A quick Centrino Hardware Control ?

I've been using CHC for awhile now and it's a fantastic program. The fan almost never comes on. Since I'm almost always plugged in, I can't comment on battery life, but overall it's a great addition to my laptop.

On CHC's CPU Speed page, the min. load and max load are listed. Default is min. load at 40% and max load at 80%. You are able to change these values.

Does anyone know what these mean and if/why they should be changed?

Thanks a lot.

 

Hi a-dogg,
I also think NHC/CHC is probably the best free app that has ever existed for Centrino notebooks.

Now on to your question.
That means if my PM750 CPU is on min (6x) multiplier and CPU reaches 40% it will jump to multiplier 8x etc. 80% will kick in 16x multiplier, thus clocking the cpu to the max speed.

I hope this picture helps:


Now what is the point in changing those? CPU spends 99,9% in either lowest (below 40% load) or highest (over 80% load) speed. So...

In my opinion it is much more important to undervolt CPU and keep temp at 100% down for 10 degrees C.


Cheers,

 

ikovac,

thanks for your response! I totally understand what you're saying...except for the last sentence (which was kind of the important one with the advice!) Are you suggesting I change it from the 40%/80%? I have a 1.73Ghz...

 

No. I don't know why are you asking about dynamic switching but if it is because of the keeping your CPU at lower temp, and thus the whole notebook cooler and you want a better battery time, then I think it is much better to forget about it, and click a tab "CPU voltage" and set the lower voltage for the max multiplier. For example my PM750 (1,86GHz) at 100% load uses a 16x multiplier that works at 1,328 V. Now that produces heat when CPU is on 100% (in games). It ends up in 75 degrees C.

So when I lowered the voltage on max multiplier by 0,2V (to 1,1V), I still get the max performance at 100% load but the temp in games is 65C now!

If you find this interesting then you might check this article of mine:
http://www.thegamebooks.com/undervolting-intel-pentium-m---how-to-keep-your-gaming-cool-t78.html

Cheers,

 

a-dogg, what exact Sony model are you using anyways?

 

I'm using an fs742/w, rahulnirmal. I've already gone through the whole process of using Prime95 to find the lowest safe voltages at each multiplier (took me awhile to even find out what that meant), so I think I've already done what you've suggested, ikovac. I was just wondering if I needed to adjust the min/max loads from their defaults of 40%/80%...

after looking at the pic you posted above, is it right that the min/max load settings only come into play if you click the "switch only between min and max multiplier"? if so, it's clearly irrelevant to me because i have it set to dynamic switching...

just read your article, ikovac. it's great.

 

After reading this thread, I finally got to downloading CHC and its an amazing program, can't beleive I didn't get it earlier! Thanks to it, my cpus temperature has gone down about 8 degrees and there is still fan noise, but much quieter than before, and I only did the basic things with the program, I recommend all people with Pentium M notebooks to get this program!

 

I'm glad that I helped you guys,

a-dogg, I think you are ok with the default. I wouldn't change it. It jumps through multipliers in 1/2000 of a sec, so percentages don't make too much sense, because games and all CPU hungry apps just use 100%. WMP and some other programs can use some in between, and if you find such app and need it to work either on lower or higher multiplier - then I guess you can change the percentages. Also if you don't to use max multipliers for some reason that is where you can do it.
If you use only min and max then percentages can come in handy, because you can say for example 70% for min and 90%for max, and end up in mostly min multiplier, even with CPU hard apps.

But all that is easier solved through profiles such as battery optimized and dynamic switching.

And yes - NHC is probably the best free program for Centrino platform.

Cheers,

 

you definitey have. thanks a lot!