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October 24th, 2019 06:00

R320 E5-2470 Not Turbo Boosting Fully

I noticed that the 2470 is only boosting to 2.8 instead of the 3.1 its supposed to. I changed some setting in the bios to max performance but didn't change anything but the power usage

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6.2K Posts

October 24th, 2019 10:00

Hello

I would suspect a power or thermal limitation. The system will limit performance based on available power and temperature management. If the temperature probes are not near any thresholds then I would remove hardware to see if that changes the maximum turbo.

I don't think Dell Processor Acceleration Technology is a feature in the R320. If it is a supported feature in the system then make sure it is turned off.

Thanks

November 11th, 2020 10:00

I have a T420 (dual e5-2450v2's) with the same issue.  They'll turbo to 2.9 but not the rated 3.33. I've tried everything under the sun. 

I also have a T320 that does NOT have that issue.  Difference is the T320 is on older firmware and Server 2012R2, earlier BMC firmware, BIOS etc.  That one is coming out of production soon and I am going to test it.

There was so much stink about the fan noise on these things a few years back that Dell re-did some of the firmware and this t420 box with new firmware is WHISPER quiet.    It's actually DIFFICULT to get the fans spinning - PRIME95 has to run for 15 minutes and then there's only a 200rpm ramp up which drops the temp from 74 down to 68 or so.  

i think the 'power limit' thing is exaggerated by a lot of folks.  There are dual 750w supplies in this thing and it only pulls 130w at idle. I've got more power overhead than i'll EVER need.  even with one PSU.  i've ever exceeded 280watts at full tilt.

i think they went in and worked on the FANS in these past few years and (understandably) didn't bother with adjusting the power and turbo settings on a platform this old.  Honestly, i don't blame em!

December 25th, 2020 11:00

What version of BIOS on the T320 does turbo boost properly?

Thanks in advance!

@UrbyTuesday 

6 Operator

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2.9K Posts

December 25th, 2020 11:00

The recommended BIOS version is 2.9.0. If you wanted to engage this user for their specific experience, that's obviously OK, too. If you're experiencing a technical issue, I would request you create a new thread to include the issue and any troubleshooting you've already done.

December 25th, 2020 16:00

I do have BIOS 2.9.0, and it does appear that turbo boost is funtioning as it should. Task Manager doesn't properly report the clock speed in Server 2012 R2, but HWMonitor does.

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21K Points

December 27th, 2020 18:00

Hi,

 

May I know if on Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V is enabled? Do you have iDRAC access to the server? 

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2.9K Posts

January 5th, 2021 07:00

There's not a tool we could recommend as being better than another. I do know that SolarWinds has a fair number of hardware management software. You might see if they have an offering that offers live proc speed monitoring. Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe we have a tool that offers this. You can certainly see what the processor is in OMSA, but no details passed that.

January 5th, 2021 07:00

Yes, Hyper-V is enabled. I don't think this server has the iDRAC add-on card, I do have local access to the machine to make any changes or check settings if required.

Now that I'm running a heavier workload I'm only seeing all cores running up to 2.3GHz, where with lighter tasks I did occasionally see up to 2.8GHz on a single core. Is there a better tool than HWMonitor for checking core clock speeds to verify that what I'm observing is accurate?

January 6th, 2021 16:00

Is there a way I can attach a screenshot? Are there any BIOS settings I should check that might cause the processor not to turbo? I'm seeing a package power of about 60W, temps of 65 c or less, and clocks at 2297MHz max.

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5.4K Posts

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37 Points

January 6th, 2021 18:00

Hi, to attach a screenshot, when you make a post or a reply, you should easily see a camera shaped button.
I did some research online and this link might help:
https://dell.to/2JRBfqR (from the best answers)
"After going deep in some research, I finally was able to find the problem. I rebooted the server, gone to BIOS settings and then to "System Profile". There I selected the "OS Performance per Watt" option and rebooted the server again." 
Thanks for choosing Dell PowerEdge, we wish you a Happy New Year.

January 28th, 2021 12:00

Thanks for the reply! I'll double check that setting next time I can reboot, hopefully it's not already set to OS Performance Per Watt, though I think I may have already set that in a previous round of troubleshooting. In the meantime, I have found that ThrottleStop allows the CPU to boost to it's rated 2.8GHz on all cores, so I suspect that you are correct in suggesting it is some kind of firmware power / performance related setting. Happy New Year!
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