Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Intel i7 Turbo Boost, disable?

P

Pavia

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 22, 2010
117
0
I'm currently using some 32-bit programs, that makes it turbo boost when I really don't need it. I'm rather new to Mac, and I have no idea what open firmware is, or how it works, or if there's even open firmware in MacBook Pro 2010.
My question is: How do I disable (and later enable) intel turbo boost technology? :eek:
 
hmm.. I'm not sure how but I think that the turbo boost is enabled in the bios and cannot be changed with software... I don't know how to change the bios on a Mac computer, though.
 
As far as I can tell, you cannot. Mac don't have BIOS nor open EFI so you can't change stuff like this, not sure can you with a PC. Anyway, why would you do this?
 
Hellhammer said:
As far as I can tell, you cannot. Mac don't have BIOS nor open EFI so you can't change stuff like this, not sure can you with a PC. Anyway, why would you do this?
Click to expand...

Because it heats it up way more, than when it's not boosted. And it doesn't require 3.06ghz to run.

A little side question. I installed windows 7 x86 earlier on my MacBook Pro, and I was running several programs so I looked in the task manager under perfomance, and it showed activity on all 4 threads?
 
Pavia said:
Because it heats it up way more, than when it's not boosted. And it doesn't require 3.06ghz to run.
Click to expand...

How do you know Turbo is enabled? It doesn't do it if there is no need to. If your app ain't maxing out the CPU usage, it won't, it's designed to provide better performance in single threaded apps when needed. Also, it shouldn't heat up more as it has been designed to do that only if the system is relatively good.
 
Hellhammer said:
How do you know Turbo is enabled? It doesn't do it if there is no need to. If your app ain't maxing out the CPU usage, it won't, it's designed to provide better performance in single threaded apps when needed. Also, it shouldn't heat up more as it has been designed to do that only if the system is relatively good.
Click to expand...

I installed some application in windows made by Intel that shows the current frequency of the CPU. It only requires 2ghz as recommended settings.
 
If you are worried about heat then just increase your fan speed or or lower the temperature threshold with smcFanControl.
 
Pavia said:
I installed some application in windows made by Intel that shows the current frequency of the CPU. It only requires 2ghz as recommended settings.
Click to expand...

Recommended settings only mean you get adequate performance to run the app, whereas minimum settings give you just enough to get it working. If the app could do with more power, and the computer can provide it, the app will get extra power.

maybe you could answer these questions:

1- How do you know turbo boost is being activated?
2- What apps are you using, which allegedly activate turbo boost?
3- When these apps are running, what is the CPU usage shown in Activity Monitor?


Reason I ask is because as far as I know, turbo boost is not something that the user has access to, and Macbooks generally run hot, so how do you know turbo boost is on?
 
seb-opp said:
Recommended settings only mean you get adequate performance to run the app, whereas minimum settings give you just enough to get it working. If the app could do with more power, and the computer can provide it, the app will get extra power.

maybe you could answer these questions:

1- How do you know turbo boost is being activated?
2- What apps are you using, which allegedly activate turbo boost?
3- When these apps are running, what is the CPU usage shown in Activity Monitor?


Reason I ask is because as far as I know, turbo boost is not something that the user has access to, and Macbooks generally run hot, so how do you know turbo boost is on?
Click to expand...

That's the strange thing! It only shows between 15 and 27% CPU usage.
I use Intel's Turbo Boost widget (windows :()
 
Hellhammer said:
As far as I can tell, you cannot. Mac don't have BIOS nor open EFI so you can't change stuff like this, not sure can you with a PC. Anyway, why would you do this?
Click to expand...

You can with a PC.. thats one of the benefits of having a bios, you can change things like the cpu/memory speed, aswell as voltage changes.. but having a bios is the primary reason PC's take a while to boot.. Otherwise they would boot as fast as Macs do if not faster..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back