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· 3 min read
Hreniuc Cristian-Alexandru

Boost your CPU performance by changing the CPU governor.

List all options available of the cpupower:

$ cpupower

# Example output:
Usage: cpupower [-d|--debug] [-c|--cpu cpulist ] <command> [<args>]
Supported commands are:
frequency-info
frequency-set
idle-info
idle-set
set
info
monitor
help

Not all commands can make use of the -c cpulist option.

Use 'cpupower help <command>' for getting help for above commands.

See the curent governor:

# For one CPU(Core)
$ cpupower frequency-info
# Example output
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 4.50 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 4.50 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: 1.87 GHz (asserted by call to hardware)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes


# For all cores
$ cpupower -c all frequency-info

Get table with all frequencies for each core:

$ cpupower monitor

# Example output:

|Nehalem || Mperf || Idle_Stats
CPU | C3 | C6 | PC3 | PC6 || C0 | Cx | Freq || POLL | C1-S | C1E- | C3-S | C6-S | C7s- | C8-S | C9-S | C10-
0| 4.89| 7.70| 0.00| 0.00|| 23.03| 76.97| 915|| 0.03| 17.99| 40.21| 8.74| 11.80| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
6| 4.89| 7.70| 0.00| 0.00|| 11.26| 88.74| 929|| 0.01| 2.11| 17.31| 10.02| 59.94| 0.00| 0.35| 0.00| 0.00
1| 5.58| 6.59| 0.00| 0.00|| 25.42| 74.58| 916|| 0.04| 17.29| 36.64| 10.60| 11.77| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
7| 5.58| 6.59| 0.00| 0.00|| 14.18| 85.82| 949|| 0.01| 2.69| 18.36| 11.53| 53.34| 0.00| 0.91| 0.00| 0.00
2| 5.11| 7.93| 0.00| 0.00|| 23.03| 76.97| 919|| 0.05| 18.25| 37.32| 9.48| 13.66| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
8| 5.11| 7.93| 0.00| 0.00|| 12.20| 87.80| 914|| 0.01| 2.88| 19.60| 10.31| 55.49| 0.00| 0.56| 0.00| 0.00
3| 5.70| 8.69| 0.00| 0.00|| 24.53| 75.47| 921|| 0.04| 16.46| 34.43| 10.49| 15.76| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
9| 5.70| 8.69| 0.00| 0.00|| 13.63| 86.37| 913|| 0.00| 5.32| 22.42| 9.91| 50.01| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
4| 6.48| 9.17| 0.00| 0.00|| 24.33| 75.67| 922|| 0.05| 17.97| 35.34| 10.25| 13.92| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
10| 6.48| 9.17| 0.00| 0.00|| 10.87| 89.13| 925|| 0.00| 1.55| 15.92| 8.78| 62.75| 0.00| 1.00| 0.13| 0.00
5| 5.84| 9.83| 0.00| 0.00|| 23.58| 76.42| 915|| 0.03| 16.77| 37.21| 10.00| 14.15| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00| 0.00
11| 5.84| 9.83| 0.00| 0.00|| 10.60| 89.40| 916|| 0.00| 2.14| 16.65| 8.55| 62.33| 0.00| 0.71| 0.00| 0.00

Set a specific governor:

Not you can one set a supported governor, run cpupower frequency-info and check this line: available cpufreq governors: performance powersave

$ cpupower frequency-set -g performance

Check if the governor was successfully changed:

$ cpupower -c all frequency-info

# Example output:
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 4.50 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 4.50 GHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: 4.20 GHz (asserted by call to hardware)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes