ATi Hotkey Poller service, PowerPlay, and Tray Tools

If I'm not mistaken, the Hotkey Poller also keeps track of power state and is in charge of making the Powerplay transitions - when I disabled it the X1600 stayed in optimal performance mode when I unplugged my laptop - turned the service on and it started switching again normally.

Powerplay seems to be much more effective than manual underclocking in controlling power usage - remaining battery time went from 2:20ish to 3:20ish (a whole extra hour) with the power state change; underclocking using ATi Tray Tools only gave me about 15 more minutes, if that much. Of course, "remaining time" is an estimate at best, so it may not be as drastic as that, but it's still a huge difference. Since ATi tray tools doesn't seem to like the Hotkey Poller service (it always wants to disable it when it starts up), I figure I'm better off without it.

 

I *think* that ATITools can't undervolt the X1600...which if PowerPlay does do that, that would experience the lack of a battery saver.

 

Yup, that's exactly what I figured. Undervolting would have a much bigger effect on power draw than just plain underclocking.

 

Interesting: ATi PowerPlay white paper.

 

I think Powerplay can undervolt, and underclock the core. ATT can underclock only. That is why you get better results with PP. My Powerplay on x700 doesn't work right, and I can only underclock to get some better battery times.

Cheers,

Ivan