What is ‘Turbo Boost’?

Turbo Boost is a big selling points for Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, but do people know what it is?

One of Intel’s big selling points for its Core i5 and Core i7 processors is something called Turbo Boost. It’s a feature that dynamically adjusts processor speed when users needs additional performance and saves energy when they don’t.

With Turbo Boost heavily marketed since it debuted with the Intel Core i5 and i7, we wondered how the marketing campaign is coming along as these products enter their first holiday shopping season. So we recently asked salespeople at the computer departments of several Sacramento, Calif. area retailers a simple question: “What is Turbo Boost?” Responses ranged from impressive to yikes. Always purposely standing in front of an Intel Core i5 when the question was posed, here’s what we got:

What is Turbo Boost?

• Turbo Boost is on the i5 and i7. It makes your computer go a lot faster when you need it,” said Steve with accuracy at the Best Buy in Roseville.
• “What is Turbo Boost? Good question. None of these have them, but that one does,” said Scott at the Office Max in Roseville. (Among the array of laptops he said didn’t have Turbo Boost was an Intel Core i5 and the one he said did was a Core i3, which doesn’t.)
• “Turbo Boost is kinda like a safe way to overclock your processor. It’s on the i3, i5 and i7,” said Kenneth at the Best Buy in Citrus Heights. (Accurate response except for the i3 part.)
• “Turbo Boost? Yeah, I heard it’s on the i7. I know they’re making it for Windows 7 and the i3 and i5. They’re working on it now,” said Joe at the Costco in Roseville. (Again, not on the i3 and the i5 already is being sold at Costco.)
• “You mean ReadyBoost? I don’t know what Turbo Boost is. I think you mean ReadyBoost,” said Ron at the Sam’s Club in Citrus Heights. (ReadyBoost is a disk cache component of Microsoft Windows and unrelated to Turbo Boost.)
• “It’s like having turbo in your car. When you need the extra power you get it. Turbo Boost lets you run big programs at once without noticing a differentiation in power,” said a spot-on Paulo at Fry’s Electronics in Roseville.
• “Turbo Boost gives you extra speed when you need it. It’s on the i5 and i7, but the i7 is so powerful you really don’t need it. When you play big games like ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ you will really appreciate it, especially on the i5,” said a manual-quoting Matt at the Best Buy in Folsom. (We swear he doesn’t work for Intel.)
• “It’s on the i3, i4 –- that series of processors,” said Curtis at the Staples in Roseville. (As noted, Turbo Boost isn’t in the Intel Core i3, and Intel doesn’t make an “i4.”)
• “Turbo Boost enhances the speed of our computers. It’s for more efficiency when running multiple programs. It’s on Intel’s i3, i5 and i7,” said Ron of the Fry’s Electronics in Sacramento. (So close.)
• “I don’t know what ‘Turbo Boost’ means,” said Joseph at the Walmart in West Sacramento. “Sounds like something new.

We asked holiday shoppers the same question. Check out what they said in this video.