Speedstep and Intel x5570?

Question

My new server has 2 x X5570 CPUs.

Now here is the output of grep -i hz /proc/cpuinfo

model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5570  @ 2.93GHz
cpu MHz  : 1600.231

It always remains the same.. no matter how much load is mysql or any other app hogging. Even when mysql eats 2 or 3 CPUs at 100% each, the output of cpuinfo is the same.

If fact mysql performance for some heavy inserts is poorer than my old E5430 server.

Any clues? I contacted the server provider, they tried turning off SpeedStep and still we see the same results.

Any insights would be helpful cause I am paying heavily for this box and would love to milk all juice i can.

What's the server model and OS? You should certainly be seeing at least the 2.93Mhz base speed and under load with up to 4 cores the busy cores should ramp up to 3.2Ghz via Turboboost. — Helvick, Oct 24 '09 at 10:58
uname -a : Linux xxxxx.xxxxxx.com 2.6.30.8-64.fc11.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Sep 25 04:43:32 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Brand im unsure, how to check? Its a dedicated server with SoftLayer — sajal, Oct 24 '09 at 11:12
This RedHat article has some good pointers, they may not apply directly to your distro but it should get you started in your discussions with Softlayer. http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-17124 — Helvick, Oct 24 '09 at 11:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 24 '09 at 14:57

1

/proc/cpuinfo isnt your currently cpu usage speed, its you hardware info on cpu.

you have to at least use top to see your current usages.

answered Oct 24 '09 at 14:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 26 '09 at 05:58

1

The powertop utility can display this type of information.

answered Dec 26 '09 at 05:58

ewwhite

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 24 '09 at 14:24

You want to install lm_sensors, cpufrequtils and cpufreqd. Cpufreqd is a daemon that can manage assigning different 'governors', like 'ondemand' or 'conservative.' Cpufrequtils set and get the status of the CPU's. Lm_sensors monitors the cores so you know what's really the impact of the changes. You also might need an appropriate kernel module loaded, like acpi_cpufreq.ko but that's starting to get into a chip/chipset specific settings.

Speedstep and Intel x5570?

3 Answers3