probably perfectly normal and nothing to worry about!

Bob

[01micko]

Try this in a terminal:

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x=0;while [ $x -lt 200 ];do  cat /proc/cpuinfo|grep '^cpu MHz';echo;x=$(($x + 1));usleep 1;done

If your machine is idling at the start then a low reading would be expected across cores at first but of course the loop will take its toll.

[Sailor Enceladus]

That doesn't look right to me, as though this hand-me-down might have at some point be overclocked or something like that. Or is that 'normal'?

Most things are still single-threaded I think? When I see my dads Core2Duo with both cores at 2530MHz instead of one at 800MHz and the other at 2530MHz under load I wonder what is really going on. Are two programs hogging the CPU, or 1 program taking up 100% CPU on both cores. Egad! Two cores running constantly at 2530MHz! She's going to blow!

[James C]

Let's see what inxi -F shows on this octocore.....

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root# inxi -Fxx
System:    Host: puppex Kernel: 3.18.2-PAE-puppex i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.6.4) Desktop: JWM git-976 dm: N/A Distro: tahrpup 6.0
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A97 LE R2.0 version: Rev 1.xx serial: 140323665200131
           Bios: American Megatrends version: 2202 date: 12/12/2013
CPU:       Octa core AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core (-MCP-) cache: 16384 KB flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 56211.2 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1400.00 MHz 2: 1400.00 MHz 3: 2300.00 MHz 4: 1400.00 MHz 5: 2900.00 MHz 6: 1700.00 MHz 7: 3500.00 MHz 8: 1400.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1381 
           X.org: 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: vesa,nouveau) tty size: 80x24 Advanced Data: N/A for root 
Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA Device 0fbc driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fbc 
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.18.2-PAE-puppex
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 40:16:7e:b2:b8:be
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1120.2GB (-)
           1: id: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SV300S3 size: 120.0GB serial: N/A 
           2: id: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD10EZEX size: 1000.2GB serial: N/A 
Partition: 
RAID:      System: supported: linear raid0 raid1 raid10 raid6 raid5 raid4 
           No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
           Unused Devices: none
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 137 Uptime: 19 min Memory: 546.6/16145.2MB Runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.6.4 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.29 running in rxvt) inxi: 1.9.17 

Only 5 different speeds out of 8 cores.......

[rufwoof]

Thanks guys.

Yes it bounces around, sometimes all four at 900MHz, then other times one seems to be up at 1800MHz ... and different ones each time I run inxi -F. AMD Turbo boost ... looks like nothing for me to worry about.

[drunkjedi]

Run following command to get all cpu core's speed live.

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watch -n1 "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep \"^[c]pu MHz\""