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I have a laptop with Core i7 2630QM (Base freq 2GHz TurboBoost2 upto 2.9 GHz).

I was always curious about to view the dynamic overclocking that occurs in i-series when it is subjected to heavy loads.

Initially I tried Intel Turbo boost monitor. It shows single bar for current clock frequency and doesnt look cool.

  1. My doubt is that whether the dynamic overclocking occurs for all cores together or each core is dynamically overclocked at different frequencies as needed.

    So if different cores are actually overclocked at different frequency then why Intel's Turbo boost monitor shows single graph.

    Now my favorite gadget All Cpu Meter is updated to show turbo boost.

    However I cant find it very well.

    Check this image: All Cpu Meter

  2. Does the increase in clock frequency above the base clock is the only way this gadget shows the turbo boost? If yes then again they are showing the single textual increase in frequency value as turbo boost.

  3. Is there any better tool.

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  • TurboBoost does not overclock all cores (effectively). When one core is at full load and the other cores are idle, the CPU will boost the clock frequency. The idle cores might be technically boosted, but then again-- they're idle. As soon as they start doing work, the CPU will drop back to the rated speed. I also believe SpeedStep clocks the CPU down as a whole when all of the cores are idle or under light load-- Any core under full load will cause the entire processor to return to rated speed.
    – Darth Android
    Commented Oct 18, 2012 at 14:16
  • @DarthAndroid can you please confirm the Clock (2594 MHz) shown in the gadget under "CPU Usage" greater than the base frequency 2001MHz (shown on left processor information ) is the only Turbo Boost indication the gadget provides?
    – Mahesha999
    Commented Oct 18, 2012 at 19:11
  • I can't confirm that that is the only indication that the gadget provides (it may display it elsewhere), but TurboBoost and SpeedStep both work by altering the CPU multiplier (you can watch this in realtime with a program called CPU-Z), and the CPU multiplier affects all cores on the CPU.
    – Darth Android
    Commented Oct 18, 2012 at 19:52

2 Answers 2

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The standard windows resource monitor shows the CPU speed as a % of rated speed. So if you see it at 115% then it is doing to turbo boost thing.

pic

You get there from the task manager

task

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  • well interesting...now I have to observe 100+%
    – Mahesha999
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 19:55
  • Note: my E5-1650v3 Xeon processor won't go over 102%. My friends laptop with a lesser processor regularly goes to 115%. Go figure.
    – John Alexiou
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 20:09
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Q1. My doubt is that whether the dynamic overclocking occurs for all cores together or each core is dynamically overclocked at different frequencies as needed.

According to my monitoring program, the cores in my CPU have independant clock frequencies of eachother. This is probably intel speed-step working [Citation needed], (since naturally you cannot set individual clocks for your cores). The cores throttle based on system load, as clearly seen in the first screenshot:

enter image description here

As you'll notice, CPU #2 is at 9% load, and because hyper-threading is enabled, it corresponds to Core #1 which is at a much higher frequency than all the other cores.

Here is another interesting screenshot where 3/4 cores are at different frequencies, but the CPU load does not really match that perfect.

enter image description here

Both our CPUs have Idle States, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology. So unless the only reason why my cores have independant frequencies is because it's newer, your CPU should be working the same way mine is.

Your CPU Tech Sheet

My CPU Tech Sheet

Q2. Does the increase in clock frequency above the base clock is the only way this gadget shows the turbo boost? If yes then again they are showing the single textual increase in frequency value as turbo boost.

Turbo boost is when your cpu core(s) throttle over the base frequency. My CPU has a base frequency of 4GHZ. However, if I put random loads on my cpu..

enter image description here

enter image description here

The frequency will sometimes get boosted to 4.2GHZ maximum. It appears that it will only turbo boost the cores when the load is not that large. Here is a screenshot when I'm stress testing the cores:

enter image description here enter image description here

So @Darth Android's comment is accurate about this behaviour, how it will only turbo boost when part of the processor is idle.

Q3. Is there any better tool.

You can find the tools I used on http://www.cpuid.com/

CPUID brings you system & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting quality softwares for your Windows & Android devices

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