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Felasco

Guest
Original poster
Oct 19, 2012
372
2
Hi all,

What is Turbo Boost please?

As example, MBA specs say....

2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
 

Dweez

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2011
1,248
10
Down by the river
Surely you remember this? ;)

220px-Casebuttons.jpg
 
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jtara

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2009
2,008
536
It boots the engines to Warp 10 until Scottie gets on the horn and says:

"Captain! She canna take any more!"
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
Maybe that's the reason why Activity Monitor can show OVER 100% load?

No, that is because it shows 100% if _one_ core is running at 100%. A dual core Mac can go up to 200% if both cores are running at full speed, quad core up to 400%, and any Mac with hyperthreading can display twice as much.

It doesn't actually say anything about the speed at which the processor runs, just that it runs 100% of the time.

----------

It boots the engines to Warp 10 until Scottie gets on the horn and says:

"Captain! She canna take any more!"

That's remarkably close to what happens. :D

All the Intel CPUs are limited by heat production. The faster the chip runs, and the more work it does, the more heat. And if the heat gets too much and the fans can't take the heat away fast enough, the speed is reduced.

The first number (say 1.7 GHz for some MBA model) means the processor can run all cores at 1.7 GHz 24 hours a day without getting too hot. But if you use only one core for a short time, it can go up to the "Turbo Boost" speed.
 

yosemit

macrumors regular
Jul 19, 2013
167
0
All the Intel CPUs are limited by heat production. The faster the chip runs, and the more work it does, the more heat. And if the heat gets too much and the fans can't take the heat away fast enough, the speed is reduced.

The first number (say 1.7 GHz for some MBA model) means the processor can run all cores at 1.7 GHz 24 hours a day without getting too hot. But if you use only one core for a short time, it can go up to the "Turbo Boost" speed.

The Haswell processors in MBA 2013 seem to be able to run at 2.6GHz (for i5 and single threaded) and 3.3 GHz (for i7 and single threaded) for a long time, because those Haswell processors rarely overheat on non-GPU workloads.
 

bjet767

Suspended
Oct 2, 2010
967
319
What is "Turbo Boost"

"When Airwolf bolted across the sky in "turbo boost" mode, one would hear it "howl like a wolf" as it made a glass-shattering sound effect. When sitting idle, the aircraft made a mechanical trilling sound, and while hovering the rotor blades made a ghostly wind drone."

Airwolf_side.jpg
 

kohlson

macrumors 68020
Apr 23, 2010
2,425
736
Intel CPUs really can't go any faster (heat), and what many people really care about is battery life. So in a perfect world they would idle very as close to zero as possible, run background tasks or simple things at a low, rated speed, and ramp up into Turbo mode when extra CPU power is needed. Intel CPUs can do this, and run up as long as the total thermal envelope (the heat generated by all cores in the CPU) is no exceeded. Since many apps are single threaded (they use one thread of one core) this can be a big benefit - longer battery life and the power to encode video when needed. More here.

Many Apple systems have either 400% or 800% capacity. The former is dual-core, each with 2 threads. MBA's are like this. The latter is quad-core, such as the 15-inch rMBP. MPs can have many more, but very few apps can take advantage of them simultaneously. But you can run more than one thing at once.
 

RightMACatU

macrumors 65816
Jul 12, 2012
1,423
1,132
192.168.1.1
K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R. were both equipped with a Turbo Boost capability. The system consisted of a series of rear mounted undercarriage rocket motors, which allowed the car to accelerate to speeds in excess of 200 mph. The rockets could fire both forwards and backwards as needed.

The system had two secondary uses:

- It could be used to provide power for pushing or pulling heavy objects when necessary.
- When used in combination with the Trajectory Guidance System and a pair of front-mounted rocket motors, the car could "jump" 40 feet into the air to avoid obstacles.

The Turbo Boost capability was used in most episodes of the Original Series.

[/QUOTE source=http://knight-rider.wikia.com/wiki/Turbo_Boost]
:D
 
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