Thinkpads Forum

What does exactly means "Adaptive" on "Maximum cpu speed" instead of "Highest" on Power Manager?

It means that the CPU will idle down to a lower speed when not working hard. On my venerable old T41 XP laptop, the speed would normally reduce to 600MHz (top speed is 1.8Ghz). It allows the laptop to run cooler and the battery to last longer.

My daily driver is now a Vista laptop and I don't see how to measure current speed (top speed is 2.4GHz), but I imagine it is similar. ... JDH

jdhurst wrote:It means that the CPU will idle down to a lower speed when not working hard.

You mean CPU speed is still maximum when I use actively my computer?

Open the Task Manager... there should be a total cpu usage percentage on it. When that's high, the speed ramps up, when it's low (most of the time, even if you're using it), the speed stays low.

You'd need a better tool like CPU-z to see exactly what speeds are being used when.

aaa wrote:Open the Task Manager... there should be a total cpu usage percentage on it.

That's right.

aaa wrote:When that's high, the speed ramps up, when it's low (most of the time, even if you're using it), the speed stays low.

Hmmmm.... It's not CPU speed, it's percentage of CPU usage.

Think of it like some of the car engines out there now....a V-8 that will "turn off" a few cylinders...drop down to a 6 cylinder or even 4 cylinder when under light loads..in order to save gas.

With Intel SpeedStep you can easily tell if the CPU speed has been reduced, as follows,

Right click My Computer on the desktop
Select Properties
Select the General Tab

On that screen in the bottom right-hand corner are your CPU details.
The first speed rating (eg 2.80Gz) is the maximum and the second value is the current.

ashleys wrote: On that screen in the bottom right-hand corner are your CPU details.
The first speed rating (eg 2.80Gz) is the maximum and the second value is the current.

Thanks.