novabench slowdowns - why?

[nedjinski]

I have a laptop - a Dell XPS M170 2GB ram 80 GB HD.

I tried Novabench to see how the system was performing as compared to similar machines.

Here's the odd thing I need help with understanding.

If I boot the machine up, let it settle, and then run Novabench I get a score of around 210.

If I then run Novabench again the score goes down to 150.

If I run it again the score may go up to 170 or so but not much higher.

If I reboot the machine and run Novabench again the first score will be up around 210 again and then drop as before.

What's happening here? and why does it do this?

[Darthtanion]

Laptops often slow the processor down to save power. This energy saving feature will usually stay engaged until there is a full blown need for the extra horsepower, like 3D agming or heavy database type tasks that really need to make use of the added processor speed. Also of note is that these laptops will generally run at full speed after bootup to allow the system to get all the background apps running as quickly as possible.

[nedjinski]

so I guess my question is then - can I get the laptop to run at full speed all the time if I wanted it to?

[Darthtanion]

Don't know for certain, take a look in your control panel to see if there is an option. Of course, you probably wouldn't want it to run at full speed at all times when on battery power anyway.