The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Disable cores on cpu

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Darth Bane, Jul 2, 2009.

  1. Darth Bane

    Darth Bane Dark Lord of the Sith

    Reputations:
    506
    Messages:
    2,103
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Is there any programs that disable (turn off) cores? The purpose would be to reduce heat and power consumption when not doing anything cpu-intensive (and to increase battery life).
     
    Darth Bane, Jul 2, 2009
    #1
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    No, I do not think you can do that. The best way is to undervolt your system, using something like RMClock - but know what you are doing before you do it.
     
    MidnightSun, Jul 2, 2009
    #2
  3. iGrim

    iGrim Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    47
    Messages:
    380
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    uuuuu Yes you can. You can disable cores in the BIOS on many laptops, IBM T series for example and others. If one does not know, its best just to say "I dont know"
     
    iGrim, Jul 2, 2009
    #3
  4. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,038
    Messages:
    3,071
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    105
    You can disable cores through windows via boot advanced options. It's only used for diagnostics and should not be touched by inexperienced users.
     
    jackluo923, Jul 2, 2009
    #4
  5. Darth Bane

    Darth Bane Dark Lord of the Sith

    Reputations:
    506
    Messages:
    2,103
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    So there's no basic windows program to do this? :(
     
    Darth Bane, Jul 2, 2009
    #5
  6. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,038
    Messages:
    3,071
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    105
    You don't need programs to do this. It's already built in the operating system. Again, if you don't know this feature, you shouldn't be touching this feature in Windows.
     
    jackluo923, Jul 2, 2009
    #6
  7. Darth Bane

    Darth Bane Dark Lord of the Sith

    Reputations:
    506
    Messages:
    2,103
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I don't want to use the advance boot options because I want to do it on the fly, like an off and on switch. When I am web browsing, i want to just use 1 core. If I am gaming, I want to use all cores.

    I guess its simply not going to happen.
     
    Darth Bane, Jul 2, 2009
    #7
  8. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    I know that; the thing is the OP is asking about something that can turn cores on and off automatically depending on the CPU load - I didn't think there were tools that did that. Kindly keep your snide remarks to yourself.
     
    MidnightSun, Jul 2, 2009
    #8
  9. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,038
    Messages:
    3,071
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Well.. then I don't know.
    If you had AMD processor with the latest chipset, that would be a different story. You can turn off AMD processor cores, adjust almost everything through a tool on the fly which AMD provides for free.
     
    jackluo923, Jul 2, 2009
    #9
  10. nacholambre

    nacholambre Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yes you can usually disable in the BIOS.

    You can also goto my computer, right click and select properties, then goto advanced, then select environment variables, then under NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS, type in 1!
     
    nacholambre, Jul 14, 2009
    #10
  11. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,133
    Messages:
    6,399
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    206
    That's basically what jackluo923 said earlier.

    Your CPU will downclock and downvolt itself to the lowest multiplier when not being used by your system. If you want to reduce heat and improve battery life when the system is stressed, you can lower the voltage of the higher multipliers using RMClock, etc.
     
    Andy, Jul 14, 2009
    #11
  12. nacholambre

    nacholambre Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    No sir his advanced boot suggestion only changes the processors used for bootup!
     
    nacholambre, Jul 14, 2009
    #12
  13. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,133
    Messages:
    6,399
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    206
    oo..my bad sir never tried disabling cores of a multi-core cpu as its pretty pointless imvvho! :p
     
    Andy, Jul 14, 2009
    #13
  14. nacholambre

    nacholambre Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    14
    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I think so too! Unfortunately customer is always right!
     
    nacholambre, Jul 14, 2009
    #14
  15. notyou

    notyou Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    652
    Messages:
    1,562
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    It doesn't technically disable them, it just doesn't assign any processes to the core when "disabled", but as you already stated correctly, it is used only for testing.

    You can also disable cores through the BIOS, I've tried this however and it didn't make a difference in battery life.
     
    notyou, Jul 14, 2009
    #15
  16. yotano211

    yotano211 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    63
    Messages:
    370
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    not all laptop Bios will let you disable CPU cores, i have 3 laptop, sager 2090, gateway 6831, and HP 2510p. not one of those will let me disable of of the cores. i have seem other laptop Bios and they also dont have any disable fissure.
     
    yotano211, Jul 14, 2009
    #16
  17. 0.0

    0.0 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    87
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    This may have been true for NT4 but not now and as notyou said, windows appears to ignore them rather than disable them unlike the BIOS method.
     
    0.0, Jul 15, 2009
    #17
  18. TimeWriter

    TimeWriter Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    244
    Messages:
    419
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My both Dell's systems (one with AMD, another with Intel) can disable the CPU cores in the BIOS.
     
    TimeWriter, Jul 17, 2009
    #18
  19. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,972
    Messages:
    7,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    having two cores at half the clock than one core means less power usage. so you DONT want to disable cores to save battery power.

    cpus know how to manage themselves, togeter with the os. don't mess with it.
     
    davepermen, Jul 17, 2009
    #19
  20. 0.0

    0.0 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    87
    Messages:
    237
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    This is good advice for SMP OS's but what about non SMP OS's such as DOS for instance. ;)
     
    0.0, Jul 18, 2009
    #20
  21. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,972
    Messages:
    7,788
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    omg i forgot the dos!

    :)

    I'm very sorry, haven't really used it recently... in the last 10 years or so :)
     
    davepermen, Jul 18, 2009
    #21