Early 2011 MBP with i7-2720QM Underblocked?

[heyadrian]

Heya,

I was just looking up the specs of the processor in my MBP Early 2011:

:~ adrians$ sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz

I noticed that it can clock up to 3.30 GHz when Intel turbo Boost is enabled, but for the life of me I don't think I've ever seen it say that?

Does anyone know if there's a way to switch this on and off? Unfortunately, from what I've found on the web, there's no straight forward way to dabble with the Intel SpeedStep in the later versions of OS-X...

Does anyone have any ideas?

Don't get me wrong, it's still nippy, but I was just wondering why it's been under clocked by 33%?

Cheers,

A

 

[Watabou]

That's the base clock speed of your CPU.

You cannot "enable" turboboost. It works automatically, without you doing anything. It depends on several factors, mainly the amount of workload, and it can turboboost up to the specified clock speed, which in your case is 3.3 GHz.

Your CPU is not underclocked or anything. It won't run at 3.3GHz the whole time. Just when it needs to.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Heya,

I was just looking up the specs of the processor in my MBP Early 2011:

:~ adrians$ sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz

I noticed that it can clock up to 3.30 GHz when Intel turbo Boost is enabled, but for the life of me I don't think I've ever seen it say that?

This tool shows you the current Turbo Boost speed:
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget-20

Btw, i've the same processor.

 

[yusukeaoki]

As stated above, me turbo boost automatically occurs.
2.2GHz is the base clock speed and when it needs the extra juice, it clocks up to 3.3GHz.

So far in OSX, there is no way to force TB.
I think there is in Windows but not for OSX.

 

[heyadrian]

As stated above, me turbo boost automatically occurs.
2.2GHz is the base clock speed and when it needs the extra juice, it clocks up to 3.3GHz.

So far in OSX, there is no way to force TB.
I think there is in Windows but not for OSX.

I go get that, but even when I put it under hard stain i.e. a heavy compression job with a heavy rendering job in the background it still clocks at 2.2? Thats what makes me ask? I've never, to date, despite how hard I push it, seen it switch once :-/

*edit* I do know you can toy with Intel SpeedStep in Windows easily enough, but Apple state that it's 'Automatically handled', which leaves me to wonder if it really is as I've tested this in Snow Leopard (and had to use a tool to play around with it) and since lion, it's been 'a no go area' as far as the developers etc... are concerned...

 

[yusukeaoki]

I go get that, but even when I put it under hard stain i.e. a heavy compression job with a heavy rendering job in the background it still clocks at 2.2? Thats what makes me ask? I've never, to date, despite how hard I push it, seen it switch once :-/

*edit* I do know you can toy with Intel SpeedStep in Windows easily enough, but Apple state that it's 'Automatically handled', which leaves me to wonder if it really is as I've tested this in Snow Leopard (and had to use a tool to play around with it) and since lion, it's been 'a no go area' as far as the developers etc... are concerned...

Try encoding some 1080p videos that are like 6GB.
It should kick in.
And I dont think it tells you that its running at 3.3GHz.
It only shows the baseclocking on system profiler.

 

[Watabou]

I go get that, but even when I put it under hard stain i.e. a heavy compression job with a heavy rendering job in the background it still clocks at 2.2? Thats what makes me ask? I've never, to date, despite how hard I push it, seen it switch once :-/

Because system profiler doesn't show the actual speed the clock is running in. It always shows the base speed.

 

[MacReloaded]

You're never going to see anything higher than 2.20GHz with that command because...

sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string.

 

[heyadrian]

Thanks, I realise that now... What is odd, I did the following:

bash-3.2# sysctl hw.cpufrequency
hw.cpufrequency: 2200000000
bash-3.2# sysctl hw.cpufrequency_max
hw.cpufrequency_max: 2200000000
bash-3.2# sysctl hw.cpufrequency_min
hw.cpufrequency_min: 2200000000
bash-3.2#

I guess these values are ignored as I downloaded the intel power gadget which kinda shows the values are ignored:

It appears that the 3.3 is the ceiling.. How odd.