One of my favorite free tools for getting some processor and memory specific information from a Windows computer (whether is is a laptop or a database server), is CPU-Z. It gives you a lot of very useful, accurate information about your processor(s) and memory, including what the current core speed of your processor is (compared to its rated speed). This can help you accurately determine whether your processor cores are being throttled back (to save electrical power usage) with some form of power management, either from the hardware itself or from the operating system.
In Figure 1, you can see my Intel Core i5 650, which is rated at 3.2GHz, is actually running at 3325.5MHz, which indicates that it is running at its full rated speed, plus 125.5MHz more, due to the effect of Intel Turbo Boost.
The latest release, which is version 1.59 of CPU-Z, was released on November 23, 2011.
Figure 1: CPU-Z 1.59
I have been using previous versions of this tool on production systems for many years, and it has never caused a problem for me. I think it is quite safe. If you are worried about using it, then you should not use it.
Filed under: Computer Hardware, Processors Tagged: CPU-Z 
