In my review of ASUS GL553VD, I said that I had found a way to reduce the fan noise produced by the cooling system. With a fresh installation of Windows 10, the cooling system is kicked off every two seconds even for simple tasks like opening a web page. I hate fan noise!
Ask a question about Turbo Boost Switcher or submit your own review at MacUpdate. This is really effective. According to my online investigations Turbo Boost is enabled through the BIOS. I have gone into my BIOS, and there is no reference to it at all. My BIOS is Dell Inc. I am aware that there is a BIOS update available (A03 dated ), but the Dell drivers page states that to use it I need to 'download the file and copy. Direct your most critical workloads to your processor's fastest cores with Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0. Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 is a combination of software and hardware that delivers more than 15% better single-threaded performance. 1 2 3 Now available on select Intel® Core™ X-series processor family for Intel.
Article index:
- 2 – Techniques to disable the Turbo Boost
1 – Overview
After some searches, I found the culprit: Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
So what is Intel Turbo Boost Technology? From Intel’s website:
Intel Turbo Boost Technology is a way to automatically run the processor core faster than the noted frequency. The processor must work in the power, temperature, and specification limits of the thermal design power (TDP). Single and multi-threaded application performance increase.
The GL553VD is powered by an Intel Core i7 7700HQ. This quad-core processor works at 2.8GHz (the processor name in the registry is: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz). Thanks to Intel Turbo Boost, the CPU can work in an overclocked mode and the CPU clock can jump up to 3.8GHz.
I monitored the CPU clock speed with the latest version of HWMonitor:
On a desktop machine with a decent CPU cooler, such increases of clock speed are more of less invisible in terms of noise, but on a laptop, you hear them. And it’s really annoying.
2 – Techniques to disable Intel Turbo Boost
I found and tested several techniques to disable Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
2.1 – BIOS switch
This is the most simple technique. On desktop motherboards, there is such option in the BIOS. But unfortunately, this kind of option is not available in the GL553VD BIOS!
2.2 – Advanced Power Management Settings
The second technique I found is to set the maximum processor state to 99%. By default the max processor state is 100% and Intel Turbo Boost kicks off when the CPU reaches 100% usage. If we set the max processor state to 99%, the Turbo Boost technology is disabled.
To set the max processor state, open the Advanced setting panel of the Power Options:
Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings:
This technique works (the CPU clock speed is limited to 2.8GHz) but the CPU usage is also limited at… 96%:
Turbo Boost Switcher 2.7.1 Free
2.3 – ThrottleStop
ThrottleStop is a tool designed to stop the CPU throttling. In our case, I selected the third option (internet mode) and I clicked on Save:
ThrottleStop works fine, the CPU clock speed is limited to 2.8GHz and the CPU max usage is 100%. But these settings do not resist to a reboot…
2.4 – Advanced Power Management Settings – The Return!
Finally, I found the ultimate and perfect technique: a reg file (a registry file) that updates the advanced settings of Power Options and adds a new option: Processor performance boost mode:
This technique limits the CPU clock speed to 2.8GHz, allows a 100% CPU usage and is saved in Windows registry so Intel Turbo Boost is still disabled after a reboot.
Thanks to this technique, the cooling system is quiet. No more fan noise when I launch firefox!
You can download this registry update from THIS PAGE. Unzip the archive, right-click on the reg file and merge.
Turbo Boost Switcher 2.7.1 Download
Related posts:
Quickly noted for me, how to set up Turbo Boost Switcher to start automatically under MacOS Big Sur without a password prompt and disable Turbo Boost at startup.
Prerequisite: Turbo Boost Switcher is installed and working manually operated? Yes? Good! –> Close existing running instance of Turbo Boost Switcher NOW.
Create a new file:
Paste this text and save:
Start:
Turbo Boost Switcher 2.7.1 Review
Set the checkbox “Disable TB at Launch” in the GUI:
When you restart your Mac, the Menu Bar should display the Turbo Boost Switcher Icon as disabled (as shown in the screenshot above). This can take a few seconds, so be sure to wait a bit after you restarted 🙂
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