Reducing Power Consumption

Post Reply
IntensePC_User
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:32 pm

Reducing Power Consumption

Post by IntensePC_User »

Hello,

I'm trying to reduce power consumption of a fitlet-iA10. I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and with the computer at idle it is consuming 5.5 Watts (after the power supply).

This is a clean install of Windows. Nothing is connected to the fitlet; no display, no keyboard, no mouse, no USB devices, etc. The fitlet is connected to the internet using WiFi. I'm using a 64GB mSATA drive.

I've tried disabling HDMI Audio and Remote Display in the BIOS, but there was no change in power consumption.

Is there a way to completely disable the integrated video card? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

hassellbear
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 12:25 pm

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by hassellbear »

The system idle power levels you are seeing are consistent with the idle power levels I measured some time ago when running Linux Mint. See http://www.fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=153&t=5843

One thing you may try is to enter the BIOS settings and lower the TDP below the default 4500 mW level. Of course, this will lower the system's performance - possibly to a level which is below your requirements.

If you search a bit in this forum, I think you will find where others have successfully disabled non-CPU features in order to reduce power consumption. Disabling unneeded features would certainly be preferable to lowering TDP - from a performance perspective.

Here are some relevant postings.

http://www.fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=142&t=5809

http://www.fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=5670

http://www.fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=5654



Good luck.

Arwen
Posts: 145
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:43 pm

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by Arwen »

Depending on performance needs, you could experiment with disabling a CPU
core or 2 in the BIOS. The AMD A10 Micro-6700T has 4 cores, but many tasks
only need that many for short periods of time. Thus, those tasks would take
longer. Yet overall power usage may go down.
Arwen Evenstar
Rivendale, Middle Earth

IntensePC_User
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by IntensePC_User »

Hassellbear, thanks for the comment. Found an older post of yours and posted some results and questions there.
http://www.fit-pc.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 991#p19991

Arwen, thanks. I'll investigate disabling a core or two to see how that affects power consumption.

IntensePC_User
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:32 pm

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by IntensePC_User »

So I did some quick testing.

With 100% CPU usage I get the following power consumption:
4 cores = 10.7 Watts
3 cores = 9.5 Watts
2 cores = 8.4 Watts

With a sustained load of about 20% CPU usage:
4 cores = 8.7 Watts
3 cores = 8.7 Watts
2 cores = 8.7 Watts

So for a typical use case, unloading cores doesn't seem to save any power.

Unfortunately the application I need to run is single threaded, so decreasing the TDP below 4500 sounds like a deal-breaker. But, I'll try to test that anyway.

ploubaz22
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2014 8:02 am

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by ploubaz22 »

hello

I installed a fitlet pc IA10 in a sailboat and I look for the way to reduce electrical consumption.
The fitlet is windows 7
I use the navigation program that does not use much system resource
I reduced the bios power to 3,500 mW and also configure the processor core 2 and disables the sound
Still I as a 12 volt 1A consumption is 12W is too
On any other parameter I can play to reduce consumption.

Thank you

mbirger

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by mbirger »

You can disable any peripheral that is not required in BIOS or device manager. You can try use Windows power manager tool.

joeroot
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:41 am

Re: Reducing Power Consumption

Post by joeroot »

One thing you may try is to enter the BIOS settings and lower the TDP below the default 4500 mW level. Of course, this will lower the system's performance - possibly to a level which is below your requirements.

Post Reply

Return to “General fitlet questions”