[roberto-carrillo]

I recently got a Gateway Nv55S04u, A6 3400m CPU, Radeon HD 6520G, 4 Gbs of RAM, and a 500 Gb hard drive.

The laptop's description at Amazon states this processor is: 1.4 Ghz by default.. and "capable of 2.4Ghz with Turbo Core". I could have picked a Toshiba Satellite with the exact same components, that -does- have the option for Turbo Core.. and probably a real BIOS but I went for this one...

Once I got it yesterday, I find out Gateway threw in some BIOS stripped of any worth configurable settings, there's no way to set up anything CPU related from within the BIOS, no Turbo Core option anywhere at all. And at their tech support chat they're basically saying "that's the BIOS it's bundled with.. and Turbo Core = overclocking, we don't cover that topic." Frustrating to have spent hours trying to learn anything there or make them understand Turbo Core is an AMD factory setting.. :/ anyway..

I've searched around to see if I'm getting something wrong about how Turbo Core works, and at some sites I've read "it works by it's own" on high CPU demand... (it kicks in at random times when needed, if I got it right) so I went and stressed the CPU with a bunch of stuff, while keeping an eye on the clock speed with CPU-Z, and I've only seen the clock speed go from 800 mhz to 1400 mhz. never goes beyond that. I'm starting to think this CPU is kind of restricted to 1.4 Ghz by Gateway, and they just decided to disappear the option for enabling Turbo Core from the BIOS...

If that's the case, and it's safe to tweak it to at least 2 Ghz.. not even 2.4.. I'd really appreciate if someone explains me how to bypass the deal, as in some overclocking method within Windows if nessesary, or if there's any AMD software that could activateTurbo Core.

Thanks!

 

[Eerazer]

I think it's built into the processor and automatically activates itself.

I read around for you, you can learn about Turbo Core 2.0 HERE.

I know it says Bulldozer, but that is using Turbo Core 2.0 the same as your A series processor, so what it says about that, should apply to yours as well.

 

[roberto-carrillo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eerazer;15238262
I think it's built into the processor and automatically activates itself.

I read around for you, you can learn about Turbo Core 2.0 HERE.

I know it says Bulldozer, but that is using Turbo Core 2.0 the same as your A series processor, so what it says about that, should apply to yours as well.

Yup, I made some more research but couldn't find much to confirm this stuff about Turbo Core being automatic.. So I just went and installed Starcraft II, plugged in a 2nd monitor to keep an eye on the cpu and yea, it hits 2.4 Ghz, so Turbo Core is built-in automatic feature.

I would've preferred having Gateway's tech support explain it on the go when I asked them, but apparently a big number of agents aren't briefed on how it works, to the point one told me "I wanted to overclock the CPU" since I wanted to enable Turbo Core.. and "they don't assist overclocking and it would void the warranty" lmao.. w/e

The only thing I'm dealing now with is that this laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Edition, and they say at tech support that the drivers wont work right with windows 7 Ultimate (and some might not work at all), I'd like a clean Windows install, cause they threw in a biig load of nonsense apps, besides of getting all the features of Windows Ultimate.

Could this be true? sounds plain weird to me, why would hardware drivers that work perfectly on Home Edition not work in Ultimate..