Can someone explain to me the limits of Intel Turbo Boost?

[Kitten of the Broccoli]

I just got a Xeon E3-1231v3, and it can boost up to 3.8GHz. It says on Intel's website that Turbo Boost is designed to boost single-core performance, but I'm pretty sure I've heard somewhere that with some BIOS trickery or something, you can make multiple cores get boosted at once. Is this really a thing? And if so, would it benefit me in applications like After Effects and 3D Studio Max?

[suchamoneypit]

it increases the clock rate on all cores, which improves the performance of all cores, which makes each core perform better, although if you have all cores perform better you get better multi-core performance because when all cores do stuff they are all faster.

[ybriK]

Just now, suchamoneypit said:

it increases the clock rate on all cores, which improves the performance of all cores, which makes each core perform better, although if you have all cores perform better you get better multi-core performance because when all cores do stuff they are all faster.

Isn't it only the first core that hits the advertised max boost clock speed? I was looking at my BIOS and by default the multipliers for each core are x39 x38 x37 x36. Perhaps it has been changed after the Sandy Bridge series? i7-2700K base 3.5 boost 3.9.

[suchamoneypit]

2 minutes ago, ybriK said:

Isn't it only the first core that hits the advertised max boost clock speed? I was looking at my BIOS and by default the multipliers for each core are x39 x38 x37 x36. Perhaps it has been changed after the Sandy Bridge series? i7-2700K base 3.5 boost 3.9.

i dont think thats correct. It would be silly to only boost one core, it would make manual overclocking infinitely better if boost only boosted one core. When my 5820k is at stock and it boost to the 3.6ghz all my cores show as doing so, and when doing a manual OC to 4.7ghz, all cores do so. I do have my cores set to sync Ratio's though, but thats a default option (at least on my mobo)

 

I have never overclocked pre-Sandy Bridge CPUs though so I cant be sure.

[Lord_Karango17]

turbo boost is just on the fly overclocking based on load. It is just limited by your chip, so if you increase the multiplier to your turbo boost limit, it will boost all cores to that clock speed instead of only 1. That is assuming your chip can handle it at those volts.

[Enderman]

13 minutes ago, fireclaw316 said:

BIOS trickery or something, you can make multiple cores get boosted at once.

Yeah its called overclocking

[Kitten of the Broccoli]

16 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Yeah its called overclocking

Xeons can't be overclocked. Unless you count adjusting the bclk.

[Enderman]

11 minutes ago, fireclaw316 said:

Xeons can't be overclocked. Unless you count adjusting the bclk.

i know that

i was telling OP that boosting all the cores at once is called overclocking

i assume he already knows he cant OC a xeon with multiplier

[Kitten of the Broccoli]

Just now, Enderman said:

i know that

i was telling OP that boosting all the cores at once is called overclocking

i assume he already knows he cant OC a xeon with multiplier

I'm the OP.

[Enderman]

5 minutes ago, fireclaw316 said:

I'm the OP.

lol i dont read

[porina]

The idea is the less total power the CPU is using, the higher it can set the clocks in turbo. On a quad core with one core active, 3 idle, it will boost the most. 2 active 2 idle, it will boost a bit less. I think you get the idea. That's why the turbo clocks drop as more cores are loaded. The turbo mode can offer a limited overclock effectively, in that some bioses can set the 4 core turbo clock to be higher than standard. I don't know the exact requirements to do this, but for example one of my systems has an i5-4570s CPU which is 2.9 GHz base, but the Asus H81M-Plus mobo it is in will run it at 3.2 GHz all 4 cores active.