Does Balanced mode save power on intensive tasks.

[kiwiszijncool]

I am going to compress about 400GB of video files. The program I use will use the CPU only. It takes 100% of all cores. Would turning on Balanced power plan save any power compared to the Performance plan? It still needs to do the same amount of calculation.

[strike]And what about power saver. It will greatly reduce the CPU temperature, and thus the electrical resistance. [/strike] Tested it and found that it doesn't affect the CPU temperature

 

[jaguarskx]

If you want lower CPU temperatures yet still keep the same performance, then you basically need to upgrade the CPU heatsink with something better like an even larger heatsink an a fan that can move a lot of air volume, or go for water cooling.

 

[kiwiszijncool]

If you want lower CPU temperatures yet still keep the same performance, then you basically need to upgrade the CPU heatsink with something better like an even larger heatsink an a fan that can move a lot of air volume, or go for water cooling.

I don't care about temperature, I care about saving power

 

[Alabalcho]

Kill-A-Watt's are $20/piece. Get one of these, and try. And you're interested in Watt-Hours, not Watts.

In end of all - it does not matter whether you'll move a truckload of dirt using buckets or water cups - it's still a truckload of dirt to be moved.

 

[kiwiszijncool]

Kill-A-Watt's are $20/piece. Get one of these, and try. And you're interested in Watt-Hours, not Watts.

In end of all - it does not matter whether you'll move a truckload of dirt using buckets or water cups - it's still a truckload of dirt to be moved.

I have a kill-a-watt. However, it would be a bit difficult to see how much power I would use per kg of dirt. Your metaphor is really good! I guess I will stick to the trucks.

 

[mdd1963]

Balanced Mode still allows the CPU to ramp up all cores to max clock speed under load, so, there would be no power saved in that scenario.

 

[Alabalcho]

Kill-a-watt will let you switch to Watt-hours - total energy used. Zero it out, run a job at "performance", zero it out, run that same job at "balanced". Make your decision. Many transcoding apps will let you shutdown the PC once the job is finished, thus preserving the reading.

 

[The Original Ralph]

FWIW, my CyberPower UPS, at least the ones with the LCD screen will let you monitor watts, watt hours, voltage in & out, either on the unit's lcd screen or on a little widget i keep at the bottom right of my desktop

i render quite a bit of video files as well, and i assume you're using Handbrake as it's one of the few programs that seem to push all cores to 100% or near 100% - it amazes me to watch current draw jump from 305 to 385 watts (or more) - this is on the rig in my sig below, 8 core cpu, 140 TDP. That 385 watt figure includes the wattage my monitor is drawing