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.

Answer 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.

Answer 2

The powertop utility can display this type of information.

Answer 3

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.