With the release of the new Sandy Bridge equipped MacBook Pros, users have been expecting clockspeeds of up to 3.4 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost technology. However, in some cases, the 13” models with Core i7-2620M processors have been reported to stall out at 2.7 GHz when using Windows. The culprit may be a high core temperature, which is not being seen when the 14” is running Mac OS X or at all in the larger models. Other tests show the 13” performing as advertised. So what exactly is going on here? Intel upgraded to Turbo Boost to take better advantage of the Sandy Bridge micro-architecture on its latest Core Series chips. Like the original algorithm, version 2.0 of the dynamic overclocking feature lets operating systems request more power when power consumption and temperature are below preset limits for the number of active cores, and likewise underclocks when those limits are exceeded. PC Pro‘s testing showed that the Core i7-2620M in their 13” late 2010 MacBook Pro remained at the rated 2.7 GHz under Windows testing but temperatures spiked to 93°C or about 200°F. A similar test made by Notebook Journal in Germany actualy showed the processor underclocking itself to 798 MHz under load. At the same time, Anand Shimpi tested the 13? MacBook Pro against his usual Mac OS X SYSMark suite and found that it was able to boos tup to 3.4 GHz in single core mode and 3.2 GHz for dual core. His reported core temperatures went up to 94°C when the machine boosted in dual core, which indicates that the temperature threshold should not have been the bottleneck for PC Pro. In a later update, PC Pro found that Turbo Boost worked properly under MAC OS X at higher temperatures than it reached in un-Boosted under Windows. PC Pro is speculating that Apple disabled Turbo Boost on MacBook Pros running Windows, or blocked those operating system calls from being sent to the processors because of heat dissipation. They also noted that temperatures spiking up to 99°C core, with the underside heating to a painful 60°C or 140°F. Until this issue is resolved, users interested in running Windows on the smallest Pro should probably hold off on making any purchases. What do you think of the issue? Let us know in the comments below! As usual, stay tuned for more tech news and info by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feed. [Source: Product Reviews] Authors:

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