Disabling Intel Turbo Boost in Mac OS X

[luffytubby]

have you seen any difference in temps with gaming?

 

[ha1o2surfer]

I'd like to clear up some misconceptions here.

The reason handbrake isn't seeing a performance hit is because the Mac is already disabling Turbo boost because of such high temps. If you doing a small CPU intensive task then turbo boost will stay on for longer as temps allows.. and you will see a performance hit then.

Turbo boost IS enabled even when using all 4 cores (unless Macs disable this). The time for which is stays enabled is all based on the SMC/Temps. For Macbook Pros, this is a VERY short time due to the constrained cooling system.

Also 105c is when the CPU will start to throttle back, NOT when it halts or cuts the power. First, it will lower the voltage and multiplier and will continue to do so until temps improve.

 

[priitv8]

UPDATE: for the sake of objective truth: I have now run several encodes with TB disabled and I have to say, that I get a 30% speed hit with TB disabled.
The conversion speed falls from around 21-22fps to around 15-16fps for a 1080p movie. It's just that the conversion speed declines much slower than CPU temp, but after some time, levels out at 15-16fps.

You can't beat the laws of physics, apparently

Also, this switch appears to have an annoyance - for whatever reason it seems to fall out of TB disabled state by itself, without the menubar display noticing. You only can see the fallback from over-100*C temps of the CPU core and audible noise from the fans.
You need to Enable and then Disable the TB to get TB switched off again.

 

[ericksol96]

Disable CPU cores

Hey there, you can disable cpu cores if heat and battery is a concern, I disabled 3 cores (6 threads in all) so i'm just running my first core with 2 threads, its really good for staying cool and battery if you're just running simple tasks, like safari or itunes, I tested it with just 1 core and sometimes the cpu ran 100% si i decided to go 1 core 2 threads, and also turbo boost disabled. I don't see much of a performance hit, as long as the cpu doesn't run over 60% usage, and the fans never go above 2000, no matter what.

 

[JamietheMac]

Old thread I know but i just downloaded this on El Capitan, did the csrutil disable in Recovery mode, and wow my 2011 mac book pro no longer sounds like its taking off, I can't thank the author enough. Temps down from 95/99c to a safer 70/75c

 

[Mighty Boo]

This is useful for people who experience throttled graphics card (discrete gpu) or various heat issues due to high temps caused by intel's cpu turbo boost; and don’t have the $$ to upgrade to newer macbooks, or buy turbo boost switcher pro (i am using a macbook pro mid 2010 2.66GHz models, on macOS Sierra 10.12.3)... the following steps will auto launch “DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext” at every system boot startup.

Step 1: Paste the downloaded “DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext” into “/Library/Extensions”

Step 2: To enable super user, open terminal and type:

sudo su

Step 3: ⌘C and ⌘V the following into terminal, exactly:

cd /Library/Extensions
chmod -R 755 DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
chown -R root:wheel DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
kextload DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext

Step 4: To create a plist script in launchdaemons (auto launch at every boot), type:

nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.rugarciap.KextLoadDisableTurboBoost.plist

Step 5: Then, ⌘C and ⌘V the following into nano editor, exactly:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.rugarciap.KextLoadDisableTurboBoost</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>kextload /Library/Extensions/DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

step 6: “ctrl+O” — to save the script
step 7: “enter” — to confirm save
step 8: “ctrl+x” — to exit nano editor
step 9: to launch the plist, ⌘C and ⌘V:

launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.rugarciap.KextLoadDisableTurboBoost.plist

thats it.




Other commands:
verify the kext is loaded, ⌘C and ⌘V:

kextstat | grep ugarciap

temporary enable turbo boost, ⌘C and ⌘V:

sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext

re-enable disable turbo boost, ⌘C and ⌘V

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext

Clean uninstall/ undo the entire process:
use finder window and delete both of these files:
/Library/Extensions/DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.rugarciap.KextLoadDisableTurboBoost.plist



guide is based on Shiki Suen’s article, “Suppress Turbo Boost to let your MacBook stop overheating.”

 

[Cooler-master]

Mighty Boo
I have MBR mid 2015 15 with Mohave lastest.
And have a problem:

MacBook-Pro-Ivan:~ cooler$ sudo su
Password:
sh-3.2# cd /Library/Extensions
sh-3.2# chmod -R 755 DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
sh-3.2# chown -R root:wheel DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
sh-3.2# kextload DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext
/Library/Extensions/DisableTurboBoost.64bits.kext failed to load - (libkern/kext) not loadable (reason unspecified); check the system/kernel logs for errors or try kextutil(8).
sh-3.2#

Can you help me with it?
I already place file into library.

 

[russell_314]

This seems to be an old thread but has anyone successfully disabled turbo boost on Mojave? It would be nice if there was an app for this.

 

[culb0743]

This seems to be an old thread but has anyone successfully disabled turbo boost on Mojave? It would be nice if there was an app for this.

There is an app for this. I've used TurboBoost Switcher Pro for several years on an older MacBook Pro (10,1 original 15" retina, mid-2012) to reduce the higher temperatures associated with newer macOS versions running on vintage hardware. Thermal stress on the CPU was reduced based on iStat readings; performance does take a minor hit as expected. TBS Pro can be configured for certain applications, or use contexts, e.g., automatically disables Turbo Boost when the unit is running on battery power, automatically enables Turbo Boost when Final Cut Pro is launched. I've not yet used it on a unit running Mojave, but according to TBS website, there are no known compatibility issues.