Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0
Getting the most out of your best core
When Intel started talking about Turbo Boost Max 3.0, I honestly assumed it was just generic renaming of a feature that we have had on Intel processors for years now, but I was wrong. TBMT3 (as I am calling it now) asks the question: how much faster could you run applications if you knew which core on your die was able to run at the highest frequency?
Overclockers already know that when you are trying to benchmark single-threaded workloads, not all cores on multi-core processors are created equal. Take a quad-core Skylake processor and try to overclock core 1, 2, 3 and 4 independently and you’ll like find a range of frequencies that can be stable at a range of voltages. With Broadwell-E, Intel is determining which cores are “best” during production, and building that into the processor identification that is read by the motherboard. When Intel tests dies for yield and binning, it is able to easily determine what the threshold is for each core; which would clock the highest with the least required voltage.
So what can you do with this information? After installing a driver from Intel on your system (Windows 10, 8.1, and 7 supported) you can see the order of your cores sorted by best to worst scalability. In my case, core 4 appears to be the top dog. Intel’s driver then assigns single-threaded workloads that need above a specific utilization to that top core, allowing it to clock higher than other cores on the processor. The Intel software is basic, but powerful, allowing you to reorder the core priority, set different utilization thresholds, and counter timings.
This is the first time we have needed a driver for a processor, though. Why is it needed? Windows 10, at least for now, does not have the capability to track which cores are performing better, and don’t know about the new information being provided by the Intel identification data. If you have ever watched Task Manager while running a single-threaded application or benchmark, without manually setting affinity, you may have seen something called core hopping.
In this example, I was running the single-threaded version of POV-Ray without the Intel TBMT3 driver installed. You can see that core/thread on the bottom left corner was running the workload for a while, then it moved to the core/thread 4th from the left on the top row, and now it is running it on the rightmost top core/thread. This moving of workloads between threads causes some performance reduction on its own, but Windows also doesn’t know which cores would be able to clock higher, getting the work done more quickly.
Here you can see the same POV-Ray workload running after driver installation; it stays on the same core/thread the entire time.
In this case, TBMT3 was able to move the clock speed of our “best core” higher than the 3.5 GHz rated maximum Turbo clock rate. What kind of performance delta can this provide?
- POV-Ray, Single Thread, TBMT3 Disabled: 353.46
- POV-Ray, Single Thread, TBMT3 Enabled: 398.96
- Increase: 13%
A 13% improvement in single threaded performance is fairly substantial and means that many of the tasks that we all do every day that aren’t multi-threaded should see improvement. If you are working with more multi-threaded workloads, TBMT3 doesn’t really change performance, as clock speeds are still limited by the slower cores. This new technology is available on all four of the new Broadwell-E CPUs.
It’s expected that Windows 10 will be updated sometime this year to understand the idea of a “best core”, and will enable the same functionality without the need for Intel’s driver.
Price cut when they realize
Price cut when they realize they gave out more review samples than people actually bought?
If the 10 core was only
If the 10 core was only $1200-1300, it might be a viable option, but not over $1700
Clearly Intel don’t aim the
Clearly Intel don’t aim the average Joe market…
edit: doesn’t
edit: doesn’t
Its worth $1000 just like
Its worth $1000 just like every other extreme CPU
At $1700, isn’t it cheaper to
At $1700, isn’t it cheaper to buy a dual socket board with two 6 core parts?
I miss the CPU wars of a decade ago. I hope zen is something worth replacing my 4770k with.
If it isn’t worth it to
If it isn’t worth it to upgrade your 4770k to SkyLake, then it probably isn’t going to be worth it to upgrade to Zen either. I was still using a core 2 duo laptop up until recently, and it did everything I wanted it to fine. Most general use applications just do not need that much processing power.
So with overclocking,
So with overclocking, Broadwell-E on average basically offers around the same per core performance, and no better?
I guess the “sweet spot” is probably still a the 6 core model. Something we’ve had around for several generations now. If you can call a $617 CPU a sweet spot.
As a mere mortal and gamer,
As a mere mortal and gamer, I’m much more interested in how the Broadwell-E 6850k and 6800k compare to the Skylake 6700k than I am about the 10 core/20 thread behemoth.
I’m hoping to see PCPer do some gaming benchmarks that compare these platforms in the near future, especially for slightly older titles that aren’t necessarily written with much multi-threading in mind.
They only had the 1 sample, I
They only had the 1 sample, I am sure more reviews are to come. I love how TTL was pushing the 6850k over 6800k,not worth it IMO considering its only more pcie lanes.
They only had the 1 sample, I
They only had the 1 sample, I am sure more reviews are to come. I love how TTL was pushing the 6850k over 6800k,not worth it IMO considering its only more pcie lanes.
I remember seeing people talk
I remember seeing people talk about the 1499 MSRP rumor for the 10c/20t CPU and saying, “It’s not going to be that high. It’s going to be $999 just like the previous gen.”
Lo’ and behold, it’s more than anyone could have anticipated.
Nothing short of a scam, please Zen don’t be Bulldozer2.0
Do you know the Murphy’s
Do you know the Murphy’s law?
By some vaseline while you can afford it. :o)
edit: buy
edit: buy
Anyone see benchmarks in
Anyone see benchmarks in modern games with a 1080?
I am considering upgrading from a 970 -> 1070/1080. However I am still on an i7 3770k @ 4.1. Wondering if that and the 1600mhz ram is limiting me.
So skylake would be easy upgrade – or the 6 core would not be that muchi more here with the 28lanes of PCIe..
DO you need an older CPU to
DO you need an older CPU to update the bios or can you update the bios with this new CPU installed?
Contact you motherboard
Contact you motherboard manufacturer.
Holding pattern for Zen…
Holding pattern for Zen… The lack of competition in this market is really showing.. Or what we’re seeing is the real devaluation of the USD.. You guys are printing money like nVidia and Intel make new chips..
really make you think doesn’t it…
Even with EUR or GBP it won’t
Even with EUR or GBP it won’t be significantly cheaper…
$1700? You could get a
$1700? You could get a *cough*https://pcper.com/hwlb*cough* dream gaming PC for that, with cash left over for some Steam credit. I guess this part is not intended for me.
Alright, maybe only ‘high
Alright, maybe only ‘high end’, but still – better than my trusty old Thuban rig..
This illustrates why Intel
This illustrates why Intel doesn’t want to be in the GPU market. The 1080 is actually a big chip for 16 nm, but Nvidia has to sell the GPU, plus 8 GB of new, super high speed memory on a PCB with an expensive cooler for $700. Intel gets $1700 just for a bare CPU. I would of guess that the die size for this CPU is similar to the 1080 GPU. The problem with not wanting to be in the GPU market is that the consumer market is quickly merging with the GPU market. Mobile will probably be going mostly APUs. There is quite a bit of power savings to have everything on one die. I don’t know how acceptable APUs will be in the desktop market, but an HBM based APU could be a very powerful device. Intel does not have a competitive GPU at all. The stuff with on-package didn’t fair too bad, but that was comparing an Intel 14 nm device with an AMD 28 nm device. Intel GPUs will not be able to compete with AMD or Nvidia 14 or 16 nm devices. Intel may have a lot of competition in the enterprise market also. Power processors and Nvidia GPU compute are going to be very competitive for HPC. There is also possible AMD HPC APUs and possibly ARM server processors. The new ARM core is only about 0.65 mm2 die area on 10 nm. They could put a large number of cores like that on a die with a huge L3 cache and have a very high throughput server device.
I have $156,000 in the
I have $156,000 in the business bank account ready to purchase 100 of the through the channel. We’ll be selling them for $1750+ and using them in my company’s Pro Workstation 3 Desktops. They will pair well with the $4000 Quadro’s that we will using.
Fuck yeah, America. And keep crying, all your low energy, aids Skrillex and Bernie Bot Cuck tears taste so yummy. So salty. MMMMMMM
#PoorPeopleSuck #Trump2016 #PeasantsOnPCPer
Here’s your reply
Here’s your reply
Anyone else feel like Intel
Anyone else feel like Intel is milking this CPU generation as much as possible until AMD releases Zen?
I think the pricing should have been;
10 Core = $1000
8 Core = $750
6 Core = $450
6 Core = $250
I hope that the prices change when Zen is released…
I’ll wait for zen and go for
I’ll wait for zen and go for it, whatever it is. Boycott whoever play the monopolistic game proudly as Intel is clearly doing.
well, greed has no
well, greed has no limits.
and lack of actual competition as well 🙂
i agree with above, until AMD has some competing products …
intel can drag their feet, milk the cows, and act basically
like comcast in that onion video spoof ….
“we don’t give a f….”, what are you gonna do ? …etc. etc. etc.
sorry Intel, love your products butz …something doesnt add up
I can get three i7-6700k and still be under $1000.
so don’t bullshit that its a cost ble ble ble …3 freaking skylakes ….still cheaper than one 10-core CPU …
at least CEO, COO, CFxxxO will get the bonuses 🙂
For the price of one private
For the price of one private jet you can get many compact cars without being able to reach half of the sound speed…
What are you trying to demonstrate?
Except the right analogy is
Except the right analogy is between a Ferrari and whatever muscle or sports car is in the same price ratio, your private jet example is stupid like you.
Does it change anything (the
Does it change anything (the best performance for the worst price) in the logic? No.
Insulting people doesn’t make you right either.
If Intel could lower the
If Intel could lower the price of the I7 6950X from 1700 to 1000 then the entire line is approx 47% overpriced……
Just saying……………..