[ltp] frequencies, throttling

Damien Challet linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:34:52 +0100


> To quote the german wikipedia:
> "Throttling means the omitting of clock cycles in CPUs [...] throttling
> is used to reduce the temperature in case of overheating [...] the power
> saving effect is less than linear."

Two things: the cpu consumes less watts, hence dissipates less heat PER 
SECOND.

However, it takes more energy to complete a given computation because 
reportedly switching on and off the cpu is costly. This was discussed here a 
few years ago.

Therefore if you use a laptop as a gateway in a very silent environment, 
throttling may be a good idea if the fan tends to kick in (it makes 2-3C 
difference in my experience). Otherwise, forget about it.

Damien