Hyperthreading/Turboboost, On or Off?

[Virgorising]

Hi.

Lynnefield i7 chip in new system (i7 870 2.93) supports hyperthreading and turboboost. As of now, I have both turned on in the bios. I just thought I should. Is that good? Is there any reason I should turn either off?

Many thanks.

Edit: I am delving to learn, just found below.....what does it mean? What is "bin"?

Fast forward to today. All three Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs now sport a 95W TDP (and an 89A ceiling), making the PCU’s power-policing duties even more critical. Adding further to the controller’s role is a more aggressive implementation of Turbo Boost. With three or four cores active, the Core i5-750 and Core i7-860 get a one-bin improvement each (the Core i7-870 gets two). But with only two cores active, all three models enjoy a four-bin (533 MHz) speed-up. And with one core active, the two [COLOR=blue !important][FONT=inherit !important][COLOR=blue !important][FONT=inherit !important]Core [COLOR=blue !important][FONT=inherit !important]i7s[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][/COLOR] get five bins (667 MHz) so long as you’re still under 95W.[/FONT][/COLOR]​

 

[TuxDave]

When chips are made, it's split into "bins". Each bin separates the chips based on the frequency that it can run at. Due to random processes during manufactoring, each chip will vary slightly which can impact the highest frequency or lowest voltage.

So when they say a part gets "five bins", that means it's running at a spec that would've been 5 steps better.

As for your question, I always leave turbo on and hyperthreading on. If you really want to be super picky on performance, I would recommend running a benchmark that's closest to your work. Then you can try it with hyperthreading on and hyperthreading off to see which one runs better.

 

[Virgorising]

When chips are made, it's split into "bins". Each bin separates the chips based on the frequency that it can run at. Due to random processes during manufactoring, each chip will vary slightly which can impact the highest frequency or lowest voltage.

So when they say a part gets "five bins", that means it's running at a spec that would've been 5 steps better.

As for your question, I always leave turbo on and hyperthreading on. If you really want to be super picky on performance, I would recommend running a benchmark that's closest to your work. Then you can try it with hyperthreading on and hyperthreading off to see which one runs better.

TuxDave, all of the above....BRILLIANT. I now get what bin is! And, what I now think I should do, is do a test video encoding with them off.....cause I did test with them on and it was 360fps. WELL over 3X faster than it is in my older system (PD 3.40, Presler)

This chip--- I chose system first because of it, has (for ME who luvs speed bu is no gamer) pretty amazing benchmarks for the first generation i7s: 5.438.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dave3000]

Turbo boost can be a very useful feature. If you have turbo boost enabled with C-states enabled your CPU will clock higher during less threaded applications and put the other cores not in use to sleep. However based on what I read and through my experience, SSD performance drops if any of the C-states are enabled, mostly in the random 4k read and writes, as I tested it using CrystalDiskMark. You can still have turbo enabled without C-states but you only get 1 bin up if you disable C-states and not full turbo but then SSD performance will be much better but I don't notice the difference in SSD performance.

 

[Virgorising]

Turbo boost can be a very useful feature. If you have turbo boost enabled with C-states enabled your CPU will clock higher during less threaded applications and put the other cores not in use to sleep. However based on what I read and through my experience, SSD performance drops if any of the C-states are enabled, mostly in the random 4k read and writes, as I tested it using CrystalDiskMark. You can still have turbo enabled without C-states but you only get 1 bin up if you disable C-states and not full turbo but then SSD performance will be much better but I don't notice the difference in SSD performance.

Interesting stuff! But in my case, all my drives have platters and spin.:| Still waiting for SSDs to come down a bit in price. Tho, I confess, I am tempted.