Almost all new processors have the ability to scale down their frequencies. With laptops this allows you to save a ton of battery life. Read my previous post on how to save battery life in Linux.
With desktops (and laptops), scaling the CPU frequency will not only save you money on your power bill but will also let your computer run cooler. Why would you want your computer running at full speed all of the time when you don’t need it? Instead, here is how to scale your CPU frequency for on demand performance.
Step 1:
Right click on one of the panels (top or bottom of screen) and then choose ‘Add to panel.’
Step 2:
When the Add to Panel window appears, scroll down and select ‘CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor.’ Then, click ‘Add’ to add it to the panel.
Step 3:
At this point you should see an icon appear on the panel similar to this one:
Now, open the terminal and enter the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets
Step 4:
Now, you will see the following screen:
Press enter to continue configuring the CPU frequency monitor.
Step 5:
After pressing enter you should see this screen:
Press enter to select ‘YES’
Step 6:
This completes the configuration of the CPU frequency monitor.
Now you should be able to left-click on the CPU scaling monitor and see the following options:
At the top of the options you can choose a specific CPU frequency. The processor will stay at this frequency as long as the setting stays the same.
The following CPU frequency governors control how your CPU frequency is scaled:
Conservative: Sets the CPU depending on the current usage by gracefully increasing and decreasing the CPU speed rather than jumping to max speed the moment there is any load on the CPU.
Ondemand: Sets the CPU based on the current usage. It automatically scales the CPU frequency up and down as the current usage changes. This is recommend for both desktops and laptops
Performance: Sets the CPU to the highest speed.
Powersave: Sets the CPU to the lowest speed. This is recommended for maximum battery life on laptops.
If for some reason this still does not allow you to scale your CPU and you know it has the capability to scale its frequency, read the Ubuntu Guide for an advanced method.
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Written by Eric
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June 19th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
This is awesome!
I had no idea. I’m lovin’ it guys
July 11th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] If you want to prolong your battery life in Ubuntu try reading these posts on battery saving: CPU Scaling and Save Battery Life with [...]