Turbo Boost is enabled by default on all Macs that supports it, and that sounds great. But that’s not always the case. Most of the time you don’t need it and you only stress the CPU, overheat the computer and the fans spin like crazy. The problem is that Apple gives you no control over Turbo Boost. Luckily, there’s a nifty little app that fixes this problem.
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL NOTE: works on macOS Sierra
First of all, let’s check if your Mac supports turbo boost ( unless it’s over, let’s say, 5 years old your Mac supports turbo boost but just to make sure ):
1. Go to > About this Mac
2. Copy the first line and paste it into Google.
3. The first result should be the Apple Support page for your Mac where you can check if it supports Turbo Boost or not
OK so why would you want to disable it?
- CPU Overheat: When Turbo Boost is activated, prepare to experiment high temperatures on your CPU, since it pushes till it reaches almost the Junction Tº, usually 100 ºC. This is controlled by hardware, but if you want your computer to live long, better keep it as low as possible.
- Parallel Processing: Turbo Boost is enabled when one of the CPU cores reaches 100%, increasing the core Mhz, but It won’t do it if all or your cores are 100%, since that will create a lot of overheat. This will reduce your parallel processing performance so, in some situations, you better disable it.
Enter Turbo Boost Switcher, a small app for Mac computers that allows to enable and/or disable the Turbo Boost feature.
It installs a precompiled kernel extension (32 or 64 bits depending on your system) that updates the Turbo Boost MSR register, so It will ask for your admin password when using it.
It’s installed on your Mac status bar and allows you to:
- Visually know if Turbo Boost is enabled or disabled at any time.
- Enable / Disable Turbo Boost manually.
- Configure it to disable Turbo Boost automatically at launch.
- Enable / Disable Turbo Boost automatically (only on Pro version)
- Check your CPU temp and fan speed.
- Set it to open at login.
- Automatically restore Turbo Boost on exit.
You can download Turbo Boost Switcher for free here or get the Pro version for $9.95 here.
PS: i’ve been using Turbo Boost Switcher for about a year now and it’s great. Simply put, right now I have a few apps opened including photoshop, rss reeder, mail, obviously the browser with a few tabs opened including a YouTube video playing ( ADD much? ) and my Mac runs at 51 degrees Celsius ( ~124F ) and fan speed at 1197rpm.
