Sunday, March 11th 2007
Yet another thing that doesn't work in Vista: AMD Cool N Quiet
Windows Vista brags that it is one of the most efficient operating systems ever. AMD brags about how their Cool N Quiet technology helps save power. In the age of ROHS and Energy Star compliance, it sure seems like saving energy is a very important feature in computers. However, AMD has left out this little feature of just about every one of their recent processors in Windows Vista. There have been over 100 posts in a thread dedicated to begging AMD for Cool N Quiet support on Vista. We have yet to see anything from AMD on this issue. The Inquirer has been asking AMD for a comment for quite some time, but it seems that AMD is being cool and very quiet on this subject.
Source:
The Inquirer
20 Comments on Yet another thing that doesn't work in Vista: AMD Cool N Quiet
Blaiming Vista is just plain wrong. But ok, if that's how it is, I'll start blaming Linux for it's shortcomings on drivers and games, not the hardware and games devolopers ;)
Fan controllers and programs like speedfan have nothing to do with power saving and they in no way reduce MHz or voltage!
and the fact that vista does not support this IS microsofts fault.
THERES ONLY 2 PLATFORMS TO SUPPORT.
I mean, video drivers are one thing, but CPU? trivial.
As I mention Windows Vista now has the ability to control the CPU speed. I personally have it set up to do so, meaning that when the computer does not require the extra MHz, it slows itself down a little. I admit that AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet may be more effective because it also reduces the voltage, but lowering the clock speed will also reduce power consumption significatly. Speedfan then allows users to actively reduce the fan speed when it is necessary to reduce noise.
So I don´t care. :)
It´s just that Vista does background jobs (like prefetching) but isn´t smart enough to do it constantly with multilpier @5x.
So the multi changes from time to time, even when Vista is officially idle.
Btw: cpu-idle is more effective than CnQ / a nice add-on:
www.cpuidle.de/
SImple version:
Vista has an inbuilt version of CnQ/Intel speedstep - however, its NOT as good as cool and quiet, and cool and quiet (via AMD software) is not compatible.
Some systems will auto-adjust down to the lower multiplier, but the voltage rarely changes, and if it doesnt work you cant install CnQ as a backup - MS havent allowed CPU manufactureres any choice, its the MS way or no way.
My home Athlon Venice 3200+ seems to be working, at least partially, with CnQ, with cpuz I can see that multiplier drops to 5 instead of 10 when windows is idle, I didn't look on voltage, what will check it tonight when I'm back home.
I did the check exactly yesterday (before checking this post) checking how did windows enable CnQ without asking me what to do, as in XP to enable it you should select Max Power Saving in Power Options, while in vista it is set to medium performance/saving.
I am running Vista Business 32bit, Athlon64 Venice 3200+ (2000@2450mhz) on DFI nForce4-ultra.
Not all MObo Bios support C&Q in Vista. ASUS Does.
Check link
forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=86327