The Turbo button actually slowed down your processor for backwards compatibility reasons. Older software was expecting the CPU clock to be below a certain threshold, and would crash (or run way too fast) if the clock was too fast. Sort of like old games tying the physics to the framerate, then the physics gets all weird when the frame rate changes. The Turbo button was a way to boot old programs without needing to dig into your BIOS to downclock the CPU manually.
Old games were especially bad about it. They’d rely on the CPU clock for in-game timing, so the game would basically run in super speed if the CPU clock was too fast. The Turbo button allowed you to slow the CPU down to make those games playable again.
Turbo was the default behavior. There was a toggle button that turned off the turbo light and slowed the machine down when needed for compatibility. Note: almost nobody needed this capability it sometimes they bumped the button and later wondered why the pc was slow.
The previous user isn’t wrong per se, but just to clarify: if the indicator light is on, the “turbo” (default) mode is on and the device is running at full performance. Turbo off means it’s downclocked.
It’s more a misnomer to call it turbo when in fact it’s just the standard speed of the device, while the mode that is actually toggled using the turbo button is what causes it to run slower for compatibility reasons.
Reminds me of why NASA had to rename the thing that went over astronaut’s private part to large, gigantic, and humongous because nobody woud pick small and normal.
I have a 486 DX4 that runs at 100mhz. It was faster than the contemporary Pentium that ran at 80mhz. Though this was one of the last 486s and later Pentiums hit higher speeds.
Ah yes, and the turbo light. Offering the illusion of some vague notion of enhanced speed of some sort, somewhere inside box.
I had a pc with a 486mhz processor and and a cordless phone with a 900mhz processor. Both communicated via the same copper wires.
And don’t forget Napster. What a time to be alive and chat in the Microsoft network chat rooms.
The Turbo button actually slowed down your processor for backwards compatibility reasons. Older software was expecting the CPU clock to be below a certain threshold, and would crash (or run way too fast) if the clock was too fast. Sort of like old games tying the physics to the framerate, then the physics gets all weird when the frame rate changes. The Turbo button was a way to boot old programs without needing to dig into your BIOS to downclock the CPU manually.
Old games were especially bad about it. They’d rely on the CPU clock for in-game timing, so the game would basically run in super speed if the CPU clock was too fast. The Turbo button allowed you to slow the CPU down to make those games playable again.
Gonna add a turbo button to my PC that does nothing except light up an LED and turn on a really loud fan.
Silverstone has a retro case with turbo button: https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/flp02/ It spins up all fans when you press it
Why in the hell did they call it “turbo” when it’s literally the opposite
Turbo was the default behavior. There was a toggle button that turned off the turbo light and slowed the machine down when needed for compatibility. Note: almost nobody needed this capability it sometimes they bumped the button and later wondered why the pc was slow.
The previous user isn’t wrong per se, but just to clarify: if the indicator light is on, the “turbo” (default) mode is on and the device is running at full performance. Turbo off means it’s downclocked.
It’s more a misnomer to call it turbo when in fact it’s just the standard speed of the device, while the mode that is actually toggled using the turbo button is what causes it to run slower for compatibility reasons.
Reminds me of why NASA had to rename the thing that went over astronaut’s private part to large, gigantic, and humongous because nobody woud pick small and normal.
I mean, the light indicated when turbo was engaged and you would disengage it to slow it down. Maybe you had hooked up your jumpers backwards?
The light (and button label) lied.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button
The cordless phone was a 900MHz radio, not processor.
And it was a 80486 model CPU. Probably at 25MHz.
I have a 486 DX4 that runs at 100mhz. It was faster than the contemporary Pentium that ran at 80mhz. Though this was one of the last 486s and later Pentiums hit higher speeds.
I had that one too!
It had a 25MHz bus and the processor quadrupled that to 100MHz in its turbo mode: hence the 4 in DX4.
Either way, it certainly wasn’t a 486MHz CPU ;-)
I never did AOL or MS chat. I was one of those Usenet and IRC degenerates. Oddly enough, it seems like the true sickos were in AOL/MSN all along.
Met my wife on IRC. We should go back to Usenet.
It’s still around!
I had IRC but also a bunch of friends that chose ICQ instead of messenger. Those were the days.
Uh oh!
It had a purpose, that wiki/Turbo_button.
(But TIL some Pentium PC had the button too.)