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Subject : Re: LUG: Frequency scaling controls in Ubuntu

From : Will Lane <will@jxxtech.[redacted]>

Date : Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:29:47 -0400

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I used my watt meter and only saw a 2-3 watt diff between 1.2 and 2.0 ghz.  On a desktop c2d 4400.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 18, 2009, at 12:21 PM, Richard Carter < rwcarter@ncsu.[redacted] > wrote:

Hey all,

This is something that I forgot to mention last night. If you've ever used Vista on a laptop you will have noticed the power settings; Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance. On laptops with a processor that supports frequency scaling (the ability to reduce its frequency to save power) then these settings will alter the frequency; for example, with my Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz, Power Saver mode keeps the processor running at 1.0ghz, High Performance keeps it at 2, and Balanced stays at 1 but increases up to 2 depending on the load.

The same thing can be done in Ubuntu, and easily! Just follow the instructions here and you'll be changing frequency in no time:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-change-cpu-frequency-scaling-in-ubuntu.html
Essentially the Gnome CPU monitor applet can also be used as a frequency selector, and just like in vista it has "Conservative, Ondemand, Performance, Powersave" modes, as well as specific frequency options (in mine, 1 Ghz, 1.33, 1.67, 2).

As a previous Vista user, I was very glad to see this option. Hope you find it useful as well!

-Ricket

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