How to over clock the 2012 Air just by .2 GHz?

[yearofthe]

My current Air only has 1.8 GHz (i5), but the hardware that I'm trying to buy says it can only run if the CPU is 2.0 GHz or higher. I contacted them to see if 1.8 GHz would let me go, and they said it wouldn't. So, I was wondering if there was a way I could make my Macbook go a little faster by only just .2 GHz? I keep hearing people over clock, but I don't know how to do it.

 

[jav6454]

No, not possible. CPU is locked 100% and the thermal scope of the MBA won't allow it to stand.

 

[yearofthe]

No, not possible. CPU is locked 100% and the thermal scope of the MBA won't allow it to stand.

Aw, shucks. T_T Really? Oh well. But I also heard of "Turbo Boost", would that work, though? Or no?

 

[jav6454]

Aw, shucks. T_T Really? Oh well. But I also heard of "Turbo Boost", would that work, though? Or no?

Turbo Boost is automatic and within the coding to the CPU. Depending on the type of load the CPU, you will either see a rise in core use, or a rise in frequency used in a determined number of cores. There is a whole science to it.

In short, Turbo Boost is not handled by the user, only the System, and no, you can't fiddle with that system, it's locked.

 

[filmbuff]

Aw, shucks. T_T Really? Oh well. But I also heard of "Turbo Boost", would that work, though? Or no?

Turbo boost might help. As long as it isn't really hot, the 1.8ghz MBA runs at 2.3GHZ most of the time. I'm using CPUID to see the clock speed and tried a similar program in Bootcamp and it keeps coming up at 2.3ghz. Call the company again and ask if their software takes turbo boost into account for the 2.0ghz number.

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In short, Turbo Boost is not handled by the user, only the System, and no, you can't fiddle with that system, it's locked.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[throAU]

My current Air only has 1.8 GHz (i5), but the hardware that I'm trying to buy says it can only run if the CPU is 2.0 GHz or higher. I contacted them to see if 1.8 GHz would let me go, and they said it wouldn't. So, I was wondering if there was a way I could make my Macbook go a little faster by only just .2 GHz? I keep hearing people over clock, but I don't know how to do it.

Your software vendor is an idiot.

Name and shame please? Hard coding CPU speed checks you can not skip is just stupid. clock speeds are going down if anything and efficiency is going up.

 

[yearofthe]

Your software vendor is an idiot.

Name and shame please? Hard coding CPU speed checks you can not skip is just stupid. clock speeds are going down if anything and efficiency is going up.

To be fair, it was just tech support. So I'm sure he probably overlooked it, but I'll bring it in a new message to them. So, just to be clear, this piece of hardware will work and my laptop will "Turbo boost" when I use it?

 

[Mlrollin91]

Usually when software/hardware mentions minimum CPU, its talking about a single core of 2.0GHz, but your i5 at 1.8GHz is dual core. You're fine, I don't think you will have a problem.

 

[Steve121178]

My current Air only has 1.8 GHz (i5), but the hardware that I'm trying to buy says it can only run if the CPU is 2.0 GHz or higher. I contacted them to see if 1.8 GHz would let me go, and they said it wouldn't. So, I was wondering if there was a way I could make my Macbook go a little faster by only just .2 GHz? I keep hearing people over clock, but I don't know how to do it.

I don't understand why you haven't tried the application to see how it performs, so just install it and see how it performs!

A vendor will often give certain minimum specifications as a rough guide. 2GHz is a daft benchmark, does it mean an old Pentium 4 2GHz, a C2D 2 Ghz or what?

 

[Bear]

To be fair, it was just tech support. So I'm sure he probably overlooked it, but I'll bring it in a new message to them. So, just to be clear, this piece of hardware will work and my laptop will "Turbo boost" when I use it?

What piece of hardware? You didn't mention that at all.

 

[scaredpoet]

My current Air only has 1.8 GHz (i5), but the hardware that I'm trying to buy says it can only run if the CPU is 2.0 GHz or higher. I contacted them to see if 1.8 GHz would let me go, and they said it wouldn't. So, I was wondering if there was a way I could make my Macbook go a little faster by only just .2 GHz? I keep hearing people over clock, but I don't know how to do it.

The software vendor - if they have any competence - should be well aware that the CPU clock cycle no longer has a direct bearing on performance. A 2.0GHz Core2Duo is actually WAY less capable that a 1.7GHz Haswell i7, for instance.

The idea that a higher clock speed means more performance stopped being accurate sometime around 2001.

Is it possible to run the software on a trial basis? Unless they did something really stupid, like have the software actually check the clock speed and refuse to run without even trying, then it's doubtful you'll have problems. If they DID do something bone-headed like that, then you really, really need to find an alternative if you can, because that's just stupid (and who knows what other ridiculous things they did with their code?).

That said, I really WOULD like to know what software package this is.

 

[yearofthe]

What piece of hardware? You didn't mention that at all.

It's an Elgato Game Capture HD. I JUST contacted them about turbo boost and they said they can't give me a definite answer. Translation: I now know tech support is not skilled in the tech area. As to why I don't just purchase it? It's just a waste of time for me now. I'm just looking for a good capture device since most of them are on Windows only. The Elgato is one of the few I found to work on Mac (Bootcamp is not an option since I only have 4GB of RAM).

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The software vendor - if they have any competence - should be well aware that the CPU clock cycle no longer has a direct bearing on performance. A 2.0GHz Core2Duo is actually WAY less capable that a 1.7GHz Haswell i7, for instance.

The idea that a higher clock speed means more performance stopped being accurate sometime around 2001.

Is it possible to run the software on a trial basis? Unless they did something really stupid, like have the software actually check the clock speed and refuse to run without even trying, then it's doubtful you'll have problems. If they DID do something bone-headed like that, then you really, really need to find an alternative if you can, because that's just stupid (and who knows what other ridiculous things they did with their code?).

That said, I really WOULD like to know what software package this is.

It's Elgato Game Capture HD. Here's there specs page where they EXPLICITLY said that it can't perform well under 2.0 GHz (the text for that is in red): http://support.elgato.com/index.php...nav=0,1,448&languageid=1&group=englishdefault

 

[ZBoater]

...I now know tech support is not skilled in the tech area.

Heh. I just called Apple tech support because my Thunderbolt display is not charging my MBA, and the person that answered didn't know Thunderbolt displays charged laptops. Go figure.

(I did get to a Senior Advisor and he took care of me. That first line though, oooof, they need some work....)

 

[Stetrain]

Ghz is not a valid measurement of performance across different generations of processors.

The 2008 Macbooks came with 2.0Ghz dual core processors, but that was five CPU generations ago. A current gen 1.3Ghz CPU would definitely be faster, even though it is a lower clock speed.

 

[paulrbeers]

It's an Elgato Game Capture HD. I JUST contacted them about turbo boost and they said they can't give me a definite answer. Translation: I now know tech support is not skilled in the tech area. As to why I don't just purchase it? It's just a waste of time for me now. I'm just looking for a good capture device since most of them are on Windows only. The Elgato is one of the few I found to work on Mac (Bootcamp is not an option since I only have 4GB of RAM).

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It's Elgato Game Capture HD. Here's there specs page where they EXPLICITLY said that it can't perform well under 2.0 GHz (the text for that is in red): http://support.elgato.com/index.php...nav=0,1,448&languageid=1&group=englishdefault

10 bucks it will be fine. An Ivy Bridge i5 is considerably faster than say a Clarkdale or Arrandale i3.

To make my point:

Ivy Bridge i5 1.8ghz has a geekbench of 6300 (2012 MBA processor)
Clarkdale i7 2.8ghz has a geekbench of 6300 as well (2010 MBP processor)


So 2.0ghz might be the minimum for a first gen i series processor, but I bet even the Haswell 1.3ghz would be fast enough now.

 

[scaredpoet]

It's Elgato Game Capture HD. Here's there specs page where they EXPLICITLY said that it can't perform well under 2.0 GHz (the text for that is in red): http://support.elgato.com/index.php...nav=0,1,448&languageid=1&group=englishdefault

As I suspected, they seem to be basing their assumptions on the Intel Core2 architecture, which is 7 years old and hasn't been in production since 2011. But what's worse is, the tech support document suggests that the software actively checks the clock speed of the CPU and locks out certain features if the software thinks your CPU can't handle them.

So, Elgato thinks that an early 2009 Mac mini 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 model is somehow MORE capable than a 2013 1.7Ghz Core i7 MacBook Air. Being someone so who's owned both systems, I can tell you that's really, really off base.

I try not to call people stupid often, but this is stupid, stupid, stupid.

And, why isn't Elgato leveraging the GPU for video capture and encoding? Very sloppy.

 

[throAU]

I've had software complain about clock speed before from Microsoft (i believe) - one of their server products. The software was from like 2003 or 2005 and i was installing on a quad core xeon from 2008. Luckily it was only a "Warning" and could be ignored.


People who hard code CPU checks into software that can't be skipped need to be all rounded up in a field and sodomized with something rather large and spiky.