PSA: "High Performance" power plan locks CPU power usage at 100%

So I found out that the "High Performance" power plan locks CPU power usage at 100% by default today.

This creates (noticeable) excess heat.



Over the summer you may want to switch to "balanced" or go into advanced settings and change the default.

 

I'd rather have some extra heat than lose performance imo

 

Define excess heat, i've said this countless times. A notebook with a decently designed cooling system will not overheat and should not approach dangerous temps even without a notebook cooler. The cooler helps keep temps down as well as fan noise in some cases, but should not be a necessity.

It should only run a tad hotter.

 

What you said is completely untrue my friend.

Windows operates in two different system cooling policy modes: Active or Passive.

Active will increase the fan speed before lowering the clock speed of processor to compensate for heat.

Passive will increase the fan speed after lowering the clock speed of the processor to compensate for heat.

On Active mode, there is a trade off for each one implemented. The system will always try to run at max CPU performance without reaching its thermal bound. When it gets to that certain temperature it will kick on the fans to lower the core temperature of CPU. If the fans inside your computer are insufficient due to lack of size or outside ambient temperature of your room it will lower the clock speed of the CPU to not exceed the thermal threshold of your CPU, a preventative measure to prevent damage of your CPU.

On passive mode, the trade off is that your fans aren't running all the time because the CPU is always operating under a lower workload and hence the buildup of heat doesn't occur as much. Sometimes just lowering the clock speed of CPU as a default option can be problematic for laptops with confined space on the inside or when the exhaust fans of the laptop itself is situated on the bottom of the laptop itself. Sometimes you are better off with an active policy on a laptop to "push" the hot air out first, then underclock the CPU later to prevent laptop from overheating. I know certain HP Pavilion dv models especially suffer from this on a hot summer day.

The point is - cooling system with fans first, then reducing CPU clock speed, or vise versa... the system is still adaquetely compensating for heat. The order of which it does so is the only difference. With that said, the idle temp of a computer running on High Performance plan (active cooling policy) vs a computer running on Balanced or Energy Saver mode (passive cooling policy) should yield no tangible differences in CPU temperature. In other words, the temperature of your CPU should be the same under idle conditions. The only discrepency i can see from a difference in temperature is a result of the workload generated by the CPU in previous interactions with computer. In other words if you were playing games, watching HD movies, and what not to stress the CPU then there would be a slight difference in temperature. But the important thing to point out is that its not a result of the CPU processor state always being at 100%, its a result of the user constantly stressing the CPU.


Here is a screenshot of my idle CPU temp with my system running on the high performance power plan:



(also attached if you want to look closer up at info)

 

I think you may have instead found that it is at 100% max frequency, not cpu usage. My laptop is always in high perf mode, right now all cores are between 43 and 45c, with temp of 27c.

 

This is specifically the setting I am referring to.



With minimum processor state at 100%, my Core2 Duo always stays at 2.16 GHz - even when completely idle.



If I knock minimum processor state down to 5% (or switch to "balanced" which does this by default), my Core2 Duo drops down to 1GHz while idle.



If I actually do something, the processor will clock back up to 2.16GHz while it's working.

This isn't a matter of the system overheating. (I have to block off a vent to do that.) It's more a matter of the ambient temperature of the room.

The processor stays at a temperature it is comfortable at either way. With the lower minimum processor state, the room stays at a temperature I am more comfortable with.

 

2.16GHz is your freq, not cpu usage. It means when you use the cpu, it will be at 2.16, not that it is running at 100% usage. If you go to your control panel, look under Performance Info and Tools, then on the left, click on advanced tools, then resource monitor. Under CPU, you will see the cpu max frequency, which may be 100%, but to the left of that, your cpu usage may be 0%.

Balanced does use less power, and helps battery life to a degree, but high performance keeps the cpu from throttling itself, in a sense, since it still will park cores unless you unpark them. I run mine with unparked cores, high performance, so when I need the speed, it is there instantly. But my temps are low on idle and in use.

 

'overheated' components aren't the only problem resulting from excess heat. many of us don't need portable heaters in any room during the summer time.

 

I just leave my laptop on "balanced" all the time, and change the individual settings accordingly. When plugged in, it acts more like "high performance," and when unplugged, it acts more like "super energy saver." I actually set my maximum CPU state to something like 50% while on battery, which doesn't let the cores exceed 1.2 ghz even if at full load. I find this sufficient for anything non-gaming I need to do, and I'm sure it's gained me some battery life in the process.