Bring back the "Turbo" button

I remember when I got my first computer, a 486-66, and I pressed the Turbo button, it felt sooo cool and empowering. I wish computer manufacturers would bring it back. Perhaps a button to slow down the CPU and one to overclock it. I would gladly pay extra $$$ for that option.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to wickedmonster

I had that button on my very first pc, an 8086.

Normal mode was 8mhz, Turbo was 10mhz.

I voted best in your poll, but in reality, the button wouldn't be used as 99.9% of the time you'd have it in it's fastest mode.

Good times

Reply to Gangrene

overclock

Reply to cyborg_ninja-117

Quote :

I remember when I got my first computer, a 486-66, and I pressed the Turbo button, it felt sooo cool and empowering. I wish computer manufacturers would bring it back. Perhaps a button to slow down the CPU and one to overclock it. I would gladly pay extra $$$ for that option.

You all apparently don't have a clue what a "Turbo" button was for.
Pressing it actually slowed your computer down. "Turbo" was a slower compatability mode so that old IBM software could run on the new "fast" computers, like a 486-DX66.

Reply to jitpublisher

You evidently don't know what you are talking about.

The turbo button as one other poster stated was used clean back to the 8088 days and continued to be on some systems throught the 8086, the 286, the 486 and even on the 586.

Some systems even had three speedsteps. Turbo mode was the higher speed.

You are correct that some early software which had did not have any timing restrictions written into the programming had a hard time running at faster speeds, these were mostly early games which were written around a 6 mhz clock speed. For these you would run the system at the lower stock speeds rather than in turbo mode.

Reply to intelamduser

Hey, just do what i do, and have a dedicated "old box" for DOS games like Commander Keen. It's a K6-2, can be clocked anywhere from 66->300MHz, using mobo switches (i love unlocked multipliers). One day i'm going to desolder the DIP switch and rewire it to a front panel switch somehow, so i don't have to take the case lid off to change speed (although i assume i'll have to reboot each time, thank god MSDOS 5.0 boots in under 5 seconds).

And isn't Cool&Quiet / EIST supposed to throttle CPU speed down using ACPI? Couldn't someone just write a software hack to choose CPU speed manually? (at least in linux it should be possible, dunno about win)

Reply to drcroubie

I use dosbox 0.65 for old games.

You can clock it up and down in real time at the touch of Ctrl-11/12.

Reply to Gangrene

It actualy isnt a bad idea at all.

While playing games I keep my x2 3800 at 2.45GHz@1.4V but when I'm surfing the net I dont need to waste energy and my proc to heat up my room and my fans to be so loud.
I have a couple of programs that lower my x2 to 1.4Ghz an 0.9V it can run on my BigTyphoon without a fan and you can watch movies do everything and dont notice the lack of performance at all.

Im actualy in the process of making a button like that but it would actualy be a shortcut on the desktop that downclocks my CPU/GPU and a few switches on the front panel of my case so that I run only my HDD fans and at lover voltage so my comp is quiet. Its good for listening music and watching movies I dont need 10x fans at full throtle then.

Reply to NaDa

Quote :

You evidently don't know what you are talking about.

The turbo button as one other poster stated was used clean back to the 8088 days and continued to be on some systems throught the 8086, the 286, the 486 and even on the 586.

Some systems even had three speedsteps. Turbo mode was the higher speed.

You are correct that some early software which had did not have any timing restrictions written into the programming had a hard time running at faster speeds, these were mostly early games which were written around a 6 mhz clock speed. For these you would run the system at the lower stock speeds rather than in turbo mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button

I just love it when people who think they know what they are talking about really DON"T have a clue. Read my lips. When you press the Trubo button, it slows the computer down. When the button is off, the PC runs at it's normal speed. Don't feel bad, a LOT of people actually thought pressing the button marked "Turbo" was somehow a speed booster.
Yes, I had all those PC's "clean" back to the days of the 8086. Now you may have had some buttons to change the speed on them. That I vaugely remember. But the "Turbo" button on the 486DX-66 like the original poster stated, did not speed up anything.

Reply to jitpublisher

Quote :

Of course, calling it a "turbo" button when its function slows the system down can be a bit misleading, but the button was usually set up so the system would be at full speed when the button was "on".

Quote :

I just love it when people who think they know what they are talking about really DON"T have a clue. Read my lips.

I'm confused....who doesn't have a clue??? It looks like to me after READING (and having used those same systems myself).....that the button worked differently depending on the computer. Some when the button was pressed meant turbo mode was on. Others when it was not pressed meant turbo mode was on. So it was a freaking Turbo button no matter how it worked!!

Now back to arguing with AMD and Intel fanboys..sheesh. :roll: :roll:

Reply to commanderspockep

Quote :

You evidently don't know what you are talking about.

The turbo button as one other poster stated was used clean back to the 8088 days and continued to be on some systems throught the 8086, the 286, the 486 and even on the 586.

Some systems even had three speedsteps. Turbo mode was the higher speed.

You are correct that some early software which had did not have any timing restrictions written into the programming had a hard time running at faster speeds, these were mostly early games which were written around a 6 mhz clock speed. For these you would run the system at the lower stock speeds rather than in turbo mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button

I just love it when people who think they know what they are talking about really DON"T have a clue. Read my lips. When you press the Trubo button, it slows the computer down. When the button is off, the PC runs at it's normal speed. Don't feel bad, a LOT of people actually thought pressing the button marked "Turbo" was somehow a speed booster.
Yes, I had all those PC's "clean" back to the days of the 8086. Now you may have had some buttons to change the speed on them. That I vaugely remember. But the "Turbo" button on the 486DX-66 like the original poster stated, did not speed up anything.

I just love it when morons quote wikepedia as if it is the definitive source for any topic. Do you even know how wikepedia gets its information? I can link a couple sites too and claim that I am right...

http://www.murky.org/blg/2006/08/0 [...] r-the-486/

http://www.opentechsupport.net/for [...] php?t=5318

Although I do know that this is not proof of being right or wrong. Simply quoting websites serves no purpose. I read the manual when we had one of these PCs at work which stated that it increased the speed. I believe that you are somehow confused in that you actually do have to hit the turbo button to slow down the PC, but thats because hitting the button turned it off. However since I doubt anyone can produce a manual or official document with how the turbo button actually works, I am sure that this debate will go on and on and on.... /sigh

Reply to kamiri

JITPublisher, would you read your link more carefully? That Wikipedia article implies that depressing the Turbo button on most, but not all, machines causes the computer to run faster. That is in line with my experiences on 286-based machines, where text lines displayed faster upon pressing the Turbo button. A 25% or higher overclock was definitely noticeable back then. It is, however, trivial to reverse the polarity of a button at system assembly.

Quote :

Of course, calling it a "turbo" button when its function slows the system down can be a bit misleading, but the button was usually set up so the system would be at full speed when the button was "on".

Reply to WR

:lol:

You morons are arguing about absolute crap. Look at yourselves.

:lol:

Reply to RicoSuave

Quote :

:lol:

You morons are arguing about absolute crap. Look at yourselves.

:lol:

Why do you think Al Gore invented the Internet in the first place?

Answer: To have a place to argue with other morons.

Reply to clue69less

So was this discussion ever resolved? I'd like to know... just to know.

On a related note... I had a chess game on my IBM PS/2 30-286 (yes, a 286 10 Mhz) and it was a worthy opponent (keep in mind I was a kid) on the easier levels of difficulty... the differing levels of difficulty on that particular program allowed the computer to think for progressively longer time periods... well, when I upgraded to a 486, I couldn't beat the computer on its easiest level... it still had the same amount of time to think... it just had a lot more transistors firing. Damn you Chessmaster 2000.

Reply to rodney_ws

The Turbo button had a sole function of toggling the max speed of the cpu to the at standard speed of 8Mhz. If you had a 486 with a turbo button it would toggle from 25, 33, 66, whatever down to 8. I had a 286, two 386's, and 6 486's with it and they all did the same thing. Some you pushed the button in (turned on) some you pushed the button so it popped out (turned off) same damn effect. Stop arguing.

Now if you had an XT it would toggle from 8Mhz to 4Mhz I believe, don't quote me on that one, only had one XT and it never ran

The Turbo button sure as h*ll never made the computer faster than it's rated speed.

Reply to michaelahess

Quote :

:lol:

You morons are arguing about absolute crap. Look at yourselves.

:lol:

Why do you think Al Gore invented the Internet in the first place?

Answer: To have a place to argue with other morons.

Nice! :lol:

I wonder what Al Gore thinks about the Turbo button??

Reply to dean7

After my mom blew up her NEC 8088 back in the day, our next computer was an IBM 80-286 model 30! Sweet machine. A SPACIOUS 20MB drive, HIGH DENSITY 1.44MB floppy, 1 MEGABYTE of Random Access Memory (they call it RAM for those in the "know" ). Weird tho - no turbo button. Just realized that...

Anyways, I thought that the turbo did 2 things? didn't it max out the CPU speed AND also activate the math coprocessor where present? Answer might be in that wiki thing, but I never read those, too much unreliable content. I'd trust a consensus opinion on these good ol' Forumz over a wiki anyday...

Reply to BigBadJohnnyB

Quote :

It actualy isnt a bad idea at all.

While playing games I keep my x2 3800 at 2.45GHz@1.4V but when I'm surfing the net I dont need to waste energy and my proc to heat up my room and my fans to be so loud.
I have a couple of programs that lower my x2 to 1.4Ghz an 0.9V it can run on my BigTyphoon without a fan and you can watch movies do everything and dont notice the lack of performance at all.

Im actualy in the process of making a button like that but it would actualy be a shortcut on the desktop that downclocks my CPU/GPU and a few switches on the front panel of my case so that I run only my HDD fans and at lover voltage so my comp is quiet. Its good for listening music and watching movies I dont need 10x fans at full throtle then.

NaDa you have a million dollar idea. With today's multi-ghz CPU, it's no longer necessary to run at stock speed all the time. The original "turbo" button failed because CPUs were so slow back then that people had to leave it on turbo all the time. But with the power hungry beasts that we have today, it's time to bring back "TURBO"! I mean, wouldn't it be nice to have a "Cool&Quiet" button for most daily activities like net surfing&email so you can save energy and noise? And a "turbo" button that overclocks the CPU for games or heavy encoding work?

The time has come for "Turbo" to make a comeback. If enough of us make a big deal out of it, the powers that be might listen and give us what we want.

Reply to wickedmonster

I don't like the idea of a turbo button. If there was a button, people would be pissed if it didn't work, so the manufacturers would have to guarantee that the higher speed worked.
If you are going to guarantee the higher speed, then why have a button?

Reply to M_with_one_M

My PS/2 had the 30 MB hard drive as well as VGA graphics... my mom totally got ripped off... $2700 for it as well as a dot matrix printer. That was in 1989 (we totally should have bought a 386 SX by that point) and the last I heard it was still running as recently as 2001. Definitely built to last... but man, it was pricey for what it was.

Reply to rodney_ws

I think you all need to get laid.

Reply to antichrysler

huh, interesting. when i had my 386 way back when, it would clock up when the turbo button is pressed down. as a sign, it would turn on an led and also show a higher clock speed on the front of the case. i guess these things are wired differently? :?

Reply to distortion

Like I said, they worked both ways depending on who put it together. The LCD BTW didn't mean shit, if you set the jumpers on it you could have your 66Mhz go 99Mhz! They didn't really "read" and "report" the cpu speed

Reply to michaelahess

hah! so much for my 14 GHz 386 then :lol:

Reply to distortion

We seem to be assuming the Turbo switch was a momentary on/off like a current power switch. It was a toggle between sorce A and source B with ground in the middle. Seems to me some might have had the switch plugged in backwards compaired to others.

My Turbo's had a pretty light to tell me when they were on. And the IBM 286 someone mentioned earlier had Turbo built into the keylock so you couldn't enable/disable it by mistake.

Reply to misry

Quote :

I remember when I got my first computer, a 486-66, and I pressed the Turbo button, it felt sooo cool and empowering. I wish computer manufacturers would bring it back. Perhaps a button to slow down the CPU and one to overclock it. I would gladly pay extra $$$ for that option.

While your at it, why dont you make a wish to bring back stone and chisel [/sarcasm]

Reply to turpit

Might want to try this:

http://www.matrixorbital.com/product_info.php?pName=mx411&cName=lcd-mx4-series

It is a front panel disply with programmable buttons.

Not sure but I think there are many many base operations that it does similar to the turbo button..

Reply to ches111

Wow I feel old for sure, My turbo button on my 286 didnt work half of the time back then, then again I hated the pee yellow monochrome monitor with 64KB video ram, Simcity was fun to watch tapping that old turbo though

Reply to stallyn

While 'The turbo' button has been explained countless times in this thread already as not actually boosting your speed..

yeah, a big red button marked 'TURBO' that automatically OC'd your comp to preset settings would be a pretty ego boosting touch.

Reply to symbi0nt

I am sure everyone fails to realize that the “turbo button” served a dual purpose.

1) Slow down the computer for applications that needed it.
2) Make it feel like the computer was "giving a little extra".

It really should have been called a "slow" button, but that doesn’t exactly appeal to the masses. This thread proves that the general marketing purpose of the label “turbo button” actually worked; giving the people a sense of getting something more out of their computer.

Now, ask yourself this. If you had a choice to buy a computer with a "slow button", or a "turbo button", which would you buy? Especially if you didn’t know much about computer hardware.

This thread would be a great case study for college students and common human thinking. I am personally very surprised that a bunch of computer geeks (yes I’m a geek too) actually fell for it.

I also think that the person who labeled that button had a genius marketing idea.

Reply to rbarone69

Quote :

I am sure everyone fails to realize that the “turbo button” served a dual purpose.

1) Slow down the computer for applications that needed it.
2) Make it feel like the computer was "giving a little extra".

It really should have been called a "slow" button, but that doesn’t exactly appeal to the masses. This thread proves that the general marketing purpose of the label “turbo button” actually worked; giving the people a sense of getting something more out of their computer.

Now, ask yourself this. If you had a choice to buy a computer with a "slow button", or a "turbo button", which would you buy? Especially if you didn’t know much about computer hardware.

This thread would be a great case study for college students and common human thinking. I am personally very surprised that a bunch of computer geeks (yes I’m a geek too) actually fell for it.

I also think that the person who labeled that button had a genius marketing idea.

Now, instead of saying "Turbo", imagine if it said "NOS" or "Go baby, Go!" that would be sweet.

With today's multicore processors, it would be nice if you could power down those cores during idle times and fire them up for gaming. Hence, the need for "turbo" functionality.

Reply to wickedmonster

Im using a 1992 bios( i got in 1997) 486dx4 (Was Intel 100 mhz) with the AMD 586 Evergreen Overdrive chip 133 mhz ( i bought in 1998 for like 158 dollars at compusa)lol

A beautiful TALL tower built with pride from Insight !!!! with 256 external cache

Windows 95a full floppy version 199.00 in 1999 lol ,32 mb Ram 500 mb Hard Drive ,

AND HERES THE BRAGGIN:::: ATI MACH 64 Turbo 4 MB SVGA ISA Videocard (rare) Nova 15.4 Widescreen LCD.

On a Comcast Cable connection 6 mb down 3 mb up !

and it has the turbo button i tested what it did by turning it on and off and pushed in with the yellow light on audio is 99 percent perfect then i turn it off and it chops real bad so i would say it slows it down when its off with the yellow light out lol.

also the Evergreen Technologies speedtest disk (ETDIAG.exe ) says lower readings

( ON ) Benchmarks Dhrystones 22601 (without 256 cache enabled 20374) 16mhz cpu bus, 66 mhz cpu core ( ON )

says cpu mode: Real

cpu Cache: 16k Unified,WT, Enabled

( OFF ) Benchmarks Dhrystones 4654 (without 256 cache enabled 1243 ) 15 mhz cpu bus, 60 mhz cpu core ( OFF )

says cpu mode Real

cpu cache disabled

LOOKS LIKE ITS ENABLING AND DISABLING THE INTERNAL CACHE (doesnt effect the 256 external cache)

and changing the core and bus speed

(just changing the voltage what ya think)
old school overclocking my heart is racing!!!

well back to my crappy 3.4 ghz HT 1024 cache 800 fsb cpu ,
ATI 512 x1600pro AGP,
250/80/30 gig drives,dvd burner,
Dell 24inch Widescreen lcd crap !!!! sigh ....

compman99

Message edited by compman99 on 04-18-2009 at 03:13:20 AM

Reply to compman99

Nearly everyone who posted to this thread between 8-27-2006 and 8-29-2006 are no longer here. The last post was nearly three years ago. So, maybe creating a new thread on the subject would be better.

Reply to badge

lol

Reply to djcoolmasterx

I do not profess to know how all of the computers that came out with a "TURBO SWITCH" nor do I care to debate the question that being the case. However, I do know how my no name 486 box with the Intel DX4 Processor works. The stock speed on it is 100 MHz. By pressing the "TURBO SWITCH" it slows the processor down to 8 MHz. And yes this was designed to run or play programs or games that were wrote for the slower speeds a few years earlier such as one of my Tandy 1000 boxes running DOS 3.2. at 7-10 MHz. Mine does not have a function to down clock it to anything other than the 8 MHZ from the 100 MHZ. I say that because of one post that stated you could clock it at what ever you wanted.

Now that the above is all out of the way, I would very much like to ask, does anyone know where one might get the parts or switch to repair one? Mine is sort of trashed out concerning the wiring and leads to the front panel and the clock that is on the front. I think the switch is still working on the MOBO but since I cannot see the clock switch from the 8 MHz. and 100 MHz. I cannot confirm this to be the case.

I searched on eBay with no luck so I googled it and found this post on Tom's.

Any HEADS out there have an idea where to buy one for the MOBO one has managed to nurse along for the past 20+ years?

It would be GREATLY appreciated.

------------------------------ yargnodrog
Reply to yargnodrog

wickedmonster wrote :

I remember when I got my first computer, a 486-66, and I pressed the Turbo button, it felt sooo cool and empowering. I wish computer manufacturers would bring it back. Perhaps a button to slow down the CPU and one to overclock it. I would gladly pay extra $$$ for that option.

if you got a amd system msi has a good M.B. with an oc button 990FXA-GD80

Reply to Pallida mors

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