Cool'n'Quiet affecting performance?

Question

Hello,
I noted something in my K9A2 Platinum and AMD Phenom 9950.
First of all I had it oced to 2.7 (x13.5) and Cool'n'Quiet enabled.
Well, due to a bug in Everest 5.02 sensor driver, I can't read correctly the CPU clock because this program show even speed like 700 MHz when I'm doing heavy task. As I thought it was impossible, I ran CPU-Z and this showed the correct values (1300 MHz when idle and 2700 when doing heavy tasks).
The issue is the following: Today I was converting an .avi video to DVD using a program that is optimized to use only two cores. The strange thing I noted is that processor was at 1300 MHz and only few times it changed to 2700 MHz. However voltage was at 1.3 all the time until conversion finished. Of course that if I disable CnQ or I choose another energy plan, speed is 2700 even when idle.
This program (ConvertxtoDVD) used about 50% of my processor.
Does CnQ affect performance? I thought that a conversion like that is a heavy task and it can benefit from 2700 MHz instead 1300 MHz, or CnQ is smart enough to know when an app. benefit or not from a higher speed?
Thanks!
I want to say than one of the better thing of MSI is its forum 

Answer 1

Thanks for the suggestion.
Based on the results I can confirm that CnQ affect performance, quite disappointing. I don't know the difference between the CnQ of Athlon 64 X2 vs. Phenom, but in Athlon the processor change speed to its maximum  immediately when I started doing heavy tasks instead of Phenom changing its speed to max only when 4 cores are being used and only some times when using less than 4 cores.
Here're results:
With CnQ ENABLED:
CPU Score   3347
CPU1 - Red Valley   1,160 FPS      CPU Tests
CPU2 - Red Valley   1,545 FPS      CPU Tests
With CnQ DISABLED:
CPU Score   3622
CPU1 - Red Valley   1,209 FPS      CPU Tests
CPU2 - Red Valley   1,737 FPS      CPU Tests
What do you think? Is a mobo, CPU problem or a performance hit like this is normal?
Quote from: Aramus8 on 14-July-09, 05:55:06
On some programs you will get a performance hit with Cool & Quiet enabled.  Run 3DMark06 with it on and then with it off and you will see the performance hit.  Most programs you will never notice.