Originally Posted by
coldReactive
Turbo Boost, in simple terms:
If the CPU's base speed is too slow to work with X amount of processes, the CPU will auto overclock itself to the Turbo speed depending on how many processes are demanding the speed. (IE: It can turbo to 2.1 GHz, then 2.5 GHz, then to 1.8 GHz, automatically.)
Often, manufacturers will use the turbo speed to advert the computer's "actual" speed, when in actuality, the base speed is the real speed. For instance, the ASUS G73jh's speed is 1.6 GHz, not 2.6 GHz or whatever the Turbo was.
Often, the computer will not reach the max turbo either, due to limitations in place to keep the processor down in speed to conserve power, etc. The widget from Intel is REQUIRED to use Turbo, as the widget is bundled with the Turbo driver, and no way to install them separate.
The latest GPUs for NVIDIA and AMD:
AMD Radeon HD 6990 (M for Mobile) (Can come in dual-GPU configuration on one card, similar to that of the 590.) (Newegg has been out of stock for months.)
NVIDIA GTX 590 (No Mobile Equiv. if I understand. Comes in dual GTX 570/580 variety as well, up to 3 GB of Video RAM.) (Newegg has been out of stock for months.)
On a side note, NVIDIA also has a "Professional Grade" line known as Quadro. These are epically more expensive, but offer way more cores, speed, memory at maximum configs. These take different drivers, and often do not have Linux support.
The 8 Core AMD Line is titled FX Series. It should not be bought for just gaming. if you plan to do some serious computations or livestreaming, sure, go for it. You won't need more than 250-500 GB of HDD Space (That's the space available to save data, IE: game saves, word documents, etc. This often is confused with the term "Memory," which it isn't.) A 3-Core AMD Processor at 2.5 GHz or better will do just fine. It's more along the lines of the GPU that you should be looking at. At the very least, you should floor yourself in the 4800 Radeon HD series (Please note, Radeon and Radeon HD are totally different series), and the GeForce 8800 GT.
Mobile GPUs are significantly different than their desktop equivalents, and will (if not) always perform lower than their desktop versions.
...So if they have 1GB its like a another one attached to it with another 1GB making it 2GB's? Or just making the 1GB work easy like cores?
