WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 The turbo button might sound like some silly gimmick that came with your new RGB headset, 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:10.320 but it was actually a fairly common and very important feature on older PCs. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.280 But what exactly did it do, and why don't modern PCs also have a turbo button? 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:21.680 Like where the heck is my fun? To understand what this button did, it helps to know why they called it a turbo button in the 00:00:21.680 --> 00:00:26.880 first place. It was named after the turbocharger in a high performance car, and just as a turbo 00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:32.720 allows the engine to produce more power, the turbo button on a PC places the CPU 00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:37.120 into a higher performance state. They're on a higher level, man. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:41.360 Okay, so it's like a one button overclock? Well, not exactly. 00:00:41.360 --> 00:00:45.840 You see, back in the day, programs that needed precise timing to function correctly 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:50.240 used the CPU's internal clock to figure out how fast to execute. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:56.000 Oftentimes, the program would assume the computer had an original Intel 8086 CPU, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:03.280 which only ran at 4.77 megahertz. But as the years went on, newer 286 and 386 CPUs started 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:09.440 to dominate. And because these processors had significantly faster clock speeds than the 8086, 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:16.240 older programs would simply run too fast. This led to really weird behavior, especially in games 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:20.800 where on-screen elements would fly around so quickly that games would become unplayable. 00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:26.080 Your PC is too good! This is where the turbo button became very useful. 00:01:26.080 --> 00:01:31.200 Instead of speeding the computer up, as the name would suggest, it was more common for turbo to 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:37.440 slow the computer down so that a program that was running way too fast would instead behave 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:43.040 properly with decorum. Of course, this often led to confusion, as on some machines, 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:46.560 having the turbo button pressed in would make it run slower. 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:54.560 To make it more clear which mode the PC was operating in, manufacturers would sometimes 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:59.600 build a little LED display into the case, which would either display the frequency the CPU was 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:05.040 running at, or a numerical code, or just the words high or low, to tell the user what state 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:09.520 the system was in. Although the problem was frustrating, the turbo button did make it easy 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:14.800 to solve with a single press. And one-click solutions such as these are still super important 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:20.000 in today's world. Even if you're managing servers, you can still accomplish large-scale tasks 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.400 quickly in this way. But why don't we have a turbo button on modern computers? 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:29.920 Well, the turbo button disappeared because of a major paradigm shift in how programs kept time. 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:35.840 As the 386 got older and we got into the era where 486 and Pentium machines dominated, 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.160 PCs were running at a much wider variety of clock speeds than before. 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:45.280 So, instead of relying on the CPU's clock speed, more modern programs use the computer's 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:49.760 real-time clock, the same one that gives you the time of day today. 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:55.440 This way, programs have consistent timing, no matter how fast or slow the CPU is running. 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:58.640 But even though a physical turbo button may be a thing of the past, 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.400 the concepts behind it live on in a few ways. Programs like DOSBox allow you to adjust the 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:08.240 virtual clock speed when emulating a retro game, while for other games, 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:12.240 community mods are available that can slow things down so they run properly. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:16.720 And everybody stays nice and chill. We've even seen a few more contemporary 00:03:16.720 --> 00:03:21.600 motherboards with a physical overclocking button. Just push it, and the CPU will run faster. 00:03:21.600 --> 00:03:25.360 Kind of like what you'd think a turbo button would do, just from the name alone. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:29.760 And of course, knowing your CPU's clock speed at any given moment can be very useful, 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:33.920 so you can tell if it's throttling or if your overclock is incorrectly enabled, 00:03:33.920 --> 00:03:38.640 meaning there's no shortage of aftermarket displays you can buy that show your speed. 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:42.160 Kind of like what was built into the cases of those old 286 PCs. 00:03:42.160 --> 00:03:47.200 Because of course, we need every single component lit up in unicorn vomit RGB out of the box, 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:49.360 but god forbid we actually include anything useful. 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:56.240 It's fine. And you know what else is fine? You.