CPU higher than maximum

Question

I bought a new laptop with an Intel i7-4510U processor. Its max sustained frequency 2.0 GHz (which I thought was low). How is it running at +2.8GHz.

Is this affecting its performance? Or is there some process causing it to run at this speed/ any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

It is the the Turbo Boost technology introduced by Intel to boost the performance on-demand and clock it down when it is not needed to conserve power. i7-4510U can be boosted to the max speed of 3.10GHz. Don't worry, the processor just tries to complete the task as soon as possible by clocking itself up temporary. It is pretty normal especially when you try to launch a heavy software.

You can refer to the specifications of the processor in the link below, http://ark.intel.com/products/81015/Intel-Core-i7-4510U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz

Answer 2

Intel uses a Speed Boost Technology as talked about here:http://www.intel.com/support/processors/corei7/sb/cs-032279.htm

That can allow the processors to boost above their stated max usually for short periods of time [not sure what the limits are].

Oh, and everything should be fine. Especially on new CPUs they have all kinds of thermal, fan and other controls and what not to monitor the CPU and do what is needed to keep it from getting damaged. If this is the auto setting I would really not worry. Only worry if you set it to like extreme performance manually and were to somehow disable it's ability to do the thermal checks and throttle based on those. Otherwise, if you use an application [looks like you are using some intel util] to use what they have there to do adjustments you should be fine as it will always watch over the CPU and it's current health and would usually even warn you if there was a temp or other issue that was starting to cause issues.