CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Home / Software / CPU-Z

CPU-Z

• 1. What is CPU-Z
• 2. Screen images
• 3. Install & configuration
• 4. FAQ
• 5. Validation
• 6. Reviews
• 7. Hardware supported
• 8. Version history

What is CPU-Z

CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.

CPU

• Name and number.
• Core stepping and process.
• Package.
• Core voltage.
• Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
• Supported instruction sets.
• Cache information.

Mainboard

• Vendor, model and revision.
• BIOS model and date.
• Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
• Graphic interface.

Memory

• Frequency and timings.
• Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System

• Windows and DirectX version.

The CPU-Z's detection engine is now available for customized use through the CPUID System Information Development Kit, a professional SDK built for the Microsoft Windows operating systems.

^ back on top ^

Screen images

^ back on top ^

Install & configuration

Install and Remove
Since version 1.51, CPU-Z includes an installer. The installation offers several advantages in comparison to the stand-alone version :

• The installation creates program entries in the start menu and on the desktop.
• The kernel mode driver used by CPU-Z is installed on the system, that avoids to install / remove it at every run. That makes the process more stable and slightly faster.

Installation
Run the setup executable file, and let it guide you for the installation process.

Removal
You can remove the program either from the Add or Remove Programs window (from Settings, Control Panel), or choose Uninstall CPU-Z from Start menu, Programs, CPUID, CPU-Z.

Configuration file
CPU-Z uses a configuration file, cpuz.ini, that allows to set several parameters for the program. The cpuz.ini file must be in the same directory as cpuz.exe. It looks like this :

[CPU-Z]
TextFontName=Verdana
TextFontSize=13
TextFontColor=000060
LabelFontName=Verdana
LabelFontSize=13
PCI=1
MaxPCIBus=256
DMI=1
Sensor=1
SMBus=1
Display=1
ShowDutyCycles=0


TextFontName	Font used for the information boxes.
TextFontSize	Size of the font used for the information boxes.
TextFontColor	Color of the font used for the information boxes. Value is expressed in hexadecimal, and consists in a classic Red/Green/Blue color code : RRGGBB
LabelFontName	Font used for the label boxes.
LabelFontSize	Size of the font used for the label boxes.
Sensor	Set to OFF (or 0) disables sensor chip detection and voltages measurement.
DMI	Set to OFF disables the DMI (Desktop Management Interface) information. This concerns BIOS vendor and version, motherboard vendor and revision.
PCI	Set to OFF disables the PCI information. This disables chipset, SPD and, depending on the hardware, sensoring information.
MaxPCIBus	Sets the maximum PCI bus to scan. Default value is 256.
SMBus	Set to OFF (or 0) disables SMBus information : SPD, and, depending on the hardware, sensoring information.
Display	Set to OFF (or 0) disables the video card information reported in the validator.
ShowDutyCycles	Set to 1, switches the alternate clock computation method based on duty cycles. 0 to disable.

Set to 1, uses the display driver to read the display adapters information. 0 to dosable.

Parameters

-txt=report	Launch CPU-Z in ghost mode : no interface appears, the register dump (report.txt) is automatically created. Example: cpuz.exe -txt=c:\mydirectory\mysystem: runs CPU-Z in ghost mode. Report file mysystem.txt is automatically generated in directory c:\mydirectory.
-html=report	Same as "-txt" but generates the html report file.
-core=id	Displays clock speed of core #id (id can be set from 0 to "Number of cores minus one"). It is then possible to check the speed of each core by running as many instances of CPU-Z as necessary, using batch files for example: cpuz0.bat: cpuz.exe -core=0 cpuz1.bat: cpuz.exe -core=1 Note that the current core can be dynamically selected by right-clicking in the CPU page, and select the target core. This feature is available from version 1.42.
-console	Generates output in a command prompt (Windows XP only).

Special Keys
The F5 key allows to save a screenshot as a bmp file in the application directory. These are named cpu.bmp, cache.bmp, mainboard.bmp and memory.bmp.
The F6 key copies the current page in the clipboard.
The F7 key saves the validation cvf file in the current directory.
The F9 key switches between CPU clock computation methods.

Cache Latency Computation
The cache latency computation tool allows to gather information about the cache hierarchy of the system. For each cache level, it provides its size and its latency. Please note that code caches are not reported.

The latency tool can be downloaded here.

^ back on top ^

FAQ

1

CPU-Z reports my CPU running below its clock specification or the clock speed is varying.
This is the effect of the CPU power reduction mechanism : C1E (Enhanced Halt State) and/or EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) for Intel CPUs, Cool'n'Quiet and or PowerNow! for AMD CPUs. Load your system and you will see the frequency increase to its nominal value.

2

CPU-Z reports a wrong CPU vcore.
Please download HWMonitor then save monitoring data (menu file -> save monitoring data) and send back the file to that e-mail address.

3

CPU-Z causes a general protection fault, or freezes my system, or causes a blue screen.
edit cpuz.ini, and replace:
DMI=1
Sensor=1
SMBus=1
Display=1
UseDisplayAPI=1

with:

DMI=0
Sensor=0
SMBus=0
Display=0
UseDisplayAPI=0

Then run cpu-z again. If it works, restore the "1" one by one, until the problem occurs again. Then send an email and mentioning which "1" is responsible.

4

Why does CPU-Z misreport my memory module specification ? For example, my DDR2-800 is reported as DDR2-667.
The memory theorical bandwidth is computed using the module access time information for the maximal CAS# latency value, included in the SPD area. If the computed bandwidth is lower than the one specified on the memory module, that means that the SPD information on the module is not correctly programmed, or most likely that the bandwidth is not given at the default memory voltage, but at a voltage defined in an extended profile (EPP or XMP).

^ back on top ^

Validation

The validation process allows to record your CPU-Z results within a database. This results in several statistics : the overclock records (CPU, memory, FSB ...), the most popular models for CPU, mainboards, chipsets, memory.

Manual validation
CPU-Z allows to save your configuration files (.cvf) on your hard drive. You can then submit them at http://valid.canardpc.com. If you enter a email address, you will be sent a notification with the entry ID.

Automatic validation
This method requires a connection to internet. The information are directly sent to our server, and your validation page opens in your favorite browser. If you enter a email address, you will be sent a notification with the entry ID.

Note: Email address is optional. If you submit it, you will receive an email with your ID, and nothing more. The CPU-Z page with your ID will *NOT* show your email by default.

In case of problem, please send us an email with a short description of the issue. Please note that no cvf generated with an old version of CPU-Z will be added.

^ back on top ^

Reviews

^ back on top ^