GHz and Turbo Boost

C

chris12345

New member
Hi,

I'm new to the forum and it looks like a great resource so wanted to ask you knowledgeable people this question:

I am looking to upgrade my laptop and plan on purchasing Sonar X3 Producer Edition. I also currently use and plan to continue using Superior Drummer and Amplitube 3 as well. My question is whether the spec of my future laptop/computer has to meet the required GHz or if Turbo Boost technology will make it alright? For example the spec for Sonar X3 states 'Intel Core Duo E8200 2.67 GHz', but I saw a good deal on an Intel Core i7 3632QM 2.2GHz (but 3.2GHz with their Turbo Boost Technology) which looked good. The i7 is a newer processor than the Core Duo, but I didn't want to burn it out by having to use Turbo Boost Technology all the time if Sonar is suggesting a minimum of 2.67GHz

Another example (not as high spec as above, but a good deal) was an Intel Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz

Thanks,
Chris
 
chris12345 said:
For example the spec for Sonar X3 states 'Intel Core Duo E8200 2.67 GHz', but I saw a good deal on an Intel Core i7 3632QM 2.2GHz (but 3.2GHz with their Turbo Boost Technology) which looked good. The i7 is a newer processor than the Core Duo, but I didn't want to burn it out by having to use Turbo Boost Technology all the time if Sonar is suggesting a minimum of 2.67GHz
Click to expand...

You're well clear of having to worry.

The actual clock speeds are meaningless unless you're comparing within one generation of chip.
Even then, other factors can be more important.
A top line core2duo is even close to any i7 chip.

Check it out.


It's a bit like having two 2.0 engines then finding out that ones a diesel tuned for economy and the other's a twin turbo tuned for racing.
 
Yes, even an i3@2.40 Ghz will outperform the Core Duo @ 2.67 Ghz (and meet X3's specification).
Turbo Boost (an implementation of dynamic overclocking through ACPI) gives more when it's asked for more (kind of like a turbo gets more vacuum when you stomp the throttle...) We like automotive demonstrations today...:D
 
Turbo Boost is meant to be a temporary speed increase, but for DAW software this is totally fine. The software doesn't usually need the full speed of your processor to run in real-time. When it does, the processor will speed up to match its needs, and can stay at the higher speeds technically as long as is needed.

The only downfall of running TB constantly will be heat - it will make your processor get hotter than usual after prolonged use. For some super-overclocked systems, the users will just set the procesor to run at turbo speeds forever, and will add extra cooling to make up for it. Because newer processors have great thermal protection, if your processor ever becomes at risk for 'burning out' it will just slow itself down until it's safe again.

I currently run an i7-3630qm on my laptop and I have it pinned to 3.4GHz because it has massive cooling on it :cool: This thing can run Ableton with a whole slew of Arturia, NI, and Waves stuff on it, and when I'm not playing back with all these effects the CPU sits at around 1% usage.

Overall, RAM will help you out more than a faster processor. Invest in more RAM if it's an option.

-Rob
 
Thanks so much for the replies. That's really helpful in getting me on my way.
The automotive examples help break it down very nicely too :)
 
I think they can only get up to the full turbo speed while running a single core, so don't think of the turbo speed as the speed of the processor as a whole - if there's more than one core being utilised (which is likely in a DAW running various effects and VSTi), then it won't get up to that speed.

This isn't entirely relevant to OP, but worth remembering.
 
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