|
#1
July 23rd, 2005, 04:52 PM
| |||
| |||
| Processor performance: automatic vs reduced I have a 12" powerbook, on which I mainly do software development. I frequently use a lot of CPU time doing processor intensive tasks like compiling code, etc and want to get as much battery life as possible out of my machine, even if it runs a bit more slowly. To this end, I decided to set my Processor Performance in the Energy section of system preferences to Reduced instead of Automatic. It might just be me, but it seems like the power doesn't drain any more slowly than it does when set to Automatic. Does anyone know if this really does make a difference? Can the machine save even more power under certain circumstances when in Automatic mode or something?  |
|
#2
July 23rd, 2005, 07:36 PM
| ||||
| ||||
| Hm. Haven't given it much thought, really. Put it to automatic for my PB, and it was good for me...
__________________ macnews.net.tc is active again. MacBook Air 13" 1.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD. Mac OS X 10.5.5 Hackintosh Core2Duo 2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD. Mac OS X 10.5.5 iPhone 3G 16 GB white, AppleTV 1G 40 GB Mac user since 1987, Apple Product Professional 2007, 2008. Apple Certified Support Professional 10.5 |
|
#3
July 23rd, 2005, 07:48 PM
| ||||
| ||||
| My guess is when Automatic is on the Energy Saver senses when the Powerbook is on battery or on the A/C. When on the battery in goes to reduced mode. When the Powerbook is on the A/C the Energy Saver speeds up the processor speed. Warning: This is only a guess.
__________________ PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8(Rev A.), , 7 Gig RAM, Pioneer DVR-110, ATI X800XT, OS X 10.4.11 & 10.5.5, 23'' HD LCD Mac Book Pro Core 2 Duo 2.16Mhz, SuperDrive, ATI X1600, 2GB RAM, OS X 10.5.5 1TB Time Capsule 5g iPod 30Gig White |
|
#4
July 23rd, 2005, 10:39 PM
| |||
| |||
| I'm not sure it works that way. There's a seperate setting for battery and power adapter mode, so you can have the two modes on either Automatic, Highest or Reduced seperately depending on whether or not you're plugged in. My guess is that Automatic runs the proc faster or slower depending on what kind of things are running -- for CPU intensive activities it would run faster and take more juice but if you're doing mostly user-interface stuff like web browsing or typing a paper (or if the machine is idling) it'll take less power. My question is whether the Reduced setting actually saves the most power or whether the automatic throttling can possibly consume even less power depending on activities. Anyone know? |
|
#5
July 24th, 2005, 12:39 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| Reduced lowers the clockspeed. So does automatiic. . . uh, automatically. I would assume Reduced would use the absolute lowest possible power. And Automatic is a nice compromise. Having said that, you may just have to benchmark both ways. Doug
__________________ "Just as some newborn race of superintelligent robots are about to consume all humanity, our dear old species will likely be saved by a Windows crash. The poor robots will linger pathetically, begging us to reboot them, even though they'll know it would do no good." -Anonymous |
|
#6
July 24th, 2005, 11:34 AM
| ||||
| ||||
| um. i think lowest goes to "low". automatic changes dynamically based on load, does it not?
__________________ PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0Ghz | 1Gb | 250Gb | Bluetooth | NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL 256Mb | 20" Cinema Display | MX1000 Wireless Laser Mouse | OS X 10.3.9 PowerMac G4 400Mhz | 832Mb | 40Gb + 120Gb | OS X Server 10.3.8 - Web Dev, Proxy, Mail, NAT, Firewall, Backup Netgear Gigabit Switch | Sony Ericsson P910i Smartphone | iPod Colour 60Gb |
 |
« Previous Thread
|
Next Thread »
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:18 AM.
