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Support #657

CPU Scaling on Arch

Added by Daniel Curtis over 9 years ago. Updated over 9 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Daniel Curtis
Category:
Workstation
Target version:
Arch Linux
Start date:
09/09/2015
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
0.20 h
Spent time:
0.50 h

Description

Being able to scale up or down the CPU speed for my laptop is great for when I need to conserve battery life or get better performance out of my laptop when I need it. This is a short guide on using cpupower to control CPU scaling on Arch Linux.

Prepare the system

  • Make sure the system is up to date:
    sudo pacman -Syu

Install cpupower

  • Install cpupower:
    sudo pacman -S cpupower
  • Start and enable the cpupower service at boot:
    sudo systemctl enable cpupower.service
sudo systemctl start cpupower.service
  • Show the current CPU information:
    cpupower frequency-info
    • Example output:
      analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: powernow-k8
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0 1
  maximum transition latency: 107 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.00 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.00 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: userspace, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 2.00 GHz.
                  The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.
  boost state support:
    Supported: no
    Active: no
  • Change the CPU governor:
    sudo cpupower frequency-set -g performance
  • Speed up the CPU:
    sudo cpupower frequency-set -f 2.00 GHz

Resources

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