Had a similar problem with intel atom (2 cores, 1,6GHz) in ubuntu 12.04:
governor was ondemand, speed was always 800MHz (the lowest speed, and it felt way more slow than "twice as slow")
Upgraded to 12.10, the problem persisted.
Installed package cpufreqd (which was not present), and then the same governor "ondemand", keeps speed at 1.60Ghz, and I can work.
Had a similar problem with intel atom (2 cores, 1,6GHz) in ubuntu 12.04:
governor was ondemand, speed was always 800MHz (the lowest speed, and it felt way more slow than "twice as slow")
Upgraded to 12.10, the problem persisted.
Installed package cpufreqd (which was not present), and then the same governor "ondemand", keeps speed at 1.60Ghz, and I can work.
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