Windows Safe Mode runs simple programs (at least) 3 times faster?

Question

While doing a lot of benchmarking stuff these days, I stumbled upon something very disturbing / interesting / new to me. After doing some research getting more and more to the point (which i couldnt believe), it seems that windows xp (and probably all other versions as well) runs programs around 3 times as slow as in safe mode.

Take this small program as an example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{

    long    i,j,k;

    printf ("Starting...\n");

    k = 12;

    for (i = 0; i < 20000; i++)
        for (j = 100000; j > 0; j--)
            k = k * 12;

    printf ("Done... k =%d", k);     // just using k here to prevent the whole block isn't optimized away.

    return 0;
}

On my 2.4 Ghz computer it takes ~ 2.5 secs to execute in safe mode, while it takes ~ 8 secs to execute in normal mode. (ThreadPriority = TIMECRITICAL, ProcessClass = REALTIME). EVEN when i compile and start that code within a vmware-linux session under this very windows normal mode it executes faster (around 5.5 secs).

I also did a lot of cpu cycle measuring and actually the results from safe mode seem much more like what you should expect given the amount of instructions processed.

So what did i miss ? Can anybody riddle me this ?

All pointers and hints appreciated, Thanx.

SOLVED! I am sorry guys, this issue is related to my crappy alienware m15x which for some reason is throttling down to apparently 1/3 of its cpu power - unless you use evil tools (ThrottleStop.exe) to bring it up to normal speed. Devastatingly sorry for wasting your time. :(

Answer 1

SOLVED! I am sorry guys, this issue is related to my crappy alienware m15x which for some reason is throttling down to apparently 1/3 of its cpu power - unless you use evil tools (ThrottleStop.exe) to bring it up to normal speed. Devastatingly sorry for wasting your time. :(