CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#intel
CXL
CXL

Reputation: 1112

C#: how to obtain the current clock speed of an Intel i-series CPU when TurboBoost is activated

I know that it's possible to get this information - Intel's own TurboBoost sidebar gadget appears to use an ActiveX control to determine the current clock speed of an i3/i5/i7 CPU when TurboBoost is active. However, I'm wanting to do this programmatically in C# - obtaining the CurrentClockSpeed value from WMI tops out at the set maximum clock speed of the CPU, so in TurboBoost mode, it doesn't report the current actual clock speed.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 2710

Answers (2)

RooiWillie
RooiWillie

Reputation: 2228

If you want to get the turbo speed, you can make use of the "% Processor Performance" performance counter and multiply it with the WMI "MaxClockSpeed" as follows:

private string GetCPUInfo()
{
  PerformanceCounter cpuCounter = new PerformanceCounter("Processor Information", "% Processor Performance", "_Total");
  double cpuValue = cpuCounter.NextValue();

  Thread loop = new Thread(() => InfiniteLoop());
  loop.Start();

  Thread.Sleep(1000);
  cpuValue = cpuCounter.NextValue();
  loop.Abort();

  foreach (ManagementObject obj in new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT *, Name FROM Win32_Processor").Get())
  {
    double maxSpeed = Convert.ToDouble(obj["MaxClockSpeed"]) / 1000;
    double turboSpeed = maxSpeed * cpuValue / 100;
    return string.Format("{0} Running at {1:0.00}Ghz, Turbo Speed: {2:0.00}Ghz",  obj["Name"], maxSpeed, turboSpeed);
  }

  return string.Empty;
}

The InfiniteLoop method is simply an integer that gets 1 added and subtracted:

private void InfiniteLoop()
{
  int i = 0;

  while (true)
    i = i + 1 - 1;
}

The InfiniteLoop method is just added to give the CPU something to do and turbo in the process. The loop is allowed to run for a second before the next value is taken and the loop aborted.

I also posted this answer on this question.

Upvotes: 2

tgiphil
tgiphil

Reputation: 1252

I do not believe it's possible to obtain this information with only safe/managed C# code, since WMI does not seem to supply this information. So i think you will need to use the CPUID instruction to get detailed information from the CPU that executes the instruction.

This documentation from Intel might help get you started:

http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/appnote/241618.pdf

And here's some unsafe code to use with C#:

An attempt to bring CPUID to C#

Also see page 7 of:

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology in Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture (Nehalem) Based Processors

Upvotes: 2

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