Powerplay Operation (AC Power)

I have a quick question on how Powerplay operates.....

When on AC power is it supposed to automatically change the GPU clock based upon the load on the PC ?

(i.e) If I'm just surfing the net or doing any other 2D work it will clock down to the lower speed to conserve power and reduce heat and then when it detects a 3D game it will go to the highest speed and then back to a low speed again when exiting the game.
I have ATI Hotkey Poller running. I know there are ways to set up profiles with ATI Tray Tools to do this however I was wanting to know if Powerplay in CCC alone will do this. I was under the impression it would do this without me having to manually select "Optimised Battery" and "Optimised Performance" each time I want to do either 2D or 3D stuff

My card is an X1600 by the way.

 

No it only changes based on your power state.

Stock Speeds on AC.
Reduced Speeds on Battery.

Thats it.

Would be a nice feature though.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Oh well, time to install ATI Tray Tools I guess

 

Another question....

I accept that Powerplay won't reduce clock speeds on AC but does it undervolt the GPU if you are on AC but not doing anything "3D" related ?

I installed ATI Tray Tools to automatically change between 2D / 3D clocks however it doesn't like working with Powerplay turned on.

 

If I understood the "white paper" correctly, yes, it should lower the clocks and undervolt the card when not in 3D mode, but it only works if you have set your AC mode in Powerplay to lower than Optimal performance (Optimal battery life or Balanced). But check the white paper yourself to be sure: http://ati.amd.com/products/pdf/powerplaywp2.pdf

 

As far as I know Powerplay can do a lot of stuff - like turning off the 3d unit (or slowing it down a lot), undervolt and change the speed. Now I have never liked it actually. As you already said Aus - ATT can do much more with ATI card and I did a small test with extreme underclocking of the card and powerplay - it seems that on x700 100/100MHz (GPU/mem) is actually better in preserving power than powerplay at its best. Now that seems to be wrong since ATI could have implemented all that advanced stuff into the GPU and Powerplay, and yet simple underclocking seems to give better results. But according to my tests it is true.

Now I have x1600 and i think powerplay can do even better things on this card. I haven't tried the same test but I wouldn't be surprised that a simple underclocking does the trick.

And finally Powerplay kills the overclocking - as soon as you enter the 3d mode it resets the default speeds. So that is another reason why I have it off.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Turn powerplay off and then you will be able to do automatic overclocking on your notebook.

Personally, I have my notebook underclocked all the time for battery life and to keep temperatures down, and have it overclock when I start to play a game. I do this using the auto 2D/3D overclocking feature.

 

Hi. Please somebody reply to this:

I use a T42p with a 128MB ATI FIREGL T2 GFX. The thing is that I cannot UNDERVOLT the GPU using Powerplay with the provided Lenovo drivers. In Ati Tool there is only the option to underclock Mem & Core. Installing Omega Drivers give me a flickery screen.

What's the way to UNDERVOLT the GPU when AC?

 

Powerplay does it automatically, when needed. There's no way you can do it manually.

 

No, I don't think it undervolt/underclock automatically. Powerplay only gets activated when DC power (battery)

 

According to the whitepaper, I believe Powerplay is also working on AC, as long as you have set AC mode in Powerplay settings to Optimal battery life or Balanced. I think if it's set at Optimal performance, then there's no automatic undervolting or underclocking. Of course, there's not much use for Powerplay on AC, except maby producing less heat.