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Processor Speed (Actual vs Reported)

My powerbook reads at 999999996 hertz... where's my 4hertz Apple? Where are they?!

It says its a Power Macintosh though... hmm...
 
Originally posted by joshuwa72
on my dual 1.25 G4, it that command says 1.25 ghz...but since its a dual, shouldnt it report 2.5 ghz????
Click to expand...

No... for so... so many reasons. :cool:
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Maybe Apple throttles your processors back and slowly uncaps them with each OS X update to make you believe that OS X gets faster or that the G5s are faster than G4s for sure. ;)
Click to expand...
that 's a funny one.

here is what mine reports ( iMac 17'' 1 ghz )
Code: 
Sorcha:~ bob$ sysctl hw.cpufrequency
hw.cpufrequency: 999999997
Sorcha:~ bob$
pretty acurate huh,
 
Mine was accurate up to the last 5 Hz, so I am not complaining. Not sure about the PowerMac listing that everyone is getting, though, since mine keeps coming back as PowerBook 5,2 when I ask for my model type.
 
such as??

Originally posted by cr2sh
No... for so... so many reasons. :cool:
Click to expand...

what reasons? I know the processor speed of each one will not exceed 1.25 ghz, but the processing power of both combined = 2.5 ghz.

is there like a different command or something for dual processor machines?

(mine says model = PowerMac 3,6 btw..whatever that means)
 
Your processor speed is 1.25 GHz, regardless of how many you have. You can have 50, but that doesn't change the fact that they'd all just be 1.25 GHz. It just means you have two processors to spread your active processes over at 1.25 GHz as opposed to those of us with a single processor that has to do our crunching on just one.
 
Hmmm...my 1GHz PB is reporting as "667000000", and processor performance is set to highest in the Energy Saver prefpane.

Bears investigating...
 
Actually, to make your sysctl report the proper value, shut your power book down, and reset your PMU, there's a button on the upper right corner when you remove your keyboard..

mine was saying 667 before, now it says 999 but it went back to 667 earlier today..

anyone knows WHY this keeps changing? and if it has any impact on performance? I didn't mess around with the energy prefPane, it's set to highest and powerbook is usually plugged in..

someone should run xbench before/after resetting the PMU.
 
Re: such as??

Originally posted by joshuwa72
the processing power of both combined = 2.5 ghz.
Click to expand...

Actually no... while 2.5GHz is the arithmetic sum up the two cpu frequencies, that number is not an adequate representation of your "processing power."

The command is "hw.cpufrequency" and it reports your cpu frequency.. that frequency is 1.25GHz, as PBG5 stated.. doesn't matter how many you have.

As for the missing hertz.. its interesting. You take the front side of 16666666666Hz, with a 6 multiplier is 99999999996Hz.

As for the 667 stuff.. I think you guys are getting screwed. ;)
 
ok I understand now. No matter what the frequency will never exceed 1.25 ghz.

Having more processors does not allow one to process faster, but to process more things at once...is that right??
 
When you have two processors, you are processing at your 1.25, but say you are runnings two programs at once...now instead of having to have the two processing on a single processor, which will cause both programs to run slowly as a result, they are both regulated to their own processor. They are both being processed at 1.25 GHz, but since they both have their own processor to work with, your work gets done quicker. For this reason, you are able to do stuff like rendering a huge file in Photoshop while at the same time decoding a DVD and not having a huge slowdown as you would with a single processor. It may seem to you that it won't be any faster since it is still 1.25 GHz, but the added efficiency adds up a great deal once you are doing a lot of processor intensive tasks.
 
Originally posted by joshuwa72
ok I understand now. No matter what the frequency will never exceed 1.25 ghz.

Having more processors does not allow one to process faster, but to process more things at once...is that right??
Click to expand...

2 procs = more at the same time yes.

to see how fast your proc is[are] and how many there are just type
Code: 
sysctl hw.cpufrequency; sysctl hw.ncpu

the first is the speed the second is the number of procs.
 
iBook 600-

cpu frequency - 600000000
model - PowerBook 4,1
machine - Power Macintosh

So Apple must just make all the processors report back the same information.
 
two proc. can process faster if the task at hand can be split, of course...

any kind of linear processing can't be split because subsequent calculations will depend on the prev. result...
 
Originally posted by cynikal
Actually, to make your sysctl report the proper value, shut your power book down, and reset your PMU, there's a button on the upper right corner when you remove your keyboard..

mine was saying 667 before, now it says 999 but it went back to 667 earlier today..
Click to expand...

I reset my PMU... with no effect. What computer are you using?
 
The best way to figure out the frequency of a Mac is to boot into Open Firmware, navigate to the CPU node, and list the properties on it...

boot Mac, hold down cmd-opt-O-F
at the prompt, type dev /cpu
on multiprocessor systems, its dev /cpus followed by @0 or @1
at the prompt, type .properties
you will see a bunch of properties, look for one that says frequency, the number is in hex
 
WARNING: re: Open Firmware

Please be extremely careful about what you type in. The OF environment is not for the faint-hearted, even if you're confident on a command line.

It is entirely possible to render your hardware completely unusable, should you happen to type in the wrong thing!

Having said that, Frohickey's instructions are totally correct, but I just wanted to remind everyone to take care.

When you're done with your OF explorations, type: reboot

******

As for my experience with CPU speed, I'm using an 867 12" AluBook. Apparently my system was running at 533 MHz. Resetting the PMU did, in fact, change this back to 867 MHz.

And it really is zippy™ now. I'm going to keep my eyes on this to try and identify when the speed drops down again.

Best,
Logicat
 
I just tried resetting the PMU using the hardware reset button... and it worked! Now reporting 99999997 as the frequency.

i will see how long it stays this way... maybe its simply triggered by switching to battery power?

After just switching to battery power, it appears that is not the issue.
 
Update: after a restart, reported speed is back to 667mhz... maybe I'll go into the Apple store and see what they have to say about it :)
 
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