Intel Core i5 450m--Turbo Mode?

What is the turbo mode mean on my processor? I'm still learning the ropes of laptop hardware components and I just bought a new machine that has it. Is it overclocking or what? Will it harm my computer if I use it? Will it make a significant difference in my performance?

 

Increasing Performance with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology

Processors — Intel® Turbo Boost Technology frequently asked questions

 

thanks for that man.

but can it harm my computer? im guessing not since its the processor is made for it..

 

Not that I've seen, though I have seen Turbo Boost make some computers unstable which can be disabled in certain BIOS.

 

alright thanks a lot

 

Essentially, Turbo Boost is the processor automatically increasing its clockspeed when it realizes whatever is running could benefit from more processing power. Turbo Boost will only engage when the processor is running under its temperature limits. Read the links posted above for a full overview.

The i5-450M runs at 2.40GHz by default but can go to 2.66GHz under load on both cores.

Turbo Boost will not harm your computer and I haven't heard of it causing instability; leave it enabled.

 

Hrm well I did have to diagnose a custom built desktop that would sporadically BSOD when certain stressful applications were run. We checked cooling, RAM, CPU turns out the Turbo Boost was causing the BSOD. Now it is a desktop X58 chipset but still Intel's Turbo Boost technology.

 

Was the rig overclocked? I have heard of some issues of instability when people start playing around with the multipliers and voltages.

 

Nope stock speeds, default VID.

 

Hm. Maybe a bad chip, then? Who knows?

 

Nope because when Turbo Boost was disabled everything was fine. Benched 36 hours or Prime95 stable after that.

 

That's what I meant, a chip that had a flaw that wouldn't let it turbo, either because it overheated or maybe some other flaw that kept it from basically running faster than stock. After all, even when people overclock normally, how far they can go depends on their individual chip, some will easily overclock to 3 or 4 GHz stably, while others can only manage 2.5 or so.

 

Personally imo the turbo feature for mid end duals is a gimmick. Increasing freq by a few hundred mhz isnt going to do much. However with quads it quite helpful