Discussion what exactly is the difference between the high-performance power mode and the ultimate performance mode in windows 11?

[Order 66]

I have messed around with the different power plans in windows, but I am unsure on what exactly the differences are between them.

 

[hedwar2011]

Sadly I don't even think MS knows.

Check out the article below for more info:

Which Power Plan should you use in Windows 11 and when?

Windows 11/10 has 3 main power plans. They are High Performance, Balanced & Power saver. Read the pros and cons of each Power Plan.

www.thewindowsclub.com

 

[Order 66]

Sadly I don't even think MS knows.

Check out the article below for more info:

Which Power Plan should you use in Windows 11 and when?

Windows 11/10 has 3 main power plans. They are High Performance, Balanced & Power saver. Read the pros and cons of each Power Plan.

www.thewindowsclub.com

It doesn't really talk about the ultimate performance plan, which is the one I was most curious about.

 

[hedwar2011]

Can't honestly say I've ever seen that on a basic Windows installation. Could it possibly be a unique power plan that was installed by something you have?
Nevermind, I stand corrected.

How to Enable the Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

Ultimate performance comes at a cost.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Order 66]

Can't honestly say I've ever seen that on a basic Windows installation. Could it possibly be a unique power plan that was installed by something you have?
Nevermind, I stand corrected.

How to Enable the Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

Ultimate performance comes at a cost.

www.howtogeek.com

You can enable it by selecting the option to unhindered additional plans. I am just wondering what it does.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

For the most part the difference is that on Ultimate settings, none of your attached hardware will ever go into sleep mode. This includes CPU/GPU, USB, SSDs. This can have the effect of higher temps when PC idling. It may also use up CPU cycles. As for longevity in that state, I'm not sure if there would be faster degradation in the components, but given they are in an always-on state, that might be the case.

 

[Colif]

i don't bother running them.

Do you need your PC running warm all the time? I remember having a Samsung ssd with its performance optimisation turned on which run PC in High performance at same time as having an OC on the CPU.
CPU doesn't need to run at max speed if its just at desktop. I soon turned them off, its a bad combo in summer.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The three default ones:

• Power saver: Most peripheral power saving options are enabled or set to their most aggressive behavior. CPU core parking is also enabled
• Balanced: Most peripheral power saving options are either enabled or set to a moderate behavior. CPU core parking is disabled
• High Power: Most peripheral power saving options are disabled

Of note there's likely a lot of hidden options when changing advanced power options. For example powercfg -attributes sub_processor perfboostmode -attrib_hide shows the option for CPU boosting behavior while powercfg -attributes sub_processor 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 -attrib_hide shows the option for core parking. Funny enough, the CPU boosting behavior for all three is "Aggressive".

Also I've noticed even in High Power, the CPU's power management will still kick in the form of reducing clock speeds and entering the other C-states. There may be an additional option to disable this, but it's also likely that this can only be configured in BIOS.

Similarly, video cards (at least NVIDIA ones, I don't have an AMD one to confirm its behavior) will still drop down in clock speeds even if you say something like "prefer maximum performance" or something. PCIe Link power management only affects if the PCIe bus is allowed to go down in "version" to save power.

In any case, the only potential difference in choosing anything higher than balanced is maybe more consistent performance. But as long as something high performant is running, the hardware is likely not going to go down in power state anyway. If you want consistent performance, you're going to have to lock the clock speed.

 

[Colif]

I am still running AMD Ryzen Balanced. A left over from their custom plans

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I am still running AMD Ryzen Balanced. A left over from their custom plans

For Zen 3, you don't need it. Windows Balanced lets the CPU work as intended. I think that's because the updated AGESA s over time addressed some software issues. But, in every single chipset driver I updated, there's always a Ryzen balanced plan there. Don't figure! 🤣 It is still required for Zen 3xxx/2xxx afaik.

 

[Order 66]

For Zen 3, you don't need it. Windows Balanced lets the CPU work as intended. I think that's because the updated AGESA s over time addressed some software issues. But, in every single chipset driver I updated, there's always a Ryzen balanced plan there. Don't figure! 🤣 It is still required for Zen 3xxx/2xxx afaik.

what about zen 4?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

what about zen 4?

Defo not

 

[Colif]

I guess i will change then, I had it as I was using a 3600xt until a few months back.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I guess i will change then, I had it as I was using a 3600xt until a few months back.

Makes sense! I did a bit of testing (before admittedly getting bored with it) and there seems to be no difference between Ryzen Balanced and default balanced.

 

[Colif]

Ryzen 5000 series CPUs do not require a special Ryzen Power Profile, so it is not installed with Chipset driver package. Please use the Windows Balanced Power Profile for these procesors. Previous generation Ryzen processors will continue to use the Ryzen Balanced Power Profile for optimal performance and this is included in the Chipset driver package.

Starting with AMD Chipset Driver 02.10.13.408, the processor power can be adjusted via Performance and Energy slider on systems running Windows 10 2004 and later.

Missing power plans on AMD Ryzen 5000 series

In amd_chipset_software_2.10.13.408 is there any power plans because I do not see or have any for 5800X. Under additional power settings. Release notes say AMD Ryzen Power Plan / AMD Processor Power Management Support 6.0.0.3 6.0.0.7 New program support added. Support for AMD Ryzen™ 5000...

community.amd.com