Processor faster than shown?

I did a test on http://www.systemrequirementslab.com to see if my pc can play a certain game and under the processor part it said that my processor is a Pentium 4 1.7ghz (which it is) and the speed is equivalent to 2.46ghz. O_o How is that possible? Is it true?

You can safely overclock a processor for a decent Ghz boost without risking a severe overheat, but I don't know about that much. Normally this is only like a 10% boost that's safe.

It's possible you just have very efficient drivers or something.

Ohhh, i see. Thanks

Overclocking Is done in CMOS and has nothing to do with Windows/linux/whatever based drivers, It's more knowing it's limits and your cooling system.

They were two separate statements.

I have that too, My processor is a pentium 4 3.00ghz and showns as 4.49ghz.
I think this has to do with the drivers, not sure

after intel practically screwed itself after their "only clock speed = peformance", i wouldn't be surprised if your processor was more efficient than intel's normally were at that time... though i think they only thought about efficiency after the P4

if this is a laptop, it's quite possible that your processor IS 2.46GHz but downclocks to 1.7 when it doesn't need to be doing anything intensive (and/or if it's running on the battery)

or SRL could be wrong

this depends a lot on a ton of factors; some processors can't be overclocked at all (or limited to, as you said, 10% at most which isn't that impressive). others, like the q6600, can usually get 30-40% (if not higher) overclocks on air alone (most processors can't even be overclocked that much, and if they could, liquid cooling would be a requirement if it was even sufficient for said processor)... even then the temperature inside your case is one of many OTHER factors that decides how effective your cooling system is

This post has been edited by Xgoff on Aug 1 2008, 11:09 AM