PC at 4GHz on Idle, reduce power consumption.

Unknowniti · August 14, 2022

Hello everyone,

I 'recently' build a new pc with the following specs:

- MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk

- Ryzen 7 5800X with bequiet dark rock 4 cooler

- 32GB 3600MHz RAM

- Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super Turbo

- 2TB Pcie 3x4 boot SSD, 4TB Sata SSD for games

- BeQuiet pure base 500dx with 5 fans (two on front pulling in; two on top pulling out; one on CPU and one on the back pulling air out)

I bought the components in fall/winter 2021 and upgraded down the line (first MoBo and Cpu, RAM later GPU, even later new SSD). I installed Windows 10 when I had every component changed.
Since the energy prices are over 9000% (not really but double at least) here in germany I try to do everything I can to minimize my consumption. Since we have a solar energy on our house it's not that bad when the sun is out but I like to play and learn in the night so it consumes some there. I would also like to prepare for winter when solar isn't that effective.

I noticed that my CPU goes up to 4.3 GHz when I do almost nothing (workload 1-2%), while watching youtube or reading stuff etc. Base clock is 3.8GHz. I couldn't find a way to have it throttle down to save energy. I though AMD and other components does this automatically.

Of course I want to use all the power when I play a game. But if I just watch youtube or read on reddit I don't need 4GHz (which is most of the time).. My Windows powerplan is balanced and powers off the monitors after 10 minutes and the pc goes into stand by after 30 min. In Advanced setting I set the minimal CPU performance to 1% and maximal to 100%.

Any tips on how I could reduce power consumption?

Thanks in advance

Origami Cactus · August 14, 2022

Ghz isn't anything!!!!!

To save power, ryzen cpus turn off all the cores, and leave only 1-2 cores active when idle. That means you effectively have a dual core cpu, and for your pc to remain responsive, the 1-2 cores boost higher.

It still saves a lot of power, because 1-2 cores running fast uses less power than if all the cores were woken up all the time.

If you want to save power, install AMD chipset drivers to your pc, and run "AMD ryzen balanced" instead of the default windows one. Also set the CPU to "ECO mode" in BIOS.