How does Turbo Boost actually work?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
S

Seemly

Reputable
Jan 17, 2015
534
0
4,990
I got i7 4710HQ which is able to turbo boost up to 3.1 GHZ I think. however, how can I use turbo boost and how can I know that it works? (Like If I right clicked My Computer, would the cpu display 3.1 GHZ?) Thanks indeed.

Oh and my native GHz is 2.5 GHz
 
Solution
RPK12


It's highly unlikely this will be available in your laptop's BIOS, the answer you're referring to is much more likely to be done in PCs with much better cooling than a laptop can offer. Doing this will cause too many problems with overheating and what not.

Your CPU is quad core, but not all cores will be used all the time.
For example if you're simply listening to iTunes or looking at pictures, not all of the cores will be active.
There are also several applications...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Shaun o

Shaun o

Illustrious
Oct 7, 2007
6,113
1
41,960
Put simply turbo Boost will kick in when x percent of cpu load is reached.
While the system is Idle at dektop and under little load the core voltage and cpu clock with sit as low as it can to conserve power and reduce heat production.

The option can be turned off in the bios and you can manually set the max core speed of your cpu.
To run at 100% speed @ 3.1Ghz all of the time if you wish.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RPK12

RPK12

Reputable
Jul 19, 2015
41
0
4,560
Turbo Boost is automatic. It will scale up the frequency by itself as and when required while keeping it from overheating. You can't control it yourself, but you don't need to, it works very reliably by reducing the frequency when you don't need it to save power and increasing it when you need it to give you more performance.

If you want to get technical about it, it depends on the number of cores in use and the thermal limits of the processor. When the workload calls for faster performance and the processor is below its limits, the frequency will increase in 100MHz increments for Haswell processors as required to meet the demand. The max frequency it will boost to also depends on the number of cores. It will boost to the full 3.1 GHz if only 1 core is being used, 3.0 GHz if 2 cores are being used, etc.

This is what it will look like in Windows (i5-2500 3.3 GHz boost upto 3.7 GHz)
nX947me.jpg


Hope I answered your question :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

Seemly

Reputable
Jan 17, 2015
534
0
4,990


Yea you did answer my question :) my CPU is a quad core so I might guess it won't boost up well? The other op 's answer about me using it all the time made me actually get interested, is that option available in all laptops? mine will be a Lenovo Y50 so I hope.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RPK12

RPK12

Reputable
Jul 19, 2015
41
0
4,560


It's highly unlikely this will be available in your laptop's BIOS, the answer you're referring to is much more likely to be done in PCs with much better cooling than a laptop can offer. Doing this will cause too many problems with overheating and what not.

Your CPU is quad core, but not all cores will be used all the time.
For example if you're simply listening to iTunes or looking at pictures, not all of the cores will be active.
There are also several applications which are single-threaded, meaning they will only use 1 core no matter what. In this case if the load is high and only 1 core is being used your CPU will boost to the maximum speed. If only 2 cores are being used it will still boost but not as high, and so on.

Honestly your laptop's processor is quite good and will run anything you throw at it without a hitch, so you don't need to worry about it. Turbo Boost will do its thing in the background.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
S

Seemly

Reputable
Jan 17, 2015
534
0
4,990


Well I could have got I5 laptop instead of i7 and could have got higher GHz but I am a Graphic Designer and good cpu and gpu is needed
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RPK12

RPK12

Reputable
Jul 19, 2015
41
0
4,560
Your laptop has a GTX 860M and a very good CPU. It will definitely perform better than an i5, GHz isn't the only thing that matters in a CPU. Don't worry yourself about it, your laptop is just fine for graphic design :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
S

Seemly

Reputable
Jan 17, 2015
534
0
4,990


Okay thanks bud!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RPK12

RPK12

Reputable
Jul 19, 2015
41
0
4,560


Could you mark the thread as solved please!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom