Sony Vaio Silent/Performance/Balanced mode annalysis

Hello to all :hi2:

Just a summarize that can be useful to a lot of people for all Vaio. My Vaio is a SA4 with Intel i5 2.5ghz. During my tests, I use "Core Temp 1.0 RC4" ( Core Temp) software to follow both frequency, temperature of the processor.

Something which was a bit difficult to understand at the very beginning was the presence of 3 modes settings which are not "totally" related
- The Sony Perf Performance/Balanced/Silence mode
- The Sony Stamina/Speed mode
- The Windows Perf/Normal/Economic mode

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PERFORMANCE / FAN NOISE TESTS
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Performance Windows 7 + Vaio speed button + Performance VAIO mode
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If you selected "processor maximal state" (in power options of windows) to "100%" the Turbo mode of intel processor will be activate. In my case my i5 2.5ghz will run @ 3ghz. This is were an old Boing/Airbus motor will be heard as the fan noise = very loud and very annoying !!

To prevent "Turbo mode" normally it is possible to block this in the Bios but Bios is not accessible in Vaio so you have to change the power plan settings of performance mode in Windows : select 99% for maximal (and for example 5% as minimal). This wll force Windows to not activate Intel Turbo Boost.

Example :
perf win 7 max state @ 100% = 99,77x29 = processor will run @ 3ghz and will consumn 22w
perf win 7 max state @ 99% = 99,77x25 = processor will run @ 2.5ghz and will consumn 18w
perf win 7 max state @ 98% = 99,77x20 = processor will run @ 2ghz and will consumn 13w


Performance Windows 7 + Vaio speed button + other VAIO mode
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In Windows 7 performance mode (max set to 99%), if you select Vaio "Silence mode", the processor will be block to a maximum of 1.5ghz in my case. In this case, Vaio is ignoring Windows 7 power plan maximum of 99%. It is likely forced to a kind of 60% setting.

If you select Vaio "Balanced mode", Windows 7 power plan settings will be followed (alleluia!).

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POWER CONSUMPTIONS ANALYSIS
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Power CFG Report
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Windows 7 offers a lot of improvement to analyze power consumptions.
See Important Power Management Features of Windows 7 - Unlock For Us. You can open a Command prompt (cmd) and paste "powercfg /energy". This will create a report in a HTML format.

Joule metter Report
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Another solution is to use Microsoft Research "Joulemeter" that will estimate the power consumption of your computer. It will track every computer resources, such as CPU utilization and screen brightness, and will estimate power usage. This software after a 20min analysis will create a new powerprofile. The power usage will show you how much consume the CPU, the monitor, disks, and motherboard (with all cards, unfortunately not detailed here...). Monitor has an important impact. 5.7wats are consumed in full backlight, 3.1w in the lower settings. Beeing in the midle is about consuming 4.5w.

Using the ATI video card or the Intel integrate video card has no much impact in power consumption. Modifing contrast/brightness, screen frequency, resolution ... has no impact. Having Aero activated will only have a very little impact on processor usage (taskbar thumbnails will consume some power).

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CONCLUSION
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For total performance and very low noise fan ventilation :
The best thing is to set your laptop to Vaio "Balanced mode" with Windows 7 power plan set to "Normal" or "Performance mode" but take care to limit maximum state for the processor to 99%.

For good battery life (but lower performance) :
The best thing is to set your laptop to Win 7 Economic + Vaio Silence. Using Stamina (intel graphic card) or Speed (ATI/Nvidia card) will really have no impact in the overall performance or power consumption as Speed mode was about having the ATI/Nvidia card and the processor boosted but as you have setted it to 99% in the Win 7 perf mode, Turbo Boost is no longer forced all time and therefor power consumption and fan noise are now an "history thing".

If you want to have Turbo Boost available on Speed mode, set 100% for maximum processor state but beware of the Airbus/Boing in your laptop !!!!

Sincerely,
SP2K

 

thanks for sharing the info. +1 rep.