powernowd and laptop mode

[Rui Tiago Matos]

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 21:02:21 +0100 (BST), Paul Sladen
<ubuntu at paul.sladen.org> wrote:
> 
> Since the CPU speed is always ramped up exactly when it is required

The problem here, IMHO is this "exactly". If it was exactly I would
gladly support powernowd. It happens that on my machine (a p4 laptop)
it isn't exactly when needed, causing all sorts of annoying slowdowns
(see [1]). If it could be made more responsive (although I don't know
if this is a problem of the CPU or the daemon) it would be great, as
it is I have to disable it. Maybe it works better with centrino and
the like cpus, I don't know.

Anyway, from the tests I've done with my machine I don't think it
saves that much power. At least the time it gets to go from 45 C to 60
C (the temperature span where fans are working) seems to be the same
regardless of it being working at 2533Mhz or ~300Mhz, respectively the
default cpu speed and the lowest it runs at. Again, maybe these
savings are better with centrino cpus.

*cursing, not having bought a centrino back then*

Regards,
Rui

[1] https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7250