If i have a manual set voltage, lets say 1.3V, if i then downclock, will I improve power efficiency? Even if the voltage remains the same?
Solution
- Feb 13, 2014
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No the cpu will underclock itself and lower voltages when full performance is not necessary to save power by itself. I guess if you lower the turbo clock less voltage would be required to run at that lower clock, but that would only matter when the cpu is under heavy load, I doubt it would affect battery life in any significant way anyway.
- May 18, 2007
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I have tried limiting the maximum clock of my desktop CPU while under heavy load to see what my UPS' power usage report would show out of curiosity. The UPS has a measurement resolution of 6W and the difference between 1.57GHz and 3.53GHz didn't even register.
By lowering the maximum multiplier, you hurt performance pretty badly and don't get much power saving.
By lowering the maximum multiplier, you hurt performance pretty badly and don't get much power saving.
- Feb 13, 2014
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Well it is dynamic with stock settings but it can be raised. If your laptops bios will allow then you can adjust the voltage to whatever you want higher or lower. It will still underclock and undervolt itself when at idle to save power, but that can be disabled as well I forget the name of the setting but you can force it to run at a specifc clock and voltage at all times if you want, not sure why anyone would want to do that on a laptop but you probably can.
Ecky
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- Feb 3, 2013
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There's a concept in mobile called "race to idle" or "race to sleep", wherein you improve CPU performance even at the expense of efficiency, because it will do tasks faster and more quickly return to a low power state, saving power overall. It's a nice theory, but I've still found that my battery life is a little longer when I set my Windows power state to "power saver", which limits the CPU to its lowest multiplier, though not as much longer as you might think.
Lowering voltage should always save power, but you absolutely do not want to use a fixed voltage. If your laptop does not have the ability to specific an offset voltage, don't touch it.
Lowering voltage should always save power, but you absolutely do not want to use a fixed voltage. If your laptop does not have the ability to specific an offset voltage, don't touch it.
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