Power options: "Maximum Processing State" Battery Drain Question

Hi, in Power Options of Vista, I've noticed that my laptop comes with the maximum processing state set at 50% for battery. My question is, does this have any real power savings compared to if I set my maximum processing to 75%, if I'm just doing light work at BELOW 50% max? It should have no difference, right, unless CPU usage would increases above 50%? I would be willing to take the transient hit for an increase in speed. It's not going to be running at 90% the entire time, anyway.

 

u got it right, that means the cap it will go... if u have lets say a 2ghz processor, then with battery u will get MAX 1 ghz... however if u take a look at the processor load, it will be more likelly at the very low end (i have 2.5 ghz and almost all the time its in 0.8ghz) and will only rise when u launch an app or when some multimedia like gaming or stuff like that... if u are in lets say word... u will most likelly wont see any difference after opening it.

now as far as ur question... it will have a high effect on battery life if u use apps that constantly raise the bar on the processor. and imo the effect on word would be about 1 or 2 mins more of battery, either way u wont win anything unless you actually need it.

 

I never got that option to work on my laptop, setting the max limit to 50% or whatever on both of those options, it will just go on like normal even if it's set at 50%..