Intel upgrades all-core turbo from Core i9-11900K to 5.1GHz last minute

Intel adds an additional boosting technique to its 11th generation Core i9 processors. With this Adaptive Boost Technology, the maximum clock speed for a multithreaded workload is increased to 5.1GHz.

When Intel announced its Rocket Lake CPUs for desktops on Tuesday, the processor manufacturer mentioned a maximum all-core turbo of 4.8GHz. According to a slide released Thursday, the extra boost of 300MHz is possible for all cores as long as none of the cores get warmer than 100 degrees Celsius.

Basically, Intel’s turbo algorithm is still based on Turbo Boost 2.0, which was introduced with the Sandy Bridge generation in 2011. Various additions have been made over time. For example, Turbo Boost Max 3.0 enables the two fastest cores to boost 100MHz higher and Thermal Velocity Boost allows all cores to clock 100MHz higher as long as the temperature stays below 70 degrees. Adaptive Boost Technology now comes on top of that.

Because Intel calculates the TDP of its processors based on the base clock speed, which is only 3.5GHz with the 11900K, the extra turbo has no effect on the specified TDP value. The actual power consumption will increase considerably as soon as this additional turbo becomes active.

The Adaptive Boost Technology will only be available for the overclockable Core i9s, so the Core i9 11900K and the 11900KF without igpu. Additionally, a bios update is required, in addition to the often already available bios that adds Rocket Lake support to 400 and 500 series motherboards. Motherboard manufacturers have already started releasing the first updates. The new processors will be released on March 30.