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| by MAC | November 3, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feature Test: Turbo Mode Feature Test: Turbo Mode Click for full size… As mentioned previously, Turbo Mode is a potentially exciting new feature that automatically unlocks two additional multipliers and allows the processor to self-overclock based on thermal conditions and workload. If the Power Control Unit (PCU) senses that only one core is active and the other three are in an idle state, it will use the unused power and thermal headroom to overclock that single active core to ensure superior single-threaded performance. Conversely, if you running a multi-threaded application, the PCU will measure the thermal headroom and if the processor is running cool enough it will overclock all four cores. Turbo Mode can overclock a single core by a maximum of two speed bins (multipliers), thus 266Mhz higher at the stock 133Mhz BCLK. When overclocking all four cores, it can increase the frequency by 133Mhz. Although the results will be fairly self-evident, we have to measure the performance boost that Turbo Mode provides on the top-end Core i7-965 model. As per the above, thermal conditions permitting (and they were), it will run a one core at 3.46GHz for single-threaded workloads, and the four cores at 3.33Ghz for multi-threaded scenarios
As you can see, there are some marginal performance improvements in multi-threaded applications, and some more noticeable speeds boosts in single-threaded applications like SuperPI. Some people may consider the Turbo Mode feature a mere gimmick, and perhaps it is for enthusiast users. However, who would begrudge Intel for giving all users a free 133-266Mhz speed boost? No one, and we definitely like the concept and the implementation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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