Skylake CPUs set for Speed Shift performance boost with Windows 10

sincity · November 9, 2015

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If you're bang up-to-date with your PC's processor and operating system – in other words, if you're running a Skylake CPU along with Windows 10 – then you'll be pleased to hear that Intel's Speed Shift tech will soon be making a difference to your computer's performance.

So what's Speed Shift exactly? It's part of the performance enhancements Intel implemented with Skylake, and literally allows the CPU to shift gear between clock frequencies far more swiftly, as the processor itself is making the transition rather than the operating system.

The Skylake processor can "more quickly select its best operating frequency and voltage for optimal performance and power efficiency" in Intel's words, and the company claims "dramatically quicker responsiveness" when it comes to single-threaded short duration workloads, for example simple web browsing should be far snappier.

On the software side, the operating system needs to support this technology, but the good news is that it's coming to Windows 10 in a new patch soon. Indeed, Microsoft News reports that the capability may well arrive in the major update which lands for Windows 10 tomorrow – this seems a good bet.

Let's hope that's the case, as while it will hardly supercharge your PC, Intel's technology certainly seems to provide a nice boost on some fronts.

Anandtech has been busy testing it out with a Core i7-6600U and found some pretty impressive performance leaps with Speed Shift enabled, particularly for tasks such as tinkering with photos in the likes of Picasa (in Microsoft's Edge browser).