Question about i7 processor

deathnote666

What does it mean when a processor is 1.8 GHz and 3.0GHz with turbo.

What exactly is turbo? Does it only run at 1.8GHz until more resources are needed?

Looking at a 1.8 GHz Intel Core i7-4500U that has turbo up to 3.0GHz.

bowen

That's a laptop core for sure, the U basically denotes that. Basically it'll run at 1.8GHz unless there's a something quick that needs to be run that it can give a few cycles to run at 3.0GHz for. If there's too much heat, it'll probably run at 1.8GHz or lower.

Basically, assume it's always 1.8GHz.

deathnote666

I've seen a lot like that now... Would I notice it running at 1.8 or would the turbo kick in before I notice a slowdown? Does the turbo add "stress" to the processor, as in that it would be more wear and tear on it running at 2.2GHz as apposed to a regular 2.2GHz Pentium processor?

BlindZenDriver

deathnote666 wrote: »

I've seen a lot like that now... Would I notice it running at 1.8 or would the turbo kick in before I notice a slowdown? Does the turbo add "stress" to the processor, as in that it would be more wear and tear on it running at 2.2GHz as apposed to a regular 2.2GHz Pentium processor?

No need to think about "wear and tear" with regards to a CPU - that is only really an issue if you have insufficient cooling or a case where the systems power supply has a hard time supplying the power needed for the turbo mode (an overstressed power supply will normally just should down when overheating).
And you won't notice a turbo lag like one might do in a car with a big turbo instead the question is more if you use your computer for something that needs a lot of CPU power for more than short bursts. Normal office work doesn't really a fast CPU all the time, but video editing or playing advanced computer games will benefit from all the CPU power possible for all of the time. Another car analogy - the turbo thing is like a boost thing that could win you a drag race, but it won't win Indy for you as you need to go max speed for hours to do that.

Jasconius

a turbo processor will run at its minimum speed until it reaches maximum utilization at which point it will ramp up as high as it needs to in order to meet demand

A majority of Core ix processors also have built in GPU's which I believe run on the same clock

commonly, a CPU such as that one will run at its minimum speed pretty much all of the time except when you have a crapton of browser tabs open or are running a game

this is to save electricity and heat

depending on the cooling capacity of the laptop, it will run at turbo as long as its can, and then slowly throttle back to prevent itself from melting

I have an i5 in a turbo configuration and it gets extremely hot extremely fast.

In short, as others have said, you more or less bank on the lower speed because it is NOT designed to Turbo for extended periods of time

Donovan Puppyfucker

W/r/t the OPs question about 1.8GHz vs. 2.2GHz, you need you be aware that different CPUs are capable of different amounts of work per clock cycle, and that the number of cores in play has a huge effect on how much work can be done in a certain period of time, too.

If you're talking about a Pentium dual core running at 2.2GHz vs. a Haswell i5 quad core running at 1.8GHz, it's almost guaranteed that in day to day use the i5 will outclass the Pentium, and in the case of heavier work like video editing, the i5 will make the Pentium cry for mercy.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

laptops use processors that dynamically raise/lower their clock speed to extend battery life and help with heat management.

This works well for office applications and other things that aren't necessarily time-sensitive; i.e. I start a big batch process in photoshop, processor notices the increased load and increases its clock speed until the demand is gone.

The problem for games is that 1) most games aren't designed with these cores in mind and 2) games' processor load frequently change pretty rapidly. This isn't a problem for desktop processors that are running at stable speed most of the time, but laptop cores can create sluggish performance.

You can use software to force laptop processors to run at 'turbo' speed all the time, but in most cases laptops' circulation/heat management/battery is not designed with that in mind and it can fairly drastically reduce the lifespan of the machine.