Everything is starting to make sense. Yes you do have a W3690 and on your CPU where it says SLBW2, that means it is a retail CPU and it is not an Engineering Sample (ES).
Code:
[LIST=1]
[*] MSR 0x000001A0 0x00000000 0x00850081
[*] MSR 0x000000CE 0x00000C00 0x34011A03
[*] MSR 0x000001AD 0x00002020 0x20202020
[*] MSR 0x00000198 0x00000000 0x0000001B
[*] MSR 0x00000199 0x00000000 0x0000001B
[/LIST]
There are various registers in your CPU that tell me more information about it.
0xCE - bit[27] is zero. That also confirms that this is NOT an ES CPU.
0xCE - bits[15:8] contains the maximum non turbo ratio. The last 4 digits on that line are 1A03. 1A represents the bits we are interested in. This number is in hexadecimal format so 0x1A = 26. That is your default multiplier.
26 X 133.33 = 3466 MHz = 3.46 GHz
That agrees with the value etched into the top of your CPU and it agrees with the information from the Intel website that I posted above.
If you look on the Intel Ark website you will also see a higher number listed as the Max Turbo Frequency. That gives you an indication of how these CPUs work. The only way you can achieve a multiplier higher than 26 is if Intel Turbo Boost is enabled within the processor.
It is interesting that you are using a Gigabyte board because they decided to give users an option in the bios that is not accurate. In the bios you can disable Intel Turbo Boost and you can set a high multiplier separately. As mentioned in my previous post, what happens in the background when you boot up is that Turbo Boost is enabled. The bios sees you want a high multiplier so it knows that the only way that is going to be possible is if Turbo Boost is enabled so it turns it back on. RealTemp followed the Intel definition of Turbo Boost. Gigabyte did not.
MSR 0x1A0 - bit[38] is zero. That confirms that Turbo Boost is enabled. You can argue that your CPU does not use Turbo Boost but I would argue and Intel would argue that you are wrong. It does not matter if your maximum CPU multiplier is unlocked or not. It still requires Turbo Boost to be enabled within the CPU to go beyond the default multiplier of 26. This is true for all Core i CPUs whether they are from the first generation or the recent 4th generation. That is how they work.
MSR 0x1A0 - bit[16] The digit 5 in that register confirms that bit[16] is set to 1. This is the EIST - SpeedStep bit. I do not know if you enabled or disabled EIST in the bios. I do know that your bios has enabled EIST. I mentioned that I have a couple of Asus boards that do this. It is impossible for me to truly disable EIST on these boards. Sure there is an option to do this in the bios but it doesn't actually work. After I boot up and check this register on my Asus boards, it shows that EIST is enabled regardless of what I have set in the bios.
MSR 0x199 - This is the multiplier request register. With the first gen CPUs, for the CPU to request the maximum turbo boost multiplier this register needs to be set to the value of the default multiplier plus 1. The extra +1 tells the CPU to use full turbo boost. As mentioned above, your default multiplier is 0x1A (26) so this register needs to be set one higher so that would is 0x1B (27). This register is set correctly and also confirms that this CPU is requesting to use Turbo Boost.
MSR 0x198 - This register gives you information about what multiplier the CPU is actually using. You can set MSR 0x199 to a sky high value but if the processor does not support this value than that will show up in MSR 0x198. This is set to 0x1B just like MSR 0x199 is set to so this confirms that it is using full turbo boost.
MSR 0x1AD - shows the individual turbo multipliers based on how many cores are active. each 0x20 value shows that you have your CPU set to use the 0x20 (32) multiplier whether 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or all 6 cores are active.
MSR 0xCE - bit[28] and bit[29] are set. That confirms that the turbo multipliers are programmable and that the turbo TDP power values are also adjustable. When you can adjust the multis and the power limits, you have an unlocked CPU.
After all that background information, what problems are you having with RealTemp GT? For your CPU to work at its maximum speed, you have to make sure that Disable Turbo is NOT checked in RealTemp. Uncheck that and then click on OK and then open that windows back up to make sure that information was saved correctly.
Can you post a screenshot of RealTemp GT that shows this? Can you run a simple test like the built in XS Bench. While that is running and there is some load on your CPU can you take a snapshot so I can see what multiplier and speed RealTemp GT is reporting? Other users that run the Core i7-980X or Core i7-990X have never complained about RealTemp GT so I am pretty sure that it is working correctly. With an unlocked multiplier, your W3690 is almost identical to one of those Extreme CPUs so RealTemp GT should work OK on the W3690.
The unlocked multiplier is a nice bonus feature and the W3690 is a little cheaper on EBay compared to a 980X so good find. If I ever go retro I would probably go for the Xeon X5660. You can buy three X5660 CPUs for the price of one W3690. On a good motherboard that is happy running at a BCLK of 200 MHz, the X5660 is a bargain 6 core CPU.
Edit - Your CPU-Z register dump confirms turbo boost for the W3690.
Code:
[LIST=1]
[*] Turbo Mode supported, enabled
[*] Max turbo frequency 4266 MHz
[*] Max non-turbo ratio 26x
[*] Max turbo ratio 32x
[/LIST]