Intel® Turbo Boost Technology is a way to automatically run the processor core faster than the marked frequency if the part is operating under power, temperature, and current specification limits of the Thermal Design Power (TDP). This results in increased performance of both single and multi-threaded applications.

There are two versions. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology was originally introduced in late 2008 with the Intel® i7-9xx Processor Series. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology v2.0 was introduced in 2011 with the Intel® i5-2xxx and i7-2xxx Desktop Processors. It operates in the same fashion as the first implementation and was optimized for the new micro-architecture that was introduced at this time.

• Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile and Desktop Processors
• Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition
• Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor Extreme Edition
• Intel® Core™ i5 Mobile and Desktop Processors

While Intel® Turbo Boost Technology availability is independent of the number of active cores, the operation is dependent on having headroom (cores operating under TDP) available in one or more cores. The amount of time the system spends in turbo boost will ultimately depend on workload, operating environment, and platform design.

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology is usually enabled by default by a switch in the bios where you can either enable or disable operation. Other than this, there are no user controllable settings to change Intel® Turbo Boost Technology operation either in the hardware settings or operating system. Once enabled, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology works automatically under operating system control.

Yes.

No. You can sometimes disable cores in the bios but this is not recommended unless there is a specific reason you need to do this.

There is no way to specify the maximum frequency. Once the system is in turbo boost, the processor automatically determines the maximum frequency it can operate at based on operating conditions.

The Intel® Turbo Boost Technology Monitor is a tool that will show you Intel® Turbo Boost Technology in action. For more information regarding supported processor families, supported operating systems, how to install or uninstall, troubleshoot Turbo Boost Technology issues and where to download the tool, visit the Intel® Turbo Boost Technology Monitor page. If your processor does not support Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, the tool will not work.

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology is an Intel® processor technology while Intel® Turbo Boost Technology Monitor is a tool that will show you Intel® Turbo Boost Technology in action.

The Intel® Processor Identification Utility will be able to show you that it is working at the highest Turbo Boost frequency if you disable the other cores in the bios. If you set the amount of cores to one in the bios and run the Intel Processor Identification Utility, it will show the highest Turbo Boost frequency. Make sure that you reset the switch in the bios to reactivate all cores in the bios if you made that change.

Since Intel® Turbo Boost Technology runs when the processor is operating under the power, temperature, and current specification limits of Thermal Design Power (TDP), good system integration and thermal design becomes more important than ever to extract the benefits of Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

For more information visit the Intel® Turbo Boost Technology page.