Do all Core i5's support turbo boost?

Peppersworth

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Nov 27, 2010
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I was at future shop today and the clerk was telling me about how the i5 processors are hardly any better than the i3 processors when it comes to gaming. I bought up turbo boost because I know i3 doesn't have that at all, but he said that not many i5's have it either, only the high end ones. Is this true? If not, which ones do and don't have turbo boost? (I'm talking about all cpus, laptop or desktop).

Thanks! :)
 

jpmucha

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Aug 5, 2008
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They all have Turbo, although to varying degrees. Here's the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Sandy_Bridge.22_.2832_nm.29

The lowest ones only bump 300 MHz... up to the 2500K which is unlocked up to 5.7 GHz (YMMV of course :p).

This might be a better link that also has i3s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge_%28microarchitecture%29#Desktop_Processors

Well... also remember. i5s are 'true quad cores' (except for one energy efficient one). i3s are dual cores with hyperthreading. I think the turbo feature is what makes the i-series a great approach for gaming. You get the high clock speeds for single threaded gaming... but quad cores when you can benefit from that...

I hope that helps.