In the last month alone, I posted two articles on the site, one way or another related to the processor. In one of them you can find out, and the second article will tell you how to find out. Today I will analyze another issue related to the processor, namely, I will tell you how to find out its clock speed.
What is clock frequency? I decided not to reinvent the wheel, but simply turned to Wikipedia for a definition. Here is what is written:
Clock frequency - the frequency of clock pulses of a synchronous electronic circuit, that is, the number of clock cycles coming from the outside to the input of the circuit in one second. Usually the term is used in relation to the components of computer systems. In the very first approximation, the clock frequency characterizes the performance of a subsystem (processor, memory, etc.), that is, the number of operations performed per second. However, systems with the same clock speed can have different performance, since different systems may require different number of cycles to perform one operation (usually from fractions of a cycle to tens of cycles), and in addition, systems using pipelining and parallel processing may perform several operations at the same time on the same cycles.
In simpler terms, the clock frequency is one of the most important characteristics of the processor, since the speed of the device, in particular, depends on it. That is, the performance of the processor depends on the clock frequency, although not completely and not in all cases.
And now let me tell you how, in fact, to find out this value, if you do not know this.
Documentation
When buying a processor, documentation is always given, where you can fully see the name of this device. For example, it could be: Intel Core i7-4790k 4GHz/8Mb/88W. Pay attention to the characteristic 4GHz - this is the clock frequency, which is 4 GHz.
In some cases, the processor is shipped in unmarked packaging. It doesn't matter, take the invoice and look - it will always indicate the exact name of the device, where you can also see the clock frequency.
This fully applies to those cases when you purchase an already assembled system unit. And if in this case all the characteristics are not indicated on the invoice, it is possible that this was done intentionally in order to mislead the buyer (cheaper components are installed instead of expensive ones). Be careful.
As for laptops, everything is the same here. But in the case of the latter, you can also type the model number in the search engine and see exactly which components are installed in the device.
Computer Information
There is also an easier option, thanks to which you do not need to raise the documentation. You can use the utility built into the Windows operating system.
All you need to do is find the "Computer" icon on the desktop (if it is missing, open the Start menu and you will see it there), right-click on it and select "Properties".
This will open a window to view basic information about your computer. One of the items will be "Processor". Here is the complete information about it.
Third party software
Of course, you can also find out such a parameter as the processor clock frequency using third-party software. I can’t say which program is better for you to use, since there are a great many of them and in fact everything depends only on your own taste. But I can say that the CPU-Z utility has long earned its trust, and besides, it is distributed completely free of charge.
Download the utility, run it (there is a portable version that does not require installation) and right on the main CPU tab, find the Specification indicator, where your processor model will be indicated.
BIOS
In some cases, if for some reason the above methods do not suit you, you can use the BIOS, but this is quite an extreme option.
(most often you need to press the DEL or ESC key before loading the operating system), then find the Processor item. Most often, it is located directly on the Main tab. Here you will see the processor model.
If something suddenly didn’t work out for you, you can always ask your question through the comments.
At times, the user needs to know what kind of processor is installed in his computer and what characteristics it has - for example, when installing a game or when buying new hardware. And in some cases, you may need to manually control the properties of the processor. Let's see how to do it.
How to check processor properties in windows system
The good news is that you don't need any third-party programs to find out what kind of processor is installed in your system. If you only want to know its basic parameters - for example, clock speed or number of cores - the built-in Windows tools, namely the control panel and device manager, are enough.
We enter the "Control Panel" through the "Start" menu
In the control panel, look for the item "System", select it
In the "System" window of the control panel there is a line "Processor", which displays information about the processor
The System window has buttons that open various system menus; we need the item "Device Manager"
In the "Device Manager" there is a tab "Processors"; opening it, we see how many cores are in the processor on our computer
If for some reason you need information about the processor driver, this can be done through the processor properties menu in Device Manager
Temperature measurement
If the computer regularly overheats or is simply overloaded, it makes sense to monitor the temperature of the processor: it may be necessary to update the cooling. It is impossible to check the processor temperature using standard Windows tools: you either need to check the temperature through the BIOS, or use third-party programs to control the computer's hardware. We will cover both methods. By the way, with their help, you can also find out other processor data.
How to measure temperature using BIOS
The BIOS - or more specifically BIOS Setup, the most widely used part of the Basic I/O System - is the easiest way to check what your CPU temperature is. The BIOS Setup menu displays a number of properties of the "stuffing" of the computer, and the only thing left for us is to go into the utility and find the line responsible for the temperature of the program. The main disadvantage of this method is that the check will be carried out before entering Windows, when the processor is not yet “loaded” with the operating system and all its applications. Therefore, the result may differ from what you get by measuring the temperature from under Windows using special programs.
- PC Health Status (Status);
- Hardware Monitor (H/W Monitor, Monitor);
- power;
If you do not want to go into the BIOS or are interested in the temperature of the processor under load, you can instead use special utilities that work with temperature sensors on the CPU from under Windows.
How to find out the temperature of the processor through programs
There are several programs for monitoring the physical parameters of the computer, such as the speed of the fans, the voltage consumed, and the temperature on the "innards" of the computer. A utility capable of reading readings from a temperature sensor should be looked for just among these programs.
AIDA64
AIDA64 is a powerful program for tracking the components of both hardware and the system itself. Its functions include far more than just checking the temperature of the CPU, and it is extremely useful for anyone who is even a little interested in the state of their PC. Of all the possible program options, it is one of the most popular, so we will start with it.
After installing the program, simply run it and go to the “Sensors” tab. The utility itself will display information about the temperature on all processor cores separately, as well as on other components of the computer "stuffing".
The "Sensors" tab of the AIDA64 program shows the temperature on the processor and other components of the computer
The main disadvantage of AIDA64 is that this program is paid. However, you can get a free version for 30 days, and this is definitely enough to check the processor temperature.
CPUID HWMonitor
This program is not as informative as the previous one, and is intended only for viewing information about the hardware. But it is free, popular and quite simple, so you won’t have to deal with it for a long time either. After installation, open and find the name of your processor in the list of devices (we discussed in detail in one of the previous paragraphs how to find it out).
In the same way, we see the temperature of each core displayed on the screen in Celsius and Fahrenheit, and we also observe its maximum and minimum values.
In the CPUID HWMonitor program, the processor temperature can be viewed in the tab with its name
The HWMonitor website allows you to download the program for free, as well as - for a moderate fee - to purchase the Pro version with additional features.
HWInfo
Another free utility that differs from the previous one in extremely high information content and a large number of functions: up to tracking all processor activity in real time with plotting. The program is distributed under a freeware license, so you don't have to pay anything for it. And to see the temperature of the CPU in it is generally easier than ever: just go to the main menu of the program and select the Sensors item.
In the window that opens, information from the component sensors will be displayed. This can be not only temperature, but also energy consumption or work speed; any indicator is displayed in four columns: current, maximum, minimum and average values. The processor in the long list of devices is represented by the item CPU. He is what we need.
HWInfo provides the user with many functions, one of which - viewing sensor readings - is located in the Sensors menu
HWInfo can be downloaded for free from the official website.
Piriform Speccy
A utility from the creators of the well-known CCleaner, designed to view the status of PC components. It features a proprietary pleasant interface and full support for the Russian language: if you have problems with English, Speccy will be the best solution. There are free and paid versions: the paid one has extended functionality and auto-updates, but for our purposes, the free one will suffice.
After installation, you just need to go into the program: the processor temperature will be displayed among other data on the main page. If you want to know the characteristics of the processor in more detail, you should select the "Central Processing Unit" item in the side menu.
The Speccy program provides the necessary data directly in the main window and in Russian
You can download Speccy from the website of the program developers.
CPU power management in Windows 7
Windows 7 provides a richer set of power management tools than its predecessors. This is both the choice of a power scheme from those already available, and individual power settings for “yourself”, as well as additional features, including hidden ones. The basic features will benefit everyone from those looking for maximum gaming performance to those looking to conserve power, while the fine-tuning is only recommended for advanced users.
This is what the main window of the power menu in Windows 7 looks like. You can customize an existing power plan or create your own
When creating a power plan, you can choose which of the main ones it will be based on.
This is how setting up a power plan for laptops looks like (in stationary PCs there is no separation between network and battery). From here you can go to advanced settings
Turn on hidden computer features from the registry
For even more fine-tuning, you can go into the registry and edit some keys to open access to options that are blocked for a regular user. To edit a key in the registry, just import the lines from the table below into it. Let's figure out how to do it.
- We create a Notepad text file in any place convenient for you.
- In the file, we write the sentence Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 as the first line - it is very important that it be exactly like this, without errors.
- Leave the next line blank.
- In the third line we write one of the codes indicated in the table: completely, do not change anything.
- In any order, write the following codes. Each time we write a new code, we skip one line. There must always be one blank line between commands.
- When all the necessary codes are typed, save the file under any name in the .reg format. Everything, the registry file is ready, and now all that remains is to import the changes into the registry itself.
Table: Registry keys for accessing hidden power settings and their values
| What needs to be changed (imported into the registry) | Result |
"Attributes"=dword:00000001 | turns on the so-called parking of cores, which allows you to disable unused processor cores in order to save energy |
"Attributes"=dword:00000000 | enables a setting that determines the maximum number of idle cores |
"Attributes"=dword:00000000 | opens the option "CPU Performance Kernel Suspend Kernel Override" |
"Attributes"=dword:00000000 | opens an option that allows you to manage CPU idle |
"Attributes"=dword:00000000 | the option to manage power down is displayed |
After applying these settings, the additional processor power settings will look something like this:
This is what advanced processor power settings look like in Windows 7 if you enable hidden features in the registry
Now that hidden features are enabled, even complex power management settings can be controlled and fine-tuned.
Knowing where to look at your processor data, how to determine its temperature and even change power management is very useful for an experienced PC owner who decides to optimize the CPU programmatically. But for the average user, this information can be useful: sometimes everyone may need to check the operation of the cooling, find out the frequency of the processor, or reduce energy consumption.
The system unit is one of the main elements of the computer, which allows you to read and convert information. It also determines which programs, games and operating systems will be supported on your device. The processor (SP) has several main characteristics: the number of cores, frequency and model. It is especially necessary to monitor its temperature, since overheating will lead to a breakdown, which often cannot be repaired. Another important factor is processor power management. On Windows, this is not too difficult to find out, but first you need to understand the characteristics of the device.
How to find out all the information about the processor in Windows
There are several ways to find out the frequency, number of cores and processor model without resorting to third-party programs.
Using computer properties
Opening computer properties
We look at the basic information of your system
Using the command line
Open command line
Execute the command
We look at the characteristics of the system unit
Using the BIOS
This method is suitable for those cases when it is not possible to log into the system for some reason.
Turn on the computer
We enter the BIOS
Finding information about the system unit
Find out what temperature the processor has
If your computer constantly turns off or slows down on its own, then the reason for this may be an overload of the system unit, which leads to its overheating. To make sure that the heating is above the permissible norm, you need to look at the temperature of the processor. How to do it:
Downloading the application
We look at the temperature of the cores
Computer power settings in Windows 7
If you want to increase the power of your device in order to enjoy more demanding programs and games, then one of the ways to do this is to change the power settings. Please note that changing the settings in the direction of increasing the load can lead to overheating or reboot and, in the end, equipment failure. Therefore, if you decide to take this step, then always carefully monitor the state of the processor and try not to load it as much as it was not calculated.
Opening the control panel
Open the section "Power"
Select "High performance" mode
Now you need to set the following settings in order to optimize the power supply as much as possible:
You can also select other power options for the processor to customize its performance for yourself.
Keep a close eye on your processor, do not overload it. Do not forget that the system unit, like the rest of the computer components, must be manually cleaned of dust in order to reduce the chance that it will start to overheat. If you overclock your processor, then get ready for the fact that its performance will decrease, not increase.
If you have landed on this article, then most likely you are having difficulty on this issue. If so, you've come to the right place. In the article, we will analyze in detail how to find out the frequency of the processor, we will tell you how to do it in various ways.
Documentation
Initially, we will analyze the simplest and most common option - according to the documentation received when buying a processor. If you bought a computer in a store and took all the components at once, it will include many items. But do not rush to despair, everything is very simple.
Let's take an example. Let's say you have:
1 Gb GeForce GTX 420.
INTEL i5-6600 3.5 GHz.
Remember, there are two types of processors: Intel and AMD. These are the companies that make it. As you can see, this list includes an Intel i5-6600 3.5 GHz processor. So, we discard the rest of the components and figure out the encryption of the rest. We have already found out that Intel is the name of the company, i5-6600 is the model of the processor itself, we are also not interested in it, but 3.5 GHz is the clock frequency.
Remember, frequency is always measured in hertz, abbreviated as Hz or Hz in English. The prefix G stands for giga, which in turn means 1000 hertz. From this it follows that the frequency of the processor is 3,500 Hertz.
So we figured out how to find out, but this is just the first way. Let's move on to the rest.
Properties of the system
In the event that you have not saved the nomenclature for the purchased product, you can use the following method, which works properly on all Windows operating systems. Now let's look at how to find out the processor frequency using the "System Properties" window.
You can use several options. The first implies the following algorithm of actions:
Enter the start menu.
In the sidebar, select Control Panel.
In the window that appears, click on the "System Properties" section.
You can also use the search in the same Start menu by typing "System Properties" in the search box.
On some operating systems, you can avoid all these manipulations by simply right-clicking on the "My Computer" shortcut and selecting "Properties" from the context menu.
So, we figured out how to get into the "System Properties". Now find the line "Processor", opposite it will be the full name of your system unit. And at the end it is written in gigahertz.
We have given another way to find out the processor frequency using the operating system. But this is still not a complete list, so let's move on.
CPU-Z
Now we will analyze how to find out using the CPU-Z utility.
This utility is intended only for one thing: it tells in detail about the processor installed on the computer. And the main advantage of this software is that it is completely free.
First of all, you need to download the program, so go to the official website and feel free to download without fear of viruses. Once the download is complete, run the installer and complete the installation. Once you have done this, a shortcut to the program should appear on the desktop - double-click on it.
Once the program has opened, find the "CPU" tab and select it. You will see detailed information about your processor. If you carefully study it, you can find the line "Specification". Opposite it, the frequency in gigahertz will be indicated.
This is the third way to find out the processor frequency on Windows 7. However, if for some reason all of the above methods did not help you do this, then there is only one left. It is not the easiest, but it absolutely guarantees the receipt of the necessary information, so let's move on to it.
BIOS
What is the BIOS, we think, it’s not worth telling. Let's take frequency.
So, restart the computer, and during its startup, when inscriptions flash on a black background, press the Pause key to stop the startup process. In one of the lines, find "Main Processor", and at the end of it you will find the frequency value, which is also indicated in gigahertz.
If for some reason you do not have this line, then instead of the Pause key, press Del or F2 to go to the BIOS itself. There, on the first page, find the line "Processor Type", and opposite it you will see the frequency.
That's basically it. Above, all possible ways were presented on how to find out what processor frequency you have on your computer.
The clock speed of the CPU has an overall impact on the level of performance and responsiveness of the system. This characteristic is not considered constant and changes regularly during PC operation. If necessary, it is possible to "overclock" the processor to increase the frequency and, thereby, improve the system's performance. You can find out what clock frequency is typical for a particular CPU in several standard ways, as well as using third-party software that gives the most accurate results.
First, you should read the documentation that came with the computer. The technical data sheet contains information about the technical characteristics of the PC. In the "processor" column, something like: INTEL i5-3570K 2.5GHz should be written (the name will depend on which device is installed in the PC). This is the CPU model, as well as its clock frequency, which is 2.5 GHz. Sometimes the manufacturer deliberately does not indicate the frequency, only the name of the model is given. In this case, you can enter the model name in any search engine and information about the full specification of the device will immediately appear.
The same should be done with laptops. Only thanks to a request in search engines will it be possible to carefully familiarize yourself with all the characteristics of the processor, including the size of the clock frequency.
Note! It is important to specify the model name as accurately as possible (check all letters and numbers), because literally one wrong character can show information about another, more powerful device that is not installed by the user.
Properties of the system
It is considered the most convenient and simple option, since it does not imply the need to install third-party software.
BIOS
If the user has never entered the BIOS and has no idea what it is and how to work with it, then it is better to immediately switch to another method. More experienced users are offered the following instructions:
Through the Run window
It is another fairly simple option. On the keyboard, just press two keys at the same time (Win + R), after which the "Run" window will appear. It is necessary to enter the following characters in it: msinfo32, then click "OK".
A window called "System Information" will open. To view information about the processor, you will need to click on the corresponding tab.
Use of programs
AIDA64 considered functional software designed to work with computer devices. The utility is paid, but the first time it can be used for free. The program interface is completely localized into Russian. After installing AIDA64, you will need to perform the following steps:
Note! Also, information about the frequency is available in the item called "CPU frequency". At the same time, attention should be paid to the “initial” value (it is in brackets).
CPU-Z is another program with an easy-to-understand interface, thanks to which it will be possible to quickly get acquainted with all computer parameters (including the CPU). Considered free to use.
To view the frequency, it will be enough to open the utility after installation and find the line called "Specification" in the main menu. Opposite it, the device model will be indicated, as well as the frequency size in GHz.
All users need to understand that today it will not work to determine the level, considering only the size of its clock frequency. Additionally, it is worth taking into account the number of cores and other characteristics of the processor. So, for example, all new CPUs manufactured by Intel use a technology called Turbo Bust. With its help, the clock frequency increases when the computer system is under load.
Video - How to find out the frequency of the processor
