How does Turbo Boost work?

[adamvk]

I currently have a mid-2010 15" Macbook Pro with an i5 2.53GHZ. I'm considering upgrading to a 2012 13" Macbook Air with i5, maybe i7, I haven't decided. Anyways, for the i5, it says Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHZ. So would that mean the 2012 MBA CPU would be faster than my current 2010 MBP CPU?

 

[charlieegan3]

why not just compare the geekbench results?

 

[chown33]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Turbo_Boost

 

[adamvk]

why not just compare the geekbench results?

According to Geekbench, the 13" top of the line 2012 MBA would be twice as fast as my current 2010 MBP w/ 8GB of ram and an SSD. I feel like that's not super accurate, hence why. Maybe it is though? Would the MBA be twice as fast as mine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Turbo_Boost

Still doesn't quite answer my question though. Thanks anyways!

 

[chown33]

Still doesn't quite answer my question though. Thanks anyways!

Your current MBP has an i5 2.53GHZ. Turbo Boost will ramp up internal clock speed (per Wikipedia article). You asked:

"Anyways, for the i5, it says Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHZ. So would that mean the 2012 MBA CPU would be faster than my current 2010 MBP CPU?"

I think the answer should be easily calculable using arithmetic and the Turbo Boost ramp-up explanation in the Wikipedia article.

You did ask about CPU (you wrote it twice in your question), so forgive me if I thought your question is about the CPU, rather than overall performance of the system as a whole. For overall performance, looking at overall benchmarks is probably a better performance measure; Turbo Boost is only one factor.

 

[adamvk]

Your current MBP has an i5 2.53GHZ. Turbo Boost will ramp up internal clock speed (per Wikipedia article). You asked:

I think the answer should be easily calculable using arithmetic and the Turbo Boost ramp-up explanation in the Wikipedia article.

You did ask about CPU (you wrote it twice in your question), so forgive me if I thought your question is about the CPU, rather than overall performance of the system as a whole. For overall performance, looking at overall benchmarks is probably a better performance measure; Turbo Boost is only one factor.

Ah, you're right, sorry about that. Thanks!