# Intel Speed Shift Technology Skylake



## Derek12 (Apr 23, 2016)

I am interested in Intel Speed Shift Technology because of improvements in  responsiveness and reducing power comsumption even on desktops, but I can't find anything at Google about how to enable it (all info about it are just 2015 news articles that won't explain how to enable).

Seems that there is no interest in this technology, maybe isn't worth the effort?

Only thing I know is that Hwinfo shows "SST" as disabled. It isn't mentioned at UEFI, only SpeedStep, and it's enabled. 

Any help on how to enable would be grateful.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 23, 2016)

You simply need a skylake processor, and windows 10 build 10586 or better.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-skylake-speed-shift-more-responsive-processors


----------



## Derek12 (Apr 23, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> You simply need a skylake processor, and windows 10 build 10586 or better.
> 
> http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-skylake-speed-shift-more-responsive-processors



Thank you

I currently have a Skylake Processor and using an Insider version of Windows 10 (14316, pending update to 14328)

But Hwinfo still shows it as disabled (red).
Is that a bug of Hwinfo? Is there another way to check it? is it only for mobile? maybe my Pentium G4400 doesn't have it?


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 23, 2016)

Derek12 said:


> Thank you
> 
> I currently have a Skylake Processor and using an Insider version of Windows 10 (14316, pending update to 14328)
> 
> ...



I don't know, just responding with what google told me.  Sorry, hope someone else has an idea.


----------



## silentbogo (Apr 23, 2016)

It's kind of like SpeedStep, but controlled by OS.
It provides some advantages in performance (and only in certain workloads), but not so much in terms of efficiency.


> Delivers dramatically quicker responsiveness with single-threaded, transient (short duration) workloads, such as web browsing, by allowing the processor to more quickly select its best operating frequency and voltage for optimal performance and power effi ciency


SpeedShift is only supported on Skylake CPUs and only on Windows 10.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...t-briefs/6th-gen-core-family-mobile-brief.pdf
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-skylake-speed-shift-more-responsive-processors


----------



## Derek12 (Apr 23, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> I don't know, just responding with what google told me.  Sorry, hope someone else has an idea.



Yeah Google shows 0 information about how to enable or check it, only old news articles explaining what is it, lol, seems that nobody isn't interesting on it.



silentbogo said:


> It's kind of like SpeedStep, but controlled by OS.
> It provides some advantages in performance (and only in certain workloads), but not so much in terms of efficiency.
> 
> SpeedShift is only supported on Skylake CPUs and only on Windows 10.
> ...



Yeah, but my questions are only W10 and Skylake are needed? no driver needed? no BIOS/motheboard/chipset support needed? no setting in Windows 10 to enable or disable? no other way to check it besides Hwinfo? and why Hwinfo show it as disabled?

Only info I find is simply basic info on what does it do, not how to enable or disable it  (for example you can find lots of tutorials for enabling Speed Step/Cool 'n' quiet).


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 23, 2016)

Looks like it is designed for mobile only.


----------



## Derek12 (Apr 23, 2016)

Caring1 said:


> Looks like it is designed for mobile only.



That's what I suspect, however I can't find any info at all if all Skylake CPUs have it or only mobile. Wikipedia and news articles shows it as a generic feature of the Skylake architecture. Intel ARK doesn't specify it on any CPU, be it mobile/desktop/tablet or whatever


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 23, 2016)

All the information I have read is confusing in that it doesn't clearly state what platform it is for.
In general they say Skylake and mention K processors, but then also mention low power M processors and say only on BGA processors with eDram GT4e/ Iris Pro graphics, which is Mobile only AFAIK.
Perhaps they will roll out a patch later for desktop as an E5 XEON release is mentioned for 2017.


----------



## 95Viper (Apr 23, 2016)

It seems to enabled on my desktop, I am on now.  Never even paid attention.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 23, 2016)

I suspect it's a subfeature of speedstep.  Do you have speedstep enabled in bios?


----------



## P4-630 (Apr 23, 2016)

95Viper said:


> It seems to enabled on my desktop, I am on now.  Never even paid attention.
> 
> View attachment 73944



Hmm, it's not enabled by default on my new skylake system I see.





Edit, ok I see it's for windows 10, I'm running windows 8.1


----------



## Derek12 (Apr 23, 2016)

Caring1 said:


> All the information I have read is confusing in that it doesn't clearly state what platform it is for.
> In general they say Skylake and mention K processors, but then also mention low power M processors and say only on BGA processors with eDram GT4e/ Iris Pro graphics, which is Mobile only AFAIK.
> Perhaps they will roll out a patch later for desktop as an E5 XEON release is mentioned for 2017.



Yeash it isn't clear at all. Everything seems to be very nebulous.




95Viper said:


> It seems to enabled on my desktop, I am on now.  Never even paid attention.
> 
> View attachment 73944



Interesting, so at least I know it isn't only for mobile, but there are more variables (UEFI/motherboard/chipset/OS)



R-T-B said:


> I suspect it's a subfeature of speedstep.  Do you have speedstep enabled in bios?



Yes, In fact, SpeedStep is working fine, I can't find any other related option in UEFI




 




P4-630 said:


> Hmm, it's not enabled by default on my new skylake system I see.
> 
> View attachment 73945



Same as me with the latest insider build on fast ring


----------



## 95Viper (Apr 23, 2016)

P4-630 said:


> Hmm, it's not enabled by default on my new skylake system I see.



I believe you need to be on build 10586... don't quote me on that.


----------



## cadaveca (Apr 23, 2016)

Derek12 said:


> Yeash it isn't clear at all. Everything seems to be very nebulous.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



"AUTO" in ASUS BOISes doesn't mean enabled for low power states, especially if you have an overclock. I am running ASUS Z170 DELUXE (non-UEFI install), and it is not enabled on my system either, but it is enabled on a Skylake-based NUC(UEFI Install) I have. I suspect that you need to have ALL power features enabled, the proper BIOS settings/BIOS build, and the right OS build only, and it should work. I have an ES CPU supplied to me by a board maker; I did not get samples direct from Intel, so I did not get all of the media information about Skylake from them, otherwise I'd pour over that and see what I can find. I suspect tht as mentioned, this is more about mobile chipsets as previously mentioned, but there is also no reason why it wouldn't work on a desktop. What's even more interesting is that the NUC that I have tends to be a bit more responsive in the OS and boots in 1/3 the time that my desktop Skylake PCs do. I'll have to chec kmy MSI Nightblade to see if its enabled too.


Thanks very much for drawing this to our attention, BTW.


----------



## IamEzio (Apr 23, 2016)

I have tested an MSI GS60 Ghost Pro with the 6700HQ some time ago and it wasn't enabled there either. (It was on the November W10 build so it should've worked)


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 24, 2016)

It's working on my system.  I'm not enrolled in Microsoft Insider:





Maybe it is Core i7 and build 10586 are required?  Can someone with a Core i5 and build 10586 check?

I really didn't change anything in BIOS nor OS as far as power is concerned.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 24, 2016)

I shut all the power saving options off but I'm kinda OCD about that since the X58 days.  I probably should stop worrying about clock scaling now.


----------



## Caring1 (Apr 24, 2016)

FordGT90Concept said:


> It's working on my system.
> 
> Maybe it is Core i7 and build 10586 are required?  Can someone with a Core i5 and build 10586 check?


That's similar to what I was thinking, the OP has a Pentium, so may not have all the features of the Core i series.


----------



## Grings (Apr 24, 2016)

W10 10586.218 here and its not on, Asus board too (M8 Ranger)


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 24, 2016)

Asus BIOS maybe don't support it where MSI and Dell do.


----------



## OneMoar (Apr 24, 2016)

With Skylake, Intel's newest 6th generation Core processors, this changes. The processor has been designed in a way that with the right commands, the OS can hand control of the frequency and voltage back to the processor. Intel is calling this technology 'Speed Shift'. We’ve discussed Speed Shift before in Ian’s Skylake architecture analysis, but despite the in-depth talk from Intel, Speed Shift was noticably absent at the time of the launch of the processors. This is due to one of the requirements for Speed Shift - it requires operating system support to be able to hand over control of the processor performance to the CPU, and Intel had to work with Microsoft in order to get this functionality enabled in Windows 10. As of right now, anyone with a Skylake processor is actually not getting the benefit of the technology, at least right now. A patch will be rolled out in November for Windows 10 which will enable this functionality, but it is worth noting that it will take a while for it to roll out to new Windows 10 purchases.

Compared to Speed Step / P-state transitions, Intel's new Speed Shift terminology, changes the game by having the operating system relinquish some or all control of the P-States, and handing that control off to the processor. This has a couple of noticable benefits. First, it is much faster for the processor to control the ramp up and down in frequency, compared to OS control. Second, the processor has much finer control over its states, allowing it to choose the most optimum performance level for a given task, and therefore using less energy as a result. Specific jumps in frequency are reduced to around 1ms with Speed Shift's CPU control from 20-30 ms on OS control, and going from an efficient power state to maximum performance can be done in around 35 ms, compared to around 100 ms with the legacy implementation. As seen in the images below, neither technology can jump from low to high instantly, because to maintain data coherency through frequency/voltage changes there is an element of gradient as data is realigned


----------



## RejZoR (Apr 24, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> I shut all the power saving options off but I'm kinda OCD about that since the X58 days.  I probably should stop worrying about clock scaling now.



If you're overclocking using multiplier, there is no point in disabling the power saving features. You only had to do this when overclocking FSB or BCLK because power saving then also affected stability when not under load. But with multiplier OC, as far as CPU is concerned, it works the same as at stock speeds, it's just that it clocks a lot higher. At which point, it turns off power saving features by itself anyway. That's why I love my 5820K so much more compared to Core i7 920. Because it's so easy to overclock while still using all the power saving when not under load. It's brilliant. I'm assuming 6700K, since it's unlocked can also be overclocked with BCLK or multiplier, right? I'd certainly pick multiplier any time despite BCLK being the selling point for these. I doubt it makes that big of a difference in performance between both.


----------



## R-T-B (Apr 24, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> If you're overclocking using multiplier, there is no point in disabling the power saving features. You only had to do this when overclocking FSB or BCLK because power saving then also affected stability when not under load. But with multiplier OC, as far as CPU is concerned, it works the same as at stock speeds, it's just that it clocks a lot higher. At which point, it turns off power saving features by itself anyway. That's why I love my 5820K so much more compared to Core i7 920. Because it's so easy to overclock while still using all the power saving when not under load. It's brilliant. I'm assuming 6700K, since it's unlocked can also be overclocked with BCLK or multiplier, right? I'd certainly pick multiplier any time despite BCLK being the selling point for these. I doubt it makes that big of a difference in performance between both.



I know you're right, but yeah I'm currently using a BCLK overclock.  Thinking of going all mult and getting that power saving this week though.


----------



## RejZoR (Apr 24, 2016)

Plus, if you use adaptive voltage, it will behave identical to stock CPU in idle. But when it ramps up the clock, it also kicks up the voltages to user set ones. Meaning you get best of both worlds. Low consumption when on desktop and high performance under load. I don't think BCLK gives any significant gains as it also overdrives other subsystems. At least not big enough to justify running the CPU at full tilt all the time opposed to smart power delivery.


----------



## unclewebb (Oct 18, 2016)

Just to clear up some information in this old thread, Speed Shift is a feature of Intel Skylake CPUs, mobile and desktop.  It was originally only going to be available in Windows 10, 10586 or newer but because Speed Shift is a feature of the CPU, it can be enabled in any version of Windows.  You could also enable Speed Shift in Linux by changing MSR 0x770 from 0 to 1.  The easy way to do this in Windows is to download the latest version of ThrottleStop from TechPowerUp, click on the TPL button, check the Speed Shift option and hit Apply or OK.  Once enabled within the processor, you can exit ThrottleStop and Speed Shift will remain enabled until you use Sleep, Hibernate or reboot.

ThrottleStop also lets you access the Speed Shift - Energy Performance Preference (EPP) setting.  This can be adjusted from 0 to 255 which gives a user full control of their CPU so they can switch between full performance or maximum energy savings or anywhere in between.  

If you are the type of person that always runs their CPU at maximum MHz then Speed Shift is not for you.  If you usually use the Windows Balanced power profile then you should consider turning on Speed Shift instead.  Compared to the Windows Balanced profile, Speed Shift does a better job managing the CPU and it will increase off idle performance.


----------



## P4-630 (Oct 18, 2016)

unclewebb said:


> Just to clear up some information in this old thread, Speed Shift is a feature of Intel Skylake CPUs, mobile and desktop.  It was originally only going to be available in Windows 10, 10586 or newer but because Speed Shift is a feature of the CPU, it can be enabled in any version of Windows.  You could also enable Speed Shift in Linux by changing MSR 0x770 from 0 to 1.  The easy way to do this in Windows is to download the latest version of ThrottleStop from TechPowerUp, click on the TPL button, check the Speed Shift option and hit Apply or OK.  Once enabled within the processor, you can exit ThrottleStop and Speed Shift will remain enabled until you use Sleep, Hibernate or reboot.
> 
> ThrottleStop also lets you access the Speed Shift - Energy Performance Preference (EPP) setting.  This can be adjusted from 0 to 255 which gives a user full control of their CPU so they can switch between full performance or maximum energy savings or anywhere in between.
> 
> If you are the type of person that always runs their CPU at maximum MHz then Speed Shift is not for you.  If you usually use the Windows Balanced power profile then you should consider turning on Speed Shift instead.  Compared to the Windows Balanced profile, Speed Shift does a better job managing the CPU and it will increase off idle performance.



Thats a nice feature, I have my power profile on balanced usually, didn't know how to turn Speed Shift on at first but after reading this post I got it working! 
Thanks @unclewebb !


----------



## mtrai (Oct 31, 2016)

unclewebb said:


> Just to clear up some information in this old thread, Speed Shift is a feature of Intel Skylake CPUs, mobile and desktop.  It was originally only going to be available in Windows 10, 10586 or newer but because Speed Shift is a feature of the CPU, it can be enabled in any version of Windows.  You could also enable Speed Shift in Linux by changing MSR 0x770 from 0 to 1.  The easy way to do this in Windows is to download the latest version of ThrottleStop from TechPowerUp, click on the TPL button, check the Speed Shift option and hit Apply or OK.  Once enabled within the processor, you can exit ThrottleStop and Speed Shift will remain enabled until you use Sleep, Hibernate or reboot.
> 
> ThrottleStop also lets you access the Speed Shift - Energy Performance Preference (EPP) setting.  This can be adjusted from 0 to 255 which gives a user full control of their CPU so they can switch between full performance or maximum energy savings or anywhere in between.
> 
> If you are the type of person that always runs their CPU at maximum MHz then Speed Shift is not for you.  If you usually use the Windows Balanced power profile then you should consider turning on Speed Shift instead.  Compared to the Windows Balanced profile, Speed Shift does a better job managing the CPU and it will increase off idle performance.




Woot glad I ran across this.  This has been nagging at me for about a year now.  I am a bit confused as I mainly run in Windows Balance...you suggested turning on Speed Shift instead....what exactly are you meaning...I enabled speed shift but is there another step I need to do?

Thanks


----------



## P4-630 (Oct 31, 2016)

mtrai said:


> Woot glad I ran across this.  This has been nagging at me for about a year now.  I am a bit confused as I mainly run in Windows Balance...you suggested turning on Speed Shift instead....what exactly are you meaning...I enabled speed shift but is there another step I need to do?
> 
> Thanks



You just need a Skylake CPU and ThrottleStop, once turned on speed shift you can exit the software as unclewebb said above.


----------



## mtrai (Oct 31, 2016)

P4-630 said:


> You just need a Skylake CPU and ThrottleStop, once turned on speed shift you can exit the software as unclewebb said above.


That is what I thought...but wanted to make sure since I just enabled it, the way I was reading it was it was done once enabled or use it instead of windows balanced power plan.


----------

