How To: Set CPU Scaling Governor to Max Performance

  Operating System, Server and Hardware

CPU frequency scaling enables the operating system to scale the CPU frequency up or down in order to save power.
Frequency value must be between scaling_min_freq and scaling_max_freq.

When CPU frequency governor is set to “powersave” mode, CPU is set to the lowest static frequency (within the borders of scaling_min_freq and scaling_max_freq).

To achieve maximum performance, It is recommended to set The CPU frequency governor, “scaling_governor”, to “performance” mode

1. To view the current scaling_governor value per CPU, run:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

2. To set the scaling_governor to “performance” mode for each CPU, run:

echo performance | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Below are screenshots of the CPU specs before and after changes (cat /proc/cpuinfo):

CPU before changes

CPU after changes

For centos7, easier way you can use the following command

cpupower frequency-set --governor performance