Sony F - i7-720qm issue?

just reading around on the forum, i've read that the i7-720qm processor has some 'throttling' (?) issue?
the F owners thread has over 100 pages and its gonna be hard to find where the info is
can someone shed some light on this please

 

It seems that the i7 is throttling on battery to the lowest multiplier. They may have fixed this problem already or have a software fix to keep the speedstep from throttling down. They said it had something to do with the BIOS.

 

sorry, but could you dumb it down a little?
i mean like, does it make noise, does it mess up the laptop in any way or anything, or is it just a annoyance or what?

thanks

 

Sorry.. SpeedStep is a battery saving measure employed on Intel processors. What it does is when the processor isn't doing anything, it reduces the clock speeds and core voltages which for example would take a 2.2ghz processor and throttle it down to 900mhz or so to save battery but when the processing power is needed it automatically raises the processor speeds back up to 2.2ghz. Now with the i7's what's seeming to happen is when unplugged from the power cord, it reduces the clock speeds to the minimum and doesn't change them until it's plugged back in. Most with the i7 machines think it's a bug in the BIOS. But essentially what it does is just slow things down on battery. But if all you're doing on battery is web-browsing or listening to music or that type of "non-cpu intensive" thing, then you probably won't notice it.

 

The term for throttling in this case means that the performance potential of the processor is limited while on battery as opposed to being plugged in.
So from 1.6ghz (turbo mode to 2.8ghz) it steps down to 900+ mhz while on battery.
It is by design more likely to conserve battery life. If you want more info, just go to the F owners thread and do a keyword search.

 

has this problem been fixed or is it still a problem?
cuz im planning to get this laptop and dont want any unwanted surprises

 

I personally find that for pretty much anything that does not have the computer going all out, the "throttled" state is just perfectly fine, especially since it conserves battery power. Things like wireless websurfing, watching DVD/Bluray, watching youtube videos, streaming video etc, function seamlessly in the "throttled" state.

For highly processor intensive stuff like RAW Photo processing or Video rendering etc., the computer would need to be plugged in to prevent slower processing. Of course when plugged in, we are talking about the CPU being able to power through stuff that used to take over a half hour on the older Core 2 Duo machines, in mere minutes (my first-hand experience).

Bottomline, as long as one is aware of this "throttling" characteristic, one can always compensate by plugging in when full CPU power is needed. Of course if one is unaware of this characteristic, then one could be caught flat-footed when running on battery and the laptop throttles down, when it is required to go all-out.

 

i did not know the sony F had this issue. I must be stupid or didnt see it because I have been eying the sony forums trying to decide on a sony F or Sony CW. Thanks for pointing it out. otherwise i would have missed it

 

To the best of my knowledge all i7 notebooks have this "feature", even the HP ENVY notebooks.

 

Do you think programming (Java, .NET) on some IDEs (Netbeans, Visual Studio 2008) is "highly processor intensive stuff" and may I run them on battery power because I will bring laptop to class to study IT.