Get Actual CPU Clock Speed with PowerShell

18 Jul

To get the best performance out of Virtual Desktops it is essential that the power configuration in the system BIOS and the HyperVisor are configured for maximum performance.

Many people have blogged about the importance of these settings like, Andrew Wood, Helge Klein and Didier Van Hoye. So I will not go into details again.

But how do you check from a Virtual Machine if you are actually running at full clock speed or not?

I have written a PowerShell script to do just that (requires at least PowerShell v3).

Here are some screenshots:

Running with "High Performance profile":

Running with "Balanced" power profile:

Here is the script (download link at the bottom):

# How many times to query clockspeed
$count = 100
# Interval in ms
$interval = 50;


# Little helper to add colours to output
filter ColorPattern( [string]$Pattern, [ConsoleColor]$Color, [switch]$SimpleMatch ) {
  if( $SimpleMatch ) { $Pattern = [regex]::Escape( $Pattern ) }

  $split = $_ -split $Pattern
  $found = [regex]::Matches( $_, $Pattern, 'IgnoreCase' )
  for( $i = 0; $i -lt $split.Count; ++$i ) {
    Write-Host $split[$i] -NoNewline
    Write-Host $found[$i] -NoNewline -ForegroundColor $Color
  }

  Write-Host
}

#Get Maximum Clock Speed (once because WMI is slow)
$maxClockSpeed = (get-wmiobject Win32_Processor | select-object -first 1).MaxClockSpeed

#default color
$highlighColor = 'Green'

function GetClockSpeed()
{
	$freq = Get-Counter -Counter &quot;\Processor Information(*)\Processor Frequency&quot;
	$item = New-Object  System.Object
	
	foreach ($cpu in $freq.CounterSamples)
	{
		$procNum = ([RegEx]::Match($cpu.Path, '.+\((\d+,\d+)\).*')).Groups[1].Value
		if ($procNum)
		{
			$item | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name $procNum -Value $cpu.CookedValue
		}
	}
	
	$item
}

for ($i=0 ; $i -lt $count ; $i++)
{
	$list = GetClockSpeed 
	cls

	$firstCoreSpeed = ($list | Select-Object -ExpandProperty &quot;0,0&quot;)
	# Just some formatting magic, make it green if full speed and red otherwise
	if ($firstCoreSpeed -lt $maxClockSpeed) { $highlighColor = 'Red' } else { $highlighColor = 'Green' }

	&quot;Actual: {0} Mhz Maximum: {1} Mhz -&gt; {2:P0}&quot; -f $firstCoreSpeed, $maxClockSpeed, ($firstCoreSpeed / $maxClockSpeed) | ColorPattern -Pattern '\d+ %' -Color $highlighColor
	&quot;Speed per Core:&quot;
	
	$list | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String | ColorPattern -Pattern '\d\d+' -Color $highlighColor #-SimpleMatch
	
	
	# Sleep until next interval
	Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $interval
}

# How many times to query clockspeed

$count = 100

# Interval in ms

$interval = 50;

# Little helper to add colours to output

filter ColorPattern( [string]$Pattern, [ConsoleColor]$Color, [switch]$SimpleMatch ) {

if( $SimpleMatch ) { $Pattern = [regex]::Escape( $Pattern ) }

$split = $_ -split $Pattern

$found = [regex]::Matches( $_, $Pattern, 'IgnoreCase' )

for( $i = 0; $i -lt $split.Count; ++$i ) {

Write-Host $split[$i] -NoNewline

Write-Host $found[$i] -NoNewline -ForegroundColor $Color

}

Write-Host

}

#Get Maximum Clock Speed (once because WMI is slow)

$maxClockSpeed = (get-wmiobject Win32_Processor | select-object -first 1).MaxClockSpeed

#default color

$highlighColor = 'Green'

function GetClockSpeed()

{

$freq = Get-Counter -Counter "\Processor Information(*)\Processor Frequency"

$item = New-Object System.Object

foreach ($cpu in $freq.CounterSamples)

{

$procNum = ([RegEx]::Match($cpu.Path, '.+$(\d+,\d+)$.*')).Groups[1].Value

if ($procNum)

{

$item | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name $procNum -Value $cpu.CookedValue

}

$item

}

for ($i=0 ; $i -lt $count ; $i++)

{

$list = GetClockSpeed

cls

$firstCoreSpeed = ($list | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "0,0")

# Just some formatting magic, make it green if full speed and red otherwise

if ($firstCoreSpeed -lt $maxClockSpeed) { $highlighColor = 'Red' } else { $highlighColor = 'Green' }

"Actual: {0} Mhz Maximum: {1} Mhz -> {2:P0}" -f $firstCoreSpeed, $maxClockSpeed, ($firstCoreSpeed / $maxClockSpeed) | ColorPattern -Pattern '\d+ %' -Color $highlighColor

"Speed per Core:"

$list | Format-Table -AutoSize | Out-String | ColorPattern -Pattern '\d\d+' -Color $highlighColor #-SimpleMatch

# Sleep until next interval

Start-Sleep -Milliseconds $interval

}

Download

Please consider donating something (even a small amount is ok) to support this site and my work:

Filed under: PowerShell

2 Responses for "Get Actual CPU Clock Speed with PowerShell"

Jeff Wouters July 21st, 2014 at 9:12 1
Like this one, great work Remko!
Michael August 6th, 2015 at 16:34 2
Unfortunatley this reports only the stock speed on a machine with HyperV enabled. Even with Power Saver set, confirmed with Cpu-Z
You could use HyperV Hypervisor\Logical Processor\Frequency – this is accurate below stock freq but will not report Turbo freq (Win8.1)