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As a Windows Vista user, you must have come across the term ‘Maximum Frequency’ in the Resource Monitor. 

Where exactly is this located? In the Windows Resource Monitor’s CPU tab, you will notice a graph (and a status box) which is right next to the ‘CPU Usage’ values, labelled as ‘Maximum Frequency’?

What does ‘Maximum Frequency’ in Resource Monitor mean?

Maximum Frequency denotes your total maximum of your processor’s normal speed. 

If you have speed step, power saving, and other features that affect the processor’s normal speed disabled, then the Maximum Frequency of the Response Monitor for your Windows Vista is always 100%.

In other words, Maximum Frequency is equivalent to Processor Performance\% of Maximum Frequency counter in Performance Monitor.

Here’s an example: If your 2.5 ghz processor is running at 800 mhz, then, according to the formula above, your Maximum Frequency would be 31%. This means that the processor is running at 31% of the processor’s maximum frequency of 2.5 ghz.

Now, Maximum Frequency of the Response Monitor fluctuates, upon performing certain actions on your system. For example, if Power Saver is turned on, it will underclock the CPU in comparison to the stock speed. In this case, the Maximum Frequency will report a lower percentage.

Similarly, if turbo boost is enabled on your system, the Maximum Frequency on your Response Monitor will report a higher percentage. 

How is Maximum Frequency related to the processor’s clock speed?

Initially, when you look at it, you’ll be able to infer that Maximum Frequency is loosely related to what frequency the CPU is running at. Now, if Maximum Frequency is related to the frequency the CPU is running at, this could collectively mean that Maximum Frequency denotes the “percent of maximum possible frequency the CPU is running at”

Now, if you switch your Windows system into Power Saving Mode, the Maximum Frequency will lower down to a value of about 60% while setting your system to High Performance increases the Maximum Frequency value to around 110%.

Although the percentage does not completely correlate to the CPU Speed being shown, it is a value based on how your CPU is clocked – BIOS wise or another way.

How to Add the Maximum Processor Frequency option in Windows 10?

Below, we have discussed how you can add Maximum Processor Frequency in Windows 10:

Method 1 using Command Prompt

1. Press Windows Key + R, enter  “cmd” and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Now a new elevated Command Prompt will be opened, and grant administrative privileges to the new Command Prompt by clicking on Yes in the UAC (User Account Control) Prompt.
2. Enter “powercfg -attributes SUB_PROCESSOR 75b0ae3f-bce0-45a7-8c89-c9611c25e100 -ATTRIB_HIDE” command in the new Command Prompt and press Enter. 
3. Now you need to restart your computer.
4. Open the Run dialogue, to do so Press Windows Key + R. Type “powercfg.cpl” in the empty box and press Enter.
5. In the Power Option menu, click on Change Advanced power settings.
6. Scroll down and go to Maximum Processor Frequency, and modify the values.
7. Restart your computer once you have successfully modified the values.

Method 2 using Registry Editor

1. Press Windows Key + Run, type “regedit” in the empty box and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Grant the administrative privileges when prompted by the UAC (User Account Control).
2. Go to the navigation bar and paste “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\75b0ae3f-bce0-45a7-8c89-c9611c25e100”.
3. Double click on Attributes on your right-hand plane. Change the values in Attributes to 2 in order to enable the Maximum Processor Frequency menu.

How to change the Maximum Processor Frequency on Windows 10?

Okay, so far, you have learnt adding Maximum Processor Frequency to your Windows 10. Now, we shall discuss changing the Maximum Processor Frequency in Windows 10.

Method 1 using the Power Option menu

1. Make sure that you have already enabled the Maximum Processor Frequency menu. In case you haven’t followed any of the methods above to enable.
2. Press Windows Key + Run, type “powercfg.cpl” in the Run dialog box, and press Enter.
3. In the Power Option menu, click on Change plan settings, and then click on Change Advanced Power settings in the Plan Settings.
4. Now just scroll down, and click on Processor Power Management.
5. From the Processor Power Management drop-down menu, click on + icon beside the Maximum Processor Frequency.
6. Modify the values of both On Battery and Plugged in according to the capabilities of the CPU, then click on Apply to save the changes.
7. Restart your computer.

Method 2 using the Command Prompt

1. Press Windows key + R, type in “cmd” and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
2. Type “powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 75b0ae3f-bce0-45a7-8c89-c9611c25e100 <MHz>” command in the elevated command prompt to modify the default values of Maximum Processor Frequency (On Battery). P.S. Don’t forget to replace <MHz> in the command with the custom frequency you want to use.
3. Type “powercfg -setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 75b0ae3f-bce0-45a7-8c89-c9611c25e100 <MHz>” for the plugged in values. Replace <MHz> with the custom frequency like you did in step 2.
4. Restart your computer, once the values have been changed.

FAQs

In the Resource Monitor of Windows 7, what does the “disk queue length” really mean?

For any given disk, if there is a queue of pending operations, the disk queue length will denote the length of the queue in terms of I/O operations.

In simpler terms, the disk queue length in the Response Monitor is the number of requests that have stacked up, waiting for the disk drive to attend to these requests.

For example, if your disk can process one task in a given second, but gets 7 other requests for processing in that span, the queue length of the disk will be 6 (since one request will be processed in one second).

What is the Modified and Standby Ram region in the resource monitor? 

The Resource Monitor tool displays the information of the use of both hardware and software resources in real time. It can be easily launched by executing “resmon.exe“.

Modified, as the name goes it holds the data that is modified. The Standby Ram is actually a list of cache, which stores the data or information that can be used later. The Standby data can be easily removed or deleted.

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