In the latest generations of Intel Core processors we find Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology , in which the processor has a “preferred” core that is faster than the others. This core is automatically selected, and runs at a higher frequency than the rest when the system needs it. But how do you know which of the processor cores is that “preferred”? Here we show you how.
In the past, drivers were necessary for this technology to work in accordance with the operating system, but currently Windows already detects it natively . Thus, Windows already knows in advance which core is the fastest in Intel processors, but it does not show it to the user in a transparent way and in fact hides it as if it were one more core within the many that modern processors have.
In summary, what this technology does is select one or two processor cores and makes them work faster than the rest when the system has a low level of load. With this, it is possible to centralize the tasks of light weight in the faster cores, saving a lot of energy with it since the rest of the cores are waiting, and will only be activated when the system load level rises and it is necessary that go into operation.
How to know which core of your Intel processor is the “chosen one”
Since the operating system does not indicate in any way which core or cores are the favorites and that they work at a higher frequency than the others (and therefore provide better performance), if users want to monitor this feature we must use, sadly specific software. This software is none other than Intel XTU ( eXtreme Tuning Utility ) that we can all download for free, and that is in fact compatible with any modern Intel processor.
In this software we can go to the Advanced Tuning tab as shown in the image, where we will see clearly marked with stars which are the cores destined to work faster than the rest.
What is the use of knowing which is the fastest kernel?
Knowing which are the preferred cores of the Intel processor of your PC may be very good, but surely many of you will ask yourself “why do I want to know that?”. Windows really works in line with the processor and already allocates the system resources to the processor cores automatically according to the workload, but the user can also benefit from this fact.
Keep in mind that many applications and even modern games do not use all the processor cores, and even if this is the case, if we tell the software which cores to use, we can get an extra performance from the processor that we would not have if we stopped it. automatic way. Doing this is very simple, and for this we will only have to open the Windows Task Manager (right click on the Start bar -> Task Manager).
As we show in the image above, you must go to the “Details” tab within the Task Manager, and look for the process of the software that we want to “optimize”. You have to right click on the process and select the option “Set affinity”. A window will open with all the processor cores, and there we can mark the “preferred” cores that we have previously identified, forcing the application to base its operation on these above the others.
Don’t worry, we will not be limiting the use of only those cores to the application, we will simply be assigning a certain affinity, and the software will use the cores marked preferentially, but if they are not enough to satisfy its performance demands, it will automatically use resources from the other nuclei as well.