AMD Turbo Core Technology

[geokilla]

AMD Turbo CORE Technology on Phenom II X6 CPUs - AMD Turbo Core Technology Introduction - Legit Reviews

Reading the article at the moment and seems pretty interesting.

[Zero82z]

This is literally the exact same thing as Intel's Turbo Boost. Nothing here is particularly surprising.

[Killswitch]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

This is literally the exact same thing as Intel's Turbo Boost. Nothing here is particularly surprising.

Actually you're wrong. They are similar, but VERY much different.

Intel's Turbo Boost tech for Gulftown can OC anywhere from one, to all six cores if needed. The speed increases range from +133Mhz to +233Mhz. Depending on how many cores are active.
http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...ulftown/39.jpg

Now, AMD's Turbo Core technology can only OC up to 3 active cores MAX...... but with an increase of up to 500Mhz. Also when Turbo Core is enabled, the CPU down clocks the idle cores to 800Mhz to compensate for heat, voltage, etc......

So, Gulftown doesn't down clock any of its cores AFAIK, but it's speed boost isn't as big in terms of Mhz compared to AMD's, but AMD doesn't allow all cores to be boosted.

The question here is...... "Who's turbo technology is better?"

[clone63]

Originally Posted by Killswitch

"Who's turbo technology is better?"

You'd have to get 2 equally benching cpu's when both boosting technologies are disabled, then bench them when enabled. I guess?

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by Killswitch

Actually you're wrong. They are similar, but VERY much different.

Intel's Turbo Boost tech for Gulftown can OC anywhere from one, to all six cores if needed. The speed increases range from +133Mhz to +233Mhz. Depending on how many cores are active.
http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...ulftown/39.jpg

Now, AMD's Turbo Core technology can only OC up to 3 active cores MAX...... but with an increase of up to 500Mhz. Also when Turbo Core is enabled, the CPU down clocks the idle cores to 800Mhz to compensate for heat, voltage, etc......

So, Gulftown doesn't down clock any of its cores AFAIK, but it's speed boost isn't as big in terms of Mhz compared to AMD's, but AMD doesn't allow all cores to be boosted.

The question here is...... "Who's turbo technology is better?"

You've got a bit of a point there. AMD's tech is actually inferior because it lacks the granularity that Intel's has. Newer CPUs with Turbo Boost can actually give more than a 2x multiplier increase. As for downclocking, ever heard of Speedstep? It's been around since the Pentium III. AMD's downclocking tech is not Turbo Core, it's Cool 'n Quiet, which has also been around for years. The only thing that's changed here is that they are allowing a group of three cores to downclock instead of the entire processor; however, Intel introduced per-core dynamic clocking with the Nehalem architecture, so all i3, i5, and i7 CPUs can adjust the clock speed of each individual core depending on load.

[_dangtx_]

i have a feeling hard core overclocks may require disabling everything power saving or not :)

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

i have a feeling hard core overclocks may require disabling everything power saving or not :)

If it's properly implemented, you shouldn't need to disable a thing.

[Killswitch]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

You've got a bit of a point there. AMD's tech is actually inferior because it lacks the granularity that Intel's has. Newer CPUs with Turbo Boost can actually give more than a 2x multiplier increase. As for downclocking, ever heard of Speedstep? It's been around since the Pentium III. AMD's downclocking tech is not Turbo Core, it's Cool 'n Quiet, which has also been around for years. The only thing that's changed here is that they are allowing a group of three cores to downclock instead of the entire processor; however, Intel introduced per-core dynamic clocking with the Nehalem architecture, so all i3, i5, and i7 CPUs can adjust the clock speed of each individual core depending on load.

Yes I am aware of Intel's Speedstep, and I know that AMD's downclocking tech is called Cool 'n Quiet.

I was trying to point out that AMD's hex-core CPUs will be downclocking idle cores to 800Mhz to offset the power consumption and heat generation for the "boosted" active cores, which is how their Turbo Core works. When 3 cores or more are idle, is when the tech kicks in. Intel's Turbo Boost works much differently.

Here's a quote from the link in the OP in case you didn't read it.

"AMD's Turbo CORE is enabled on a six-core processor when three or more cores are not being heavily used. When Turbo CORE enables three of the processor cores get up to a 500MHz boost in performance, while the three at an idle state drop down to 800MHz. Turbo core mode doesn't disable Cool'n"Quiet, which means the cores can still throttle like normal. When Turbo CORE is enabled the increased voltage goes across all the cores, so no voltage gating is taking place on the remaining cores in an idle state. If you start using a multi-threaded application that calls for more than three physical processors then Turbo CORE disables and all six cores are run at the processors rated clock frequency. AMD informed us that running Turbo CORE keeps the processor within the advertised power envelope the entire time, so it is no different when it comes to power consumption than running all six cores at full clock speeds."

[Zero82z]

I see. But although downclocking is not technically a part of Turbo Boost, Speedstep is still active, and when not all of the cores are being loaded, the ones that are will be boosted and the ones that aren't will reduce their speeds. So the end result is basically the same thing.

[Killswitch]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

I see. But although downclocking is not technically a part of Turbo Boost, Speedstep is still active, and when not all of the cores are being loaded, the ones that are will be boosted and the ones that aren't will reduce their speeds. So the end result is basically the same thing.

So Intel's tech does downclock idle cores when Turbo Boost is enabled? That part I wasn't sure of. All the info I've found so far was pretty vague in that department. I thought the cores were just stepped up and that was it, period.

So I guess you're right and they are basically the same, and AMD got lazy with their version. They decided to toss the active cores up ~500Mhz and call it a day instead of feeling out each one individually.

Hopefully they'll be good chips though. I wouldn't mind getting one as long as there's an updated bios for my M3A79T Deluxe.