It is shown that the toroidal ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode has an upper ηi (higher ηi) stability regime for experimentally relevant parameter values in addition to the lower regime with the stability threshold at ηi around one ( where Ln and LT1 are the characteristic lengths for the density and ion temperature gradients). The ITG mode is studied with a focus on the upper ηi stability regime and the β dependence (β = plasma pressure/magnetic pressure). The results of a gyrokinetic and a two-fluid model as well as a semilocal approximation are compared. It is shown that the upper stability threshold is very sensitive to and considerably reduced by finite-β effects. It is also sensitive to finite Larmor radius (FLR) effects and to (LB is the characteristic length for the toroidal magnetic field gradient). Predictions and comparisons are made with data from a joint European torus (JET) optimized shear discharge and a JET hot ion H-mode (high-performance mode) discharge.