Power plans - Do they 'kick in' right away?

SideWinder · 6 Jul 2009 at 19:17

Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance.

1) Would it really make a difference if i kept it on Power Saver if i wasn't gaming?

2) Do they 'kick in' right away?

3) Any more tips/facts?

Could have googled but prefer OcUK.

GeForce · 6 Jul 2009 at 19:31

They do kick in straight away and on my laptop it makes a noticeable difference to battery life.

With Power options in control panel, you can see exactly what each plan will do, and change its settings. For example, one of the things the Power Saver plan does by default is to limit CPU usage to 50% max, which I don't like.

SideWinder · 7 Jul 2009 at 03:38

Hm, thanks.

TheVoice · 7 Jul 2009 at 09:40

GeForce said:
For example, one of the things the Power Saver plan does by default is to limit CPU usage to 50% max, which I don't like.

That's pretty-much all it does, to be honest! All the other settings (turning off hard-drives, screen etc) are fairly trivial, but the limit it puts on CPU speed does help to extend battery life as well as reduce heat.

They're probably more beneficial on notebooks than PCs. I have my notebook on Power Saver most of the time, whilst my PC is always on Balanced. Can't see any reason to use the High Performance one; Balanced allows the CPU to reach 100% when it needs it, and underclock when it doesn't, so it's the best of both worlds.