Windows 10 Task Manager: CPU Speed Rises Above Maximum Speed
I wonder if it Windows 10 changing behaviour in recent major update. I am using Windows 10.0.10586. I am well aware of TurboBoost that mentioned in this SuperUser question. My CPU could hit 2.70GHz in single core mode as specified in the documentation.
However, it's rather a no brainer as earlier in Windows 8.1 I never hit more than 2.40GHz. Is it Microsoft changing behaviour to milk more power or something else? - if it something else, I suspect Intel Dynamic Platform & Thermal Framework driver is actually involved.
Anyway, I need some insight.
Task Manager is correct in its measurement of your current speed, but it only reports the CPU's base frequency as its max speed. If you look at your CPU's specs, you'll see that its max Turbo frequency is indeed 2.7 GHz.
Intel Turbo Boost is controlled with ACPI and can also be referred to as "dynamic overclocking." Since the OS does have some control over the processor via ACPI, it is possible that Windows 10 operates your CPU differently than Windows 8.
Further reading: Intel's page about Turbo Boost 2.0, Wikipedia's article on ACPI