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A question regarding Lynnfield CPU Turbo Mode

Last response: in Overclocking
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kageryu said:
Hi, can anyone explain to me how Turbo mode works? I didn't really understand the article on the Lynnfield CPU Turbo mode and how it only works on a single core. Does this mean that the CPU can overclock itself whenever it needs to? In that case, we don't need to manually overclock the Lynnfield CPUs?



From Anandtech: How Turbo Mode Works

In the simplest terms: The i5 and i7 can turn off unneeded cores, and dynamically overclock the one(s) it they *are* using by a couple bins. The limits are dictated by power consumption and cooling.
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It will show some benefit - turbo can overclock a bit with all cores running if you're under TDP and thermal limits. Manual overclocking will give more gains though, since you are not constrained to the normal TDP of the CPU.

randomizer said:
If you run a fully multi-threaded application then Turbo won't show its benefits as it can't shut down unneeded cores.


Are many applications fully multi-threaded or just a few handful of them?

the difference between turbo mode and standard overclocking is that turbo mode kicks in when its needed on the fly, whereas with normal computing and standard oc'ing you run at whatever speed and if you do too much, your system gets slower.

intel tried similar things years ago and it was a complete failure. looks like they got it right this time. the dynamic ability to determine how many cores are needed, shut down unneeded cors, and supply more and more voltage to the cores that have the workload is nothing short of genius.

..and yes, you can still o'clock AND run turbo mode effectively. and if you get a i7 lynnfield you can even do other magic stuff like simulate twice as many cores as you have (virtualization), enhanced speedstep, hyper threading,...

rkaye said:
the difference between turbo mode and standard overclocking is that turbo mode kicks in when its needed on the fly, whereas with normal computing and standard oc'ing you run at whatever speed and if you do too much, your system gets slower.

intel tried similar things years ago and it was a complete failure. looks like they got it right this time. the dynamic ability to determine how many cores are needed, shut down unneeded cors, and supply more and more voltage to the cores that have the workload is nothing short of genius.

..and yes, you can still o'clock AND run turbo mode effectively. and if you get a i7 lynnfield you can even do other magic stuff like simulate twice as many cores as you have (virtualization), enhanced speedstep, hyper threading,...


In that case, the i7 860 is overall a better CPU than the i5 750 for a computer that is used for video/audio editing and creation, photoshop, gaming, and multi-tasking?
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