# How to save electricity on computer using Windows 8.1



## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

Hello guys!

I have a problem with save on electricity. The advance in the cost of living was not followed by higher wages, included electric. I never have enough money to pay my bills every month. I'm always in the red.

I'm using Windows 8.1. I use it alot everyday, 18h/1 day. I want a software saves electricity on computer. Please help me.

Thanks a lot.


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## Ja.KooLit (Jun 21, 2014)

when not in use, switch off  

control panel - hardware and sound - power options
 then choose power saver


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## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

night.fox said:


> when not in use, switch off
> 
> control panel - hardware and sound - power options
> then choose power saver


I did it! It isn't effective as before. I wanted a software on the 3rd part. Thanks man.


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## pigulici (Jun 21, 2014)

What hardware have you?


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Software can only use the hardware to make it use less power. I found the best way to save power is to:
A: Let your display go to sleep as early as possible without driving you nuts.
B: Let your computer go to sleep as easy as possible without driving you nuts.

My rig eats anywhere between 150-200 watts at idle, when it sleep it eats 3, yes 3 watts. I use my tower a lot too (mostly during the day) but if I were to leave it for more than 15-20 minutes, it would be asleep by then. I also have under-voltaged my i7 3820 at non-turbo speeds but when turbo kicks in, it jacks up the voltage and runs at 4.2Ghz, but when it drops out of turbo it is back to my underclocked voltage settings. This enables me to keep the machine on with stock-like power consumption (or better at idle considering it's under-volted) but still offers a boatload of performance when I need it.

With this all said though, nothing saves more power than putting your machine to sleep or turning it off.


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## Frick (Jun 21, 2014)

Windows 8 is not AS effective, it is more effective.

Don't use it or don't run programs that uses any of the power. There is no magical way to make it use less power while doing the same work.


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Frick said:


> Windows 8 is not AS effective, it is more effective.
> 
> Don't use it or don't run programs that uses any of the power. There is no magical way to make it use less power while doing the same work.


Well, that's not a completely true statement. Under-volting can gain you some tangible idle headroom if you do it right. Like using a static voltage and overclocking without the turbo offset, you're idle voltage will now be a lot higher than it used to be and alone is a waste of unused power.


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## pigulici (Jun 21, 2014)

It depends on hardware and software, let wait an see what hardware it have...


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## patrico (Jun 21, 2014)

what hardware do you have, some companies have cpu throttling software to reduce clock speed and voltage like gigabytes 'GEST', you should go to your hardware vendors website and see if there is software like that for your machine


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## Ja.KooLit (Jun 21, 2014)

@skydanny can you fill up your system specs? Probably Aquinus idea of undervolting saves you alot of electricity actually


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## Frick (Jun 21, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> Well, that's not a completely true statement. Under-volting can gain you some tangible idle headroom if you do it right. Like using a static voltage and overclocking without the turbo offset, you're idle voltage will now be a lot higher than it used to be and alone is a waste of unused power.



Yah good point.


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## MyTechAddiction (Jun 21, 2014)

Here are some ideas 
Under volt CPU and GPU
Use a smaller PSU , preferably with 90% + efficiency
Use the Pc less.
If you have a  smartphone/tablet, try to use it more, since  it uses less power.
Use the power saver profile of Windows.


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## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

Hello! thank you all comment.

I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit. CPU Intel i5-2500k, Mootherboard Asus Maximus VII Pro, GPU Asus GeForce GTX760, PSU Cooler 1000W, Ram Corsair 8GB.

Jobs: Corel Draw X6, Adobe Affe..CS6 and more.

Gaming: Battlefield 4, DCS Black Shark 2...

SoundMax 5.1. and more...


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Oh yeah, under-volt that machine and overclock on strictly the turbo. Give me a minute, I'll get some screenshots from the BIOS on my machine setup to show you what I mean.


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## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> Oh yeah, under-volt that machine and overclock on strictly the turbo. Give me a minute, I'll get some screenshots from the BIOS on my machine setup to show you what I mean.


Thank you so much.


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## pigulici (Jun 21, 2014)

On your build, you have OC parts, or just stock?


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## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

pigulici said:


> On your build, you have OC parts, or just stock?


I'm not OC.


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Here we go. This is how I have my machine setup, I suspect your board being an ASUS board around the same time mine was released, it should give you a lot of the same options as mine. Granted remember that I have my turbo set to 4.2Ghz as well from the stock 3.8Ghz and that I have a SB-E chip and it very well might have some more underclocking potential since the TDP and voltage is already pretty high at stock. Pardon the mouse cursor, I didn't realize the screenshot feature didn't remove it.

In particular, notice how I'm undervolting by 0.09v until turbo kicks in where it applies an extra 0.2v on top of it which puts the turbo really at something closer to 0.1v higher than stock while keeping idle voltages lower than the VID. I personally like it and it has worked out pretty well so far.

...oh and make sure all your c-states are active like the last screenshot.


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## skydanny (Jun 21, 2014)

Thanks a lot, *Aquinus.*
Just got to do it your way. I hope that.
Have nice a day!


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

skydanny said:


> Thanks a lot, *Aquinus.*
> Just got to do it your way. I hope that.
> Have nice a day!


You don't have to. I just found this has worked out the best for me. If it works out well for you, I will be thrilled.


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## erixx (Jun 21, 2014)

I wish i73700K/Asus Maximus V Bios also had "Normal voltage" option


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## Silas Woodruff (Jun 21, 2014)

Well I cant reccomend a program but unplug any and all apliances(PC, TV or anything that eats power and is plugged into an outlet) when you finished using them it saves on the power bill quite a bit.

Edit: You can do that if you lack a power strip for your PC, if you have one like me it gets slightly easier since all you have to do is turn on/off a button on the strip to cut or open power.


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Silas Woodruff said:


> Well I cant reccomend a program but unplug any and all apliances(PC, TV or anything that eats power and is plugged into an outlet) when you finished using them it saves on the power bill quite a bit.



Shaving 20 watts off your idle usage on your tower would provide more tangible benefits than that. You're talking about 1 watt or less for modern hardware that's not turned on. Even my tower only eats 4-6 watts and when it's sleeping forget how all 3 displays sleeping eat less than a watt.

So unplugging stuff will save you a couple watts at most and forces you to plug everything back in and it still doesn't solve the issue of using less power when it's plugged in.

No offense, but the recommendation isn't a good one and it's just a waste of time to save yourself something like 50 cents to a dollar on your electricity bill and even that I think might be generous.

This isn't the 90s where computers used AT form factors and you actually had to press the power button when the tower was done "shutting down".


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## Silas Woodruff (Jun 21, 2014)

I dont know about you but here I saved 15$ by unpluging just PC in my specs every time I went to bed, it does help me tought maybe it also helps him.

Really hope to stop doing this after Nvidia releases the more powerfull Maxwell GPU's and intel Broadwell or Skylake.


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## Aquinus (Jun 21, 2014)

Silas Woodruff said:


> I dont know about you but here I saved 15$ by unpluging just PC in my specs every time I went to bed, it does help me tought maybe it also helps him.
> 
> Really hope to stop doing this after Nvidia releases the more powerfull Maxwell GPU's and intel Broadwell or Skylake.


15 dollars is what I save from turning off my machine at night. I doubt it's using that much power just because it's plugged in, if it is, it's not turned off.


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## pigulici (Jun 21, 2014)

Well, you must know that there is not magic software for desktop where you click and you consume less electricity, also the peak of consume it is when you play games or encode video(can't do much here); my advise: go to uefi motherboard, load optimized default, and be sure you have:
- EPU power saving mode - enable(pag 88 from manual)
- Xtreme tweaking - disabled(pag 90)
-Enhanced Intel Speed Step Technolgy -enabled (pag 97/108)
- Turbo Mode -enabled(pag 97/108)
- Intel Adaptive thermal monitor - enabled (pag 107)
-Cpu C states -all enabled(pag 109)
-hdd on sata ahci (pag 112)
-agressive lpm support - enabled (pag 112)
-pci-e native power management - enabled(pag 116)
-dmi link aspm control - enabled(pag 116/117)
-aspm support -auto(pag 116)
-peg aspm control- auto(pag 117)
-aspm support - enabled (pafg118)
-Erp ready -enabled(pag 119)
-cpu q fan control - auto(pag 122)
-chassis fan qfan control-dc/pww mode enabled(pag 123)
Disable in uefi what you not use (like sata chipset from asmedia, pag 118)
On windows power management put the profile balanced(and here you can set more agreesive the time to go to sleep/standby, at me the monitor go to sleep after 20 min, and all the pc after 45minutes of idle).
Make sure you have latest drivers , bios and updates to all software you use(at my hd4850 I put another bios so the clock in idle it is now 150mhz from 300mhz, or you can use the tool from vga card to underclock  the vga card in windows).
Make sure yo give a real shutdown to windows 8, if you google will see that win8 enter in some kind of sleep , not shutdown.
The undervolting of cpu it is most used on laptops, so I don't know if make much difference on desktop.
That it is the free way, the not so much free it is to buy a PSU with more than 90% efficiency and a big ssd.
p.s.: also , let the minimal software in background(I close adobe autoupdate, chrome auto update, etc..)
My 2c....


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## Silas Woodruff (Jun 21, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> 15 dollars is what I save from turning off my machine at night. I doubt it's using that much power just because it's plugged in, if it is, it's not turned off.


 Comme on I am not that kind of guy, I know how to turn off a PC, my country is Romania if it helps with my statement.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jun 21, 2014)

skydanny said:


> Hello! thank you all comment.
> 
> I'm using Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit. CPU Intel i5-2500k, Mootherboard Asus Maximus VII Pro, GPU Asus GeForce GTX760, PSU Cooler 1000W, Ram Corsair 8GB.
> 
> ...



Isn't a I5 2500k skt 1155 and maximus VII skt 1150 though?


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## Trompochi (Jun 21, 2014)

Maybe it's just a typo, and he has a maximus-something socket 1155 

I tried using the power saving mode on win 8.1, but I dont know why, when using that mode my FPS on Aion drops from constant 63 to 35-40, then if I change it back to Normal or Performance my FPS goes back to 63(on ultra settings). I checked CPU and GPU speed/voltages while on power saving and everything was the same compared to Normal and Performance


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## micropage7 (Jun 21, 2014)

or maybe if he just seldom gaming he could use low end vga card


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## MyTechAddiction (Jun 21, 2014)

Silas ,yes the prices are silly high compared with average income ( about 350 to 500 USD)
If u can do it get a small high efficiency PSU, it really helps.Mine gives 430 w ( can do more ) and at idle uses 70 wats (with monitor) and on load 280w


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## Silas Woodruff (Jun 21, 2014)

Nah no upgrades for this pos PC, going to spend about 1500-200$ when skylake and big maxwell launch, more on that when the time comes.


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