Bring back the turbo button!

[Fulmar]

I'm sure a few of you remember the good ole turbo buttons found on PC's in late 80's & mid 90's (My first case in my first PC build circa 2000 has a turbo jumper wire/led).  Well unfortunately we probably won't see that button again, but a new turbo mode is coming.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Turbo-Mode-Intel,6193.html

IDF: Core i7 Will Self Overclock
7:30 PM - August 19, 2008 by Steve Seguin, Tuan Nguyen
Source: Tom's Hardware – Category : CPU
45 comments

Intel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Corporation ’s upcoming Core i7 processors will feature a turbo mode, as announced on Day 1 of IDF http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDF . Although not quite like the retro turbo mode button found on computers of the late 1980’s, the turbo mode on Core i7 will still result in increased single threaded performance. The technology is based on the idea of dynamically increasing the frequency of the CPU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit when not all the cores are in use, archiving higher single threaded performance when that is all that is required.

ZoomThe technology is aided by the improved power management features found on Nehalem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Nehalem_(microarchitecture) also announced at IDF. The Integrated Power Gate technology will shut off idle cores, reducing their voltage to zero, rather than just lowering the power provided to them. Not having as many cores on using power and producing heat, will allow other cores to use more power, increasing the performance of those cores, while still not exceeding the maximum TDP of the processor.

In the following scenario for example, if you are using a Core i7 with 4 cores, and the game you are using uses only a single core, the other three cores will turn off, reducing the heat produced by your processor, allowing the only running core to be automatically overclocked for higher performance. This new technology may be a compelling reason for many to no longer choose the faster clocked dual core http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core processor over the slower quad core, as the quad core could offer now equal single threaded performance at the same price.

Exactly what type of improvement is expected form this turbo mode is yet to be seen, but early leaked demonstrations show at least a single stepping of improvement, 22 to 23 for example. What this Turbo Mode means for overclockers is also yet to be seen also. Some are saying overclocking on Nehalem will be very difficult if Intel so chooses to make it so however. Leaked information also indicates that production CPUs will self overclock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking by up to two speed bins — for example jumping from 3 GHz to 3.2 GHz or even 3.4 GHz.

With this kind of headroom, it will be interesting to see how far enthusiasts will be able to push Core i7 processors. Even Intel indicated to us in June that Core i7 silicon is extremely healthy. Our own tests revealed that Core i7 processors will have considerable amount of headroom in terms of clock speeds.

For those who remember, the original "turbo button" found on many PCs back in the day, was there not actually to speed up the CPU, but actually to slow it down. When activated, the CPU actually ran at full speed. With the turbo button switched off, the CPU would be underclocked to allow certain legacy applications to run at "normal" speeds instead of "too fast."

[Skuzzy]

The Core i7 CPU's are going to be what drives the nail into AMD's CPU business, if Intel keeps the pricing agressive like they have with the Core 2 family.

[Denholm]

I definitely wouldn't want to see AMD leave. I prefer them over Intel.

[Skuzzy]

I do not want to see AMD out of it either, but unless they pull a miracle out of their engineers, they are going to be deep in the poo when the Core i7 CPU's hit the streets. 

They have not been able to compete agains the Core 2 family without completely cutting their profit margins.

[Getback]

I'm always happy to see improvements. I truly hope that AMD can become competitive though. I have one AMD machine and one Intel machine. The intel definately is better as of now.

[Delirium]

It has been nice in the past with the AMD/Intel competition, if that competition was to suddenly disappear I would be disappointed.

We all know what happens when competition disappears.

[Fulmar]

We all know what happens when competition disappears.

We become Soviet Russia.

[Chalenge]

I dont know about soviet russia but I would rather avoid the higher prices and tunnel vision that would result.

[Ghastly]

As would we all.  The problem is that not only do I find it personally distasteful to " just suck it up " and buy AMD based systems now in the hopes that I can do my little bit of a part to forestall what is probably looming ... but making a business case for why we (as a company) should buy a certain amount of AMD "just because" is a even tougher.   

I certainly haven't forgetten the heavy handed Intel of the RDRam era... and I dread the day they are unshackled by a lack of competition to return to similar business practices.

<S>

[Charge]

"I do not want to see AMD out of it either, but unless they pull a miracle out of their engineers, they are going to be deep in the poo when the Core i7 CPU's hit the streets.
They have not been able to compete agains the Core 2 family without completely cutting their profit margins."

When AMD acquired ATI I think there was some talk about some kind of a united CPU/GPU system to probably provide a more compact solutions for lighter home use, so the AMD might take its focus to elsewhere since they may not be able to compete with Intel in CPU markets in the future. Being a die-hard AMD fan myself I regrettably had to go with Intel when I realized that considering the power consumption and benchmarked performance Intel could provide me more of what I was looking for.

-C+

[Monty405]

Hopefully AMD does not drop out of the competition like VIA did in the past, If it were only intel running the show we'd probably all still be in the prescott era.