Wrong CPU speed in Linux

My workstation has an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X. AMD’s specifications indicate it has a base clock speed is 3.7 GHz, with a boost up to 4.5 GHz.

When I’m in the BIOS configuration, it reports running at 3.7 GHz. Nothing has been changed, all CPU related settings are set to their defaults.

When I’m booted into Windows 10 (games), the Task Manager reports speeds above 3.7 GHz routinely.

When I’m booted into Linux, however, lscpu reports a CPU min speed of 2.2 GHz and a max speed of 3.7 GHz. When I run cpufreq-info, it likewise states: “hardware limits: 2.20 GHz - 3.70 GHz”.

I’ve tried enabling the performance policy for the CPU governor, but it doesn’t seem to have done anything. Any suggestions?

1 Like

watch -n 1 cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz should give you a readout of current frequencies.

See what that gives you when you load the machine up.

1 Like

Hmm, that shows between 3.5 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

So, I’m guessing this is just some bad disconnect between the kernel and AMD with regard to hardware limits (which seem to be ignored?)

I think lscpu just shows base clocks

1 Like