Overclocking, Intel Speedstep, Turboboost, and all that other stuff !

This is getting me really confused, so here goes. (for i7 m11xr2 with 4GB ram)

No OC, Intel Speedstep enabled, Turboboost enabled, 3DMark2006 = 7124
OC @ 164 (can't stabilize at 166), Intel Speedstep enabled, Turboboost enabled, 3DMark2006 = 7456
OC @ 164, Intel Speedstep disabled, Turboboost enabled, 3DMark2006 = 6883
OC @ 164, both Intel Speedstep and Turboboost disabled, 3DMark2006 = 6856

I would expect to see the highest performance for OC with Intel SS disabled but I guess when you OC, Turboboost is automatically disabled when you disable Intel SS. And this hurts the performance for 3DMark2006.

But beyond these synthetic benchmarks, can someone help me pick the best option for actually playing a high end video game like Fallout 3 or WoW? When I use FRAPS to monitor the FPS in these games, I see such a small difference between the above combinations that it is really hard for me to decide.

My question is, which one of the above 4 options would be better for playing current games at a respectable frame rate with no hiccups, CPU throttling, etc.

Cheers.

PS: Yes, I read almost every sticky on these forums but was unable to find a definitive answer to this question.

 

The scores really aren't representative of individual game performance.

Try some of you games out with each option. I'm sure it's not too much of a hassle if you want to get the best performance

 

Well here is one hypothetical spanner to throw at your assumptions..

The amount of turbo boost you get is limited by a few factors, such as CPU load and temps.

So if you disable Speed Step the CPU won't back off when it has the opportunity and therefore not cool and therefore could limit the amount of turboboost.

Similar with OCing as this ups the base CPU speed, which is more heat (especially with Speedstep off).

In a full on game Speed Step will hardly happen as you are always hitting the CPU. 3DMark06 has gaps, mainly hits the GPU and also a two CPU intensive tests.. so this is not a consistent use and Speed Step would be able to get in there.

So what is best.. depends on the game

On a basic options testing I would keep SS & TB on and try the game with and without OCing.

My general experience is that with SS on and TB on the CPU boosts higher with no OCing, but with OCing the clock is higher and so it just about evens out on the overall CPU speed. However, a faster FSB has other benefits.

Ah and then you have GPU OCing to consider... more fun

 

Awesome reply thanks a lot. I'm not planning to OC the GPU for a while simply because from what I have seen CPU seems to be the limiting factor rather than GPU. Especially for older games like WoW. I think for now, I will leave the SS & TB on and go with no OC. This will help me conserve battery when I'm doing work (which these days seem to overshadow my gaming anyways) and has minimal effect on gaming performance at least for the games I'm currently playing.