Highly recommended for improved battery & reduced fan noise Intel MBP - TurboBoost Switcher Pro

[nigelbb]

I must give a shout out to @Andrey84 for a recommendation of TurboBoost Switcher Pro. I have been using this for the past week on my 15" 2015 MBP & the improvement in battery life & reduction in fan noise has been amazing. It's easily the best $10 that I have spent. I use my MBP for light work like email & web browsing plus Photos & previously the fans were forever kicking in. I tried Macs Fan Control & set the fans to only run with higher temperatures which helped a little but not enough.

Battery life has improved by about 50%. My morning routine is to get up then lie in bed with a cup of tea reading my email, forums Facebook etc for a couple of hours (don't judge me I'm retired😀). Now that I have installed TurboBoost Switcher Pro I am lying in bed for at least three hours before the battery is exhausted.

Performance seems totally unaffected. The most CPU intensive work I do is probably exporting JPEGs from Photos & that doesn't seem to take any longer than previously. This guy did some benchmarks

It might be that the results that I am seeing reflect the fact that the thermal paste on the CPU heatsink needs replacing but the dramatic increase in battery life & reduction in fan noise point to something more fundamental. Possibly it's Intel's implementation of Turbo Boost or perhaps it's Apple's use of it?

For those with a 2015 MBP or indeed any Intel MBP you have nothing to lose by trying the free version of the software but if you find that it works for you the Pro version is only $10 & rewards the developer. The Pro version allows you to automate startup of the software.

Usual disclaimer I have no connection or financial interest I am just a very happy user.

The free version is open source on GitHub https://github.com/rugarciap/Turbo-Boost-Switcher or visit the developer's website for the Pro version https://rubgape.gumroad.com/l/YeBQUF?layout=profile

 

[Andrey84]

Thanks so much for the shout out, @nigelbb! You certainly gave my gloomy London morning a boost . I'm really glad it made such a difference for you. Someone recommended TBS to me, maybe on these forums, maybe somewhere else, 3 years ago.

I agree it's a great application. I've been using it on my i7 MBP 2015. It's a massive improvement in terms of the noise and the temps, but with battery life it's maybe 10-15% only. My wife bought a separate copy for her i9 iMac 2020. She is really pleased with how quiet her Mac became, 'it's a different computer now!'

Turbo Boost Switcher Pro is a mature tool with complex functionality of conditional logic (disable/enable Turbo Boost based on CPU Temp, battery level, application(s) running a.o.), so it can be configured really precisely.

I'm not affiliated with it either, just another happy user.

 

[aespana]

It's a good app yeah. It helps a lot with the MacBook Pro 2017 for work that man, this things gets hot with nothing.

This app makes sense with Apple M processors? I'm curious about it

 

[MacBH928]

so its main purpose is to save battery life?

this article make it sound a little dangerous, i am not sure if we should play with the internals

How to Disable (& Enable) Turbo Boost on a Mac

Many of the most modern Macs have processors which include a feature called Turbo Boost, this feature allows a processor to temporarily run above its standard clock rate when requested by the opera…

osxdaily.com

 

[Ben J.]

This app makes sense with Apple M processors? I'm curious about it

No. Turboboost is a clock frequency increase thing only on Intel processors.

But sure, it's good at what it does, if you need it.
I used it to quiet down the fan on my i7 mini.
You choose to let, or not let, your processor increase the clock rate and heat, with heavy load. You sacrifice that little extra processing capability for a little less heat, a little less battery drain, and some peace and quiet from the absence of throttling fans.

 

[Ben J.]

so its main purpose is to save battery life?

this article make it sound a little dangerous, i am not sure if we should play with the internals

How to Disable (& Enable) Turbo Boost on a Mac

Many of the most modern Macs have processors which include a feature called Turbo Boost, this feature allows a processor to temporarily run above its standard clock rate when requested by the opera…

osxdaily.com

It's only function is to control if the turboboost kicks in with heavy load, or not.

Nothing dangerous at all.