Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fyodor_ who wrote (32224)	3/19/2001 4:51:26 PM
From: jjayxxxx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

RE: Personally, I feel more uncomfortable with the ethics of selling a 1GHz Intel mobile as that, since it actually doesn't run at 1GHz on battery, unless you fidget with the BIOS settings. (at least that is my understanding - I have never actually used one!!) No BIOS tweaking necessary. You just change the SpeedStep settings for 'maximum performance' when on battery power, rather than 'battery optimized performance'. JJ P.S. At least that's the way it is for my Sony Vaio 600 MHz PIII (reduced to 500 using SpeedStep).

To: fyodor_ who wrote (32224)	3/19/2001 4:55:11 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Fyo, <I will say that I haven't actually seen PowerNow! work, so I don't know if it actually does the job it claims on paper.> Have you read this article? anandtech.com This is AnandTech's well-written review of PowerNow and how well it balances performance and battery life for the mobile K6-2+. 1) The "Auto" mode dynamically varies the clock speed, just like PowerNow advertises. It increases the battery life from 127 to 154 minutes on BatteryMark for a negligible hit in performance compared to "Max Performance" mode. 2) The "Max Battery Life" mode basically keeps the processor underclocked (from 500 MHz to 200 MHz in this case) for an additional 20 minutes in battery life compared to "Auto." Performance takes a big hit, but I don't think anyone will notice it all that much while running their word processor or e-mail program. ;-) <With PowerNow!, the processor will run at its rated speed if you are doing anything that requires the computing power - regardless of battery-state. If you're not doing anything, it will throttle down. To me, that seems more honest (as well as better).> It may very well be a better solution, but more honest? I don't think so; in fact, the additional flexibility leaves a lot of room open for fudging the facts. At least you know what speed the mobile Pentium III runs at when running off the battery. There will be no way of knowing what speed a processor with PowerNow (or any similar technology) actually runs at in "Auto" mode. Tenchusatsu