"Balanced" vs "High Performance" power saver?

[basedthirst]

Have any of you guys actually noticed a performance increase with "high performance" mode? Debating on if it's worth it for a gaming desktop. 

[Tiwaz]

i doubt that balanced and high performance make any difference on a desktop, power saver might disable Intel Turbo Boost or something like that

[basedthirst]

Just now, Tiwaz said:

i doubt that balanced and high performance make any difference on a desktop, power saver might disable Intel Turbo Boost or something like that

Yeah that's what I was thinking, the only difference I noticed (didn't run benchmarks) was that high performance kept my PC running at it's Max turbo frequency the whole time. Even when I was just on the desktop. Just wanted other people's input

[Princess Luna]

set it to high performance... makes little to no difference but leaving in balance might cause issues in a few games way of handling resources.

[JoostinOnline]

Balanced doesn't prevent the system from going full power when necessary.  The only real differences are if/when it goes to sleep and such.

[AlTech]

I made a post on this a while back

 

 

[Bananasplit_00]

i just put it on performance on my desktops, no clue what actiual gains there are but i have unlimited power so who cares  

[STRMfrmXMN]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

i just put it on performance on my desktops, no clue what actiual gains there are but i have unlimited power so who cares  

It essentially disables Intel Speedstep if you have an Intel CPU. No idea what it's called on AMD but it prevents any sort of clock throttling from occurring. 

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

It essentially disables Intel Speedstep if you have an Intel CPU. No idea what it's called on AMD but it prevents any sort of clock throttling from occurring. 

For AMD, it's Cool'n'Quiet.

[GoodBytes]

6 hours ago, basedthirst said:

Have any of you guys actually noticed a performance increase with "high performance" mode? Debating on if it's worth it for a gaming desktop. 

The power management should be set to Balanced at all times.

 

Settings your system to High Performance, in most cases, will REDUCE performance. Basically, High Performance disables all power saving features, meaning your CPU and motherboard chipset runs hotter. This prevents the hardware from going faster in burst. So, for example, you'll notice that Turbo Boost, which idea is to deliver additional performance in a small burst, won't last as long and/or won't go as fast or even at all (in the case of laptop). Remember that the idea of Turbo Boost, is that it overclocks (withing specifications) the CPU momentarily, which it can't normally keep all the time due to the cooling limitation envisioning to be using (example: default included, cheapo Intel heatsink which all OEMs uses in most of their systems). So, on a laptops, you'll see a lot of people complain and notice that their system runs cooler and faster under Balance than on High Performance due to the high constraints on cooling of the device form factor. Desktop, it is harder to see, especially if you have a nice air or liquid heatsink solution, and well ventilated system.

 

Balance, makes the OS and CPU work together (they communicate between each other) to give you the fastest possible responsiveness in making your CPU and other components clock faster. And with the newest Intel CPUs, it is even faster.. we are talking about a few mili-seconds speeds in responsiveness. So I highly doubt you'll notice any differences. This is also why Microsoft is burying that option (expect MS to eventually axe it)

[Telefonkarte]

Hey. I know this is an old thread but I still couldn't find a reliable answer to that question but I got some hints that it might matter when gaming (and that's also what I believe to see on my PC).

 

Transitions between frequencies and voltages are governed by “P-States.” P-states are frequency/voltage combinations requested by the operating system. Processors receive these requests all the time, and act on them by selecting matching states built into the hardware.     The Windows-default Balanced plan, in the interest of balancing power and performance, sets higher thresholds and longer timers for transitions into faster P-states than the High Performance plan. This can sometimes limit how quickly our processor responds to “go faster” promptings from high-demand applications.

 

I would actually love to see some benchmark regarding this. CPU usage has to vary a lot for this to matter, like it normally does in gaming. 

But as I said, I haven't found any other useful informations or benchmarks.

[Eric Kazer]

I notice that base frequency drops to 800MHz in hardware manager. Might resolve VRM issues on Gigabyte B460M DS3H V2 with a I5-11600K installed. No heatsink on VRMs. Also might solve fan surging because of VRMs. VRMs are weak on this board.

 

Under load the CPU will draw 119 watts and without load the CPU will draw around 10 watts. Balanced is the most sensible option for desktop use cases and YouTube viewing. High performance cranks CPU to full all of the time. I've not seen how this would effect gaming.

 

Look at Hardware monitor's CPU Frequency while not running bench mark and than while running benchmark. CPU slows to 800 MHz while benchmark is not running and 4.598GHz while it is running stress test in CPUz.

 

In High Performance the CPU will clock to 4.898 GHz on my PC. VRM issue on my board.

 

My conclusion is to set the performance setting to balanced unless gaming with games like GTA 5. If gaming ya use high performance. Most of the time I watch YouTube so Balanced is a good setting for me.

[Eric Kazer]

Oh,

I5-11600k does not include a heatsink, and should not include a heatsink. That CPU would hit TJ max real fast with a stock heatsink, Probably in balanced mode.

[LogicalDrm]

On 4/24/2022 at 5:07 PM, Eric Kazer said:

Oh,

I5-11600k does not include a heatsink, and should not include a heatsink. That CPU would hit TJ max real fast with a stock heatsink, Probably in balanced mode.

You are replying to thread from 2017... Please don't. Locked.