Difference Between Windows Power Plans...

[Ketchup]

If "advanced power settings" are the same?

So if I Google Windows power options, I find a million ways to use the buttons in the submenus, but nobody (that I could find) gets very deep into this. Maybe I am looking to hard.

Let me give you an example of what I am looking for:
If I put Windows on "High Performance", but change every setting under "advanced" to be exactly the same as they were in "Balanced", is the computer still going to be more proactive in allowing the CPU to reach full speed, or the wireless card staying at full strength?

Or are the main options (Power saver, High Performance, etc) nothing more than a way to change the "advanced settings" with a single click?

Opinions and links welcome.

 

[Mike64]

Or are the main options (Power saver, High Performance, etc) nothing more than a way to change the "advanced settings" with a single click

I'm 98% sure that is indeed the case.

 

[Iron Woode]

I use Balanced because I found High Performance to increase my cpu temps way more than I liked. It also caused my cpu fan to spin up and thus be louder than I liked.

I didn't notice any performance difference between the 2 power settings.

 

[ninaholic37]

Let me give you an example of what I am looking for:
If I put Windows on "High Performance", but change every setting under "advanced" to be exactly the same as they were in "Balanced", is the computer still going to be more proactive in allowing the CPU to reach full speed, or the wireless card staying at full strength?

Does your Advanced Options have these settings?

1. What minimum and maximum CPU Frequency to run at

2. When to switch frequencies

If not, then changing options in Advanced Options won't be equal, because:

High Performance - Runs at max CPU frequency (ie. 1.86GHz) always
Balanced - Runs at different CPU frequencies (ie. 800Mhz under 50% CPU, 1.86GHz over)

These are set internally specifically when you select "High Performance" or "Balanced". If you can't change the above options from Advanced Options (to make High Performance match Balanced) you might play with powercfg in the command line for finer control.

TL;DR - Advanced Options in Windows (at least 7 and XP) is a joke. Linux FTW :biggrin: