Turbo Boost Technology from Intel

To begin with, in order to understand what Turbo Boost is, you need to at least briefly imagine what the "overclocking" of computer components is.

Overclocking (or overclocking) of a computer is an increase in its speed by operating accessories in non-standard modes (usually at a higher frequency). The most common type of overclocking is increasing the frequency of the central and graphics processors, as well as operating and video memory.

Overclocking the processor as a phenomenon existed since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, after the concept of a multiplier appeared in the CPU of the 486 series. Manufacturers of motherboards, wishing to unify their products under the entire line of new processors from Intel, designed their products in such a way that by closing individual jumpers to "mothers" it was possible to set the bus frequency and the multiplier of the processor used. And the final frequency of the central processor - this is the product of the bus frequency by a factor.

Over time, due to the efforts of some firms (Abit, Epox and some others), overclocking has ceased to be the fate of a separate caste of computer gurus. The BIOS of most motherboards has entire sections of settings that allow even an unsophisticated user to change parameters such as the frequency of the processor bus, the voltage applied to the CPU, the timings (delays) of memory, etc.

The attitude to overclocking among different processor manufacturers was also different. In AMD, for example, if it was not encouraged, then, in any case, did not put the stick in the wheel. In addition, in the processors of this particular company for the first time in many years a multiplier appeared, unlocked "up", i.e. Allowing to raise the processor frequency above the nominal. But Intel for a long time was a consistent opponent of overclocking. For example, motherboards produced under its brand did not have any option responsible for fine-tuning the parameters of the processor and memory. The situation began to change from the end of 2008, when Turbo Boost technology appeared in the new Bloomfield processors.

The reason for the appearance of Turbo Boost is the multi-core of modern processors. Although the first dual-core desktop processors have already turned almost seven years old, not all applications are optimized for multithreading. In connection with this, there is often a situation where one or two cores are loaded almost 100%, while the rest at this time "rest". In this situation, new processors get minimal advantages over their single-core predecessors. And Turbo Boost allows automatically for a while to raise the frequency of loaded cores, thereby increasing both the real and apparent speed of the processor in this particular task. At the same time, the automation does not allow the processor to go beyond the heat pack assigned to it by the manufacturer. In other words, the processor in such a non-normative mode will not generate heat more than it can take away the regular cooling system from it .

Now Turbo Boost technology supports most Intel Core i processors (but not all!). Budgetary Pentium and Celeron while it, unfortunately, are deprived. Each processor model, along with the nominal frequency, has a maximum "boost" frequency. For example, the Intel Core i7 870 processor at a nominal frequency of 2.93 GHz in Turbo Boost mode can accelerate to a fairly impressive 3.6 GHz.

Those who do not know how to enable Turbo Boost can be reassured: by default this option is enabled in modern BIOSes (if, of course, the processor installed in the computer supports this). As a rule, the menu item responsible for the operation of this technology is called either "Turbo Boost", or "Turbo mode", or somehow very similar. In advanced firmware, designed for advanced users, it is possible not only to enable / disable this mode (Enable / Disable), but also to control the maximum multiplier for each kernel. Sometimes it is allowed even to increase the maximum heatpacket of the processor. The latter function allows the CPU to work in turbo mode for a longer time or at the same time maintain an increased frequency on a larger number of cores.

Also in the system you need to install the Turbo Boost Technology Driver, which allows modern operating systems to ensure their correct interaction with the BIOS of the motherboard.

Recently, AMD also in some generations of its processors uses the analogue technology turbo boost - TurboCore. From the technology from Intel, it has nothing, except the name, in fact, no different.