#What is turbo boost in laptop pro#
#What is turbo boost in laptop series#
#What is turbo boost in laptop windows#

The clock period has to be long enough to accommodate all of these gate delays.Īny given process technology, like Intel's 45nm 'P1266' technology, has its own characteristics. To explain why, I'll have to digress briefly and describe how chips are designed and built.Īny given microprocessor core architecture, like the Nehalem architecture underlying these new parts, has a certain typical complexity expressed in terms of a number of equivalent gate delays. That's how Intel wants everyone to think of Turbo Boost, but it isn't really the natural way.

#What is turbo boost in laptop series#

The T series extends this range to 2.93 and 3.06GHz, so by this measurement, 3.2GHz would be about eight steps above 2GHz.) The Core 2 Mobile processor P series parts have speeds of 2.26, 2.4, 2.53, 2.66, and 2.8GHz. (Speed grades, or 'bins' in the parlance of semiconductor manufacturing, usually go up in steps of around 10 percent to 20 percent. In the ideal case, where just one core is running, Turbo Boost can increase the clock rate on that core from the chip's rated speed of 2GHz to 3.2GHz-that's like getting a chip eight speed grades faster than what you paid for.

#What is turbo boost in laptop windows#

Of course, if Windows isn't asking for more performance, Turbo Boost doesn't deliver it. Turbo Boost can increase the frequency of all four cores until they're running as fast as they can for the current workload.Įden said that the Turbo Boost controller samples the current power consumption and chip temperature 200 times per second and makes whatever adjustments are necessary. The quad-core mode of Turbo Boost is a little more subtle it works when the four cores aren't running a worst-case workload-for example, integer-heavy processing, since it's generally floating-point calculations that consume the most power-so they aren't bumping into the TDP limit. It's easy to see how this works when just one or two cores are being actively used whatever power the other two or three cores would have consumed can be redirected over to the active cores, allowing them to run at higher speeds. Basically, if the current application workload isn't keeping all four cores fully busy and pushing right up against the chip's TDP (Thermal Design Power) limit, Turbo Boost can increase the clock speed of each core individually to get more performance out of the chip. The key to this dramatic claim is a feature called Turbo Boost technology. In his IDF session announcing these parts, Intel Vice President Mooly Eden said the best of these parts, the 2GHz Core i7-920XM Extreme Edition, is 'the fastest quad-core processor, the fastest dual-core processor, and the fastest single-core processor'- all in one chip. Intel VP Mooly Eden shows off the new Core i7 Mobile processor and its companion I/O controller at the Intel Developer Forum. They're huge high-performance quad-core chips with Hyper-Threading, support for two channels of DDR3-1333 DRAM, and an on-die PCI Express controller for the fastest possible connection to discrete graphics chips. The new 'Clarksfield' Core i7 Mobile processors introduced at the Intel Developer Forum last week are certainly very impressive.

#What is turbo boost in laptop pro#

To be honest, though, even Logic Pro X doesn’t really need the extra CPU power when I use it, so I keep Turbo Boost disabled pretty much all the time.Intel promotes the Turbo Boost technology in its new Core i7 Mobile processors as a way to adapt to the needs of the software and get more performance from the chip, but this isn't the real reason the technology exists. But I also use it for recording and editing music, which can be more processor-intensive. My MacBook usage is fairly undemanding - mostly writing and reading. I have the pro version of Turbo Boost Switcher running, and it does what it’s meant to do: It keeps the MacBook Pro cool while I use it. I’m used to old desktop Macs and new iPads, so I’m probably overly sensitive to feeling the heat coming out of a computer. For instance, if you know that Photoshop needs all the CPU power it can get, you can tell Turbo Boost Switcher to keep Turbo Boost enabled whenever you use the photo-editing app. You also can tell it to allow Turbo Boost for certain apps. It can disable Turbo Boost only when on battery power, for example, or when the cooling fans spin up to a certain speed. You can set the pro version of the app to enable and disable Turbo Boost based on several rules.

Automatic Turbo Boost switching Turbo Boost Switcher’s automation settings.