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XEON E5-1410 v2 - 2.80GHz - clockspeed doubts
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XEON E5-1410 v2 - 2.80GHz - clockspeed doubts

miumiu Member
edited September 2019 in Help

Hello, i pay dedicated XEON E5-1410 v2 2.80GHz
This CPU should have clock 2.80 GHz, but all benchmarks show me only this (approx 1200 MHz):


Processor:    Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1410 v2 @ 2.80GHz
CPU cores:    8
Frequency:    1236.791 MHz
RAM:          62G

CPU: SHA256-hashing 500 MB
    1.788 seconds
CPU: bzip2-compressing 500 MB
    4.865 seconds
CPU: AES-encrypting 500 MB
    1.440 seconds

I have following questions:

1) What means / suggests /or why is clock only 1.2GHz instead 2.8Ghz normal speed??
It can suggest that my provider intentionally under-clocked CPU?
(for example from reason of safe electricity consumption..? or CPU is worn and not able work on full speed so they underclocked it??)

2) CPU low bench values: I think values above are not bad at all, but also think they are significantly low / less as should this CPU give when is normal working on full performance.. I'm right or not??
What you think it should give better values - better performance, or these are well & accurate??

3) If above mentioned values (SHA256, bzip and AES) are low, this is probably caused just with low clock speed / underclocking??

4) I have the same issue (with approx half clockspeed as should such CPU does have) with another dedicated servers (most of them are also from the same provider)..

Is this only my unfamiliarity and my wrong idea that they should have clockspeed as manufacturer declare and all is ok, or this is probably not OK & sooner it suggest anything is not good with this provider?

BTW: I'm not any expert for CPU, clockspeeds, server performance etc., so pls understand if i give stupid questions, thanks

Many thanks for all explanation in advance

Thanked by 1receivedthanks

Comments

  • MikeAMikeA Member, Patron Provider

    Have you checked the frequency with any real methods?

    Thanked by 2miu receivedthanks
  • The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    Thanked by 2miu receivedthanks
  • miumiu Member
    edited September 2019

    @MikeA said:
    Have you checked the frequency with any real methods?

    Apologise, but i'm not sure what is real method..
    I tested speed only with benchmarks:

    Above is nench, git.io/benhc.sh gives:

    Kernel : 3.10.0-1062.1.1.el7.x86_64
    CPU Model : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1410 v2 @ 2.80GHz
    CPU Cores : 8 cores @ 1202.612 MHz
    CPU Cache : 10240 KB

    I have KVMoverIP (iDRAC, it's dell) so i should also have look in BIOS.
    Or what i should do / check for more trustworthy and more real measurement of CPU speed and performance?

    Thanks

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • What is the output of cpufreq-info?

    Thanked by 2miu receivedthanks
  • miumiu Member
    edited September 2019

    This is what i see in KVM console:

    BIOS - there i not see anything for config CPU freq or performance (as sugges. by @CyberneticTitan ):
    https://ibb.co/VD4C3L7

    Info about clock-freq at reboot:
    https://ibb.co/Pwy6YpM

    It's quite strange and confusing for me that these images (system in KVM) shows right freg 2.8 GHz, but benchmarks give approx a half values :-/

    Thanks for all explanations and comments

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    No in the OS. Steps for Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1021748/set-cpu-governor-to-performance-in-18-04

    Thanked by 2miu receivedthanks
  • SwiftnodeSwiftnode Member, Host Rep
    edited September 2019

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    Generally speaking this shouldn't have to be done through bios, though it can be.

    If debian/ubuntu, try "cpufreq-set -g performance" and then see what "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz" reports.

    If centos try "tuned-adm profile latency-performance"

    Also "cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor" should let you know what governor is currently set.

  • That would be the processor at idle, when it requires more oomph it throttles up to the full speed. Some processors can idle down to about 800mhz so it varies on the processor.

    No foul play here I don't think :)

  • miumiu Member
    edited September 2019

    @CyberneticTitan said:

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    No in the OS. Steps for Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1021748/set-cpu-governor-to-performance-in-18-04

    Thanks for suggestion.

    BTW: It's latest Centos 7.7 and fresh installed from ISO in IDRAC HTML console (not using OS installed by provider or installed from provider automated installation template) - this should not be as default set up in OS for best performance already?

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    No in the OS. Steps for Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1021748/set-cpu-governor-to-performance-in-18-04

    Thanks for suggestion.

    BTW: It's latest Centos 7.7 and fresh installed from ISO in IDRAC HTML console (not using OS installed by provider or installed from provider automated installation template) - this should not be as default set up in OS for best performance already?

    Does have anyone at hand link for any webpage where is it explained as do it on Centos 7, or can me write code? Thanks

    https://www.certdepot.net/rhel7-get-started-cpu-governor/

  • i found this:

    yum install -y kernel-tools

    # cpupower frequency-set -g performance

    that's all?

    THANKS

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • @ITLabs said:

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    No in the OS. Steps for Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1021748/set-cpu-governor-to-performance-in-18-04

    Thanks for suggestion.

    BTW: It's latest Centos 7.7 and fresh installed from ISO in IDRAC HTML console (not using OS installed by provider or installed from provider automated installation template) - this should not be as default set up in OS for best performance already?

    Does have anyone at hand link for any webpage where is it explained as do it on Centos 7, or can me write code? Thanks

    https://www.certdepot.net/rhel7-get-started-cpu-governor/

    Thanks! (now i realize i read just the same page)

  • miumiu Member
    edited September 2019

    @Swiftnode said:

    @miu said:

    @CyberneticTitan said:
    The CPU clock speed steps down when you're not doing anything computationally expensive. Your CPU governor is probably set to powersave. Set it to performance and reboot.

    You mean / this should be done in BIOS settings at CPU settings, i'm right?

    Generally speaking this shouldn't have to be done through bios, though it can be.

    If debian/ubuntu, try "cpufreq-set -g performance" and then see what "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i mhz" reports.

    If centos try "tuned-adm profile latency-performance"

    Also "cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor" should let you know what governor is currently set.

    You are very right:
    This was it:

    #  cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
     
    powersave

    THANKS!

    I'll change it on "performance" mode
    and then repost new bench - how measured values will changed / improved

    Thanks for all for such speed help, comments and usefull suggestion.

  • miumiu Member
    edited October 2019

    Update:

    Change CPU governor from powersave on performance did not bring any improvement in performance
    In other words said: The same CPU benchmarks times as above i found, measured after change (only change is that bench was displaying already full speeds of CPU clocks freq.)

    Conclusion - it was caused probably with fact i think: Intel CPU are able very fast (in a few msec) change CPU freq when load income. (Exact the same property as my workstation does) Benchmark probably first measure clock before load (and my server is idling so was running in powersave mode on lowest freq) and these values display, but when start test CPU perfor. then measured values and whole test is made on full CPU perfomance already and on max freq.

    So i think is absolutely useless to have governor set up on PERFORMANCE, in most case this will not bring any improvement ever, or negligible.
    On the contrary just powersave **and similar hybrid modes **are saving energy = more friendly and considerate to the environment, and simultaneously also save lifespan of hardware. (in cases when server is not non-stop running only on full load still..)

    In accordance with this facts i think this is reason why in OS is default state set up just as powersave mode.

    And the same experience and result with other 5 yet idling dedicated servers.

    Apologies for my poor "english"

    Thanked by 2dfroe receivedthanks
  • It is a 4 core/8 thread processor. When you're running single core operations, the speed can go up to 2.8 Ghz but when multi-tasking or using all the cores, the speed might only be 1.2 Ghz per core. This might explain what you're seeing.

    Thanked by 1receivedthanks
  • jlayjlay Member
    edited October 2019

    @miu said:
    Update:

    Change CPU governor from powersave on performance did not bring any improvement in performance
    In other words said: The same CPU benchmarks times as above i found, measured after change (only change is that bench was displaying already full speeds of CPU clocks freq.)

    Conclusion - it was caused probably with fact i think: Intel CPU are able very fast (in a few msec) change CPU freq when load income. (Exact the same property as my workstation does) Benchmark probably first measure clock before load (and my server is idling so was running in powersave mode on lowest freq) and these values display, but when start test CPU perfor. then measured values and whole test is made on full CPU perfomance already and on max freq.

    So i think is absolutely useless to have governor set up on PERFORMANCE, in most case this will not bring any improvement ever, or negligible.
    On the contrary just powersave **and similar hybrid modes **are saving energy = more friendly and considerate to the environment, and simultaneously also save lifespan of hardware. (in cases when server is not non-stop running only on full load still..)

    In accordance with this facts i think this is reason why in OS is default state set up just as powersave mode.

    And the same experience and result with other 5 yet idling dedicated servers.

    Apologies for my poor "english"

    Yep, you pretty much got it - the CPU will almost immediately raise the clock speed if load calls for it. There is some benefit to keeping it at the highest speed all the time (generally less latency), but it's hard to measure without good tools and simulated workloads. There's measurable 'jitter' when things are aggressively raising and lowering the clocks, but you kind of have to look for it.

    As long as the hardware is run within spec, it'll last pretty much just as long either way. Main difference is power consumption and heat output, and there are tolerances in place before electrical degradation sits in (eg: raised voltages, poorly managed heat)

    Thanked by 2miu receivedthanks
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