Dynamic Frequency Scaling - Performance Impact

Performance Impact

Dynamic frequency scaling reduces the number of instructions a processor can issue in a given amount of time, thus reducing performance. Hence, it is generally used when the workload is not CPU-bound.

Dynamic frequency scaling by itself is rarely worthwhile as a way to conserve switching power. Saving the most power requires dynamic voltage scaling too, because of the V2 component and the fact that modern CPUs are strongly optimized for low power idle states. In most constant-voltage cases it is more efficient to run briefly at peak speed and stay in a deep idle state for longer (called "race to idle"), than it is to run at a reduced clock rate for a long time and only stay briefly in a light idle state. However, reducing voltage along with clock rate can change those tradeoffs.

A related-but-opposite technique is overclocking, whereby processor performance is increased by ramping the processor's (dynamic) frequency beyond the manufacturer's design specifications.

One major difference between the two is that in modern PC systems overclocking is mostly done over the Front Side Bus (mainly because the multiplier is normally locked), but dynamic frequency scaling is done with the multiplier. Moreover, overclocking is often static, while dynamic frequency scaling is always dynamic. Software can often incorporate overclocked frequencies into the frequency scaling algorithm, if the chip degradation risks are allowable.