Conclusion - Turn It Off!

The Intel Turbo Boost Technology may be a great feature for end-users, especially those who are not interested in manually overclocking their processors. However, it is a dangerous feature for reviewers and hardware enthusiasts who need to obtain accurate benchmarks of the Core i7 and Core i5 processors, or systems based on these processors.

Intel Turbo Boost will screw up your test results because it automatically adjusts the processor's clock speed on-the-fly based on a large number of variables. This makes it impossible to be certain that the processor is running at any particular clock speed throughout a benchmark run.

Intel's decision to adopt different Turbo Boost levels at different points for different models also prevents an apple-to-apple comparison of the Core i7 and Core i5 processors amongst themselves, much less against other processors. In short, Turbo Boost prevents us from knowing for sure what the processor is doing whenever we benchmark the processor.

Therefore, if you are a reviewer or a hardware enthusiasts who enjoys overclocking and benchmarking your own system, make sure you TURN OFF Intel Turbo Boost before benchmarking your PC!

For a more thorough discussion of the Intel Turbo Boost Technology, as well as the performance advantage of enabling Turbo Boost, please take a look at the Intel Turbo Boost Performance Advantage Revealed article.

For the lowest price on Intel Core i7 or Core i5 processors, head over to Pricegrabber!

Other Intel-Related Articles

• Intel Core i7 D0 Core Performance Advantage Revealed
• Intel Turbo Boost Performance Advantage Revealed
• The Intel Core i7 Installation Guide
• The Intel Core i7 Memory Bandwidth Guide
• Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition Processor Review
• Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition Processor Review
• Intel Core 2 Processor Performance Comparison Guide
• Counterfeit Intel Retail Processors
• Why You Should AVOID Intel Core 2 Engineering Samples

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