Intel Turbo Boost disabled on Bootcamp

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Intel Turbo Boost disabled on Bootcamp

Hi,

I am running Windows 7 with Bootcamp on an Apple Mac Mini (Late 2012) model.

It has 4GB of RAM, and an Intel i5-3210M processor, which is clocked at 2.5 GHz (usually turbo boost takes it up to 3.1).

This is where my problem starts.

While I'm running Mac OSX, Turbo Boost works perfectly, but when I am in Bootcamp (Windows 7) Turbo Boost does not apply as a feature.

I get awful performance on such basic applications, too. I made sure I have no malware or any programs running in the background (for the most part).

Please help! It's as if my copy is starting to run at snail speed!

Oh yeah, I also made sure I have the Bootcamp drivers actually installed.

Mac mini, Windows 7, Intel i5 Turbo Boost not operating

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

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Jul 4, 2015 1:08 PM in response to smlfan123

How much free disk space do you have left in Windows partition?

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Answer 2

smlfan123 Author

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Jul 4, 2015 11:05 PM in response to Loner T

I assume you are asking that because I mentioned I'm getting some awful performance issues, so I should confirm I have about 50GB FREE right now. No, not in total, but 50GB of free space. I think it's a healthy amount because it is a little bit less than half of the whole partition, usually when you go above 50% it will start slowing down. 103 GB is the amount of the entire partition if you want specific numbers.

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Answer 3

Loner T

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Jul 5, 2015 5:17 AM in response to smlfan123

Thanks, that should be plenty of space. Windows will start slowing down as free space becomes a scarce resource. Is your internal disk a hard disk or a solid state disk? If it is an HDD, can you defragment only the Windows partition using Windows built-in tools?

You should also look at Power Option settings.

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Answer 4

smlfan123 Author

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Jul 5, 2015 10:44 AM in response to Loner T

I'm not sure any Mac Mini's have yet to come with SSD's, but yeah, it's a HDD. Thanks for the defragment tip though, forgot about it cause I'm not so used to doing it very often. Performance has started to become a bit better, so I definitely appreciate the help. About the power settings thing, yes, I already have it ticked to the Maximum Performance option. I also have another question, if Turbo Boost is "enabled" on OSX but it doesn't seem to be an option (I know it can't be ticked on or off, it just isn't there) on Bootcamp, does that mean Apple's Bootcamp drivers disable this feature? On Intel's overclocking utility, it says my processor lacks the turbo boost feature.

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Answer 5

Loner T

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Jul 5, 2015 10:47 AM in response to smlfan123

On older Macs with Windows installed using BIOS, there is a layer between the hardware/firmware and the OS, called CSM-BIOS (a BIOS emulation layer) which has no user interface. It controls what is exposed to the Windows side. This layer controls the CPU behavior. You can change some settings using msconfig and see then via sysinfo.

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Answer 6

smlfan123 Author

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Jul 5, 2015 11:01 AM in response to Loner T

Okay, I understand the emulated BIOS part a bit, but on msconfig, what settings would I change? Under boot, I already have it set to boot up with all cores, so is there an option I'm missing here or is that exactly what I have to do?

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