[acpi-cpufreq] Frequency adjusting sliders should fit Performance and Powersave governors behaviour

[terencode]

When Performance govenor is selected, the minimum frequency scaling option should be disabled; when Powersave govenor is selected, the maximum frequency scaling option should be disabled.

[konkor]

"It's not a bug It's a feature" lol
Yeah It can seem strange but u can set minimum frequency for powersafe mode and maximum for performance mode like in userspace mode. Same behavior has intel_pstate driver: 2 modes only powersafe, performance and possibility to change min/max frequencies in percentages...

[konkor]

But now i see other problem here. Initializing powersafe mode should set minimum frequency and performance - max.

[terencode]

Ahah well changing maximum frequency for Performance makes sense but I don't see the use of setting the minimum as by definition it will always stay at the highest frequency.

[terencode]

Same thought for powerwave but with maximum frequency.

[RicardoEPRodrigues]

For the intel_pstate, the powersave mode doesn't stay in the minimum, it prefers the minimum.

Basically when you need more CPU powersave will give you more clockwork, while performance will try to always stay in maximum frequency.

[konkor]

RicardoEPRodrigues intel_pstate powersave mode is an analog of acpi_cpufreq ondemand mode. Actually intel doesnt have classic powersave mode at all. And if you want constantly minimum freq You have to set minimum and frequencies to minimum physical available frequency. So the extension reads default values from intel_pstate driver after governors changing.

[konkor]

Governors aren't just Names for some profiles. They have own behavior in states changing (timings, state sequence, CPU loading coefficients). U can google more about this. Basic difference between intel_pstate and acpi is intel controls a behavior of governors inside of CPU and ACPI modes on kernel.

[konkor]

Actually a changing of governors don't save too much CPU power bcs only changing of Voltage on motherboard can really save some power. But CPU can eat less power (I - amperes) in IDLE state it's why Intel made powersave governor dynamic. If CPU is without loading CPU takes less Power. So if CPU makes jobs quicker and goes to IDLE state it's eating less Power...

[konkor]

So I can't see any practical usage of any other governors. Only dynamic OnDemand (or Conservative for ACPI driver) and Powersave (for intel_pstate) with minimum and maximum available frequencies can reduce some power consuming in real world. U can reduce maximum but time to make some CPU jobs going longer so it's cause bigger power consuming.

[konkor]

@terencode It's time to close this issue :)

[terencode]

@konkor sorry I sent it from the mobile phone and it did not send thanks for closing it.

[konkor]

@terencode it's ok. but i completely forget about intel_pstate_mode behavior there is 2 modes only performance , powersave and both dynamic. It's why i didn't want to fix this. There is no clear way to set sensitivity for gnome-shell popupmenu widgets...