CPU Showing 2 speeds

[KSchrief]

Hi all.

More of a curiosity question.

I went online to make sure my new build was fast enough to play portal 2, as they released the specs recently.

Good news: It it beyond the minimum specs for it (Yay!)

Confusing news: It says my processor is only 2.1 GHz. I bought an intel i5 with 2.6 GHz. Sometimes it says "Rated at 5.x GHz" when I'm looking up game specs as well.

I've heard how depending on it's load, the software will read different clock speeds from the CPU. But in System properties, Windows tells me this:

"Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80 GHz 2.13 GHz"

I've heard that possibly my motherboard might not be able to read at a fast enough speed, though I saw nothing of the kind when buying my motherboard.

Newegg.com - MSI H55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard (Motherboard)
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80605I5760 (CPU)

Everything's running fine, and it's WAY faster than anything else I've owned. But 2.13 GHz, even on a cheaper MoBo, seems a little ridiculous. Am I reading something wrong?

 

[thefabe]

Just download Cpu-z and keep and eye on it everything wikk be fine. It shows different speeds based on the load.

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
Fabe

 

[Maguscreed]

The board and chip both support power saving modes. The chip will slow down when not under load in some instances.

This is a pain when you are trying to check on things, but be confident the chip will run full blast when needed.

 

[KSchrief]

Cool. That's what I figured, but I wasn't sure, and google searching only seemed to infer that my motherboard was lacking in the speed department.

Thanks!

 

[Maguscreed]

lol never search for stuff about computer speed on the internet, you'll pull up a bunch of people talking about how awesome and fast their system is and how much yours sucks.

...sad truth of the internet, too many repressed 12 year olds.