How to enable power-saving on nvidia GPUs (on Linux or BSD)
Thursday, 5. November 2009, 20:43:45
This short post just explains how you can enable PowerMizer and performance tuning for nvidia proprietary drivers under Linux (and also BSD).
Basically, just add this line to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
It will set adaptive strategy mode (raise the GPU clock as needed, lower it when not needed) whenever the machine is powered by AC; and will set maximum power saving mode (keep the lowest GPU clock possible) whendever the machine is powered by battery.
You can monitor the GPU clock and temperature using nvidia-settings program. Note, however, that it might report an incorrect Performance mode, so just ignore this value (and keep an eye at the clock and the thermal monitor).
Since I use Compiz, I expect that this feature will drastically reduce energy consumption of my notebook, extending the battery runtime.
All credit goes to NVIDIA™ driver for FreeBSD/Linux: performance and power saving hints, which contains a very detailed explanation of this almost undocumented feature.
Basically, just add this line to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerEnable=0x1; PerfLevelSrc=0x2233; PowerMizerDefault=0x3"
It will set adaptive strategy mode (raise the GPU clock as needed, lower it when not needed) whenever the machine is powered by AC; and will set maximum power saving mode (keep the lowest GPU clock possible) whendever the machine is powered by battery.
You can monitor the GPU clock and temperature using nvidia-settings program. Note, however, that it might report an incorrect Performance mode, so just ignore this value (and keep an eye at the clock and the thermal monitor).
Since I use Compiz, I expect that this feature will drastically reduce energy consumption of my notebook, extending the battery runtime.
All credit goes to NVIDIA™ driver for FreeBSD/Linux: performance and power saving hints, which contains a very detailed explanation of this almost undocumented feature.
WIDGETIZE