Why do reviews say that Llano's Turbo Core isn't working?

[cebalrai]

I picked up a Gateway NV75S02u laptop with an A8-3500M @1.5 ghz. According to CPU-Z 1-2 cores turbo up to 2.4ghz all the time. I can do simple things like shake a window around and two cores will hit 2.4.

Anyone know why reviewers here and on Tom's aren't seeing this? Or is CPU-Z lying to me?

 

[nonameo]

Try it in a game or something?

 

[cebalrai]

Try it in a game or something?

The cores spike up to 2.4 all the time in Dirt 3.

 

[nonameo]

The cores spike up to 2.4 all the time in Dirt 3.

Well then, perhaps there is no issue. May have been a problem with the review laptops, or may just be a problem with the 3500.

 

[notty22]

Well what reviews is the OP referring to ?
If you look, most had desktop cpu's and tested them in desktop m/b's. That didn't offer turbo-boost.
I believe another issue about the reviews was the ram selection.
I notice most laptops are shipping with 1333 ddr3

 

[cebalrai]

Well what reviews is the OP referring to ?
If you look, most had desktop cpu's and tested them in desktop m/b's. That didn't offer turbo-boost.
I believe another issue about the reviews was the ram selection.
I notice most laptops are shipping with 1333 ddr3

What does RAM selection have to do with it?

There was a review on Tom's.

Also one right here from just a couple days ago on an A6 Toshiba laptop: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4616/llano-in-the-wild-toshibas-satellite-l775ds7206

"These cores are clocked at a low 1.4GHz, and while AMD has instituted a turbo feature to speed them up to as high as 2.3GHz depending on the workload applied to the chip, none of our monitoring software is yet able to actually track the processor speeds as they turbo up."

 

[notty22]

They mention their inability to see it in monitoring software. I think they would have mentioned a non-working turbo in the conclusion, the cpu would have been drastically under-clocked.
They did mention receiving and installing a bios update. Maybe the cores never down-clocked in the sample they used ?

AMD even bothered. Jarred did receive a BIOS update to the original Llano laptop that addressed most of the corruption issues experienced in our not-for-release hardware,

Our review unit is equipped as follows: Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7206 Specifications Processor AMD A6-3400M
(4x1.4GHz, 32nm, 4MB L2, Turbo to 2.3GHz, 35W)

 

[podspi]

How do you like the Gateway? I have an older one from before the sale to Acer and I love it. Been hesitant to try out the post-Acer models...

 

[sm625]

Try running a 1M super_pi. It is only a single thread so it should turbo up to 2.4 and stay there for the whole run. But I think you will find that your results more closely match those of a 1.8GHz cpu.

 

[apathy_next2]

How do you like the Gateway? I have an older one from before the sale to Acer and I love it. Been hesitant to try out the post-Acer models...

My experience has been pretty bad with them. I think they are very cheaply built. I've had two and they both broke. A friend used to have one and his broke as well.

 

[Meghan54]

My experience has been pretty bad with them. I think they are very cheaply built. I've had two and they both broke. A friend used to have one and his broke as well.

Your experience isn't isolated or unique with Acer and Acer built products. I bought two Acer laptops, both crapped out within a month....one in two weeks. I'll never waste my money on an Acer. I'd take one for free....but I'd sell it immediately and buy something better.

 

[Ryun]

I've had a Gateway LT3103u (netbook, post-Acer takeover) for about 2 years now and it's been great. I would consider myself a poor owner of the thing, heh. It was my netbook as a student and it got tossed in my back pack between classes. Same backpack I would wear when booking it to catch the train. Now, it sits between my desk and the coffee table (sometimes getting stepped on by cats).

Long story short, I treat that thing like crap. Yet all of the original parts are still installed and work great. The only thing I'm disappointed about is the battery. I used to get like 4.5 hrs on that thing, now I only get about 3.

I understand the Acer hate, and I don't think I would purchase anything from them for serious work. However, when I'm ready to buy another netbook I'll definitely look at Gateway again.

 

[cebalrai]

Try running a 1M super_pi. It is only a single thread so it should turbo up to 2.4 and stay there for the whole run. But I think you will find that your results more closely match those of a 1.8GHz cpu.

Maybe, yeah. But isn't turbo core just supposed to be a temporary boost? Otherwise it would just be called a 2.4 ghz processor, right?

How do you like the Gateway? I have an older one from before the sale to Acer and I love it. Been hesitant to try out the post-Acer models...

My new Llano Gateway is one of the most beautiful laptops I've ever seen. 17" screen and thin and pretty game-able for $580? Amazing deal if you ask me. It has a chicklet keyboard and a great touchpad as well. The drawback is a 5400 rpm hard drive (though at a spacious 640 gb and there are 2 HDD bays). I had an extra Seagate Momentus XT hybrid HDD laying around and now the thing is super snappy.

Construction doesn't feel cheap at all. No more cheap than all the other manufacturers at least...

 

[dorion]

Maybe, yeah. But isn't turbo core just supposed to be a temporary boost? Otherwise it would just be called a 2.4 ghz processor, right?

It works when there is thermal headroom. Running Prime95 pushes the processor closer to its limits than running a single SuperPi thread, so the processor takes advantage of the extra room and clocks the core up higher for SuperPi. I think it's only Sandy Bridge processors that do the extra temporary boost to exceed TDP for a short burst.