Here are the testing steps with the DELL Poweredge R640 server with Intel Xeon Silver 4214R.
Take the following example. The physical CPU clock frequency and CPU core frequency parameters are as below:
Processor Base Frequency 2.40 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency 3.50 GHz
Intel® Xeon® Silver 4214R Processor
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/197100/intel-xeon-silver-4214r-processor-16-5m-cache-2-40-ghz.html
After adjusting the BIOS and ESXis power management mode, testing shows a significant improvement (144%) in the peak of the physical server's core frequency:
- Booting the server with Turbo Boost, C-State and C1E enabled in the BIOS, referring to the device manufacturer's recommendations.
- The ESXi hosts power management policy is set to "Balanced".
- Access the ESXi host via ssh session and execute the following command to cause load for a single core:
# cat /dev/urandom | md5sum
- in a second SSH session, open ESXTOP
- press "p" to change to the processor power management tab
- add the %A/MPERF field to the view (press "f", then "f" again", then [return]
- observe the values in this column. 100 means that the core is running on nominal frequency, higher values means it runs with higher frequency.
Lab tests have shown values around 140 for this CPU, with maximums of 144.7. That means the core was running with 144.7% of its nominal frequency. 2.40 GHz * 144.7 % is 3.47 GHz.
The maximum Turbo Boost for this CPU model is 3.50 GHz, Turbo Boost was indeed triggered.